craigandleslee

I understand the train trip is pretty pricey for a family of 4.

Would we be much better off hiring a car and driving? Are the tolls very expensive?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Leslee

kerouac

You do not need to drive on toll roads if you don't want to. In any case, rental cars are not supposed to be taken across the channel, due to right-hand, left-hand drive issues.

You can find relatively cheap Eurostar tickets on their website if you book far enough in advance.

julia_t

The cheapest way to get from London to Paris is by bus

http://www.eurolines.co.uk/coach/index.aspx

A family of four can travel for around £150 return. The downside is the journey takes 6-8 hours.

chartley

It is not at all unusual for people in the U.K. to hire cars and take them to France. However, I doubt if it is a particularly cheap way to travel, since you have to pay for the ferry/tunnel as well as any autoroute tolls in France. In addition, a car is useless in the centre of either Paris or London.

The Eurostar trains are the fastest and most relaxing way to travel between London and Paris. You need to book early to get a good price. Hiring a car might be OK if you want to see rural or provincial France, but not the capital.

alanRow

<<< The downside is the journey takes 6-8 hours. >>>

Which is what a car would take

lizziea06

Are you just going to Paris? Sometimes flying is much cheaper than taking the train, albeit not nearly as convenient as going from city centre to city centre on Eurostar. Look on the Easyjet website for your travel dates to price out options.

flanneruk

It's not difficult to hire and drive.

A car's not useless (or even terribly difficult to drive)in either London or Paris - but the vehemence with which people keep on insisting it is implies many people, unaccountably, find driving in them a problem.

Hiring and driving requires:
- either declaring you're taking the car out of the country (which usually invokes a substantial surcharge), driving uninsured in France if you don't declare, or using the Hertz "le Swap" system, if it's still going
- investing at least 5.5 hrs each way by the fastest possible route (the Eurotunnel, and booking yourself onto a shuttle for which you arrive precisely on time)
- €35-30 in French tolls, at least £45 (but anything up to £300 if you've not booked and just turn up at peak times) in ferry or tunnel charges and 600 milesworth of fuel at around £1.18 a litre if you avoid motorway service stations on both sides of the Channel.
- Finding and paying for parking in Paris, and probably for parking and some congestion charge in London if you collect the car the night before.

I can't imagine this can all come to less than buying the £59 advance booking Eurostar deal.

di2315

Hi craigandleslie

To find out all the tricks for getting Eurostar tickets at the cheapest price, take a look at www.seat61.com.au
His advice is excellent - just print out the details he gives for the trip you want to take, he practically walks you through the process step by step. Di

craigandleslee

Thanks so much everyone!
Very helpful. We appreciate your time and help.

Cheers,
Leslee

jkbritt

I have driven a car in UK, turned it in at the ferry port, rode the ferry as a walk on, picked up another rental on French side and continued onward, driving all over France. Parking in Paris, at the Etap hotel, was 20 Euro per day. I do not know the rates now. I never took the car out until I was leaving. So I paid 140 Euro for the car to sit for a week. Moral of this story, turn car in when you get to Paris, then have another rental ready when you leave. Saving you 140 Euro. There were 4 of us also, and car was cheaper than buying transport for everyone all the time to the places we wanted to go. We traveled in France for almost 4 weeks. Another option, instead of renting is leasing. Look at: http://www.reidsguides.com/t_au/t_au_leases.html Might be cheaper for total package for 4.

PalenQ

A car's not useless (or even terribly difficult to drive)in either London or Paris>

bull crap - a car is practically useless in both cities and a liability - you must pay $10 or more fee a day just to enter central London and then parking can cost much more - flanner how do you mean they are useful - to drive around to various sites?

Paris has no entry fee but similar problems with parking.

For the average tourists cars are useless in London and Paris IME

Michel_Paris

I would not hire a car as part of a strategy to see London and/or Paris. To get to/from perhaps, but as a means of seeing (and stopping at) sights, IMHO no.

You do not say what your plan is. Is it a one way trip? Are you doing an Open Jaw? Is it a day trip? Many people here have done Eurostar day trips. Part of the planning is to pick the day and time of the week to minimize financial injury.

PeaceOut

When our family of four took the EuroStar from London to Paris, the best price was to buy round-trip tickets and not use the return one. It was cheaper that way. Still so?

julia_t

I too have driven to Paris from the UK, and in my RH drive car. I've driven in France several times, and always in a RH drive car.
Actually the drive to Paris was easy, if fairly long, from my home in the Cotswolds. It was somewhere between 8-9 hours including the ferry crossing Dover-Calais and some slow traffic on the Peripherique. I don't recall passing through any tolls on this part of the drive, and seem to remember trying to plan my route to avoid them if possible. We certainly weren't on huge motorways but fast main roads.

We were staying in the 5th, so I dropped off the kids and bags at the hotel, then parked in a secure garage just off Rue Monge, down towards Place d'Italie. The cost for 3 days was 50 euros, but this was in 2005.

When we left Paris we went to Rouen, Caen, Bayeux, and then on to Haute Normandie where we had a couple of days at the seaside at Veulettes sur Mer before returning to Calais.

craigandleslee

and from me thanks for taking the time to assist us

Craig

PalenQ

If Normandy is in your plans then do not go via Dover necessarily but head to Portsmouth or Southampton or whatever closest port with car ferries to either Cherbourg or Oustreham - the latter near Caen and Bayeux and all the famous D-Day Landing and ensuing battle activities. There is even an overnight car ferry i took recently as a foot passenger. these boats have lots of entertainment and food service on boat.

julia_t

Pal is right about not necessarily using Dover-Calais as a crossing if you are driving yourself.

I did Dover-Calais for 2 reasons...

1. I saved tokens published in a newspaper and therefore got myself an almost-free crossing. I think I paid £5 in total.

2. One of my children gets very seasick, and I'm not the best of sailors, so the shorter the crossing the better as far as we are concerned. Dover-Calais is little more than an hour.

janisj

OK -- are you talking about just traveling from London to Paris as your title implies -- or -- are you talking about touring in France like maybe Normandy?

If it is just from point A London to point B Paris -- then the Eurostar train is by far the easiest (and probably even cheapest) way. A bus would be cheaper but would use up a full day each way.

The 'economy' flights mentioned are airport to airport and don't include the expensive transportation from the outlying airports to the city centers.

What is your full itinerary? If it is just London and Paris (and do you have to return to London?) - take the train and book early to get good fares.

Whether a car makes ANY sense we'd need to know where else you are going. The reason driving makes sense for some of the above posters is because they live in the UK and would take their own car. No rental costs, or paying really high insurance and drop off fees.

lizziea06

If you can get advance fares on Eurostar for 39.50 GBP then it's clearly the better option! However...

My BF and parents flew from London to Paris in April this year on Easyjet. I wanted to take the train but my mother, for various irrational reasons, insisted on flying. Our flights on Easyjet (Luton to CDG) were approximately 25 GBP each one way, taxi to Luton from SW London was 40 GBP, and then a nominal cost to take the RER to our apartment on Ile St. Louis in Paris. So basically 150 GBP total to get 4 people from London to Paris.

BigRuss

Paris driving is bad enough (they drive like Italians with more attitude) with the steering wheel in the proper place, hiring an English car to do it would be a nightmare. I'm with PalenQ here: Flanner is completely off on this (and many other comments like libel tourism . . . )

Have a care about cheapo airlines -- often they make up for small fares by charging large fees for baggage. Read the fine print. Ultimately, Lizzie's right about low fares with the Eurostar, and if the fares are close, remember that the Eurostar stations are not $60+ cab rides to the city center like LHR or CDG.