Travel Options From Bristol?

[fatyeti24]

Dear friends, your advice would be greatly appreciated..

This year I'll be staying in central Bristol on the Tuesday night pre fest and Monday night post fest.  What are my travel options to and fro the festival site on the Wednesday and Monday mornings respectively.  I haven't booked anything either way yet.  Many moons ago (approx 20 years) was the last time I took this route and I recall a festival bus service from Bristol bus station, but that was a long time ago now.

Any advice on the quickest, stress free travel and approximate costings would be most warmly received. 

Thankyou.

[incident]

National Express for about £30 return is the easiest, they run every 30 minutes between the Festival and Bristol Bus Station on both the Wednesday and the Monday including starting ridiculously early if you need to be one of the first on site. Need to pre-book though and I'd suggest doing it sooner rather than later.

You can save about £5 by going by train, but you'll add at least an extra 45 minutes to the overall journey and have to change to a shuttle bus at Castle Cary.

The Festival itself does run a shuttle, but only one way, back to Bristol on the Monday, so it's no use for getting there.

[phil the shrew]

Get the scheduled 376 bus service from Bristol to Glastonbury then the shuttle bus from Glastonbury Town - little bit more hassle changing bus but think first bus is about £5 single and shuttle bus is £4 so way cheaper than national express

[e2p2]

On 6/2/2016 at 1:08 AM, phil the shrew said:

Get the scheduled 376 bus service from Bristol to Glastonbury then the shuttle bus from Glastonbury Town - little bit more hassle changing bus but think first bus is about £5 single and shuttle bus is £4 so way cheaper than national express

Do I buy the tickets from the driver on the bus/shuttle or do I need to do it in advance? Sorry for the question (and for taking over @fatyeti24thread),  I live abroad. 

[incident]

16 minutes ago, e2p2 said:

Do I buy the tickets from the driver on the bus/shuttle or do I need to do it in advance? Sorry for the question (and for taking over @fatyeti24thread),  I live abroad. 

Honestly, I really wouldn't recommend even considering that route unless you've got an absolute need to save every last penny.

The saving is £6 each way compared to National Express, but at the absolute best - assuming all services involved run to schedule and connect successfully in Glastonbury Town - it'll take over an hour longer, nearly doubling the journey time. Plus there's more hassle with changing buses, and more potential for things to go wrong especially if the first bus gets delayed. It's just easier to take the direct service, even if it is slightly more expensive.

If you do go with National Express, it's definitely worth booking ahead of time on their web site.

[e2p2]

5 minutes ago, incident said:

Honestly, I really wouldn't recommend even considering that route unless you've got an absolute need to save every last penny.

The saving is £6 each way compared to National Express, but at the absolute best - assuming all services involved run to schedule and connect successfully in Glastonbury Town - it'll take over an hour longer, nearly doubling the journey time. Plus there's more hassle with changing buses, and more potential for things to go wrong especially if the first bus gets delayed. It's just easier to take the direct service, even if it is slightly more expensive.

If you do go with National Express, it's definitely worth booking ahead of time on their web site.

I prefer the direct way but my problem with National Express is that I need to book the time of the rides in advance (if I understand correctly).  Getting in time for the bus in Bristol might be o.k I guess as I booked Airbnb 10-15 minutes walking from Temple Meads but I surely cant commit on the return time on Monday.  I rented a pre-delivered (not sure if that's the correct term) caravan so I dont know how much time it will take me to get to gate A as I've been told the weather and the state of the ground can make much difference. 

[phil the shrew]

3 hours ago, incident said:

Honestly, I really wouldn't recommend even considering that route unless you've got an absolute need to save every last penny.

The saving is £6 each way compared to National Express, but at the absolute best - assuming all services involved run to schedule and connect successfully in Glastonbury Town - it'll take over an hour longer, nearly doubling the journey time. Plus there's more hassle with changing buses, and more potential for things to go wrong especially if the first bus gets delayed. It's just easier to take the direct service, even if it is slightly more expensive.

