Île-de-France Travel Forum

Just in the pre-planning stages of a US to London and Paris later this year.
Seems there are a lot of packages available that include air travel between London and Paris. Are there packages available that utilize rail service?
Logic tells me rail SHOULD cost less and, without the aggarvation of the "airport experience", SHOULD be more convenient.
TIA for comments?

Hi. We have used GoToday.com a couple times. It's not a package tour but a package of hotel-train-air that gets you there and gets you a room. The cheapest rooms are not necessarily in the best part of town and you may want to upgrade which you may do. Check the hotels on http://www.tripadvisor.com to see what they are like. Here's the GoToday web site.
http://www.go-today.com

You can also check Paris-London rail prices at http://www.sncf.com/

The train certainly would help avoid the airport hassle which seems to be getting worse by the day.

Good luck.

Exactly because train avoid the airport hassle it doesn't have to be cheaper than air in order to attract passengers. Hence it often isn't... Usually train fares are somewhat more expensive than t
he cheapest airfares, but are a lot cheaper than full flexible standard air fares. However, Eurostar is a bit of an exception, with a spread of prices worthy of an airline...

Logic is not always correct, sadly. In this case train is more convenient, but flying (if you get the right flight at the right time) could be cheaper.

However, you can check the Eurostar site here:

www.eurostar.com

The Eurostar is the only train from the UK to France (for obvious reasons!) and I believe they offer fare + accommodation deals. Booking early gets better fares.

You may well find it cheaper to fly to London and organise your own train/accommodation (in advance, obviously) rather than take an all-in package deal.

An alternative is to fly (and budget carriers can be cheaper than eurostar, if booked far enough ahead) but transport to/from the airport and check-in/baggage reclaim means its a longer journey. www.whichbudget.com lists European budget carriers and their destinations (be aware of hold baggage weight limits before you book).

>>>Logic is not always correct, sadly. In this case train is more convenient, but flying (if you get the right flight at the right time) could be cheaper<<
Thanks for comments so far.

I was AFRAID that might be the case.

Since posting, I did some "quick and dirty" test scenarios (Thru Gate1), looks like Hesperia Victoria MIGHT be available in London and we can upgrade to Hotel Moderne de Germain in Paris -we stayed there last year - it was fine for our purposes.

HOWEVER, the rail travel was NOT part of the package, and quoted separately at $251 plus $15. per person 1st Class or $165. plus $15/ pp. for Standard. Do those prices sound right? or near right? (Must be a monopoly, eh?<G>)

Erm.....yes, it's a monopoly, in that there is one train (or, really, several of the same type) which goes through one tunnel. It is specially designed to do so.

I'm getting quotes of around 44GBP (88USD?) from Eurostar, for July dates one-way London to Paris. No point in travelling first class, imo; the extra bits & pieces aren't worth the premium you'll pay.

Try using www.eurostar.com for a quote. It's highly unlikely you will get cheaper fares elsewhere, but you may well get more expensive ones!

>>>>I'm getting quotes of around 44GBP (88USD?) from Eurostar, for July dates one-way London to Paris<<
Thanks L,
That sounds more reasonable - the $250. (USD) and the $165. sounded pretty silly. Heck, that's why VT is so valuable.
BTW: My travel plan is to fly to UK Christmas Day. I GUESS Eurostar doesn't post official fares more than 60 days in advance. I've got plenty of time to search for deals<G>.

O. I'd really, really would avoid flying here on Christmas Day if you possibly can. The UK really does grind to a halt over Christmas. There will be minimal/no public transport (you'll get from the airport to central London ok, but that's about it) and everything will be closed (even the pubs only open for limited hours). You'll have problems finding somewhere to eat in the evening too, unless you book ahead at the one of the restaurants which will be open.

Boxing Day (26th) isn't much better in terms of transport, but more places are open (often with shorter hours though). Better to fly in on 26th, best idea is to avoid Christmas/Boxing Day altogether.

Book your Eurostar tickets as early as you possibly can when the dates are available: you should get a reasonable fare (but Christmas, being a holiday time, won't necessarily have the cheaper advance fares which are available at other times).

leics,
I wondered if Boxing Day MIGHT be an issue. 'Kinda had my heart set on seeing fireworks on New Year's Eve over the Eye-Full. (Do they even HAVE fireworks there - that night?<or is that my romantic imagination?>)
Guess we could easily reverse-order our plans and anticipate fireworks over the "Wheel". Somehow seems less romantic<G> but, what's not to like. At least we'll share a common language ('sorta) with the revelers.

Not sure what they do in France in terms of the 26th, to be honest. Their Christmas Day will be much the same as ours I suspect, but I bet they have some public transport at least!

Am almost 99% certain they will have fireworks, but best ask on the Paris forum.....

On the plus side, walking round a fairly deserted London on 25th/26th will be interesting (please don't expect snow, btw). The lights will be pretty, and the crowds will be less...... :-)