Eurostar train London to Paris

[karen sharpe]

Any advice about taking this train would be much appreciated.We will be taking it in April and staying in both cities . What class seat would you pick and why? Is first class worth the high ticket price? Thanks for your info.

[John Bull]

Any advice about taking this train would be much appreciated.We will be taking it in April and staying in both cities . What class seat would you pick and why? Is first class worth the high ticket price? Thanks for your info.

 

IMHO, first-class tickets are over-priced but the same as on airlines a high proportion are paid by company expense accounts & not by the traveller so they get away with it.

Standard seating is spacious & comfortable.

But you pays your money & you makes your choice.

More important is to book early, for best rates.

 

City centre to city centre its cheaper, quicker, easier & more comfortable than by air.

 

JB :)

[Cotswold Eagle]

It's a great service and Standard is perfectly fine. Standard Premier use the same 'first class' seats as Business Premier, but more restrictive tickets and a cold snack rather than a hot meal. If the price difference is very small over Standard for Standard Premier I might consider it, Business Premier only if someone else is paying :)

 

The Man in Seat 61 has all the info you need:

http://www.seat61.com/London-to-Paris-by-train.htm

[SteveH2508]

Any advice about taking this train would be much appreciated.We will be taking it in April and staying in both cities . What class seat would you pick and why? Is first class worth the high ticket price? Thanks for your info.

 

You are only in the seat for about 2 hours - standard class is fine.

[Tobysmum]

Thanks for posting this question - my husband and myself are travelling Eurostar (London to Paris) in May this year, and have been wondering the same things. We're both tall (I'm 5'11 and my husband is 6'2) and I wonder if the seat pitch difference between Standard and Standard Premier makes a difference. Given that the journey is only 2 hours, will will be too squashed, or will it be the same as Economy air travel - tight but bearable!

[Cotswold Eagle]

Thanks for posting this question - my husband and myself are travelling Eurostar (London to Paris) in May this year, and have been wondering the same things. We're both tall (I'm 5'11 and my husband is 6'2) and I wonder if the seat pitch difference between Standard and Standard Premier makes a difference. Given that the journey is only 2 hours, will will be too squashed, or will it be the same as Economy air travel - tight but bearable!

 

The seats in Eurostar Standard are much better than economy air, IMO. (And I'm 6' and not slim!). The fold down tables are quite big though, so you may be better off sitting at one of the tables - you can select your exact seats during the booking process. And, of course, you can take a walk to the cafe/bar car to stretch your legs.

 

Did you look at the link I posted above - there are photos of the two layouts on the right hand side of that page (scroll down a litle way)?

[Tobysmum]

The seats in Eurostar Standard are much better than economy air, IMO. (And I'm 6' and not slim!). The fold down tables are quite big though, so you may be better off sitting at one of the tables - you can select your exact seats during the booking process. And, of course, you can take a walk to the cafe/bar car to stretch your legs.

 

Did you look at the link I posted above - there are photos of the two layouts on the right hand side of that page (scroll down a litle way)?

 

Thanks, we did look at the link - it is a very impressive site full of information. I think we're narrowing it down to particular seat numbers now - sitting side by side, with no table. Given that it will only be for just over 2 hours, we can stretch our legs - as you pointed out - by walking to the buffet car. The money that we save by going Standard will pay for an extra little 'something' in Paris!

 

Do you have any thoughts about sitting on left or right side of the carriage?

 

Karen, apologies for high jacking your thread:)

[Cotswold Eagle]

Thanks, we did look at the link - it is a very impressive site full of information. I think we're narrowing it down to particular seat numbers now - sitting side by side, with no table. Given that it will only be for just over 2 hours, we can stretch our legs - as you pointed out - by walking to the buffet car. The money that we save by going Standard will pay for an extra little 'something' in Paris!

 

Do you have any thoughts about sitting on left or right side of the carriage?

 

Karen, apologies for high jacking your thread:)

 

I think you might get slightly better views from the right hand side, but nothing immediately springs to mind as a deal breaker :) Most importantly make sure your seats line up with a window, which is where Seat61 helps!

[Cruise NH]

just to add my two cents...we have taken both standard and standard premier.

 

If luggage space is important to you, then standard premier is the way to go. I don't know if you're used to US trains, but eurostar does not have the same kind of checked bags that exists there. The vast majority of people haul their own luggage on european trains, so space can be important.

 

If you are sure of your dates, than buy restricted tickets in advance and you'll find the standard premier really doesn't cost that much more.

 

If you do take standard over, then realize you would have preferred standard premier, don't dispair...just go to the eurostar ticket window and you can upgrade to standard premier for 70 euros (in Paris) or 70 pounds (in London). Oh by the way I know this doesn't make sense because they are not the same amount in dollars, but that's what they charged...we just did it this past May!

