Eurostar - Paris to London

We will be winding up our trip to Europe by travelling on the Eurostar from Paris to London (Waterloo) on a Thursday afternoon in May.

I am wanting to book the tickets in advance as I see it is much cheaper to get an Earlybird ticket.

I was thinking of late afternoon, say 3ish which seems to get into London around 5-ish. (Just wanting to make the most of our limited time in Paris!).

I was just wondering though if it%26#39;s going to be a nightmare time of day being peak-hour? Would an earlier train make much difference?

Sorry if it%26#39;s a silly question, but I have no experience of European or English trains. Thanks in anticipation for any advice.

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Everything%26#39;s a trade-off. You extend your day in Paris...and run into %26#39;rush-hour%26#39; in London...but since all you%26#39;re immediately interested in is getting from Waterloo to your hotel to check-in...a few minutes in London traffic isn%26#39;t going to matter all that much. And even then, when most of the other pood b___rds fighting traffic along with you, are grousing and grumbling about their day at work...and dreading the next...you%26#39;ll be remembering your farewell luncheon in Paris...sorta%26#39; makes the %26#39;commute- %26#39;cross-town seem a whole lot more pleasant.

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I always catch the 17.45(approx) train from Paris - if I spend the afternoon around the northern part of town the rush hour really doesnt affect as I just walk back to the station. Even when I have taken the metro, as long as I get to Gare du Nord before 17.00 there doesnt appear to be much of a traffic problem.

It get me to London just when the rush hour is starting to wain, so it isnt a huge problem either. It%26#39;s more like almost missing both rush hours than catching both.

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Hi SwanRiver

I booked my Eurostar ticket for Paris/London 11 October 2006 returning 25 October 2006 on 8 September 2006 at a price of 62.50 pounds each way. I would probably have got a better deal if I booked earlier. You can book up to 4 calendar months in advance so it you are going on any date up to 26 May you could book today,

Don%26#39;t book one way or you will pay a fortune - a search for 26 May 2007 came up with 225 pounds one way first class and 155 pounds in standard (standard is all you need). Theoretically you are not meant to buy %26quot;false returns%26quot; but most people going one way do that.

The difference is amazing. I went to Eurostar.com website and said I was in Australia and booked a return from Paris on 15 May and a return on 25 May. BTW, make sure the %26quot;return%26quot; is about a week later so you qualify for a %26quot;saturday night away%26quot; cheaper fare but remember you can%26#39;t do the return booking until the return date is no more than 4 months away.

The price for a non flexible ticket (cannot be refunded or exchanged for another ticket) was 53 Euros each way. For a semiflexible ticket (compulsory Saturday night away. Exchangeable before departure of each leg by paying a fixed fee of £22 per segment and when necessary, a price differential in the same or higher class of service. Non-refundable) was 86.50 Euros each way. In either case, if you miss the train and you will have to pay again if you can get a seat and it will be a top price ticket.

Oddly I also pretended I was booking from France on the same trains and it was only 38.50 each way but I dont know if you are required to give a french postal address for that, so best to be Australian probably. Do not take any option that allows the ticket to be posted to you and just collect the ticket at Gare du Nord.

You have to print out your emailed booking confirmation and take it with you when you collect the ticket from Eurostar%26#39;s office at Gare du Nord in Paris and you must have with you the same credit card that you used to do the booking, so make sure you keep it up to date. I collected mine in London from Waterloo the day before my trip to reduce the time required on the day.

I took the 3.19 pm from Paris arriving at Waterloo at 4.54 pm on Wednesday 25th October 2006. There was a very long line at the taxi stand but possibly worse than usual as it was pouring with rain and the taxis might have been busier than usual elsewhere. If you don%26#39;t have too much luggage you could take the tube to your accommodation and just live with the peak hour crowds for a short trip. I did get a cab in the end, so it was not hopelessly crowded.

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Thanks, guys, for your help. It seems the rush hour won%26#39;t be such a big thing to factor in after all.

