paris to london- day trip
 

is it possible to go to london just for the day from paris?
does anyone recommend we do this?
thanks

"<i>s it possible to go to london just for the day from paris?</i>"

Sure -- it is just over 2 hours each way (3+ hours when you include traveling to Gare du Nord and St Pancras and advance check in)

"<i>does anyone recommend we do this?</i>"

Can't say w/o more info from you -- How many days will you be in Paris? Have you been to Paris before? Would the train trip fit in your budget?

As janis points out, it can be done. It is a very long day, and you would need to plan it carefully. Ditto on needing to know your Paris plans.

first time to paris- my 50th birthday present..we'll be there 8 days.

i was going to say- yes of course in budget but maybe it's super super expensive- how much is it?

You can get return tickets for approx 70GBP return. To get the best price you need to book 4 months in advance, tix get more expensive the closer to the date, 4 months out is the earliest you can book.

www.eurostar.com

I see this question a lot, and I personally don't think it is a good idea. you have 8 days in Europe, and want to spend one of them getting to London. It just doesn't make sense to me.

There are many good day trips from Paris that wouldn't take 6 hours to accomplish. Certainly most people go to Versailles. We have also gone to Chartres, which we totally enjoyed.

I suppose you could see some of London, but exactly what are you interested in? How will you get around? Will you get some sort of transport pass? Don't forget that you will need different money.

It just seems like not the best use of time and money to me, but there are probably many people who would disagree with me.

I've been to both places multiple times, and I can tell you that I wouldn't want to visit either city on a day trip.

Do you have 8 nights? How about 4 and 4, or 5 and 3?

Do an open jaw ticket. For example, fly into Paris, the Eurorail to London, then fly home from London. Saves backtracking. Break it down as tuscanlifeedit said. 5 and 3 or 4 and 4. I would do the 5 and 3. The first day is jet lagged and is half way useless. On the last day in London, try to get as late a flight as possible, then you can maybe see a bit more of London before going to the airport.

I meant to say Eurostar.

Hi ton,

You can do London as a daytrip from Paris.

I don't recommend it.

Visit Paris for a week this time.

Visit London for a week next time.

Enjoy your visit.

((I))

i agree with the group...we are spending 5 nights in paris this summer and looked into a day or overnight to london...it's so darn close...but logistically it's a bit rough and if there is one thing that will ruin a trip it's stress...tuscanlifeedit poses a great option...4 in paris and 4 in london...but of course, you can never have enough time in any city...have a wonderful trip and happy 50th!

I got one-way eurostar tickets for the 2 kids to go from Paris to London for 45 euros each, which isn't a bad deal. Bought the tickets in Dec for Feb.

Now, they flew into Paris, spending 10 days, then on to London for 4.5 days, flying out of London. So that helps with the no need to back track.

dave

Yes it is very feasible and if you can't spend longer in London just to see London even for a day is priceless - go for it!

Hundreds of thousands of us do this, or the opposite (a daytrip to Paris), every year. Without whingeing about stress or careful planning.

Even more - millions and millions - of Britons take far longer train journeys for a day's outing to London every year. They'd laugh in your face if you told them there were people who thought getting a train to somewhere two hours away was some kind of major challenge.

It's simply ridiculous to describe this trip as "stressful". It's a great deal easier and quicker than the standard daytrip to the Taj Mahal from Delhi, for example, and doesn't need you to get up anything like as early in the morning.

It's just as ridiculous to say "you would need to plan it carefully". Codswallop. Buy ticket, get train, get off, then do whatever it is you want to do. What "planning" do you need for that?

Whether you want to take a day out of a French holiday to go to London's entirely up to you. London'll still be there in a year, a decade or a century, and with a week in Paris you'll leave wishing you'd spent longer in France. In a day you'll not even start to scratch the tiniest slice of London's surface. But within just a 15 minute walk of St Pancras station you'll see more great museums than most entire cities can boast - and eat better Indian food, drink in better pubs and lose yourself in better bookshops than anywhere on earth

One of the key tricks in asking questions on the web is distinguishing answers from the well-informed from vacuously inane "advice" from people who assume you're as lazy and feckless as they are. Sadly, in this thread, the indolent preachers are dominating the noise.

The two replies you've got that are worth paying any attention to are those from jamikins and janisj. It's dirt cheap if you book the train in advance, but gets costlier the closer you get to the departurte date.

Get onto the Eurostar site now and start costing it.

@ flanneruk-please don't misunderstand or take offense to my comment...i would have NO issue if i lived in Paris taking a day trip to London or vica versa...the point is that if you only have 8 days in europe...do you want to spend 4 hrs of one of those days traveling to and from a place...and be polite for goodness sake...

thanks to all.i'm a CPA so can't leave until after april 15th so haven't decided yet
sorry, i didn't think my innocent ? would start so much....

Flanner,

By 'plan it carefully'... if you only have 1 day in London, you need to make a realistic list of the sights that you can see, the order, where they are geographically, what time are tours (e.g. Westminster Abbey), etc...

Toncasmo, don't worry about some of the responses you get on this board. Many are helpful, some enjoy insulting people, some are really nice, some are morons. Much like life itself.

:-)

dave

If you really want to see London, haven't done so, and don't know when or if you will be in Europe again anytime soon, then I say go for it. I know that's not the conventional wisdom of many Fodorites, but I have taken long day day trips from London and other places, and have never regretted it. Quite the opposite. Yes, you only get to scratch the surface when you do a day trip, but I would rather scratch the surface of a city than not see it at all.

You could, for example, head toward Trafalgar Square, which is walking distance to Covent Garden, Westminster Abbey, River Thames, Millennium Wheel and a short tube ride to many other places. Or you could take a 2 or 3 hour orientation tour to get your bearings, and then spend the rest of the time on your own. Or simply head for your top 2 or 3 sights on your own right from the get-go.

If you haven't already bought your airline tickets, I agree with the recommendations to do an open jaw ticket to avoid backtracking to Paris. If not, then I am in the camp of those who say take the day trip.

Happy 50th!

walkabout makes a great point! i lived in london for a semester in college...and on one of the 1st days there i had a whirlwind tour that encompassed may of the popular london traveler sites...it was a long day...by that i mean much walking...and i was fighting jet lag...but it was wonderful...

We are going to Paris next month for 10 days and booked a day trip to London..cost $127/rt on the Eurostar website..only 2 hrs on the train and will probably take the HOHO just to eyeball the main sites.I`ve been there before but my friends haven`t..they will probably not return to Europe so this will give them an opportunity to see some famous sites..we don`t expect to spend hours touring but just getting a glimpse will be enough for them..so go for it!!