[Cotswold Eagle]

If you are sure of your dates, than buy restricted tickets in advance and you'll find the standard premier really doesn't cost that much more.

 

I can't agree with that, I'm afraid. The lowest single London-Paris restricted fare is £39 in Standard and £107 in Standard Premier (presumably that's how they price the upgrade you mention). As Standard sells out, that gap may narrow, of course, but I personally wouldn't consider upgrading until the Standard fare reached at least the £89 band.

 

The various fare levels can be found here, but of course there's no way of telling what the fares will be for any given train until making a booking, but then you will see all the fares for the trains on the day.

 

http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/travel_information/before_you_go/fares/london_ashford_to_paris.jsp

 

Good point about the luggage - I think the racks are the same, but fewer people in the higher classes.

[Giantfan13]

We also did the Eurostar from London to Paris and then back again. As was said, we also did the standard seating and we also got a discount fro being seniors. (It all helps).

 

All the seating is fine with fairly wide seats and plenty of legroom. If you are able to nap the time will go by that much quicker. We never did that as the excitement was too great and we wanted to experience it all.

 

BTW, you just never feel you are traveling as fast as you are going.

 

As for scenery, there really isn't that much to see except countrysides. You are in the tunnel for about 10 minutes or so, after that is mostly wide open spaces, as they say.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[karen sharpe]

The seats in Eurostar Standard are much better than economy air, IMO. (And I'm 6' and not slim!). The fold down tables are quite big though, so you may be better off sitting at one of the tables - you can select your exact seats during the booking process. And, of course, you can take a walk to the cafe/bar car to stretch your legs.

 

Did you look at the link I posted above - there are photos of the two layouts on the right hand side of that page (scroll down a litle way)?

Thanks ...yes I did look at it and it is a good site.

[karen sharpe]

Thanks for all the info. I think we will take our chances with the luggage issue and go with standard. If we book a train around 1:00Pm it will get us to Paris around our hotel check in time. The price variance between Standard and Premier is fairly wide. We'll pick up a small lunch at the station and a wee bottle of wine.

According to the web site Seat 61 we are allowed both on board.

They have adised to try to pick seats close to the bar car and if possible near your luggage . Families with children are usually in cars 1 and 18.

Have any of you reserved a cab/van pick up at Gare du Nord?

[Globaliser]

I can't agree with that, I'm afraid. The lowest single London-Paris restricted fare is £39 in Standard and £107 in Standard Premier (presumably that's how they price the upgrade you mention). As Standard sells out, that gap may narrow, of course, but I personally wouldn't consider upgrading until the Standard fare reached at least the £89 band.

I agree with this. It's more likely to be worth paying for Standard Premier if you book later in the day when Standard fares have risen and you can no longer get the very cheapest.

 

It was for this reason that the last time I went to Paris I went over in Standard Premier but back in Standard. There was only a modest fare increase on the outbound trip, but the extra cost on the return trip was money we could have happily spent on something else. Of course, I had to remind myself of this often during the return half of the trip when we discovered less-than-congenial company around us, and then the train broke down and it took us a very long time to get back to London.

[sammie1900]

Hi, if you were in London for three days, would you take the train to Paris in the AM and return to London that evening? We will be on a B2B from FLL to Harwich and then the BI with three days in London at the end. We can do a shore excursion from La Have to Paris (via bus) 2.5 hrs each way, but the train might be better. We all have been to Paris and London before but I just thought the train might give us more time to walk around (per the great link supplied --man in seat 61-- the train stops in town. Any comments (good or crazy) about my idea will be appreciated. Thank you, pat

[Globaliser]

Hi, if you were in London for three days, would you take the train to Paris in the AM and return to London that evening?

No, absolutely not.

 

The basic reasoning is that you have a choice between a day to spend in London, or half a day in Paris combined with half a day stuck on public transport.

 

Personally, I would not be wanting to waste half a day on such a venture unless it was my last chance of ever getting to Paris before I die, or unless I developed such a fetish for trains that I could no longer survive without setting foot on Eurostar once more.

[Cotswold Eagle]

No, absolutely not.

 

The basic reasoning is that you have a choice between a day to spend in London, or half a day in Paris combined with half a day stuck on public transport.

 

Personally, I would not be wanting to waste half a day on such a venture unless it was my last chance of ever getting to Paris before I die, or unless I developed such a fetish for trains that I could no longer survive without setting foot on Eurostar once more.

 

As it happens, I have done it a couple of times - but then I was living in central London at the time :)

 

So practically it's very possible (although with slightly increased risk such as getting back if there's a problem with the train, as compared to being in Oxford, for example). You can easily be in Paris by mid-morning and not have to leave until around 9 pm. Whether that's worth almost 5 hours on the train can only really be an individual opinion! If the direct choice was that rather than a bus trip from Le Havre, I'd go for the Eurostar day out, but leaving that aside with only three days in London I'd agree with Globaliser....