I suppose the other thing I need to find out from the hotel (Louvre Montana) is if they will hold our luggage so we don%26#39;t have to traipse around with it all day. Hopefully this will be ok.

The Louvre Montana is on Rue Saint Roch, which seems to be fairly central. I am hoping it will be fairly straightforward to get to the railway station Gare du Nord. Can anyone put my mind at rest there? If I could work out how long to allow to get to the staion and on the train it would help heaps.

Faux, (fellow Aussie - Happy Australia Day!!) thanks for all that excellent advice. I have been checking the website www.railplus.com.au for Earlybird fares on the Eurostar as mentioned. There will be me (1 adult) plus my 2 daughters (both under 26) and the Earlybird price (one way) it shows for all of us on 10th May is $260 AUD plus $15 each rail protection plus $30 booking fee. (This is the non refundable price for Earlybird fares.). When I do it as a return there is only about $8.00 difference. It all seems very reasonable to me - can I ask your thoughts?

Thanks all once again, the TA forums have been invaluable to me in planning this trip, and I have found there are just so many generous people out there willing to help.

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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;I suppose the other thing I need to find out from the hotel (Louvre Montana) is if they will hold our luggage so we don%26#39;t have to traipse around with it all day. Hopefully this will be ok%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

Odds are, your hotel will hold your luggage for you after check-out....but even in the odd circumstance that they cannot, there is a Left Luggage (Les Consignes) facility on the lower level of Gare du Nord where you can leave your luggage until prepared to leave on your Eurostar connection. This may be a slight inconvenience...but nothing more.

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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt; Don%26#39;t book one way or you will pay a fortune %26lt;%26lt;%26lt;

Actually this piece of Conventional Wisdom is no longer true. I guess you missed this recent thread: http://tinyurl.com/2n7r2j

In fact I understand that the smart UK money is now using the US Eurostar site to book their one-way tix.

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Thanks all for your help and advice on this one.

IrishRovr, thanks for that recent thread which I had missed (have been mostly in the Italy forum, planning that part of the trip up to now). I had a look at it - and your comments and advice are spot on.

I did my own comparisons and these were the results (converted to Aussie dollars)on the 16.07 out of Paris for 1 adult and 2 Youths, 2nd class on Thursday 10th May. I have included rail protection insurance, booking fees and shipping fees on both the US and Aussie sites.

raileurope.com/us: AUD$348

railplus.com.au: AUD$347 (Couriered to the door)

eurostar.com (UK): AUD$1180!!!

When I put the UK one in as a return journey it dropped to AUD$334! (But that didn%26#39;t include any extras like insurance, shipping etc - I didn%26#39;t even bother to go that far into it.)

So I guess booking return is definitely NOT an old acorn if you%26#39;re using the eurostar website. But I think it%26#39;s totally immoral that they are charging in this manner.

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Hi SwanRiver,

I had the same experience but IrishRovr said the US site for Eurostar gives the same rates for a single as for each leg of a return. I tried to check it to see what rates I would find but Eurostar has sent me a %26quot;cookie%26quot; that doesn%26#39;t let me have the option to change location again. I guess I am stuck now with the local or UK version (whichever it is) until I get rid of their cookie, if I can. Drat.

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Hi Faux,

I just checked back on the notes I made - if I haven%26#39;t made a mistake, it actually is slightly cheaper for each leg if you book a return trip on the US site.

For one way it was US$206 and for return it was USD$186 per leg (this was without the rail protection, shipping etc).

It was the same on the Aussie site - AUD$260 one way, compared to $252 per leg on a return trip. So slightly more of a saving on the US one for both ways.

I just tried checking my figures for accuracy, but their site is closed for manitenance.

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That%26#39;s interesting %26#39;cause I booked my tickets through Eurostar two weeks ago and for two adults one-way London to Paris it was 188 US. Didn%26#39;t seem bad to me, although I didn%26#39;t check the round trip option.