paris-london-italy trip + booking eurostar 6 mons in advance
 

hi!
we are planning our trip for the easter holidays next year. we are planning to fly in to paris then take the eurostar to london. i was wondering if anybody would know if i could book eurostar 6 mons in advance? if so, how and which website to use

also, from london we are heading to rome. the cheapest flight i could find from london to rome is by alitalia (through expedia) for $96 USD. would anybody have any idea where i could find better rates?

hotel suggestions for rome and paris with price ranging from not more than 200USD per night would be appreciated as well.

thanks a lot!

I was going to suggest EasyJet, but they are only currently booking until the end of March (is Easter in April next year?)

And anyway, their fares from Gatwick to Rome (Ciampino) seem to start at about $80 USD, so I think what you have with Alitalia is pretty good! When Easy Jet adds fares for April (probably around Christmas) they may be as low as 19 pounds however if you jump on them when they first offer them.

In U.S. i always recommend calling BETS (800-441-2387) as you talk to an expert who will do a manual search for the cheapest fare and can book up to nine months in advance (only in U.S. i think - 6 months eurostar.com - the site you should also check for fares in pounds - but check both U.S. and pound fares. Easter can be a heavy travel time on eurostar so do book really early for the best fare if doing the train. www.raileurope.com also has fares for eurostar but the site is notorious for misleading info and saying Sold Out when really the trains are not loaded, etc.

thanks a lot! we are actually flying out from manila, philippines. i am trying to contact BETS but because of the time difference, i cant seem to get hold of them.

would u have an email address/ contact person from bets that i can correspond to through email? thanks

You can book up to six months in advance at raileurope.com and up to 120 days in advance at eurostar.com.

d1nx2

what time zone are you in - are you in Hawaii or some place.

try www.budgeteuropetravel.com - prices should match raileurope.com but won't have RE's $18 mailing fee (if order is under $400 - over $399 RE has free delivery)

i think www.eurostar.com has no mailing fees or booking fees.

<<< and up to 120 days in advance at eurostar.com. >>>

If you register as an American you can book up to 9 months in advance on the Eurostar website

I got the 120 day advance booking directly from the FAQs on the Eurostar Web site. However, alanRow is correct. I just entered a date in May and I could have completed a booking.

And anyone can register to be American - not just Americans or American-wannabes.

Doing so means you get access to some really cheap one way fares as opposed to the UK "pay full price for a one way"

As registered Europeans can only book 4 months in advance there must be quotas for different nationalities. Therefore if you can't find a cheap fare under one nationality, try another - all you have to do is find & delete the Eurostar cookies and then go back into the Eurostar website & select a new nationality

Though you can book up to nine months in advance from at least U.S. and other sources the key is up to

as annually nine months before schedule changes are loaded for the usual December revision there may be some time when reservations are not possible nine months in advance simply because schedules are not finalyzed.

And at times you may get a booking with the note that train time is subject to a slight change.

In any case if you know you are going via Eurostar and especially if it's on a weekend or Fri book as early as possible. Not only can you get one of those more and more elusive cheap tickets, which with Eurostar's load factor increasing annually seem to be harder to get but you lock in the fare as well.

Just for reference, the current round trip leisure fare for a round trip on the Eurostar, sold in Paris, is 77€.

is the 77 euro fare Jack talks about a day return or a period return?

period return seems better than U.S. fares - if day return not ($102)

Since very few Europeans would go one way on Eurostar but many Americans would i wonder if one-way fares are higher in euros or pounds - seems in past, especially on youth fares which at least used to be sold in pounds only round trip were not even offering one-way fares.???

I just visited both the Eurostar and the SNCF sites and pretended to book a round trip for Paris for the same 3 dates but in September, October and November.

The Eurostar site claimed it was sold out of all tickets except the ones at 229.50€ for all three months.

The SNCF site gave me fares of 229.50€ for September (dates next week), 118.50€ in October, and 77.00€ in November.

At 230 euros or about $330 r.t. i'd definitely look at U.S. prices for September

perhaps you chose the days of the Rugby contests - raileurope issued a memorandum months ago that any Eurostars would be impossible to book during much of September due to Brits flocking to Paris for the Rubgy Cup.

Generally the cheaper fares tend to be available i believe Tue-thur slack days and on the very earliest trains of the day so plan accordingly.