Travel plans

[vgqn]

Much progress was made today in planning 2005 trips: Minicon, Wiscon, visits to relatives, and Worldcon in Glasgow. Speaking of which, is there a UK equivalent of MapQuest? We're thinking of going to the Cropredy festival afterwards and are trying to research accomodations in the vicinity. Any suggestions (for maps or accomodations) welcome!

Comments

[ladyjillian.livejournal.com]

Vivian told me last night youall were coming out for Worldcon. Assuming visa issues are sorted out by then, I'll see you there. Daniel Spector says there's a fantastic Mexican restaurant in Cropredy, which I hope to try when I'm speaking at Oxford in July if not before. What's going on in Cropredy that you will be going to? I think this is what you're looking for:

http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/planner_main.jsp

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Unfortunately, the site doesn't work with either of my browsers, but I'll try it on M's machine. I wonder if AAA here provides info/maps of GB. Must check.

M is a big fan of Fairport Convention, and this is the Fairport Cropredy Convention music festival. He went once before when he was traveling with friends on a canal boat (hence solving the accomodations problem). It looks like a good time, although, ironically, their big headline act this year is Country Joe McDonald.

http://www.fairportconvention.com/crop/cropmenu.htm

[ladyjillian.livejournal.com]

Oh, and come stay with me in York. If I haven't been deported before then.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Although, unfortunately, I'm mildly allergic to some cats, so I need to be cautious. So far our plans include Cropredy and Wales, with stops at Hadrian's wall and several gardens yet to be determined.

We just discovered yesterday that we can fly an open-jaw trip in to Glasgow and out of Manchester for less than in & out of either Glasgow or London. From San Jose, no less. Airline pricing is so bizarre. But we haven't actually booked the tickets yet (it was less, but still expensive).

Glad to hear you'll be at Worldcon!

[ladyjillian.livejournal.com]

Well, I still can't make any firm plans because I don't know what my legal status is, but I'd LIKE to be there. I wanted to help organize/be on panels etc. but haven't yet made any effort to do either for fear that I'd have to back out.

I've passed your flight info on to Vivian--she may be in touch for details.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

www.mapquest.co.uk

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Well, that's pretty equivalent. Thanks!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

There's no real accommodation in Cropredy itself, so those who don't camp or stay on boats get lodging in Banbury and come in by bus (the Festival supplies the bus). At least that's how it was when I was there.

The Fairport website has a link to the Banbury town accommodations info site here.

There are also maps of the area on the Fairport site.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I should have been clearer that we were looking at Banbury, hoping to stay there and take the shuttle bus. Yes, we followed that link, but it leads to almost no info. Very annoying. It left us with the impression that there were only 3-4 places to stay in Banbury, and a couple of those weren't actually in town. Plus the hotel/inn sites don't include (useful) maps of the area, so it wasn't clear if we could, say, walk to the train station from them. Del's Mapquest link will help a lot with that question.

Do you know if it would be reasonable to drive to the Banbury train station, park there, and take the shuttle? Or would we just be exchanging one parking hassle for another? My pref would be to stay in town, but we're considering that we may need to stay farther out.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I confess I didn't look at the site before passing on the link, and not knowing Banbury I wouldn't know how to evaluate it anyway. But there's certainly more than 3 or 4 places to stay in Banbury.

I did go on and check the companion site for Oxford city, since I'll be visiting there soon, and found that while it listed a fair number of B&Bs, they were only a tiny selection of what I know exist. I'm afraid that kind of selectivity is very common in websites. I'd either check a book listing accommodations, or contact the British Tourist Agency (which doesn't seem to have a website, but when jaunting around the UK I find booking ahead through their offices is a great way to travel - they have complete lists of accommodations in various categories and for a small fee will phone the next town you're going to and find you a place to stay. However, Cropredy is likely to fill Banbury up, so it's better to plan now).

Anyway, since the Banbury site bombed I have three suggestions:
1) Contact the Festival and ask if they have better info on Banbury accommodations. I know they've distributed lists to attendees in past years.
2) How good mapquest.co.uk is I don't know, but my favorite UK map site is this one. Plug in a postal code and it will tell you exactly where it is. (UK full 6-place postal codes are equivalent to US Zip+4 codes.)
3) Get some other accommodation guide, probably one offline.

The Banbury train station (is that where the bus to Cropredy leaves from) is across the river from the town center, and can be a bit of a walk depending on where you're coming from. I recall that it has parking, but how full it'd be during the Festival I have no idea.

I can recommend a nice refurbished coaching inn in the area that I discovered on the Best Western website, but it's about 15 miles down the M40, which may be farther than you want to travel.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I believe that Mike Ford has been to Cropredy and will be at Minicon, so you can ask him when you see him there.

Would you like to put in a shift in the Green Room? I'm running it, and Sharon Kahn is doing Programming, so it should be fun.

K.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'd be happy to. But wait until we actually have plane tickets before you schedule me!