PatrickLondon

>>For me, Gare du Nord departures is by far the weakest link in the Eurostar chain.<<

Tick, v.g.

Conlet

Thanks again for the additional info. We will not be returning to London; we fly home from CDG and are fairly familiar with that airport. I really appreciate the time all of you have taken to reassure me!

emily71

If you are taking the Metro in Paris-definitely buy the carnets at St Pancras, a bit more expensive but allows you to just go through the Metro fare gates without hassle. It's very easy to board the Eurostar and I found there are always employees near the train to point you to the right carriage.
IMHO, it's the best way to travel to Paris. Love just hanging out in the cafe care watching the countryside go by.

xyz123

I think, unless they've changed things recently, there is an error above. Immigration and custom formalities are handled at departure both ways. Your passport will be checked by the French border control at St. Pancras but to enter France (and indeed Belgium if you were going to Brussels) there is no landing card. They will scan your passport and stamp it as your entrance into the Schengen area. If you were coming back to London, the British not being a part of Schengen still require landing cards for non eu entrants but that's done in Paris on the Paris-London leg of the trip.

xyz123

Oh btw, if you book your tickets on the Eurostar UK site (on the first screen when it asks you where you live, put UK; if you put USA it re-directs you or at least it did in the past to Rail Europe). If you're over 60 you qualify for senior rates and they will show you them. Senior rates on single tickets are pretty cheap although they do sell out and you miht not get the train you want but not all the time. The advantage of booking via Eurostar UK is you can print your ticket at home and not have to pick it up or wait for Rail Europe to fed ex it to you at an additional charge. Eurostar UK web site charges an additional 4% for use of a credit card but 2% for use of a debit card.

PalenQ

RailEurope Eurostar tickets have been ticketless print at home tickets now for some years I believe and their rates can be good too - check both and all available sources before buying. RE is not always the huge rip-off folks often say - say without really checking it out - say something enough everyone will believe it. www.raileurope.com.

xyz123

...thank you for the recent information. I haven't checked Rail Europe for a long time. But I most surely agree. It is worthwhile to check both places.

Thank you...

RM67

You can print your tickets at home with Eurostar, or you have two collection options at the station - queue up and collect from a live person (long queues at times), or collect from the machines, for which you'll need your booking reference and the card you paid with - only takes a couple of mins and staff are on hand to help the clueless. I don't remember having the option to get your tickets posted to you last time I used Eurostar (June this year), which you used to be able to do, and there was plenty of time for them to do this, so I think that option may have been done away with in the UK.

PalenQ

In standard class on Eurostar IME everyone is booked together so that everypone is jammed into one part of the car, if not full, and there are at times lots of empty seats elsewhere - so if your train is not to call at say Lille-Europa or Frethun, etc - most do not stop at any station - then simply move to another seat - do this right after take off.

xyz123

On Eurostar.com, the UK web site, you can pick your seat from a seating diagram much like the airlines.

Conlet

Thanks for all the advice. We just returned from Paris, and your comments were a great help. The train trip was seamless - quite the easiest we have done. Highly recommend as a way between London-Paris!

Gordon_R

Great! Glad it worked out well for you.

Avalon2

The lastEurostar trip we took had 3 classes. first . economy and a third I think it wa called comfort class. A bit more expensive but roomier seating and a light meal served at your seat.We thought it was worth the extra

PalenQ

First-class on Eurostar trains get a complimentary meal served at their seat - any kind of first class last time I went and it was a good decent three-course meals with unlimited drinks - including booze - of your choice.

Sometimes on eurostar.com a first-class discounted ticket may not cost that much more than a 2nd-class one due to different tiers being sold out - so figure about $20 or so for the worth of the meal and booze given out in first class which IME has much larger seats and often many empty seats.