PARIS side trip, need EUROSTAR advice!

[leighuf]

My hubby & I are planning a quick side trip to Paris in May 2005. Specifically, we have a hotel booked from May 29 (Sunday) - June 1 (Wednesday). We will be staying at the Le Clos Medicis which is near the Odeon metro stop.

 

My FIRST question (many more to come) is about the train from London to Paris. We will be based in London. We want to take the EuroStar. WHEN should I purchase the tickets (pre-vacation or day of)? EuroStar has SO many different leisure rates that I must admit I'm a bit confused! We are a young couple (in our 20s) so we are more than willing to travel in 2nd class if it saves us some money. Also, WHERE does the Eurostar arrive once in Paris?

 

Advice MUCH appreciated!

[Globaliser]

Also, WHERE does the Eurostar arrive once in Paris?

Sorry, only have time for a very quick reply at the moment - your answer (in gory detail) is right here.

[Globaliser]

WHEN should I purchase the tickets (pre-vacation or day of)? EuroStar has SO many different leisure rates that I must admit I'm a bit confused! We are a young couple (in our 20s) so we are more than willing to travel in 2nd class if it saves us some money.

Eurostar doesn't seem to take reservations very far in advance (only 3 or so months) so there's no immediate rush to do anything. At the moment, my advice would be just to keep an eye on http://www.eurostar.com to see when booking opens for your dates, and then play around until you find the trains with the lowest fares. They seem to run yield management along fairly traditional lines - even the Value fares (their cheapest and least flexible fares) are at different prices on different trains, presumably based on predicted demand and capacity.

[leighuf]

Another question for my UK friends . . .

 

After returning to London on the Eurostar (June 1st), my husband and I need to get to Leeds. Should we rent a car? Or should be take a train? Looking for the best price here. We will be in Leeds for a week.

[aztex]

We have already reserved and purchased out Eurostar tickets for July. Go to this site www.raileurope.com and you can purchase tickets now and obtain information on the various rates, etc.

[Globaliser]

After returning to London on the Eurostar (June 1st), my husband and I need to get to Leeds. Should we rent a car? Or should be take a train? Looking for the best price here. We will be in Leeds for a week.

This very much depends on what you want to do when you get to Leeds? What is the aim of the trip there? What are you going to do? Do you want a car when you're there? Do you want to get out into the surrounding countryside? Or are you going to stay within the city and be comfortable with taxis and public transport?

 

And if you need a car when you're in Leeds, do you really want to drive yourself all the way up there (about a 3½ hour drive from central London without breaks) when the train could take you there comfortably and more quickly (2½ hours)? In particular, the company that does the direct London-Leeds service (GNER) is probably the best train company in the UK.

 

As far as cost is concerned, it looks like standard class tickets start from about £29 return per person, first class tickets from about £59 return per person (an absolute bargain at that price). You have to be a little bit flexible with times to get these fares and they are not always loaded when bookings open (NB you usually can't book more than 3 months ahead). The cost of an extra day's car rental plus fuel for the journey is likely to be somewhere between the £58 and £118 which those fares would represent for two people. I'd estimate that the cost of petrol for the 400-mile return journey to and from Leeds would be somewhere in the region of £50, in a normal car.

 

For myself, I'd be very tempted to take the train if I could get the £59 first class fare, simply because it's worth that money for the comfort of the journey and for not having to drive that distance. I'd then rent a car in Leeds if I needed one. But it's almost certainly not the absolute cheapest way of doing it.

[June Bug]

We went from paris (where we had already stayed for 4 days) to London and stayed 3 days in London, then back to paris for another 3 day stay. This was several years ago, but we just booked the standard seating and they were just fine. It was very comfortable and the ride was extremely smooth. My sister was only 24 at the time and was able to pay the "youth" rate...so depending where in your twenties you are, you might check on this fare. I would definitely recommend just booking the general seating. It was only a little under a 3 hour trip and we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit! Especially going under the English Channel (Chunnel)...really neat! (even though it only lasted about 15-20 minutes under the actual channel)

Have fun!

[leighuf]

I've checked raileurope.com & eurostar.com for my dates. It seems that the two websites have different prices.

 

The cheapest fare on RailEurope.com is $75 one way (Leisure 3). Since I need to travel on a Sunday, Leisure 4 & 5 (which are cheaper) aren't useful. It's nonexchangeable and nonrefundable.

 

The cheapest fare on Eurostar.com is 29 pounds (approx. $55), value fare. The restrictions say compulsory return ticket only (??), must be purchased 21 day in advance, and nonexchangeable and nonrefundable.

 

Both are 2nd class travel which is fine by me. However, is there something I'm missing? Why is RailEurope more expensive? Since I'm buying for 2 people for a roundtrip, 80 bucks saved adds up quickly!

[Globaliser]

The restrictions say compulsory return ticket only (??),

...

However, is there something I'm missing? Why is RailEurope more expensive? Since I'm buying for 2 people for a roundtrip, 80 bucks saved adds up quickly!

I think "compulsory return ticket" simply means that you must buy a return ticket, and you can't get the fare on a one-way basis.

 

Isn't RailEurope just a booking agent? I suspect the answer will probably just be that they want their pound of flesh for their work as the middleman.