Train from London to Paris
 

Greetings - I am a little confused on the different classes for the train going from London to Paris.

Right now we have airfare on Airfrance into London on 12-23 and departing Paris on 1-2-09 - I know

I have plenty of time but am trying due to the holiday and the number we have traveling to firm up our apartments and get my arms around the train travel (besides it is far more interesting then the darn English paper I should be starting on!)

Questions are - what train station would I leave from London?

What is the deal with the first class etc? It is a little confusing to me - I took the train from Paris to Switzerland and Switzerland to Italy.

The Eurostar leaves from <u>St Pancras Station</u>.

As for first class - it is only a 2 hour train ride. So if budget is at all a concern, I would not bother w/ first class. First class won't get you there any faster :)

Hi Dawn, the Eurostar leaves from St Pancreas Station. Try www.eurostar.com or www.eurail.com for class details and costs.Others recommend the Rick Steves site often for train inquiries.

Thank you! Yes, budget is a concern as lodging is costing us more then I had planned - is the comfort level very different?

I looked at the Eurorail.com and it was around 1,100.00 for the 6 of us. Of course it was not the &quot;exact&quot; date but I was trying to get a general idea...will go back and price out regular seating..

Also look for cheap round trip excursions. You'd toss the return train ticket - but it might be cheaper. Also the farther out you book - the cheaper the fares. But it is too early now for Dec . . . . . .

So no Paris train from Waterloo any longer?

janisj - I was thinking that as well about the r/t - I believe I ended up doing that for a train last time were were there... the site said only 60 days out - does that seem correct?

I'll be taking that train on March 31 from Paris to London and back again the same day. The price varied greatly depending on the day. Got it for that Monday for $130 roundtrip. Didn't do first class. Who cares? You get a reserved seat and 2 hours or so later you are there.

<i>Author: SallyCanuck
Date: 02/20/2008, 07:47 pm

So no Paris train from Waterloo any longer? </i>

Nope - the track from St. Pancras goes <u>around</u> the east end of London, missing Waterloo by miles. Here's an informative site about the new service: http://stpancras.eurostar.com/en-in/

Plus, I just found out that the St. Pancras station has a champagne bar!

The champagne bar is not nearly as fabulous as the hype made it out to be. Also, St. Pancras still has kinks that need to be worked out. Waterloo isn't the glamourpuss that St. Pancras pretends to be, but it was more practical.

1st Class, as might be expected, has larger more comfortable seats, is less crowded (usually) and includes meals and drinks at certain times. We've taken both 1st and standard and unless you just want to splurge, standard is just fine - especially now that the new high speed line in UK is complete and the trip is just over 2 hrs.

Thanks, Robespierre.

all good information - thank you!

The world's longest Champagne bar at St Pancras International station -- just saw it for the first time last week - no not much and if you didn't hear about its fame you would not realize it

The most improbably thing to me was that every seat at the long bar was full and most had Champagne glasses they were sipping bubbly out of

The cheapest glass - 125 ml - cost 7.50 quid or about $15 and you literally could buy Champagne costing hundreds of bucks.

Amazing to me that it was full and people buying.

Did you see what was being served? I'll pay $15 for a glass, but it had better be a knockout vintage.

Most pricing in rail and air terminals is a commingling of &quot;what the traffic will bear&quot; and &quot;what the merchant can make a decent profit at&quot; after paying exorbitant franchise fees to the station.

<i>Pour moi</i>, I think I'll wait to get in my seat, where the beverage tariffs are included in the ticket.

Well the Champagne menu i looked at had literally dozens and dozens of different Champagnes

only one was 7.5 pounds and they went up from there

therefore i'd think the $15 tiny glass was kind of ordinaire? But no i did not note the name.

Some of those people were drinking free because they're Eurostar Carte Blanche travelers. Eurostar was handing out coupons for the bar because its business class lounge wasn't open (it still isn't fully up and running). We're also getting extra points until the lounge is in full swing. I've got a few coupons left for free drinks at the champagne bar. If I'm paying, I'd rather have some fresh squeezed OJ from the Pain Quotidien on the main floor and then get free bubbly on the train.

Re leisure select (discounted first class) v. standard class, because much of our travel is fairly last minute, we've found that leisure select fares were often cheaper than the remaining standard class fares or the difference was minimal--&pound;5 to &pound;10. So of course we went with leisure select over standard class.

I think it's worth the extra for Leisure Select - a relatively affordable treat when compared with an airline upgrade. The food is pretty decent and you get free booze, magazines and the obligatory fawning staff. You can't use the lounge though - that's just for business class.

Carte Blanche cardholders can use the lounge even if they're traveling on the cheapest standard class fares.
We never pay the full business class fare, it's way too expensive, but we can usually manage to find a reasonable leisure select fare. Although we travel more often to Brussels, not Paris, so there tend to be more discounted seats available except at certain times used heavily by commuting (b)eurocrats.