Quick UK Trip: Alton, Thorpe and London

[flotus]

I'm planning a quick trip to the UK visiting Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. Somewhere in July before the 24th where the school holidays seem to start. I plan to spend 1 day in each Park, 1 day in London and perhaps another (half) day for the trip back home. It'll be most likely Thursday and Friday in the Parks and Saturday and Sunday London and Flight back so that I have the option to switch London for another day in the parks if needed.

Here are my questions:

 

1. How crowded will the parks be on Thursday and Friday, is 1 day enough for each park (I'm willing to spend some money for fast passes)?

2. Tips for getting around?

London obviously via public transport, Thorpe seems to have good bus / train connections too.

The Problem is how to get from London to Alton Towers. The train ticket to Stoke-on-Trent is ridiculusly expensive with 133 pound for a one way trip and the bus connections from there to the park are not great either.

Rental cars seem cheap but the trip is long and I'm only used to drive on the right side of the road. I considered to get to Stoke by train and get a rental car there for 1 day which would be faster but also most expensive.

My current plan is to fly to Manchester go to Alton, Thorpe, London and fly back from there. But I'm open for any suggestions.

Also looking for Tips for Hotels.

[Troll]

Hi, it is possible to do each park in a day although fastpasses would make life easier. There are several options for getting from AT to London (the train shouldn't have been anywhere near that expensive - which website did you use??) As for getting to AT, you're probably stuck with a bus/taxi from Stoke train station

 

Hope that helps

[flotus]

I used the sites linked on alton's website (http://www.altontowers.com/useful-info/how-to-find-us/).

It seems that I found the most expensive train in morning rush hour.

After your answer I checked again and the prices at other times are way cheaper, thanks for the heads up.

However I've decided to rent a car now, the bus / train connections to AT are really bad and reaching a cheap hotel with trains / busses isn't any easier.