Continuing our trip to the UK, the next stop is Manchester. We’ve been enjoying London for the last 6 days, but now we’re heading up to Manchester. I’ve actually never visited Manchester, just the airport, so I’m looking forward to spending a few nights exploring the town. Today we’re heading up to Manchester from London on Avanti West Coast. I chose tickets in Avanti’s Standard Premium. Kinda like a premium economy seating on the train for Val, myself, and our 5 month old daughter.
I almost always enjoy a nice train journey. On Avanti, the trip between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly is just over 2 hours on their Pendolino trains. The best part of this trip is it’s city center to city center. You don’t have to worry about getting to an airport that’s 30 minutes outside of the city. You don’t have to arrive super early for security. 15 minutes is more than enough. It’s also very easy to bring a little picnic lunch and enjoy the views.
Bottom Line: Our trip from London to Manchester on Avanti West Coast in Standard Premium was perfect. On time, clean train, comfortable seats, and extremely convenient.
Euston Station London
We arrived at London Euston Station about 20 minutes before our departure. We stopped into a shop and grabbed some sandwiches, drinks, and snacks for our trip up to Manchester. It’s just about lunch time so the timing is perfect.
After just a few minutes, the board told us our platform number and that boarding had started. This was shown 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Today we’re riding on Avanti’s Pendolino train. These are the older trains of the fleet, but were recently refurbished.
To enter the platform, there is a ticket gate. We scanned our tickets in the Avanti app. We booked a family ticket for the 3 of us as that was the most economical. It also gave us 4 seats around a table.
Avanti West Coast Boarding and Luggage Storage
We boarded the train and made our way to our seats. Keep in mind, this is a train, there is no luggage check. You must carry all of your own luggage onto and off the train. Not an issue for us, but if you travel heavy, keep it in mind.
We stowed our luggage in the rack just near our seats. We only have 1 carry on sized bag and then 2 small backpacks. The backpacks went overhead of our seats.
We put our stroller between my seat back and the one’s behind me. People who frequently travel on trains, know this is a great super secret storage spot.
Avanti West Coast Standard Premium Seats
We found our seats in the Standard Premium car on the Avanti Pendolino. This cabin is billed as First Class seats without First Class service. So bigger seats but no meal or drinks, I can live with that. I like sitting around a table on a train, it allows us to relax, eat, and enjoy the ride. With the baby, this is perfect.
The Standard Premium Cabin is arranged in a 1-2 configuration. Economy is 2-2. Most of the Avanti Premium cabin seats have a table with power outlets, window shade, and even wireless charging.
Above each seat there is a screen to tell you if a seat has been reserved or not. We had reserved seats so ours showed this. Others are unreserved, so for people that don’t have reserved seats, they can sit in an available seat. The paper reserved tags are long gone.
I found the Standard Premium seats to be plenty comfortable. With the table in front, there’s lots of space to relax.
The seats do recline with this small lever under the center armrest. I will say, the recline is only an inch or two, not much.
At each seat, there is a power outlet for charging devices. Avanti has both USB and a UK style port on the Pendolino trains in Premium Standard.
On the table there are also 2 wireless charging spots. I think that’s a pretty nice feature, especially so you don’t have to pull out a charging cord.
Avanti West Coast Standard Premium Journey
Our Avanti Train from London to Manchester departed right on time. Just a few minutes outside of London, we’re passing through the farm land of Southern England.
The ride through the country side is very pretty.
Along the way, there are only a few stops. This is one of the faster trains of the day, some have more stops, ours only has 3 before arriving in Manchester.
Avanti West Coast Standard Premium Picnic Lunch
On the way between London and Manchester we had a little picnic lunch. And by picnic, I mean sandwiches and drinks I bought at a shop on the way to Euston Station. Honestly, I really enjoy this. I love eating a grab and go sandwich on a train.
And it being England, it went from sunny to raining and back to sunny in about 10 minutes. But in all, it was a very pleasant trip.
Avanti West Coast Manchester Piccadilly Arrival
Just over 2 hours after we left London Euston, we arrived in Manchester Piccadilly. To me, that’s the real beauty of train travel, you depart and arrive right in the middle of the city. We walked from Manchester Piccadilly right to our hotel. With the baby, there’s nothing more convenient.
Avanti West Coast Final Thoughts
There’s no better way to travel between London and Manchester than the Avanti Train. Our ride today was on the older Avanti Pendolino, but that was just fine. The trains have been nicely updated and we really enjoyed our short trip in Standard Premium.
The Avanti Standard Premium seats are the same as First Class, just no meal service. For our little family, I don’t really care about a meal service, I just want a nice seat for us to relax around a table. I loved the seating arrangement along with the in seat power and great views of the English countryside.
I would gladly take this same Avanti train again.
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