We are traveling to London and Paris for our honeymoon and need a little advice. We are flying into London Heathrow at 11:25am and are going straight to Paris for our 1st 4 nights. We want to go ahead and book our Eurostar ticket however we don't know for what time. Any info on how long it will take to get off the plane, go through customs, collect our bags, and get to the train station? And where is the Eurostar station in relation to the airport?

If it were me - I'd land at Heathrow, then immediately fly from there to Paris CDG, then take the Eurostar back to London from Paris.

There are lots of flights from LHR to CDG and you will already be at the airport. The Eurostar leaves from St Pancras Station which is all the way across the other side of London from LHR.

So your itinerary would looks like this:

Fly from home to LHR
Fly from LHR to CDG
visit Paris
Eurostar train from Paris to London
visit London
Fly fromm LHR to home

I would open jaw your airfare to Paris and return from London to make things more simple. it might take anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours to get through LHR immigration and customs with a non EU passport if there are several arrivals from non Eu countries coming in at about the same time. Have not taken a car service or taxi from LHR to St. Pancreas but will guess an hour for the journey. Would book your return via the Eurostar by their website. Usually non EU residents get better rates for one way fares.

Yes - open jaw in to London and out of Paris would be better. But since you mention your arrival time - I assumed you have already purchased your flights. If so, it is to late for open jaw . . . .

If you do still want to get the Eurostar, which is a much nicer mode of travel than flying, you need to get from Heathrow to St Pancras. The Picadilly line goes directly there but will take about an hour.

You need to arrive for the Eurostar at least half an hour before your train leaves. As mentioned already, getting through immigration at Heathrow could take 10 mins or 2 hours, depending on the queues. Then you have to collect luggage and make your way to the Heathrow tube station which is right at the airport. Add some time on to queue to buy tube tickets.

We never like to travel in a rush so I would allow a couple of extra hours on top of this, just to be sure of making the Eurostar. If you get to St Pancras early, there are places to eat, a champagne bar, a few shops etc. You can relax before the journey.

Also, you may not know, that the earlier you book with Eurostar, the cheaper the tickets.

Having just read all this again, it does seem to make sense, in your case, flying straight out of Heathrow to Paris.

Kay

Hi C,

I take it that you already have your plane tickets.

I think that it will be easier for you to fly to Paris from LHR.

There are no cheap flights LHR/Paris listed at www.whichbudget.com.

www.kayk.com has LHR/CDG for $97 pp on BA.

There are actually many things to think about your proposed itinerary. First, while there are many flights from LHR to PAR, the least expensive tickets require advanced ticketing and have no flexibility. This is also true for the Eurostar. This generally means that if you are late in connecting you are out of luck unless someone from the Eurostar or airline takes pity on you and is able to put you on a later train or flight on standby. Would not depend on this. Will pay a premium to get new tickets for same day travel on train or plane. Whether your flight will be on time to LHR will depend on your particular flight(s) characteristic, time of year for traveling and number of connections and place of connection. Best to think that your inbound flight will be 2+ hours late.
You will also need to find out if your inbound flight and your flight to Paris use the same terminal. Major change at LHR soon with the new T5 terminal so this information might not be easy to get. If you have to change terminals you will have to add about another hour just to be safe.
Luggage is another issue. If you use just carryon there might not be a problem. There was a one bag rule at LHR but this has supposedly changed as of January 7. This change in rules is however also supposed to be dependent on each airline and airport.
If you check your baggage you will need to find out if the 2 different airlines you are using have an arrangement to transfer baggage. This is not an issue if you are flying BA to LHR and LHR to CDG. Generally if your two airlines belong to the same group like Star alliance or Oneworld there is no problem. If you cannot have the airlines transfer your baggage you will have to go through immigration and customs and than check your luggage in with your next carrier. Going through immigration and customs could take several hours if you hit at a busy time. This last issue also applies if you are going to take the Eurostar.
So, if you are using two different tickets to get to Paris through London you should leave plenty of time to effect your transfer between the two transportation venues. Consider travel insurance just in case you miss your connection. Open jaw or all your flights on one ticket is therefore the easiest and least stressful way of booking your transportation. If your flights are already set I would fly through LHR and leave plenty of time between flights and buy inexpensive travel insurance just in case of delay. BA has the most flights between LHR and CDG with one way costs somewhat over $100.