I’m doing the Etape Caledonia in May. Planning to take the train. Cheapest I can find return tickets for 2 adults and 1 child is a shade under £400. This is through ScotRail website.
Any chance of getting cheaper tickets?Not travelled long distances by train so have no clue.

Heard about this on the wireless the other day, not tried it yet !

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/split-cheap-train-tickets/

Get a family railcard. The child will have to travel with you whenever you use it but for a family trip, you should save.

Separate tickets, breaking at Edinburgh or Glasgow?

I did a LeJog a few years back and got my Edinburg-penzance ticket down from £197 to £95 by stopping in Exeter.

Heard about this on the wireless the other day, not tried it yet !

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/split-cheap-train-tickets/
Not relevant to OP but last time I did this on the train, Dundee-Glasgow return = £28 but Dundee-Perth return + Perth-Glasgow return=£18 so in theory, cheekyboy’s link is worth a try.
Also FWIW, I’m taking the train London-Dundee single in Feb for £63 first class (£40-odds for second class citizens)so you might want to look at breaking in either Edinburgh (I change there|) or Perth

Find the relevant railcard, it will pay for itself in one trip for a journey like that. Me & wife have a “2 together” card which gets you quite a bit off if you’re travelling together off peak.

Railcard plus split as they say. London to Edinburgh should be okay in one jump then on to Pitlochry. Book it as singles not return. My parents managed to get Edinburgh to Inverness and back for the princely sum of £28 back in October.

Thanks for the replies. The railcard was a good shout! Family & friends card costs £30 but the price is now down to £235 .
Many thanks

Be careful with split tickets.
Booking in advance, you have to specif which train you travel on.
If your first train is late and you miss the connection, you’ll be faced with paying the full fare for the onward leg, on top of the money you’ve already spent.

The eastcoast website may be better than Trainline.

The only through train from kings x to Pitlochry is the highland chieftain which leaves kx at 12 and will get you into tartanville at around 7 ish. I’m not sure it runs on Saturday though.

Returning on Monday, it’ll leave Pitlochry at around 9,

Stagecoach and a virgin are taking over East coast trains who run the service in April so expect fares and services to alter.

Railcard is £27 with the code FAMILY10

http://thetrainhacker.com/railcards/family-friends-railcard/

or £15 with Clubcard Vouchers:
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=2022

scotroutes – Member
Separate tickets, breaking at Edinburgh or Glasgow?

I did a LeJog a few years back and got my Edinburg-penzance ticket down from £197 to £95 by stopping in Exeter.

£102 to not stop in Exeter, many would take it 😛

Be careful with split tickets.
Booking in advance, you have to specif which train you travel on.
If your first train is late and you miss the connection, you’ll be faced with paying the full fare for the onward leg, on top of the money you’ve already spent.

On many occasions, the ‘split’ happens on the train you’re already on. So you’ve already caught the next train by staying in your seat. But yes, you have to be careful with all these stitched together singles to leave loads of margin for error.