If you do go with National Express, it's definitely worth booking ahead of time on their web site.

I've used the scheduled bus service and shuttle bus in last few years and found it worked really well. Uses the same route as National Express and if there is traffic  delays both services will be affected

Services run every hour from Bristol and Glastonbury so plenty of flexibility there if you miss your time slot - and both services you just pay driver so no need to book in advance or be on a certain bus

Changing at Glastonbury Town is a pain and if you have a lot of kit it's probably worth paying the £30 extra for reduced luggage lugging

[incident]

12 minutes ago, phil the shrew said:

I've used the scheduled bus service and shuttle bus in last few years and found it worked really well. Uses the same route as National Express and if there is traffic  delays both services will be affected

Services run every hour from Bristol and Glastonbury so plenty of flexibility there if you miss your time slot - and both services you just pay driver so no need to book in advance or be on a certain bus

Changing at Glastonbury Town is a pain and if you have a lot of kit it's probably worth paying the £30 extra for reduced luggage lugging

It's not £30 extra though, it's £30 total by National Express, so works out about £12 extra.

Save 12 quid at the cost of at least an hour of Festival time? Not even close to worth it regardless of the extra hassle for me.

[phil the shrew]

1 hour ago, incident said:

It's not £30 extra though, it's £30 total by National Express, so works out about £12 extra.

Save 12 quid at the cost of at least an hour of Festival time? Not even close to worth it regardless of the extra hassle for me.

I don't quite get where the you get the extra hour from? From experience it's about the same time that you get to Gate A whether it's on one bus or two. Last year the scheduled bus followed the National Express bus all the way in and was unloading passengers when we got in on the Shuttle bus? Maybe I just got lucky and the two connecting services times matched each other

Assuming the bus gets there at the peak time there is a long wait to get in anyway, so no time really lost?

The public bus also goes from 3-4 locations in Bristol so often doesn't involve a big treak to the bus station and if you miss one you haven't lost your seat as the public bus doesn't need to be pre-booked which is what the OP was concerned about

Another option for the return journey is the lift share scheme. Almost certain a lot of people will be driving back through Bristol after the festival and a few might have spare seats to share

[incident]

33 minutes ago, phil the shrew said:

I don't quite get where the you get the extra hour from? From experience it's about the same time that you get to Gate A whether it's on one bus or two. Last year the scheduled bus followed the National Express bus all the way in and was unloading passengers when we got in on the Shuttle bus? Maybe I just got lucky and the two connecting services times matched each other

 

I think you might be talking about different buses than you think.

National Express leaves Bristol Bus Station every 30 minutes, on the hour/half hour, and takes 75 minutes - from experience that's almost dead on.

I've got no personal experience on using the local buses, so am going by the timetable, but the 376 from Bristol leaves the Bus Station at 10/15 and 40/45 minutes past the hour, and gets to Glastonbury Town 85-90 minutes later (precise times vary through the day). The Festival Shuttle leaves Glastonbury Town once an hour, on the hour, and takes about 20-25 minutes to get to the site.

So for example if you got the 8:10 local service, you'd get to Glastonbury Town at 9:40, then get a 10am shuttle to the site and best case scenario arrive 10:20. That's assuming everything works.

Meanwhile someone who left Bristol 20 minutes later on the 8:30 National Express service will have got to the Festival Coach Station at 9:45, ie 35 minutes earlier - saving more than an hour overall.

Not sure why you'd have been following the National Express service, when I've taken National Express, they've gone via Shepton not Glastonbury Town. But as they're point to point services with no stops, if there's traffic to avoid they can change the route as needed so maybe the A37 was rammed that day. But I do suspect the National Express service that was unloading when you arrived would have been the one that left after you..

Edited June 5, 2016 by incident

[phil the shrew]

6 minutes ago, incident said:

 

I think you might be talking about different buses than you think.

National Express leaves Bristol Bus Station every 30 minutes, on the hour/half hour, and takes 75 minutes - from experience that's almost dead on.

