trip to London/Paris/ireland
 

We are traveling from the US London the middle of March. Our flight gets in very early in the morning at Gatwick airport. We plan to go to Paris and Ireland also. My question is.....should we, after getting out of the airport, find the train and go straight to Paris? Neither of us have ever been to Europe before. We plan to stay in Paris 3 or 4 nights (depending on whether we stay in London the first night..).
and then go to Ireland for 3 nights, then back to London for 2 nights........What would be the best way to travel from London to Paris, and also from Paris to Ireland, and back to London again. is it the Eurostar? And I am reading we should get our tickets for that before we leave......

<<< My question is.....should we, after getting out of the airport, find the train and go straight to Paris? >>>

No, I'd get a flight to Ireland then from Ireland fly to Paris then return to London

Hi Chris - We are about to emabark on the exact same journey in May with the exception of going to Paris first.
We land at LHR, spend 2 nights in London, pick up a mobilehome and head up north to Scotland. From there we intend crossing over to Ireland by ferry and then back into the Uk via Wales. Then it's off to Paris.
If I was doing your trip I would take a flight to Ireland ( Dublin?)or a ferry crossing, then when back in the UK take the Eurostar to Paris. Take a return to London the same way.
I can't see any point in going to Paris first, then Ireland , then London again.
Yes, get your Eurostar booking on the internet before you leave plus all your other travel arrangements.

Chris, you're going to be travelling a lot in a short time, part of it with jetlag...wouldn't it be better to just go to one city?

Yes Sally is right - we have nearly a month to accomplish all this.
If short on time forget either Paris (oh how my heart breaks!) or Ireland - never been there so what can I say?

I agree that this seems like a lot of movement over a short time. You mention that you would stay in London for 2 days at the end of the trip. Why not spend the first 2 days in London getting comfortable being overseas and getting over jet lag. Fly to Ireland, you did not say where but I like the western coast of Ireland better so I would head there. Be aware getting around Ireland always takes longer than you think (100miles might take many hours). From there fly directly to Paris and take the Eurostar to London as close to your return as possible.

I would tend to agree with cutting it short. We are planning on going back to Europe in December. Our first trip was in June/July of 07. I am far less ambitous about traveling to many places this time.

We are going to do 5 nights in London and 5 nights in Paris.

Last time we went to Paris, Montruex, Florence and Rome... in about 17 days or so... it was too much traveling around for me and for our daughters.

Thanks everyone for all the input. I am hearing there are cheap flights from london to Dublin or from paris to Dublin. What airline carriers are they? They have a lot of small airlines listed, but being from the US, I'm not sure which ones are good.....

I agree with the rest. You will be doing a lot of traveling. The hardest part of Europe is the travel and connections. I am traveling to the same areas that you are, but we fly into Dublin, do our thing, fly out to Paris by Aer Lingus, do our thing, return to London by Eurostar, fly out from Gatwick. Even with this, we willhave over three days just in travel. The key to everything is not to back track and keep going in a straight line if possible.

While I agree that you are packing a lot into a little time, if you are determined to do this you can check out discount flights at www.whichbudget.com. Some things to keep in mond:
-nonstop flights from GTW to Paris are scarce
- Eurostar train London-Paris may or may not be cheaper than flying but it sure is easier and more convenient from Central London. And yes, the further in advance you get Eurostar tickets the better the price.
BTW you cannot just walk out of Gatwick and hop on Eurostar - Gatwick is almost 30 miles south of the city and you need to take a train or other transport into London.

Paris-Ireland is served by RyanAir, but be forewarned that they actually fly out of Beauvais which is a smaller airport about an hour outside Paris. Also beware the luggage restrictions on RyanAir and other budget airlines - you will pay dearly for any excess weight. AerLingus has been offering some nice discounts so check them as well.

Why Dublin? Is there a specific reason you want to go to Dublin? The most scenic parts of Ireland are across the country on the west coast.

If it were me, I would immediately fly from LGW to Cork (or Dublin if that's where you want to go). Tour around SW Ireland for your 3 days/nights. Then fly from Cork to Paris CDG for 3 nights. Then the Eurostar train to London for the last 2 or 3 days/nights.

Now, what I'd <b>REALLY</b> do is just divide my time 50/50 between London and Paris and not try to squeeze 3 countries into little over a week.

Thanks again for all the really great information. I have found a great flight from London to Dublin, RT, but would like to change airlines when back from Dublin to Air France to go to Paris. There is 2 hours and 25 minutes between the two flights. Do you think that will be enough time at heathrow airport to get thru customs and get luggage and re-board at another airline????

Why even consider going back through LHR to get to Paris? 1) it is much more hassle than just flying directly to Paris. And 2) you'd have to pay the REALLY high UK departure taxes making the LHR &gt; Paris flight more expensive than it needs to be.

You can book one-way to Dublin, one-way to Paris and then fly or take the train from Paris to London.

Well, I actually couldn't find a reasonable rate for one way flights. If it wasn't a round trip they were MUCH more expensive. Even on the Eurostar, one was, was a lot more expensive. So I talked with a representative at the airline and was told that 2 1/2 hours should be plenty of time to get off one airline and get on the other since we'll already be at the airport. So travel arrangements are now all made.
Thanks so much for everyone's help.

I plugged in various dates in mid/late March on Aer Lingas DUB to CDG and got one way fares from &euro;10 to &euro;160 -- with most in the &euro;20 to &euro;50 range (but lots of &euro;10 cheapies still available). Are you paying less than that??

I didnt find anything that cheap on the dates we have...I did get two RT tickets from London to Dublin for $243 (taxes, fees and all).....
I couldn't find anything close to that when i put in my dates for one-way. I think it depends on the days you are traveling....