I am leaving in two weeks for one week in London and one week in Paris with my wife and two daughters (12 & 14). Thank you for advice to take Eurostar rather than fly.

While we are in London, we plan to go to York and Windsor. In Paris, we are going to Versailles and Disneyland.

Should I purchase a 4-day Britrail pass and get a discounted ticket on Eurostar or purchase all of my tickets separately? The price seems to be about the same, but I don't know if there are advantages to Britrail that I am missing. Also, can I purchase the Eurostar ticket on the day of travel or purchase it in advance? We plan to travel 2nd class.

Hi beau,

Try www.railsaver.com and see what they say.

I also seem to remember that Eurostar has cheap tickets if you order in advance.

Perhaps you would like to check Eurostar.com site, there are cheap return tickets for 70 Euro. If you could purchase them asap,since there are gone faster.

For London to York, it would be much cheaper than rail pass to buy super saver return upon your arriving London. To Windsor, you could buy cheap same day return. Please cheap Thetrainline.com.

Thanks for the information. I will check those websites. It is so hard to determine if I should buy the tickets before we leave or wait until we arrive in London.

Hi Beau,

Unless you are ordering well in advance, you will get better prices in London.

One year we purchased a Britrail Pass and found that all of our tickets could be purchased the day before at much cheaper discount rates.

Here's my 2 cents on why I like the Britrail passes. You can travel on a whim with the passes but with the super saver train fares, you're committed to specific trains and dates. Since English weather varies by region, the day you're committed to visit York it could be pouring rain while Windsor is beautifully sunny and vice versa. With the pass you could switch plans. Also, if you decided you'd like to stay in town later than originally planned, with a pass it's no problem to get a later train but with a reduced fare ticket you will either have to pay the supplementary fare or purchase an all new one way ticket back to London which could be pricey. Eurostar tickets on day of travel are really expensive, I'd buy those in advance.

If you do come to the UK and buy your tickets, either Eurostar or for travel within the UK, it can work out very expensively.
Windsor is only a matter of a 40 mins. or so journey, which tens of thousands of commuters do each day. It is not expensive, perhaps about £8 or so there and back for each person, so no need for a Britrail pass there. No need to book ahead either.
However, a day trip from London King's Cross to York would necessitate leaving early. If you just turned up at the station and bought a return ticket, it would be dear. So go to www.gner.co.uk and see if you can get a Daypex ticket. Should be about £25 or so there and back. Stick to those times. You will get a PIN and you can get the ticket at the station.
If you cannot manage a Daypex, check out the standard day return fares. You might have to leave after 11am or so for that, but the days are long at the moment and the journey is less than 2 hours. 2nd class is absolutely fine.

Eurostar is doing very good deals right now, at least for UK residents. Give the address of your hotel for the tickets to go to (tell them first) and see if you can get a return ticket for £59. Book early. Eurostar.com

WWW.nationalrail.co.uk is what you want for UK rail services,fares,timetable info etc.Check the Eurostar site for special offers. Cheap day returns on weekdays are available after 09.30 on short distance routes such as London-Windsor etc...

Thanks for the advice. Normally, I consider myself to be pretty smart, but I am getting really confused by all of the options. I just checked Eurostar.com and the price for an adult is $223.50 euro. I went to Raileurope.com and I can get the same thing (I think) for $139 (USD I think).

Am I crazy to book the Raileurope ticket???

Thank you for all of your help. I need it!!!

Hey beau
Have you called either Eurostar or Raileurope?

I called Raileurope at a toll free number and they told me to buy the tickets in London. They said it wouldn't save me any money to purchase them in advance. Based upon the postings above, I'm not certain the woman on the phone was correct.