I have an upcoming trip to the UK which involves going to both Bangor and Leeds. There are two of us on the trip. Trying to figure out the most cost effective way to manage the trip is hard enough but then I also need to factor in the carbon emissions element. Here’s how it goes:

• Booking with RyanAir from Granada to Liverpool comes in at €219
• Flying with Jet2.com from Malaga to Leeds-Bradford costs €470
• The train from Liverpool to Leeds costs £37.80 (single) while Bangor to Leeds is £44.00. I’ve not factored in Liverpool to Bangor because it is possible we can get a ride for that part of the journey, assuming we fly into Liverpool and go to Bangor first. I could hire a car at Liverpool which would come in at around £100 plus fuel for the time we will be in the UK.
• If we travel from Granada then long stay parking works out at €40 but is free in Malaga but the journey to Malaga is an extra 130km in both directions which will cost roughly €28 and involve an extra hour’s driving each way. If we fly to Liverpool then on the return we either book a hotel for possibly 4 hours sleep at a cost of £65 or hang out in the airport and conserve some cash. Any thought of getting sleep on a RyanAir flight is wishful thinking. Returning from Leeds means a cab ride costing aorund £13-15 as there is no reasonable public transport option that allows us to reach the airport for check-in.

It seems to me that which ever way we organize the trip, we’ll end up with roughly the same cost because the savings in flight fares in going to Liverpool will be swallowed up by additional costs elsewhere. I’m not sure we gain anything from flying to Leeds because we still have the problem of making the Bangor journey. I’m not convinced there is any real difference in carbon emissions cost as the flight times are virtually identical and the train journey times are not so far apart as to make a demonstrable difference. I’m prepared to be flexible if I could only work out the best combination of travel methods.

What I really want is a service where I can input those parameters and have it spit out the optimal combination of cost, time and carbon emissions load so I can then assess the best way to make the journey. Unfortunately, I can’t find a site that does this. Surely if we’re going to get serious about traveling in a cost effective yet least harmful manner, then a service of this kind makes sense? Today, we have discrete aggregator services like Kayak, that focus on flights or Travelocity that only factor flights, hotels and car hire. And yes, I also want SMS notification in case there are any likely delays. Some might argue that is good enough but I’m far from convinced. I’m reasonably certain I’m not an edge case on this one so if anyone does know a service that provides the information I’m trying to find then I’d love to hear about it.