I've seen a lot on this forum about St. Pancras station, but not much about Ebbsfleet--is it worth trying to catch the Eurostar from there instead of London? After my earlier post about travelling by ferry to Calais and then train to Bruges, it seems that it would make more sense for us to take the Eurostar all the way from London. However, we are still dithering about where to drop off the rental car--we save some money if we take it back to Heathrow, but then I'm wondering about the best way to get from there to the Eurostar? Any thoughts/advice welcome... Thanks!

Getting to the Eurostar from a Heathrow car hire dropoff means getting the hire company bus to a terminal (typically, allow 15 mins from dropoff to tube platform), then getting the Piccadilly line tube (about an hour: every 5-10 mins) to St Pancras.

I've no idea where you're going to finish your travelling (I imagine you're not holidaying at Heathrow), so can't help you about whether getting to Ebbsfleet from wherever that might be is easier than getting to Heathrow then on to St Pancras.

Note that not all trains stop at Ebbsfleet, and that there are now trains from Ashford to Brussels again (I assume the reference to Bruges means you're planning to get the train to Brusssels?): http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisur...ct_ashford.jsp.

Use the AA website to calculate how long it's likely to take you to get to Heathrow, Ebbsfleet and Ashford from your starting location, then take whichever is easiest for you.

Ok, thanks. It's helpful to know how we'd get from Heathrow to St. Pancras after dropping off the car--and how much time that would involve. But I guess I was wondering if there's any advantage in NOT going into London--hence the idea of using Ebbsfleet instead. Sounds like we'd have to check to see if the train we want (to Brussels) stops there, but would there be other advantages, such as fewer crowds, easier access, etc.?

We will be coming from Winchester and will have rented the car at Heathrow, so I'm just trying to figure out the simplest way to drop off the car and get ourselves (2 adults, 2 kids) transported to the other side of the Channel!

The only car hire I know of for sure that serves Ebbsfleet is Avis. Though, that may have changed since I was researching this last Fall.

Thanks, janisj--We haven't booked the car yet, so I can look into Avis. I was going to go with AutoEurope for the UK portion of our trip, but we were holding off booking until we knew what to do about dropping off the car. Have you taken the Eurostar from Ebbsfleet? Is it any easier than St. Pancras?
Thanks!

No - I didn't take the train from Ebbsfleet. It just isn't that convenient to anywhere else.

In your case, I'd definitely drop the car at LHR. LHR is much closer/easier from Winchester than Ebbsfleet would be.

Plus you can take the tube to St Pancras w/o any changes.