It's not difficult - there are direct trains from Nottingham to London.and that takes just under 2 hours. About the cheapest you can do it for, return (there and back), is ￡34, but that means booking well in advance for Advance tickets on specific trains. You can explore what is available on http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/ (the London station you need to look at is London St Pancras International). As you are coming this month, probably the Advance tickets will be gone and it will cost her more.
I know the trip well as I live in London but my father's family is mostly in Derbyshire. By train, you tend to have to go through Nottingham on the way (or until the local station reopened, it's where we had to get off). It's not far from them as a place to visit. When I was a boy, some years we would go to stay with Grandma "up north" (!) for Christmas and it felt like a major trip. Your friend might think of it like that. It's well over 100 miles away. But it's 2 hours... so it's not the end of the world.
My relatives tend to drive if they come down to us for a wedding or a funeral, and that's almost straight down the M1 motorway. That takes longer because the train doesn't have a 70 mph speed limit!
Have you thought of going to see her? You would see more of England on the way, out of the train windows, and she could show you Nottingham. So you would get to see more of England than just London - Nottingham is much smaller and a nice large town.
There is a frequent fast train service between Nottingham and London St Pancras taking 1 hour 45 minutes.
For the cheapest tickets book well in advance for specifically timed trains either at a station ticket office or at www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk Booking opens 11 weeks ahead of your journey
Get a further 34% discount with a railcard www.railcard.co.uk
Yes really easy you go to the rail station jump on the train and it takes you right into central London...or M1 from Nottingham to London coach/car
It's 1 hr 42min by train or 2hr 40min by car.
i have a relative who travels that distance to visit us every few weeks, so it's not that far. i'd guess it's about 2 hours on the train
I have just been there for the day! And if you book carefully it's cheap. My FIRST CLASS tickets came to ￡36 return!
What you have to remember is that train travel is quite expensive so you need to factor that into your plans
