As a GB student myself, I have travelled many times between England and Belfast via different modes of transport, whether it is for the end of term, a short visit home for an event or getting all of my bags together for the start of the year.

Therefore, I have compiled a list of options to consider when it comes to booking your transport to get to Queen's. My friends back home always think that because I have to fly or get the ferry over to university that it must cost me a fortune in comparison to their train journeys up to a university in England - but this couldn’t be any less true.

Hear from GB students on their experience of Queen's!

Luckily with the array of budget airlines there is always a way to cheaply get back to university and on average I pay £30 in total to get to university when I don’t need to bring any bags over and roughly £175 when I bring all of my bags over at the start of the year.

In order to get the cheapest travel options back to university, I have created a short list of the most useful sites to plan your trip to Queen's from home for GB students.

Flights to Belfast

Starting off with the most obvious option, you can easily fly over to Belfast. We are lucky that Belfast has two airports to chose from which means finding a bargain for your flight over is easier.

Many people have a preference of website when it comes to booking flights, however I find the easiest to be either Skyscanner or Google Flights given that they can compare multiple airline companies to offer you the best prices. 

You can easily filter these pages for a departure or arrival time if you wish to get a midday flight. The cheapest are usually always ones late at night or early in the morning and I would fully recommend them because it will save you at least £50 and you can always nap on the short flight over.

Check out how Peter travels from London to Belfast!

Depending on where you are coming from in Great Britain, your flight time can be anything from 15 minutes to one hour and so the time always passes by so quickly. Your airport options are between Belfast International Airport and Belfast City Airport. Usually the international airport is cheaper and has the budget airlines flying to it versus City Airport which tends to have British Airways and Aer Lingus etc.

If you want to bring hand luggage or one hold bag, it is always worth checking the total price for a budget airline versus a more expensive one given that British Airways for example lets you have free wheel hand luggage as well as a backpack; so sometimes this can be the same price or cheaper than budget airlines who tend to charge more for the extra hand luggage and hold luggage.

Another thing to consider when choosing which airport you wish to fly to is how to get from there to the university. The bus journey from City airport into Belfast Europa bus station is fast and cheap (£4) compared to the journey from the international airport which is double the length and double the price (£8.50).

Follow Tobias on his journey from Birmingham to Belfast

The buses are easy to get and run every 15 minutes from both airports and are way cheaper than a taxi back to your accommodation. You can book bus tickets on the Translink website or at the bus stop at the airport via machine. Here is a useful link to book your tickets through and to check prices.

If you have a lot of suitcases and want to book a taxi then Fonacab and Uber are useful and usually cost £45 from International and £20 from City, so these costs are important to consider if you are coming out with a lot of luggage.

Flights to Dublin

Another option which sometimes can be cheaper is to fly to Dublin. Because Dublin Airport is the home of Ryanair, you can always find great bargains to get from Great Britain over to Dublin. The cheapest I have ever been able to get a flight to Dublin is £5 in the Ryanair sales they always do around Travel Tuesday in October.

If you are flying to or from university during the holidays it can be a bit more expensive from Belfast, so sometimes it is worth saving £40 by flying from Dublin and taking the longer bus journey down. The bus usually takes two and a half hours and drops you directly to Terminal 1 or 2; and goes from Europa Bus station which is a 10 minute walk from Queen's. You can book a ticket via Aircoach and they cost £12.50 to get down to the airport which is a great price.

When looking at flights it’s always useful to spend 20 minutes or so comparing the total cost of travelling to Dublin Airport or one of the Belfast airports as it can help you save a lot of money. For convenience City airport is the closest however it is usually the most expensive flight option so bear than in mind.

Travelling via ferry

Some GB students like to travel via ferry as there are five main location options and so for students living in Scotland and near Liverpool, this option can be easier than flying. The best website to book ferries is Directferries as it helps to compare different options with different companies. 

Ferries can differ in price drastically with a return ferry booking for just a passenger averaging £70 compared to £300 if you are wanting to bring your car over. Lots of students that want their car at university for various reasons find it convenient to use the ferry. It can be cheaper to fill your car with all of your suitcases for the start of the university year than if you were to pay to fly it all out; and it gives you more flexibility with items that you can bring such as sports equipment you wouldn’t want to pay extra to fly over, e.g. hockey sticks and golf clubs.

The only location the ferry goes from in England regularly is Liverpool so if you live near there it is very useful, however if you live further than south it is usually easier to fly. The journey between Liverpool and Belfast is 8 hours however the journeys between Scottish ports are way shorter. 

What to do with your luggage

Most of the time, flying with your luggage especially at the start and end of the year can be expensive with each bag costing £40 to fly home. Flying with your bags home is a good option if you need your bags straight away when you get home, however usually I like to save money by using companies to ship my bags.

Sendmybag is the company I always use because it only costs £22 per bag and is always cheaper than paying to take them on the plane. This company is easy to use because they come and pick your bags up two days prior straight from your university accommodation and within 1-3 days, they will be dropped off at your door at home (depending on which shipping speed you purchase).

To get your bag within one day it costs £26 which is still cheaper than taking it in the hold with an airline. This is a stress free and easy way to get your luggage home because it means that you don’t have to try to transport it all to the airport and queue to check in your bags; instead you can pack it all before leaving and have it picked up and dropped off from door to door which is a lot better.

Another option is to simply pay for storage of your luggage over the summer months so that you don’t have to pay to bring your luggage there and back. Goboxselfstorage have a student summer option where you can pay £140 for them to store five bags or boxes over the summer for you. They will deliver five boxes, packing tape and marker pens two weeks prior to the pickup of your boxes. This should give you time to pack your items and label them before the delivery van comes to your door to pick them up.

You simply fill out the form online with the addresses that you wish your boxes to be picked up from and then dropped off to in September again as well as a date for both. This is really simple and is easier than lugging items back home such as your kitchen equipment and duvets which you would not need over the summer.

Hopefully all of these options can help you decide which way is easier for you to get to and from university and what to do with your bags. With so many options you can either go for money saving options or convenient options, or both!

Find out more

Information for GB students

Getting to Belfast

Queen's welcome and orientation

Charlotte Jennings  Politics and International Relations | Undergraduate Student | London, England I'm a Politics and International Relations student in my second year at Queen's. I am from London and currently live in student housing but lived in Elms BT9 last year. I love to be a busy person and am a member of multiple societies and teams at Queen's. I am also undertaking a charitable project at Queen's called the Zambia project where we host fundraisers in order to collect money and aid for our missionary trip to Zambia. In my spare time I teach water sports in Bangor and so far I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Belfast even though it is very different to London. I would highly recommend the university to anyone as I have had the best experience here so far and have fallen in love with this country.