How To Reach Durham

An ancient city in the county town of North England’s County Durham, Durham lies on the River Wear. Durham’s beautiful scenic views, popular tourist sites and topnotch festivals, events and exhibitions, its countryside getaways and city breaks to the beach, make it ideal for a memorable holiday! Home to one of the most popular sights in the United Kingdom, the magnificent Durham Cathedral, and its neighboring Durham Castle, the city is a UNESCO world heritage site with one of the best & spectacular landscapes in Europe.

The best way to reach Durham is to take a flight to Newcastle Airport & then take a train, bus, taxi, town car or drive down yourself; or fly to London and then take a train from the Kings Cross Station to Edinburgh with a stop at Durham.

Durham is situated 264 miles from London. There are two airports near Durham. One is the Newcastle Airport which is 30 minutes away, while the other one is the Durham Tees Valley Airport, about 40 minutes away. Both airports service domestic and international flights. From India, you can take a flight to either airport, depending upon your preference or accommodation.

There are flights from all the metro cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai to Newcastle Airport, with at least one stop, operated by Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Emirates, Air France, KLM Royal Dutch and Air India. The flight duration is roughly 12 ½ hours to 26 hours approx. Flights to Durham Tees Valley Airport from all the major Indian metros include KLM Royal Dutch, Gulf Air, Etihad Airways, Air France, British Airways, Cathay Pacific & Singapore Airlines with a flight duration of 17 hours plus to 37 hours plus approx. The flight duration on this route varies basis the stopovers.

For ease of convenience, we recommend Newcastle Airport in terms of travel time and modes of transportation. On arrival in Durham, from Newcastle Airport, you can travel either by train, bus, taxi, town car or drive down yourself.

The distance between Newcastle Airport to Durham is 19 miles and there are no direct trains from Newcastle Airport to Durham, however, you can catch a train from the airport to Newcastle and then from there, a train to Durham, which will be a total travel time of 55 minutes. Trains operating on this route include companies like the Northern Rail, LNER, Cross Country, Nexus Metro, and TransPennine Express. This is one of the best ways to reach Durham.

You can also explore getting to Durham from Newcastle Airport by driving down yourself. With a fuel cost of INR 400-600 in addition to the car rental cost, you will reach Durham in roughly 30 minutes. The next quickest but an expensive option is to hail a cab, which will be INR 6,500-8,000.

Another way to travel to Durham is to take a bus. From the Newcastle Airport, Ponteland Road, there’s a bus leaving every hour that takes roughly 19 minutes to reach Eldon Square Bus Station, which is about 1.1km from the Newcastle Train Station. From there, you can take a train to Durham, and reach in 12 minutes. The estimated fare is approx. INR 560-3,338. The journey between Newcastle Airport-Durham is on an average 1 hr through this mode of transportation.     

Being a small city, it is easier to walk it down in Durham, while the other option is cycling. With bike sheds easily available to park and lock, it is one of the best ways of getting around in the city for free! There’s a local bus service with regular stops in Durham. Taxi is yet another alternative, however, they’re comparatively very expensive.