Flying (or Train) between London and Paris?
 

I'm trying to go to Paris for a day and a half while I'm in London for 9 days....I looked at flights yesterday and they were all $240 or so, and are now much higher...Train tickets on Eurostar seem even more expensive!

Any advice on how to do a quick trip to Paris, and the easiest/cheapest way to do it? Also, are the airports directly in Paris, or out of the city? I'm trying to figure out if it is better to fly or take the train, and any tips on finding discounted rates-I know there are sometimes discounts for people under 25.

Thanks for your help!!

If you r looking for cheaper the train is your choice as both LHR and CDG are a little outside of both London and Paris.
Even if you do not take a taxi which is way too expensive in both cities,you still save a lot of money.

We went in April/May 2006 Paris-London-Paris.
Paid about Euro 80 (on SNCF) for the train.
BMI CDG-LHR-CDG was about Euro 100+ (all in).

If you're going downtown to downtown, the train is the way to go. You save time and aggravation (no need for transportation from downtown to the airport, no need to get to the airport an hour early). As long as the price is in the same ballpark, the advantages of taking the train are compelling (to me).

I just booked some Eurostar tickets for later this summer. The rates did vary during the day--the peak travel times were quite a bit more expensive. Perhaps selecting earlier/later trains might help out. I know my total was far less than the $240 you said you saw for airfare.

sadiemay, what dates are you looking at, what airlines have you tried, and where did you look for train fares?

There aren't many LCCs that operate between London and Paris, but you could try Easyjet - www.easyjet.com - who fly from LTN. LTN is "London" Luton Airport, but Luton is actually a town in its own right a fair way north of London. Still, if you don't mind the train journey there... but then again by the time you've got to Luton on the train you could be half-way to Paris on Eurostar.

Train fares start at GBP 29.50 one way (non-flexible), which is considerably less than the fare you were quoted - but if you're travelling around popular dates then the cheap tickets may well all have gone.

If you're starting from one city's centre and heading for the other city's centre, then the train is much more convenient and probably faster overall than flying.

The downside is that the train seems usually to be significantly more expensive than flying. That, in part, reflects the convenience factor.

The best thing to do is to use all the flexible search functions that you can find. I don't think it's that easy to do on Eurostar, but at least there's only one train operator. On the airlines, BA, bmi and easyJet all have flexible search functions that allow you to home in pretty quickly on the cheaper/cheapest flights in the time period that you're thinking of.

But if it's really rather expensive however you do it, my advice would be to consider not going to Paris. A day and a half is better than the lunatic day trips that so many tourists think they should do when they've only got a few days in London anyway. But even with 1½ days you won't see much of Paris, and she is worth a long visit all by herself. If you could easily do it cheaply, it might make some sense; but if it's too expensive, don't fret and come back to Europe to see only Paris next time.

Eurostar Youth fares are available to anyone under 26 - but beware, they may not be cheaper than normal Adult fares and sometimes availability is heavily restricted at certain busy times. Only buy a Youth fare if you really need some degree of flexibility with changes outside peak times.

I can´t believe the responses this far. Many FTs suggest taking the train. How can you suggest that without knowing more about the OP? We would have to know his/her airline elite statuses, need for more miles to requalify, alliance preferences, willingness to turn this into a mileage run (say flying via both Zurich and Geneva) and many other things. :p ;)

Oops! :eek: :o :D

It's worth looking for package (Eurostar + Hotel) deals, as I've often managed to get these for less than cost of the ticket alone! Try here and here.

Otherwise, these days, the only flight I'd consider is the very convenient LCY-ORY on AF. Door-to-door time tends to be less than the train on this for me (LCY has a 10-15 minute check-in time for AF). But that tends to be rather expensive (not to mention that LCY is closed Sat PM and Sun AM).

The eurostar definitely takes you right where you want to be. Transportation from CDG and LHR are not as desirable as Waterloo to Gare Du Nord.

Thanks stut for posting about lastminute...some of those packages look good for next time.

As a fairly obsessive collector and user of FF miles, I would never even consider flying between Paris and London unless it was the last week of December and I was a few hundred miles short of requalifying for Platinum status. The advantages of the train are enormous, especially for a short trip. I'm assuming the OP really wants to visit Paris. Turning the trip into a mileage run would eat up a ridiculous proportion of the OP's very limited time.

I also say get the train - and check the links provided by Stut.

Also, I've followed the advice given previously by UKflyer in another forum, and discovered that you can often get considerably cheaper rates by using Eurostar's Belgian site rather than the British one.

The train is much more eco friendly too! ^

(duck for cover)

Welcome to Flyertalk, sadiemay.
Given the brevity of your trip I would definitely opt for Eurostar.