valereng

I'm starting my journey from Barcelona and ending it in Amsterdam. I'm planning to visit London, France and the Netherlands. However, the air tickets from Barcelona to London is very expensive. Would it be wiser to
1. Take a train from Barcelona to Paris, get a 2 way ticket and train from Paris to London, and London back to Paris before proceeding to places like Lyon, Belgium and Netherlands.

OR
2. Take a train from Barcelona to Paris, train from Paris to London, fly from London to Rotterdam, skipping other parts of France and Belgium?

Need advice ASAP as i'm travelling in end December, leaving Barcelona on 1 Jan.

Man_in_seat_61

Barcelona-Paris is easy by train - the direct TGVs do the 667-mile trip in as little as 6h15, from €59 upwards - www.captaintrain.com

A great trip, past the Pyrenees, along the Med and past lakes & flamingos in the south of France, then up the Rhone Valley.

Paris-London costs from £41 one-way or £72 return and takes 2h20, www.eurostar.com

London to Brussels also from £41 www.eurostar.com

Brussels to Amsterdam from €25 to €79 by high-speed Thalys OR fixed-price €42 or so by houry classic intercity train - both bookable at www.b-europe.com

Bedar

What about the tunnel closures between Paris and London because of the migrants storming it, like last night. Don't think that problem will go away soon in spite of security being beefed up.

PatrickLondon

How long have you got?

There are direct trains from Barcelona to Lyon, Lyon to Paris, Paris to London, London to Brussels, Brussels to Amsterdam. But do you have the time and money to do it that way?

nytraveler

Agree - how many weeks do you have for this trip?

And if you are going to be taking the high speed train you should buy tickets ASAP in order to get the best discounted rates.

hetismij2

Check out the cheap airlines too.

HappyTrvlr

www.skyscanner.net for the airlines, including budget ones. Lots of inexpensive airlines in Europe.

janisj

If budget is your main concern, it is almost certainly cheaper (and much MUCH faster) to fly from Barcelona to London than any combo of train tickets. There are low cost airlines and several London airports to choose from.

Which airline(s) have you checked?

Also - you might want to lay out your actual planned itinerary and tell us how many days total you have so people can give you more useful advice.

PalenQ

To avoid unpredictable tunnel shutdown:

Fly Barcelona to London

Take train-boat-train London via Harwich and Hook of Holland to Amsterdam

then go back to Paris and other points by rail ending back in Barcelona to fly home.

For lots of good info on trains to plan your trip: www.seat61.com - Man in Seat 61 who posts above his commercial site; www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com.

Christina

BCN to London is very cheap by air. Easyjet flies that route to Garwick for only about 30-40 euro, and has 6 flights a day. Taking the train wouldn't make any sense, as far as I'm concerned.

Christina

http://www.easyjet.com/en

to LGW, very convenient --- it appears they are cutting back number of flights a day in mid-December, but still 4.

janisj

valereng: Christina is correct. Your statement >>However, the air tickets from Barcelona to London is very expensive.<< makes me wonder where you checked fares. It is flat cheap to fly that route - Trains will certainly cost more.

From your other thread, you have just 18 days and at least last month had decided to drop London.

It looks like London is back in your plans - but you only have 2.5 weeks and are trying to cover a lot of territory.

PalenQ

Again taking trains from Barcelona to London can be very expensive even if you book the segments way in advance - can't see why flying if wanting to go straight thru would not be the best idea.

HappyTrvlr

Have you checked airfare on Vueling, Spain's budget airline?

Sassafrass

When PalenQ recommends flying, you can depend on it being a good idea.

PalenQ

Sass - I was going to add that tidbit myself but did not!

Sassafrass

PalenQ, your knowledge about train travel in Europe impresses me so much, I know if that were best or simply more interesting, you would say so. You make a huge contribution to this forum. Newcomers might not know how reliable your advice is. Thought I should point it out.

valereng

I've checked skycanner and the tickets now are at around 70 GBP. I thought it was expensive because it was only around 30 GBP when I first checked it. (Yes I should've have gotten them but my itinerary wasn't confirmed at that point so too bad for me).

After much consideration, I've decided to drop London from my trip(again) and visit Barcelona, France and Netherlands since I only have 18 days.
Someone please advise and tell me if i should get a rail pass or just individual tickets. I'm still considering if I should visit Lyon or just Paris, visit Belgium and/or Italy. My plan was to leave Barcelona on 1 Jan and be at Rotterdam on 13 Jan. Which leaves me 13 days for France so I'm wondering which cities I should visit and if I should visit Italy and/or Belgium while I'm at it.

PalenQ

Sass - thanks for that! I really do appreciate it.

Cheers!