train to paris from london
 

I am traveling to paris from london on the 15th of july. I looked for tickets on raileurope.com and the cheapest one is $104. as suggested on other forums, i am going to buy a round trip fare and toss the return. is that reasonable, or can i get a better deal? thanks

Are you going by eurostar or taking a ferry. I've found rail europe to be expensive. If you go to the Eurostar website, you can see the various fares. Generally a round trip ticket, even if you only go one way, is cheaper. The fares change dramatically depending on the day, and time of day. Its a great way to get from london-Paris or vis versa.

The official Eurostar site, www.eurostar.com, shows $98 non-refundable one-way ticket for London-Paris on 7/15.

eurostar is fast and easy. we booked round trip on the website and you can also pick the seat choices- highly recommended because half the car sits 'backwards'. if you get carsick, face forwards.

I think the one-way was cheaper than round trip, but the return fare is cut low on a round trip.

Two pieces of advice re: Eurostar (which we took last October.)

1. If at all possible, the day before, check and re-check via email as to any updates on your reservation. We arrived quite a bit ahead of time (well within the advised framework), only to find out that our reservation had been pushed back by 6 hours, due to some problems with Eurostar.

2. Bring something to do & eat. There can sometimes be a long wait, and if you want a decent seat in the waiting area, you need to be there early. The food sold is expensive and the lines to buy it are long.

The actual trip is, as everybody has said, a breeze. Especially in comparison to the "old days"!

travelinB:

Greg is right, check the eurostar website. You might get a better fare. I got lucky last year on a planned trip from london to paris. Eurostar had a one way special for 45 GBP. Of course that was almost 87 USD pp, but it was better than paying full fare or getting a one-way and trashing the other. One more word of advice. If you have to cancel for whatever reason, Eurostar will not reimburse your general fare or tickets purchased through special offers. Fortunately for me, the chunnel fire happened and I got reimbursed, even though I couldn't make the trip due to the hurricane, but they didn't know that.

In addition to eurostar.com, check eurostar.co.uk. I found that the fares there were noticeably cheaper, after converting to dollars, for the same trains.

Travel by Eurostar and if possible try to purchase a "Leisure Select" ticket. I have actually found deals where the Leisure Select ticket is less expensive then a standard ticket. Leisure Select includes larger and more comfortable seats as well as the opportunity to wine&dine!!!

thanks all , 4 the advice.

has anyone used the website:
http://www.vacationsbyplaza.com/

I can second using the UK site. On a round trip in May, we just paid $291 after fees on the UK site vs the $400-ish quoted on the American site.

We purchased our Eurostar tickets on the Eurostar website as we found the cheapest fares there. We picked up the tickets at the station. You must have the credit card with you that you used to reserve the tickets. This is very important. We did not know this and luckily we had the correct credit card with us.

Yes, it's odd that the credit card seems to be the identification. I bought SNCF tickets with a credit card that was compromised and canceled before I collected the tickets, but it was still accepted by the SNCF agent as the necessary ID (I made sure to hold to it until I had the tickets!).

I finally bought my tickets today. tried using the eurostar website but was having issues loading the page. used vacataionsbyplaza.com instead. got 2 tickets for 200 plus $20 booking fee. was coming out pretty much the same thru eurostar.
they email the ticket, makes it a lil easier. thanks for all the advice.