I must say, I'd rather die than eat at Heathrow.

There are actually some decent places to east at LHR.

re a car service like justairports - it would be cheaper than the HEX/cab option. But at rush hour on a weekday it would take longer than the tube.

Even if someone is willing to pay for a car service from Heathrow to St. Pancras, would it really be faster in rush hour on an early Friday evening than the tube?

janisj I am definitely going to allow more time for whatever method of travel I choose. If we choose the train, I'll allow about 2 hours for travel time alone.

I do love trains - I think they're romantic and fun, but I was worried about only seeing the inside of cement walls. We will eventually be driving from Paris to Brussels, so I'll (hopefully) get to see some of the good stuff, but not from the train, I guess!

zappole thank you. I'm getting so overwhelmed it's nice to have someone hold my hand. I just looked at the JustAirports site and I think it will be £35 and hopefully take less time than the tube. That's about $150 total more than flying. But the tube isn't so bad if we can go directly.

Sit around or schlep? My new favorite word - schlep. Sitting around will keep me happier, schlepping will keep the husband happier and cost $150. So many things to consider.

Thanks again to everyone! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

nona789,
Sorry I am not answering you question, but I am curious: for your trip, is London a way point added just to accommodate your flight?

Did you choose Virgin Atlantic because of the award miles or that even with additional channel crossing(s?), you got a better overall cost than, say fly into Paris and out of Amsterdam on another airline?

Okay, we've decided - De Plane! The husband would rather sit in an airport and eat horrible airport food than run around like a crazy person. Getting there is half the fun...yay...

So basically, we're back to square one, but hopefully this will help someone else who is trying to decide on the Eurostar through the Chunnel.

Thank you again!

greg - We booked round trip tickets to/from London because it was more cost effective than 1 one-way to Paris and 1 one-way to Los Angeles from London (the final stop on our trip)

Hope that makes sense.

Ok! Have a great flight! Janis surely will someday post specific directions to what she considers edible food in Heathrow. I'll let others be my taste-testers!

Thanks zeppole! Strangely I prefer flat out terrible food to mediocre food because I know what to expect. We're eating at Le Jules Verne the following evening, so hopefully it will make up for even the worst airplane/port food.

hi to another nona! (waves)

I'd have done the same. Airports are not fun but I don't think you'll really be hanging around all that much anyway by the time you've taken care of customs/immigration/luggage/check-in. You can always sit on a bench and people-watch for a bit.

I really wouldn't have wanted to add a schlep into London (with it's own either panic-rush or hanging about.

Nona789, I see, you compared a round trip fare vs. two one-way fares instead of comparing to one multi-city fare consisting of LAX-CDG and LHR-LAX.

nona789,

Let's hope indeed! With what you'll leave for a tip at Jules Verne, you could have hired a Montgolfier balloon to float you to Paris!

It sounds like I've lowered your expectations of Heathrow thoroughly -- so much I hope you'll be able to come back and post that Heathrow and its food was not quite as bad as you'd feared. Expect the worst. You won't be disappointed.

nona1, had this been my nickel, I think I would jumped on the ES train to Brussels, eaten dinner, grabbed a waffle at dawn befpre boarding another ES and would have been in Paris by the time the rest of family got out of bed.

To console you Eurostar is a great service and very comfortable but not very scenic, partly because is goes so fast. Unless you want to stop en route you could take the train from Paris to Brussels.

nona1 - Hi! So you're the 1. I hope we'll be okay, time-wise. The husband is *very* impatient, but he promises to try to relax because he feels it's better than the schlep.

greg - Yes. The multi-city fare (one way lax>lhr>cdg>ams>lhr) was mind-bogglingly expensive.

zeppole - I'm so excited about Jules Verne! I hope it lives up to my expectations. I don't remember Heathrow being that bad, but yes you've sufficiently prepared me for travel horrors. So, thanks...I think :)

helen - That is consolation, thanks. I am a little disappointed that we won't be taking a nice long train ride, but that just gives us something to go back for. We'll be driving from Paris to Brussels to I hope we'll still get to see some of that beautiful countryside.

Nona789,
hmm, interesting,
I did a trial multi-city booking
lax-->cdg 8/31 (cdg arrival 9/1)
lhr-->lax 9/15
at orbitz and got $867 on AA. Of course, AMS-LHR will have to be done by train or other means.

Is London a destination or just an airport?
lax->cdg 8/31
ams->lax 9/15
at orbitz is $947 on USair and you didn't have to take a Eurostar or a major backtracking for that matter.