I really don't understand some folks saying they won't travel on a JY hol if there are no flights from Manchester/Liverpool or wherever. Or they won't fly from Gatwick. If you want to do a holiday, surely a couple of hours extra travelling time whether it be by bus, train or a connecting flight is no big deal??

To go on a JY holiday, I have to drive from Co Wexford in the south-east of Ireland up to Belfast (as JY can't book connnecting flights from Dublin and I want to be covered in case of any problems). This is a three hour car journey and often involves staying overnight in Belfast before I fly. I then fly to Heathrow or wherever and meet up with the main tour party. Having to do the same on the way home, this often adds two days to the length of the holiday and obviously it costs me several hundred more. Many people on the JY hols I've been on have had connecting flights on to other destinations - including a woman on my last tour who lived in the Orkney Islands - now that's a long way to come from! But like me she was more than happy to take the extra time and expense in order to go on the holiday she wanted to with JY. On other JY hols I've been on, people have travelled from Spain, the Channel Islands and even Barbados to go on a JY holiday!

It took me 36 hours continuous travelling to get home from my Vietnam/Cambodia tour, but it was well worth it and I wouldn't have missed the holiday for the world. I can understand if someone is very elderly or in poor health that the journey might be too much, but otherwise - just think on what you're missing out on!!

I'm sure I'll get some angry responses to this post, but really if you want to do the holiday, it's worth putting yourself out a bit and it will be worth it.

Hope this makes some people think again - with a positive attitude, just about anything is possible!

Cheers,

Bob

I have to travel from either Glasgow or Edinburgh to Heathrow and am staying overnight before I go to New England and Canada in September - I look upon this not as a problem but as part of my holiday. Life is what you make it (or not!) but to me it's all part of the excitement of going away for a break. After all, on some "package" holidays there are times when you have to travel from a non-local airport anyway! So, I'm with you on this one!

Take care

Anne

On the Florida tour people had connecting flights to Newcastle,Newquey etc..

The lady I was travelling with flew up the day before from Newquey and had a night in LGW hotel, when we landed at 06.30am , she was booked on a 16.30pm back but was lucky enough to make the 09.15am connecting flight, another £40 to change the ticket it does amaze me the lengths some people go to to travel with JY, last year on the HKG and NZ tour someone flew in from Jersey,,

I am so lucky to be 10 mins from LHR and 45 frm LGW.

Cindy

Like you I'm a seasoned traveller and its not a big deal to get to Gatwick or Heathrow, I just drive down (or occasionally get a train). Depending on flight time i often stay over at an airport hotel the night before.

Will add would prefer northern airports but not with a massive price supplement.

However a think a lot of JY travellers especially first timers are very nervous and the hassle of getting to a airport at the other end of the country is a step too far for them.

Mick

As we have seen time and again on the forum, those who were anxious before their first holiday almost without fail then report back that they had a wonderful time and realised they had nothing to worry about. I agree with Mick, a regional departure is a good idea if possible - but not if it is going to cost hundreds more. There are various Irish travel companies I could travel with and consequently fly from Dublin - but I like the JY set up and range of holidays, so I don't want to travel with anyone else (until I run out of holiday options, then I might have to think again!).

All the best,

Bob

i too find so many people post before their holidays then you hear no more from them, i'm still waiting for some reviews from March's australia trip lol

i admire you Bob for doing all that travelling to go on the holiday of your dreams

all the best

Dave

Jaya

Have a good weekend everyone,

Bob

It has changed your life, you are now chatting to all of us!!!!!! What more can you ask for!!!!

Cindy

You must live on my doorstep - I too am only ten minutes from LHR and 45 from LGW and am constantly amazed by the lengths other people have to get to to get down here. I am often sitting at home having a cup of tea before others in my group have caught their connections home from Heathrow! Smug? Well, maybe a bit........:D

Sally

I think my issue is that I have all that hassle for just a weeks holiday as there are no long haul holidays during the school holidays - a double whammy really! I would love to go on some of the more exotic holidays but JY do not cater for people who work in education.

On a personal front I would love to do one of the longer haul holidays, which makes it worth while going down to Gatwick for me. Sadly I could not obtain that amount of time off work in one go.

I shall be travelling down to Gatwick again at the beginning of October to go on the trip to Tuscany. It's a long way for me to travel time wise just for a couple of hours flight. My postion is as follows which might explain why I am in favour of more Northern departures or at least the choice of them.

I don't drive, and don't have recourse to lifts from any kind souls so I have no choice other than to use public transport. I'm used to this and don't have any apprehension about it, apart from using the Underground :s. Like others here I look upon it as part of the holiday. However:

I live 7 miles north of Nottingham, so not in the middle of nowhere I guess. However any travelling to airports I do has to start at Nottingham, which with luggage always means a taxi. My nearest airport, East Midlands is a 40 minute taxi drive away. Birmingham over 2 hours on the train. Manchester perhaps more. Luton is about 2 hours too.

I mainly use National Express, which even on a direct no change from Nottingham takes well over 4 hours to Gatwick. Increasingly now National Express is not doing a direct service but means changing in London which increases the journey time to perhaps 6 hours plus. Last year I went to Istria. I had to travel back via London, and finally got home at nearly midnight after leaving the hotel at 7am!

