chunnel to paris
 

Is it worth it to take the chunnel from london to paris for 2 days? I'm trying to convince my husband.

In my opinion, "yes". It is only 3 hours from Waterloo Train Station to Gare du Nord station in Paris.

where would you recommend staying?

Paris is definitely worth it IMHO. However, there are a few things to consider:

Are you travelling to London and then thinking of going on to Paris? How much time do you have for London? Can you do an open jaw flight and fly out of Paris?

I think the Eurotrain trip is even a bit shorter than 3 hours now which makes it even better.

Have fun!

Are you using your American Express points for Hotel in Paris? If so, there is quite a good selection.

"Is it worth it to take the chunnel from london to paris for 2 days?"

depends on a lot of factors. Among others, how long do you have in London?

- A week and you've been to London several times before? yes.

- A week and you've never been there before? probably not.

The Eurostar takes less than 3 hours so you would have the best part of 2 full days to see a bit of Paris. But if this is your first time in London and you are only there a week or so, there is much more to see/do and you would be much too rushed to squeeze in a side trip to Paris.

I have no idea if you've been to Europe before but I would say that it is worth going to two countries, particularly since it's so very easy/cheap/quick. You will get a much better idea of the differences between the countries, which is really quite fascinating considering how close we are together geographically.

I suppose it depends what you want from your holiday; do you want a flavour of each city or do you want to see and tick off everything in the guidebook? How long before you'll be able to come over this way again? Personally I think it'd be great to see both in one trip - certainly many, many people on here have done just that so I'm sure you'll get some good and helpful replies.

I was planning on staying in london for 5 nights and paris for 3 nights. I don't know if I will have enough amex points to use it for a hotel in paris too. I was in london when I was 21 ditto paris. can you let me know what hotels amex uses for paris and what is the difference between the eurostar and the chunnel? thanx for your help!

I think that the channel tunnel train would add points on the "adventure" scale. But then again, I LOVE trains. From other postings on Fodors, I believe I'm in the minority.

singer8, Chunnel is a pet name for the Eurotunnel. The Eurostar is a passenger train that travels through the Eurotunnel.

If doing Eurostar you can travel for as cheap as $90 round trip if you buy thru Raileurope in US - cheaper than fares in UK currently. For info i'd call Budget Europe (800-441-9413), a RailEurope agent who doesn't charge their $15 mailing fee and are absolute Eurostar experts. Compare fares at www.eurostar.co.uk

Just checked eurostar.co.uk for trains leaving mar 21 returning mar 23, at noon each day. cheapest fare was 69 pounds, this vs. RailEurope's $90 (+$15 booking fee per order not ticket). 69 pounds x 1.85 $= 1 lb or about $128 for same ticket that costs $90 thru Raileurope and Budget Europe. For two travelers Raileurope charges $180 + $15 = $195; eurostar.co.uk charges $256 - quite a bit more. the $90 is for trains Mon-thu between 11am and 3pm each way, compulsory round trip.

And the combination of paris & london is a very natural, very easy pairing on a trip to Europe. 2 days won't even begin to scratch the surface on all that Paris has to offer, but it's definitely worth it, IMHO.

A quick question about Eurostar US verus UK. I'm an American but currently live in England. Can I buy tickets on the American version of the website, or do I have to use the British?

Thanks.

Definitely worth it! Paris is worth any amount of time you can spend there.

Raileurope i believe will not send tickets to Europe - the only way would be to have someone in US buy with your info and send to you. I believe they only deal in printed paper tickets though i may be wrong. Ask at www.raileurope.com

JoeTro: You can buy tickets on either site -- but why would you want to? The UK site is almost always cheaper even taking into accout currency differences. That is why so many Americans on here ask if/how they can use the UK site.

Janis - very poor advice as per my post above - check it out yourself, US prices cheaper on nearly all fares currently. Please give me some examples of the UK site being cheaper - your info is seriously outdated. Why would you want to? My example above of two people saving $60 over the exact same fare on UK site.

Yes there are some bargains on Rail Europe. But except for the quite restrictive days/times of the RailEurope $45 each way based on R-T purchase, the UK site is usually cheaper.

If those restrictions fit into your schedule, great.

Well if you compare both sites i think you wouldn't make the claims you did. And it seems impossible to book a one way ticket on the UK site and many Yanks are only going one way.
Three random checks:
1- Sun depart Fri return
UK cheapest 80 pounds return about the same as RailEurope $150 for that time frame. Bout the same
2- Fri depart Fri return
UK cheapest 120 pound return or $220 vs raileurope $150
3-senior fare 60 plus 80 pounds or $148 vs raileurope $150 - i use 1.85$= 1 pd. so for two examples virtually same and other one raileurope much cheaper, plus example in my above post Mon-thu travel raileurope much cheaper.
I cannot find one example UK site cheaper and all seem compulsory return. Please show me an example of your statement usually much cheaper on UK site. Please - i'm open minded but i don't think what you said is true at all.
And again many Americans want to go one way, available thru RailEurope.