Hire car, fly or train from Paris to London?
 

What are the educated opinions regarding traveling one way from Paris to london.
The hire car will start in italy but i dont know if i should end the journey in Paris and fly/train or continue on the tunnel with the hire car ( not consideing that it reverts back from left to right hand drive). Costs V Costs I would guess.
Any help with this dilemma would be appreciated.
Cheers.
Peter AUS

Train

Certainly don't drive. A car isn't much use in either Paris or London, it's expensive to park and your rental company may not allow it to be taken over the channel.

City centre to city centre, train is best. Book tickets as early as possible for cheap fares www.eurostar.com

If you fly, you have the drawback of having to get to and from the airports and the long security lines, so it's not quicker than the train, though occasionally might be cheaper.

Cars make no sense in your case.

The train isn't the best option in all cases, though it virtually always is centre to centre. If you're dropping a hire car off in Paris, and your destination is actually, say, Cambridge or Brighton, flying is usually easier, quicker and cheaper, since the most convenient dropoff place is almost always Orly or CDG airport.

But mistrust any one-word answer. Only you can work the costs out for the day you're travelling, given your specific constraints.

Have done both prefer nice train through the

Italy Lake Country and the alps via Geneva to paris with stops

Venice Garda sirmione.com stresa.org Interlaken Geneva

seat61.com chunnel train to London Waterloo

or cheaper easyjet.com flight booked in advance.

Cars one way drop offs are expensive massive parking hassles

in city with car.

Have fun,

Have you checked the cost of renting in Italy and dropping a car in Paris? Usually the one-way drop of fees are VERY expensive (think 100's of €€€)

I would definitely take the eurostar www.eurostar.com

yes, It would be cheaper to do the whole trip by train but we are retracing our engagement/wedding/honeymoon trip with our daugter 18 years on so it rules out the train as we zig zag through Italy,swiss and France (arrive by boat near rome) and just wish to also quickly show our daughter London before we fly out.
Biggest dilemma is the best option from either paris or any other nearby european port to london.
Thanks for the responses so far.
Peter

"Biggest dilemma is the best option from either paris or any other nearby european port to london."

Unless you intend visiting places between Paris and the coast there's no point in dropping off a car anywhere but Paris - at the very least you'll be paying for the car whilst it sits getting dented by Parisian parking for several days while you visit Paris and it doesn't get cheaper to get to London the nearer you get.

Why would you not drop the car when you get to Paris and do Paris, eurostar to London and then fly out of London? You dont need or want a car in Paris or London...is there more to the trip that we are not aware of?

no, if thats the answer then great and thanks.
I was only contemplating driving to London as the hire car works out the same dropping it off in London 4 days later as it does in Paris 4 days earlier. Cheers. Peter

And yes Alan Row a moto GP in Le Mans was an indulgent addition if it worked out