Day trip to Paris
 

Our family of 6 will be in London for about a week next summer. We are considering taking a day trip to Paris. Is that doable? I presume we go roundtrip by train. Any suggestions?

Hi ois,

You can buy single day round trips for about 60 GBP at www.eurostar.com

May I suggest that you fly into London, stay for 5-6 days, take the Eurostar to Paris, stay a day and a night and fly home from Paris?

((I))

Of course you can. Here's my cheap bus tour:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34568214

We have 4 children (5-15 yrs) and others have advised us to stay in one place as much as possible ... that is why we were considering the day trip instead of spending a night or two in Paris. Another question ... we can get reasonably priced roundtrip Eurostar tickets ... I presume the Waterloo station in London is easily accessible as would be the Eurostar station in Paris. Also, is the food on the Eurostar edible and affordable ... for a family with children and very "American" palets?

Eurostar food is wretched, limited in variety, overpriced, and not well presented. Other than that, it's okay, I guess.

Get to Waterloo ten or fifteen minutes early, load up on sandwiches, crisps, and drinks at Marks & Spencer, and have yourself a picnic on the train. It will be superior to the train service in every way.

Waterloo station is on four Underground lines, putting it within twenty minutes of virtually anywhere in central London. You can download a network map from thetube.com

The other end of the Eurostar line is Gare du Nord, in the northern (Right Bank) part of Paris. See my post above for some basic sightseeing possibilities, and use ratp.fr for specific routing guidance.

Thank you for the reply about the food. A picnic on the train is "our speed." Are there days of the week you would suggest? days that have cheaper train fares? days that would be better in Paris? It looks like we will have maybe 7-8 hours in Paris. I presume public transportation in Paris will be manageable. If we see the Eiffel tower and some of the other major sites, and just take in "Paris", that will probably be enough for us. Any other suggestions?

Go to eurostar.com and wade through their fares. In general, you get better deals if you log on with "United Kingdom" as your country. You should be able to travel for £59 round-trip, and the kids (4-11) for £50.

If you take the earliest train to Paris (05:34) and the latest train back to London (21:13), you will have about 12 hours in the City of Light. Here's the timetable:

<b>http://www.eurostar.com/dctm/timetables/pdf/timetable_130205_uk_uk.pdf</b>

If you are in Paris on Sunday, you can use the <i>Balabus</i> mentioned in my article to get back and forth to places of interest up and down the river. Also, the kids can ride on a <i>Ticket Jeunes</i> that costs several Euro less than the <i>Mobilis</i> pass. The problem with this strategy is that on Sunday the earliest train doesn't get to Paris until 11:53, cutting a couple of hours off your itinerary.

&lt;&lt;In general, you get better deals if you log on with &quot;United Kingdom&quot; as your country&gt;&gt;

Perhaps that's true, but I just priced a roundtrip adult at $94 using &quot;USA&quot;. (&pound;59 = about $103).

That's precisely why you should check both countries' pricing.

I agree with your friends that it's best to do as little packing and unpacking and moving around as possible, but if you can fly home from Paris, I agree with ira very much that you could make just the one move to Paris, traveling there at night, and then having one very full day there (and two nights).

As I said on oisman's other thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34654615

It would (probably) cost the same to rent a flat in London for a week and move to Paris for the last night as it would to take an overnight trip. The overnight would require an additional 2½ hours travel, but packing and unpacking and schlepping luggage and checking in would be obviated.

Re eurostar pricing: Yes, you should try both UK and US. I did a pretty exhaustive pricing test in my case, and UK won in the end.

The same trains could have different fares on UK/US, and you could also have a situation when a train is &quot;special&quot; one day (i.e. much cheaper) and then expensive the next.

I can see no rhyme or reason to this.

Others have advocated travel agents.

I still think that UK tends to offer cheaper rates (at least when the trains start to fill up).