Each holiday I have been on with JY has meant me using a hotel overnight. Again I put up with this and absorb the cost because I really want to do these holidays, and enjoy them, but it would be nice to have a choice of a nearer airport.

This last holiday I decided to fly from Stansted, although I nearly baulked at the supplement (which turned out to be double that stated in the brochure). Again the National Express coach coming back on a Sunday would have been very infrequent, and the train was not an option because of engineering works. So I ended up getting a taxi back.

I am hoping that the trip to Tuscany in October will be easier as the departure day is a Thursday, but I will have to have nearly 2 weeks off work to accommodate this. Also I will again have to overnight at a hotel (the Premier Inn), and I am hoping to use the train to get back from Gatwick but with changes that is still a 3 hour plus journey, and considerably more expensive.

I hope this explains a bit why I am in favour of a more Northern airport choice, but I totally respect your views and the ones of others on here. JY provide great holidays, and they are brilliant in what they do but for the shorter trips trailing down to Gatwick is a personal pain.

I do symphathise with you. If you live in Nottingham, could you not get the train to Luton and then get on First Capital Connect train to Gatwick? This way you will avoid the underground. I do not understand the high supplement we have to pay to fly from local airports. I had to pay quite a bit when I went to Israel with EasyJet last year. You do not even get any free food!! Having said this, I did not mind paying the extra as I only live 10-15 minutes away from Luton Airport and I avoided a long journey to Heathrow!

Regards

Jaya

Hi Bosuncat

I do symphathise with you. If you live in Nottingham, could you not get the train to Luton and then get on First Capital Connect train to Gatwick? This way you will avoid the underground. I do not understand the high supplement we have to pay to fly from local airports. I had to pay quite a bit when I went to Israel with EasyJet last year. You do not even get any free food!! Having said this, I did not mind paying the extra as I only live 10-15 minutes away from Luton Airport and I avoided a long journey to Heathrow!

Regards

Jaya

Thanks Jaya. Only reason I haven't used that train connection either to or from Gatwick before is that both of the holidays returned on a Sunday and Eat Midlands Trains who do part of the route always have engineering works on a Sunday, which means replacement bus services 😠 That's the reason also I didn't come back on the train from Stansted last month. It is kinda expensive though. I've checked it out already, over £50 for a single journey. But at least I will have a choice this time. :thumbup:

Tell me about engineering works! They always happen over the weekend and bank holidays and always overrun. Train travel is getting more expensive - I should know as I commute to London. It is like taking out an extra mortgage!

Jaya

I usually drive 75 miles north to Glasgow and fly down to Heathrow or Gatwick.. This involves a hotel stay in either Glasgow or H/G, sometimes at either end. Alternatively, I can drive down to Manchester and ........

It's expensive, taking into account petrol, parking, hotels and flights, and it does make the journeys more tiring. Many of my friends don't consider a holiday unless they can fly direct from Glasgow, but I don't have that option if I want to use JY. (I do)

OK, it's my choice to live here, but I haven't met many travellers from Scotland on JY holidays. Perhaps a market is being missed?

I agree that it would be nice to have some northern departures. I live in Dumfries, and it's the very worst place on earth for airports (wonderful in other ways, of course!}

I usually drive 75 miles north to Glasgow and fly down to Heathrow or Gatwick.. This involves a hotel stay in either Glasgow or H/G, sometimes at either end. Alternatively, I can drive down to Manchester and ........

It's expensive, taking into account petrol, parking, hotels and flights, and it does make the journeys more tiring. Many of my friends don't consider a holiday unless they can fly direct from Glasgow, but I don't have that option if I want to use JY. (I do)

OK, it's my choice to live here, but I haven't met many travellers from Scotland on JY holidays. Perhaps a market is being missed?

Skye,

You make a very good point about JY losing a potential market, when I went to Andalucia (november 2010) supplements from regional airports were reasonable (either £29 or free if i remember corectly) plus you could travel direct.

There were large groups travelling from Glasgow, Manchester & East Midlands aswell as the London plus at least one person from Stanstead and one from Newcastle.

It was similar in April 2011 when I did Mallorca but since prices from regional airports plus lack of direct flights have certainly lost a lot of northern based travellers.

Mick

On both trips the time from taking off in Glasgow to arriving at the destination airport was between 7 and 8 hours whereas the direct flight time from Glasgow would have been less then 3 hours. So it is frustrating to have to pay an extra £150 for up to 5 hours extra travelling time.

On both trips I met only one other person travelling from Scotland and one from Belfast. We all agreed that it is becoming very expensive, and time consuming, to travel with JY. This is why I'm looking at Costa de la Luz next time. It's one of only two holidays where I can fly direct. The other is Peru!

Jean

All the best,

Bob

I'm not quite in the middle of nowhere - we do have electricity here now!! I entirely agree with you that if you want to do a JY holiday and are not near either Gatwick or Heathrow, you have to travel to get there. I think of it as part of the whole holiday experience. With regards to the increasing cost of internal flights from up North etc, I've now booked my 11th JY holiday through Avios (old Air Miles) and used some of my points to get down to Gatwick, and also earned thousands of points for booking the holiday through them rather than through JY. I personally drive to either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport, and leave the car in the Long Stay carpark, and then fly down to Gatwick/Heathrow. Sometimes I have to stay at the airport, but now I have discovered Premier Inns, it's a breeze!

Cheers,

Hils