QPR fans face a 500 mile round trip to Plymouth next Saturday, but at least it's not on Boxing Day this season. Here is the regular travel guide for those planning on making the trip.
Ground Name: Home Park
Capacity: 19 500 (all seated)
Address: Home Park, Plymouth, PL2 3DQ
Main Telephone No: 01752 562 561
Ticket Office: 0845 338 7232
By Car:
Really long, but relatively easy. M4 out of London then M5 down from Bristol. Follow the M5 past Exeter where it sort of becomes the A38 at a fork in the road and then winds its way through some hills, trees and Little Chefs. The ground is well signposted but basically you want the A386 into the town off the A38, stay on it forking left when the road splits and the ground appears on the left after about a mile. With the sign posts and all the rest of it this really is a difficult one to miss. About 240 miles from Loftus Road, four hours and 19 minutes at the speed limit.
Map:
Click on the map to visit the multi map site, zoom in or move it around.
Parking:
There is a large car park at the ground although as they box the cars in there you could face a long wait to get out at the end unless you are one of the first ones there. We have always found ample street parking and as I’m not going in the car this year I can reveal a handy little place I have used before. Continue past the ground and then just on the left there is a tiny little inlet road with about five houses on it jutting into the park – if you get to the pub and the roundabout by the railway bridge you’ve gone too far. If you park on that road it’s free, the path at the end o it goes through the park straight to the away end and if you come out afterwards and turn left, then right at the roundabout by the pub you can find your way back to the A38 that way and miss all the match traffic.
By Train
For those of us coming down from Sheffield it’s an 0650 start, you lucky lot in London don’t have to start quite so early but it’s still a fair old trek for this one. Journey time from Paddington is three and a half hours although there is now a service running from Waterloo that is nearer five hours - keep your wits about you when booking.
Paddington 0906
Plymouth 1226
Plymouth 1754
Paddington 2132
Is currently available for £66.50 return. You can chop that down to £58 if you go back on the 1742 however it's a Waterloo train that takes more than five hours and you may well regret going for that for the sake of eight and a half quid if we've just lost 2-0.
Whenever we say that we walked from the train station people look at us like we’re mad – I’ve never really thought it was that far. Uphill certainly, but no more than ten minutes. As you come out of the station it’s right to the ground, either up the main road or through the park, and left through the subway into the town centre and down to the barbican and all of that fun down there.
Pubs
Most of the QPR fans seem to head straight into the pub right next to the station which is very convenient geographically but tends to be overrun by the overactive police in this part of the world and when we tried it on Boxing Day last year was absolutely freezing, filthy and all in all absolutely bloody disgusting. Further up the hill towards the ground is a large Wetherspoons which is always absolutely heaving on match days but in our experience the best bet, if you arrive in good time, is to sample The Navy or one of the other pubs down on the Barbican – decent food, beer and live sports on offer in several boozers down that way and you won’t have to queue for your pint or explain your presence to 3000 Devon and Cornwall Police officers. Alcohol is served in the ground.
Tickets
Rangers have 1000 tickets behind the goal as always. These are priced £24 for adults, £16 for under 23 and seniors, £7 for under 18s. You can get a family ticket for one adult and one U18 for £26. Eight loyalty points for this one.
Links:
Detailed fans' guide to Home Park