Bruins

We have a 3:00 flight out of Heathrow on June 11. We will be in Paris on the 10th. It seems that one could take an early Eurostar arriving at the Waterloo station around 11. Then according to the Tube site it is a one hour journey to Waterloo, thus arriving around 12:30 or 1 which would give us two hours for check-in. IS this possible? How long does it take to go through customs at Waterloo? Thanks.

Clea

Bruins;

If you are talking about customs after traveling on the Eurostar, I do not recall going through customs at all, but if we had if was so brief I did not notice. With that said, I don't think I would chance not encountering any problems with your train travel. When we used the Eurostar last summer, our train was delayed for 45 mins because of some minor accident involving another train ahead of us. It did make us miss our connecting train reservations we had on to Germany. It was a minor disturbance since we were on vacation. IMHO, it might be wiser to just return to London the day prior.

Clea

JudyC

Usually it only takes few minutes to go through the customs in Waterloo,if no thing went wrong,you should be able to make it. But for the peace of mind, perhaps it would be better to take earlier train.

Another alternative from Waterloo is take train to Feltham,there is bus link to Heathrow.

flanneruk

As with all intra-EU journeys, there's virtually no Customs control at Waterloo. There is however Immigration control: how long this takes depends on whether you get to the front of the queue before everyone else, but normally there's a 5 minute delay.

If you're unfortunate to be behind someone dodgy, it may take a few minutes more: Waterloo isn't set up to let you jump into another queue in the way the airports are, but I've never heard of anyone being delayed there for more than 10 mins, unless Immigration had serious questions about them.

The quickest, most reliable way from Waterloo to LHR is the tube (Bakerloo line)to Paddington and then the Heathrow Express (HEX). Other routes, entirely by tube, will be cheaper, but they involve tougher connections (the one-connection route, via Green Park, involves a very long walk which few people with luggage enjoy) and are much, much, more vulnerable to delay. Allowing for waiting time, getting to platforms etc, 45 mins should easily get you from exiting Waterloo immigration to joining the queue at LHR check-in if you go Bakerloo/HEX

Of course the most reliable route from Paris to Heathrow is by plane, but I guess that's too obvious.

ira

Hi Bruins,

Your plan requires that everything goes perfectly well.

Not a good idea.

I suggest you either take an earlier train or fly.

janis

I would fly for sure - or take an 2 hour earlier train. There is no direct link between Waterloo and LHR. You have to walk to Waterloo mainline or Waterloo tube station and then either take the tube with a change of lines, take the tube and change to the HEX, or take a train and change to a bus. None of these are impossible - but schlepping luggage and worrying about making fast connections would be a pretty stressful finale to a European vacation.

AAFrequentFlyer

Right now Expedia is showing AirFrance from CDG-LHR R/T for $115.00 on 6/11. Buy the R/T use the outbound and throw away the return. It's a no brainer in my book. One train to CDG in Paris and you're done. There are many different daily departures to pick from.
If you decide to go this route make the return about a week or more later. Don't forget, whatever return you get it doen't matter, you won't be using it anyway.

Corky

An alternative suggestion, price wise, is B.M.I. CDG TO LHR makes connection less stressful and only added cost is getting to CDG by taxi or shuttle.
Check their web site for cheaper prices.

AAFrequentFlyer

Good call Corky,

I forgot about www.flybmi.com. The R/T fares are identical with AirFrance, but BMI allows you to buy one way without penalties. It's pricing out at EUR$45, about US$55. It departs CDG at 11am and arrives in Heathrow at 11:25am on 6/11.
Now it's really a no-brainer.