I know that Newcastle has got it's own Airport, problem is I want to attend an event on the river Tyne on December 5/6th and Easy Jet only starts servicing this airport from December 13th onwards.............

Durham Tees seems not to have any direct connections with Switzerland and from the map Leeds looks a bit too far off the way ( and has no connections either).

I am not a frequent flyer and fairly new to this "jetting-around-the-world-malarkey" , but I know that many of you here are well seasoned travellers and may be have a quip of information for the newbie.

What is the best way and cheapest too to travel ooop north ?

Leeds to Newcastle is 2 hours by car, it's not a tough journey.

Its tough to get anywhere in the North East from Switzerland, my family live in the North East and the only options they have is Manchester to Zurich with Swiss (expensive) or Manchester to Basel with Swiss (cheaper) but recently they have been making the 3+ hour trek up the M1 to Luton to do Easyjet Luton to Zurich which is really reasonably priced. (please note Easyjet Zurich to Luton is crap though, 3 sets of visitors who have been over in the past month have been delayed on this flight back)

To get to Leeds Bradford airport you will have to fly from Geneva or you could fly to East Midlands from Geneva too and hire a car, East Mids to Newcastle will be about 3 hours drive, from Leeds/Bradford about a 2 hour drive or you can fly to Manchester and get a train - not sure if you can get a direct to Newcastle but I can get a direct to Middlesbrough (which is about 40mins south of Newcastle) when I fly home and it takes about 3 hours

I'm afraid your options are very limited and it will involve hiring a car or long train journeys

Hope this helps
Nicky

edit the 3+ hour trek i mentioned up the M1 to Luton is from just south of Middlesbrough, from Newcastle to Luton you could be looking at a 4+ hour car journey

You can go Newcastle airport from Zurich via KLM and change in Paris - CharlesDe Gaulle. Never tried it - but may save you the car rental / rail journey

Zurich - Edinburgh with BMI then train from Edinburgh to Newcastle (90mins ?)

http://www.skyscanner.net/gbp/flight...ml?charttype=1

I find that GVA -> EDN then a train to Newcastle Central is the best best.

Try Basel to Liverpool (approx GBP 42.00) then Trans Pennine Express Train Liverpool to Newcastle direct....there is a shuttle from LPL Airport to the train station which takes 30 mins.

You can buy the train tickets on-line and then pick them up quickly from machines at the station.

Or even perhaps a train to France then a Flight to Newcastle ?

Hey thanks folks, this is so much info ( keep it coming ), and I hope I can find my way somehow to Newcastle, all the other Bops are in locations which are easier to fly to, it's just the Rexmas one............

Fly to Edinburgh from Zurich or Geneve then the bus from airport to Edinburgh Waverley Street train station then 1 and a half hours train journey to Newcastle Central

Have you tried looking at:

http://www.jet2.com/destinations/geneva-flights.aspx

I spent 6 months back in 2004 flying between NCL and GVA, but most of the time I found KLM easier to use.

British airways do a direct flight http://flug.idealo.de/search.php?action=search

290 euro.

So it depends how much convenience you want over cheapness. However, it is worth baring in mind what a well seasoned traveller once told me. If you equate your time to the savings you make, maybe taking the longer cheaper option, you would be getting paid a good salary! Hmm it's still nice to travel direct and not have to do the national express though

British airways do a direct flight from where to where? Zurich to Newcastle? your link shows Hamburg and Munich

Are there buses from Leeds-Bradford airport into Leeds (and then bus or train)? if not, the taxi fares into Leeds and back would go a long way towards a car rental.

But the GVA-LBA flights don't start until 13th December and the OP wants to travel on 5th/6th

Swiss to Manchester and connect to the trans-Pennine express directly at the airport

If you are planning on travelling back on the 7th, you should be aware that Sunday is Engineering Day for railways in the UK, and trains are frequently cancelled or delayed on Sundays as a result.

Whenever I fly back to Sunderland (20 mins south of NCL) which is where I come from, I go from Geneva with Easyjet. Just leave your car in the long term car park. I've never had any trouble.

HTH

aye the trouble is at the mackem end

errhm ok I think I need to clairfy, I am overwhelmed by your helpfulness and appreciate all the tips you gave me.

I am not mean/stingy but budget really is tight,i have no income at all and hubby won't thinking of paying for it, it's my birthday money that will pay for it ............... so renting a car is out of the question and that's why the whole travel has to be dead cheap. When up there, i may possibly sleep over at another attendeants house, if not I will book into the cheapest B&B I can find.

The other attending people are living in the UK and thus can't advise me well about airports and the like.

Suggest you have a look on www.skyscanner.net for all flights from Switzerland to UK on the dates you need - only you know appropriate times but a quick search brings up a return from ZRH-NCL arriving late on 5th and departing early on 7th for GBP157.24 via Dublin (strange routing but there are worse airports to spend a couple of hours).