Are rail tickets really this expensive?
 

Sorry - I mistakenly posted this in the US board and could not figure out how to edit or delete it afterwards.

*REPOST*

Paris - London - Amsterdam in 2 weeks.

I checked the Eurail site for "multi-trip" passes but they don't seem to have one that suits my itinerary...(or do they?) and the single way Eurostar ticket to Amsterdam from London is $250 USD??? What am I missing here?

Is it really that costly to travel between these three cities?

I guess I was expecting it to be around $100 or less each for these trips.

Have you looked into flying on one of the cheap airlines... Easyjet, for example? Book as far in advance as possible, you can usually get between most major cities for way less than that.

1) Exchange rate, 2) short notice.

$250 is only about £130. At only 2 weeks' notice, I wouldn't be surprised to have to pay that much from EDinburgh to London. If you're buying tickets in Britain, it's *much* cheaper to buy them further in advance.

Have you checked the price for a return ? It will nearly always be less than 2 singles, and sometimes less than 1 single.

Caroline_edinburgh: I don't think marzipan meant her trip is IN two weeks time - but it will be two eeks long. From her other threads she says her trip is in January.

marzipan: As caroline says the farther out you get your tickets the cheaper they will be. But for Amsterdam/London you will almost always get better deals if you fly instead of taking the train.

For London/Paris I prefer the Eurostar train because you avoid the hassle of getting to/from the airports. So even if it were more expensive I'd usually still use the train for that leg.

If it were me I'd do London > Paris and Paris > Amsterdam by train and Amsterdam > London by plane.

Eurostar's one-way fares are very expensive. Try booking a return journey. You should be able to buy a ticket on www.eurostar.com and pick it up at London Waterloo station.

Go to railsaver.com and enter your itinerary. Check the box "Only if railpasses save me money."

The results may not surprise you, but once in a while lightning strikes. Since a Eurostar round-trip costs the same as a one-way, there's no reason you can't use it to get back to London (via Brussels).

The VERY cheapest way might well be to book "open-jaw" air from US to London and Amsterdam to US. Price that, too.

I've heard the RT fares can be a lot cheaper, but I also think you are being a little unrealistic about what it should cost. That is a high-speed, modern expensive train, and London to Amsterdam is a long trip. Less than US $100 for that is pretty cheap, as that would be about 80 euro. For comparison, you couldn't take a trip like that in the US for that rate on a high-speed train (of which we only have one I know of, but it costs $168 on the Acela express for a trip of less than 3 hours). In France, you'd pay more than that for a TGV trip lasting that long, if you didn't buy advance-purchase tickets or something like that.

Rail Tickets aren't that expensive if you know the right one to buy. Did you consider a Eurail selectpass - 3-5 countries (but that doesnt include London.) Dont miss your chance to take the eurostar - it's an experience not to be missed. I would then take the train from Paris to Amsterdam, but then fly back to London. RailEurope.com now has a live booking site - book your reservation and your ticket.

Hi M,

The least expensive Eurostar tickets are the one-day RT.

To get to Amsterdam, buy the London/Brussels RT for about $100.

Then take the regular train between Brussels and Amsterdam for about $40

You can fly LGW or LHR to amS for about $50. See www.whichbudget.com.

Wouldn't it be easier to go London-Paris-Amsterdam?

((I))

Paris - Amsterdam by Thalys
Use www.sncf.com
Look for "Smilys" fares (which are round-trip, but you just use the first part). These could be as low as 38€.

NOTE: they are non-refundable/non-changeable, so be sure of your travel plans.

The standard one-way fare is about 98€.

You can pre-pay the ticket online, get a confirmation email, take that email AND the SAME credit card you used to pay to an SNCF ticket office to pick up your ticket while in Paris.

Hi,
Last week we took the Eurostar from London to Paris. The cheapest way to do it was to book a return fare. We didn't use the return part. If book your ticket so that you are staying over a Saturday night, it's a lot cheaper.
We paid 60 pounds each for the return ticket so it essentially cost us $100 for a one way trip. It is expensive but it worked out to be cheaper than flying. We avoided the costs of getting to and from an airport. It was downtown to downtown and that was a huge bonus. We also didn't have to worry about the weight of our baggage and being charged excess baggage fees. Those cheap airlines really charge if you are a gram over their allowable limits.

ttt