pedanticus

You'll have to excuse my ignorance as I've never booked European rail travel before. I'm taking the family to Europe this summer and I'm looking at taking the Eurostar from Paris to London on the 6th of July, one-way. When looking for tickets on the Eurostar website it's quoting me EUR 245.00 each. I just about fell out of my chair! Perhaps it's my ignorance here, but that seems exorbitant. Unfortunately hotels and airbnb bookings are already set, so dates are not flexible.

Can anyone offer some advice on getting cheaper tickets or am I stuck paying what they're asking?

CosmosHuman

The dates open up about six months in advance. I just booked for November one way London to Paris for 48e. At this time it's probably cheaper to fly.

Some good advice:
Seat61.com

stewardo

Unfortunately Eurostar runs airline-style pricing so the cheaper tickets generally sell out well in advance of travel. At just five weeks out from travel sometimes the very early morning trains (5am) are still cheap, but not on summer weekends.

Flights for your date are priced around half of the cost of the train at present - something like €130.

Another option: you could try one of the long-distance bus companies (eurolines, megabus, iDbus) who will charge something like €50 or €60 per person. Beware that the journey time is very long and can be cramped.

pedanticus

Thanks for the information.

A very expensive blunder on my part.

OverThereTooMuch

With as expensive as these tickets are, you should do the math to see if changing the travel date just by a day to get a cheaper fare would be worth it.

Palal

The expensive tickets are in large part due to 2 things: their monopoly on the route, incredibly high infrastructure access charges for the Eurotunnel.

Check out the first and last trains of the day when the infra charges are cheaper. The ticket price usually reflects this as well.

KQ321

Indeed. It seems every Paris-London train that day is pretty much booked out, so there are no 'Standard - Non-flexible' tickets left, and even the semi-flexible fares are at pretty much their top rate.

Travelling last thing on Saturday 5th brings it down to €183 per person, or first thing on Monday 7th down to €90 per person (both for non-flexible fares). Which, IMHO, is still pretty expensive for a 2hr train journey - but Palal has explained the reasons for that...

Alternatively, you can get from Paris to Lille for as little as €25 on 6th July on the TGV (book at www.voyages-sncf.com - or check the Seat61 page if voyages-sncf tries to redirect to an expensive North American site...), and you can then get Lille - London (which is operated by the Brussels - London Eurostar, which appears to be less busy that day) for €105 or €133.

This will take longer, but is cheaper than than the direct Paris - London option. Bear in mind that if you're on two separate tickets, you're not covered in the event of any delay to the TGV, so make sure you allow plenty of time for the connection in Lille (remembering there's a 30 (?) minute check-in deadline for the Eurostar). Also be aware there are two separate stations in Lille. You want 'Lille Europe' for the Eurostar. I think most TGVs from Paris run there, but a few may go to 'Lille Flandres' (which is closer to the centre of town, and a ~500m walk from 'Lille Europe').

Alternatively, take an early Thalys to Brussels (available from €40), visit Brussels for a few hours, and then take the Eurostar to London from there (also for €105 or €133 that day).

As others have indicated, all these trains are yield-managed, so prices will likely continue to go up. So, it's best to book as soon as your plans are fixed.

Although changing in Lille (or Brussels) may seem like a hassle, it's actually pretty straightforward. When comparing with flying, bear in mind that you'd have to trek out to CDG, check-in etc, and then make your way from whichever London airport use, back into London. The train is city centre to city centre, and personally I think changing at Lille is a more pleasant than getting out to CDG...

stut

You could, if you're willing to risk it, look at some of the resale sites. www.kelbillet.com for example, which has 5 tickets for sale on that date.

(Strictly speaking, this is not permitted, but Eurostar do appear to turn a blind eye to it - hence the existence of these sites. I've travelled this way a few times - even with a ticket for the opposite sex...)

Alternatively, there are options via Lille (as noted above - and a good place to break your journey for a decent meal) - and also Disneyland, an easy RER ride from Paris, currently selling for £74.50 on the 6th, if you can bear the number of children on board

You could also go old school - TGV to Calais, ferry to Dover, high-speed train to London. It's quite enjoyable, but does take a fair bit longer.

KQ321

Update:
Just seen that if you ask www.voyages-sncf.com for Paris Nord to Londres, and put 'Lille' in the via box, it will offer you the above-mentioned Paris - Lille - Brussels routing all as one ticket (for as little as €130). As it's one ticket, if the TGV was late, you'd be covered for the connection in Lille.

The journey time (on 17:46 departure from Paris) is as little as 3h11 (compared with 2h45 for the direct service - 2h15 journey time plus 30mins check-in in Paris; if you're leaving Paris on the TGV, you only need to check-in when you get to Lille).

For me, this (or even the slightly longer journey times) would still be preferable to flying...

pedanticus

On the http://uk.voyages-sncf.com/ site, I searched Paris CDG (we're actually staying near the airport) to London and it comes up with:

1. Aeroport CDG 2TGV to Marne La Val Ches on TGV Atlantique departing at 14:49 and arriving at 14:59

2. Marne La Val Ches on Eurostar to London St Pancras departing at 16:54 and arriving at 18:46.

Total is GBP 392.00 for all five of us.

Does this routing make sense? Looks like two hours of sitting around at a train station, but it's a big cost savings. Any problems you foresee here?

KQ321

Well, if you're staying near the airport (and don't plan to go into the centre of Paris that morning), then I'd certainly say it's better to leave Paris CDG by TGV, rather than heading into Gare du Nord by RER...

And assuming this option is offered as one ticket, I don't see any problem with it all - other than a rather long wait at Marne-La-Vallée (which I think is the same station as the Disneyland one that stut was referring to). However, for five adults, I'm seeing this priced as £450, so I'm guessing you have some children or seniors in your group.

For some reason, uk.voyages-sncf.com shows all journeys via Lille that afternoon as £129 per person. However, if you look on the French version of the site (www.voyages-sncf.com/billet-train), you can depart Paris CDG at 17h16 or 19h08, change in Lille, and get to London 3-4hrs later, for €110 per adult (ie: about £90). I suspect this would equate to £392 with your group composition, and this would save you the long wait in Marne-La-Vallée.

pedanticus

I found a ticket with a 39 minute connection in Lille. Should I worry that that's too short a connection as some have mentioned a minimum 30-minute check-in time for Eurostar?

stut

It's doable (the 30 minute check-in time is pretty flexible) but only if your train from Paris arrives into Lille-Europe - many of these services arrive at Lille-Flandres. I assume that if it's booked through voyages-sncf that this will be the case, however.

pedanticus

I'm booking it.

Thanks for all the help.

KQ321

As long as it's all on one ticket (and at Lille Europe, as stut said), then it should be fine. Lille Europe is a fairly compact station, and they should be somewhat flexible with the check-in time - and may even hold the Eurostar for a few minutes if there's a backlog at security. However, most importantly, as long as it's all one ticket, even if the TGV is late and you miss the Eurostar entirely, they have to rebook you on the next one.