train travel London to Bruge
 

Would like to know if the Chunnel is alright to travel now after fire.
Also, is it better to buy train tickets for London to Bruge from US or wait until we get to London and have concierge do it for us?
Thx for help

There are still delays - but nothing major.

You don't need tickets to Bruges - just to Brussells. The Eurostar tickets are good for travel on any belgian train on the same day.

Buy the tickets as soon as you can - the longer you dawdle the more they cost.

Yes eurostar service is almost back to normal but as BTilke reported today running about 50 mins longer due to having to share the one remaining open tunnel with trains each way i guess.

Two ways London to Bruges

1- London Eurostar to Lille-europa and then regional Belgian train to Bruges - you do have to walk about 1/4 miles to the Lille Flandres station however for the Bruges trains.

2- Eurostar to Brussels then regional trains to Bruges (longer this way but may be cheaper due to the ABS or All-Belgian Stations fare where within 48 hours of arrival in Brussels by Eurostar you can take any Belgian train to any Belgian station free - ditto if going to get a Eurostar train to London from Bruges

thus 2 could be cheaper if longer

In any case do NOT wait until London to buy Eurostar tickets as they have a Byzantine pricing structure where the early bird gets the worm - you could end up paying literally hundreds of bucks more by just showing up as the cheaper tickets, sold in limited numbers, are often sold out weeks in advance of the train. (Brussels a bit more available than to Paris however)

www.eurostar.com gives prices in British pounds and they send you the ticket i believe (or maybe pick it up in London)

and also check U.S. sources such as RailEurope.com as they can be cheaper sometimes actually as there seems very little correlation between prices in pounds and those in dollars. Can reserve up to nine months in advance thru RE - less i think at eurostar.com. For any RailEurope product i always recommend calling www.budgeteuropetravel.com and talking to an expert who will do a manual search for you - raileurope.com simply does not always show the cheapest actually available fares IME (to talk to someone at RE for a manual search adds 10% onto your costs however and often the RE person may not be that knowledgeable IMO)

But anyway be sure to book early as possible in this case.

<<< they have a Byzantine pricing structure >>>

Just like the airlines - buy late, pay top dollar

<<< www.eurostar.com gives prices in British pounds >>>

They'll give the price in several currencies IF you select that currency when you first enter the Eurostar website or if you clear the Eurostar cookies from your country

<<< and they send you the ticket i believe (or maybe pick it up in London) >>>

They'll send the ticket within Europe or you can use the machines or the ticket office at the station - you'll need the reservation number and the card you used to book the tickets

<<< from your country >>>

from your browser

One's Eurostar ticket is good for travel to any station in Belgium within 24 hours of arriving in Brussels, not 48.

If you already know the date you want to travel you should get it now. I booked our Eurostar tickets 10 weeks before our desired travel date and was able to choose the time we wanted to depart London and paid the lowest price they had - £44.00 one way. I booked it thru the UK site as the US site was about $15.00 more (based on the current exchanged rate last summer.

TimS - thanks for the correction on 24 hrs rather than 48 for ABS fare

perhaps i was thinking Thalys which also has or at least had an ABS fare on some tickets.

Thanks to all who replied to my inquiry. Took advice and booked tickets today via raileurope.com.
Agent was very helpful!

curious as to what kind of fare you got - i heard cheaper fares are in shorter supply due to the decrease in number of trains, even though schedule is getting back to full speed it seems.

thanks

Hi, PalenQ
re: your inquiry - these were for 1-way tickets
I bought 1 Flexi standard for $243.00
and 1 Senior at $169.00 with s/h, call sent fee, etc.: total $439.95

Departure from London: 17:45pm

Hope this is what you were looking for.
J

thanks jennie - too often we never hear of the ultimate outcome in these type threads. Thank you