I've got no personal experience on using the local buses, so am going by the timetable, but the 376 from Bristol leaves the Bus Station at 10/15 and 40/45 minutes past the hour, and gets to Glastonbury Town 85-90 minutes later (precise times vary through the day). The Festival Shuttle leaves Glastonbury Town once an hour, on the hour, and takes about 20-25 minutes to get to the site.

So for example if you got the 8:10 local service, you'd get to Glastonbury Town at 9:40, then get a 10am shuttle to the site and best case scenario arrive 10:20. That's assuming everything works.

Meanwhile someone who left Bristol 20 minutes later on the 8:30 National Express service will have got to the Festival Coach Station at 9:45, ie 35 minutes earlier - saving more than an hour overall.

Not sure why you'd have been following the National Express service, when I've taken National Express, they've gone via Shepton not Glastonbury Town. But as they're point to point services with no stops, if there's traffic to avoid they can change the route as needed so maybe the A37 was rammed that day. But I do suspect the National Express service that was unloading when you arrived would have been the one that left after you..

Do know both services as have used them both over the years. Have mates in Bristol and stay with them and they always use the scheduled buses - bit of local knowledge helps get there quicker. 

Last year was definitely the same National Express bus as there was a guy dressed as a tellytubbie waving at us from the back seat - well I saw him if no one else did! 

The scheduled bus services run slightly different timetables during the festival which only operate request stops so go quicker than normal, and the shuttle buses run more frequently on the Wednesday than advertised. As soon as they fill up they go and another turns up. Last time I used the 376 I left Bristol at 7 and was on site by 8.45 

I might have this wrong but if you book, say the 8.30 National Express but miss the service you can't just get the next bus as the ticket isn't valid? Bit like an advanced train ticket? That would be my only worry with using that service especially for someone coming from abroad who might get travel delays along the way

[incident]

3 minutes ago, phil the shrew said:

Do know both services as have used them both over the years. Have mates in Bristol and stay with them and they always use the scheduled buses - bit of local knowledge helps get there quicker. 

Last year was definitely the same National Express bus as there was a guy dressed as a tellytubbie waving at us from the back seat - well I saw him if no one else did! 

The scheduled bus services run slightly different timetables during the festival which only operate request stops so go quicker than normal, and the shuttle buses run more frequently on the Wednesday than advertised. As soon as they fill up they go and another turns up. Last time I used the 376 I left Bristol at 7 and was on site by 8.45 

I might have this wrong but if you book, say the 8.30 National Express but miss the service you can't just get the next bus as the ticket isn't valid? Bit like an advanced train ticket? That would be my only worry with using that service especially for someone coming from abroad who might get travel delays along the way

If you did manage to catch up with the same National Express service, then I have to assume that's because something went wrong - such as a driver getting lost or hitting some unexpected traffic.. Otherwise there's no way you'd be able to make up that time even with a perfect connection.

I'd be quite surprised if the Glastonbury Town shuttle service operated as a turn up and go service - I've got a copy of last years GFL bus services document which has some detail not on the public web site specifically vehicle numbers and capacities - last year they only had 1 actual bus allocated to that route for most of the day, adding a second between 10am and 6pm and they specifically list departure times. So while it might leave early if full up (no reason not to), there might not be another bus available for a while.

If you miss a National Express departure then you might have problems, but to be honest I can't imagine doing that at least on the way there. I'm actually booked on the 8am service out of Bristol this year and there's no chance I miss it, in fact odds are I'll be there early enough to see the 7:30am service depart.

[phil the shrew]

As I said I've taken both special festival services over the years and National Express and not found there to be much difference in time

Some years traffic builds up, especially round Bristol and the journeys can be a lot longer than advertised. Think in 2009 it took 2 half hours due to an accident, but generally either NE or local services get you there on time

The shuttle bus times don't really run to the published schedule on Wednesday as obviously there are far more people trying to get to the festival than leave it, so as soon as one load is dropped off they head back to the pick up point and get the next lot. Same bus company has been doing it for years and have process running very smoothly.