You are here : Home ›  Moving around the UK

Moving around the UK

With an abundance of domestic flights, trains, buses, and coaches, travelling around the UK is relatively easy. You can fly from one end of Britain to the other in just under two hours and the greatest distance between two points on the UK mainland of Great Britain is 1,350 kilometres (840 miles) between Land's End in Cornwall (near Penzance) and John O'Groats in Caithness (near Thurso), which will take you no more than two days to drive.

Rail

National Rail Enquiries are the official information service for the UK’s extensive rail network National Rail. National Rail is the collective name for the train companies who operate Britain's rail services. Regulated by the UK’s Department for Transport they provide impartial advice on rail travel across the UK.

National Rail Enquires is the official source for rail information in the United Kingdom.

Buses

Britain has a comprehensive bus network, which will allow you to travel across the length and breadth of mainland Britain. For journeys made outside of London you can use the Traveline website to help you plan your journey. For more information on London related journeys please visit our Travelling in London page.

Coach

Although there are many privately run coach companies in the UK the National Express is the only scheduled coach network in the UK and the largest service provider in Europe. In the UK the distinctive white National Express coaches operate to 1000's of destinations and carry over 16 million customers a year. Eurolines coaches additionally operate to over 500 destinations within Europe and Ireland.

National Express coach services also serve the major UK airports with additional dedicated 'on-airport' coach and bus services operated by Airlinks, based at Heathrow and Gatwick.

Car hire

You can book most hire cars online in preparation for your arrival

Drivers Licence

If you have a Driving Licence issued in another country you can drive a car in the UK.  All drivers must comply with British minimum age requirements of 17 years for cars and motorcycles, 18 years for medium sized vehicles and 21 years for large lorries and buses.

For more information on driving in the UK please visit out Driving in the UK page