Travel

If in doubt, it is always best to get travel insurance just in case. A good way of covering yourself completely is to get an International Student Policy that covers all the different types of insurance that you will need during your stay in the UK. The biggest student insurers in the UK are called Endsleigh and they offer a really good International Student Policy. It covers:

• emergency medical expenses
• repatriation
• cancellation or curtailment charges
• baggage
• personal money, passport and documents
• course fees
• personal liability
• legal expenses

Click here to get cheap and easy insurance that should cover any problem you have in the UK.

Most train journeys will not be full so you should be able to buy a ticket from the machine or ticket office on the day of travel at the station. However, it is much cheaper to book your tickets well in advance. It can save you loads of money and will guarantee you a seat on the train you want to get.

When travelling long distances across the country, getting a train is usually the easiest and often the cheapest transport. You can get from London to Manchester (in the North of England) in just over 2 hours and will cost about £30 each way if you book well in advance. Furthermore, you can save 1/3 off train travel if you are a student, with the 16-25 Railcard.

If you are not worried about how long the journey will take but would like to save money, then you can get a coach for as cheap as a couple of pounds if you book here with Megabus.

Alternatively, if you can drive and your license is valid in the UK, then you may want to hire a car for a few days. It will be more expensive but will give you more freedom to travel when and where you want.

For really long distance journeys (from London to Scotland for example), flying is much quicker than trains or coaches and can sometimes also be cheaper. To find the cheapest flights and book tickets, use our Flight Search tool.   

For everyday short distance journeys, the UK generally has very good public transport links. If you are in London then the tube and the buses both run non-stop services all over the city and are easy to use once you have been on them a few times. Most towns and cities have similar systems that offer cheap-ish travel around the local area.  

The list of items you need when moving to a new country is almost endless. However, there are a few key items that if you do not take you will not even be able to reach the UK. Make sure you have on you the required immigration visa and your passport. A letter from your university or college that proves you are studying in the UK is also useful to show immigration officials.

Other than these, there are hundreds of smaller items that you may need, ranging from kitchen utensils to bedding. A handy way to save you the hassle of remembering, packing and transporting every small item, is to buy a Unisak. They contain everything you will need to get settled into a new home in the UK and can save you loads of money too. They can easily be ordered online here.

As the UK is an island, the best way to travel to and from it for almost everyone is to fly. If you were to get a boat, unless it was from France, it would take far too long.