iIs Rail Europe the website to use to buy a Paris to London ticket?

London ticket ? thanks

Never use raileurope for anything. Go to www.eurostar.com and buy it directly there. You'll see the whole schedule and get the best deals.

 

You can print out your tickets and you'll be set to go.

 

Enjoy your trip.

Never use raileurope for anything.

 

Agreed. The reason for this is that I find tickets purchased through Raileurope are more expensive than buying directly from the railroads.

Never use raileurope for anything. Go to www.eurostar.com and buy it directly there. You'll see the whole schedule and get the best deals.

 

You can print out your tickets and you'll be set to go.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

We wondered the same thing, and after research found that Eurostar was the only site that allowed us to choose our specific seats. We booked London to Paris and didn't want to sit with our backs to the engine. Even our travel agent recommended that we book direct! There is a great site - http://www.seat61.com - which is full of information and we found to be really helpful - plus all the advice that you can find on this forum:)

It appears as though "raileurope" is a site created to make train travel easier for American travelers who are unfamilar with or unsure about train travel.

Nice intent, but there is an extra cost for this. I would prefer to not pay those extra costs.

It appears as though "raileurope" is a site created to make train travel easier for American travelers who are unfamilar with or unsure about train travel.

Nice intent, but there is an extra cost for this. I would prefer to not pay those extra costs.

 

Rail Europe are affiliated with the French railways. I have read that if you use the TGV or SNCF sites and put USA as a delivery destination you get bumped to Rail Europe, but advice seems consistently to be try to book direct with the operator of the train you want.

Never use raileurope for anything. Go to www.eurostar.com and buy it directly there. You'll see the whole schedule and get the best deals.

 

You can print out your tickets and you'll be set to go.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

First of all I want to thank all of you for helping me plan this trip a couple of weeks ago. But, just a couple more questions. I just purchased our tickets on the Eurostar, Paris to St. Pancras. Previously you recommended taking a taxi from St. Pancras to Paddington. Question #1; What rail company would this be and do we need to purchase tickets in advance for this? Question #2; You said, from Paddington, take the Heathrow Express. Again, what train company is this and should we purchase tickets in advance?

 

I had hoped to find this information at seat61, but wasn't successful there and nationalrail was even more confusing - there are so many rail companies listed. Geez, in the US we have Amtrak and that's pretty much IT.

First of all I want to thank all of you for helping me plan this trip a couple of weeks ago. But, just a couple more questions. I just purchased our tickets on the Eurostar, Paris to St. Pancras. Previously you recommended taking a taxi from St. Pancras to Paddington. Question #1; What rail company would this be and do we need to purchase tickets in advance for this? Question #2; You said, from Paddington, take the Heathrow Express. Again, what train company is this and should we purchase tickets in advance?

 

I had hoped to find this information at seat61, but wasn't successful there and nationalrail was even more confusing - there are so many rail companies listed. Geez, in the US we have Amtrak and that's pretty much IT.

 

Well, I was in the New York area before Xmas and there was Amtrak, NJ Transit trains and Light Rail, PATH and the NY Metro. Big cities tend to have confusing transit systems.

 

St Pancras to Paddington by taxi is, er, not a train at all:) But you can do it by tube (London Underground) - this is mass transit, no need for advance tickets.

 

Heathrow Express can be found at https://www.heathrowexpress.com/tickets-deals/booking-tickets - buy in advance (tickets by email) or at Paddington from ticket machines or ticket office. You can even buy on the train, but it costs more.

 

Hope that helps! I know it's confusing from afar, but will all make sense when you get there.

Well, I was in the New York area before Xmas and there was Amtrak, NJ Transit trains and Light Rail, PATH and the NY Metro. Big cities tend to have confusing transit systems.

LIRR and Metro North, too, off the top of my head!

Well, I was in the New York area before Xmas and there was Amtrak, NJ Transit trains and Light Rail, PATH and the NY Metro. Big cities tend to have confusing transit systems.

 

St Pancras to Paddington by taxi is, er, not a train at all:) But you can do it by tube (London Underground) - this is mass transit, no need for advance tickets.

 

Heathrow Express can be found at https://www.heathrowexpress.com/tickets-deals/booking-tickets - buy in advance (tickets by email) or at Paddington from ticket machines or ticket office. You can even buy on the train, but it costs more.

 

Hope that helps! I know it's confusing from afar, but will all make sense when you get there.

 

I should have reread my own post. Question #1 should have been, what is the distance from St Pancras to Paddington and about how much would this taxi ride cost us. Certainly don't want to do the tube with two large suitcases and two carry ons.

 

Thank you for the information.

 

And you are correct about mutiple transportation sytems in the large US cities. For the past few years I've lived in a small town in Florida that doesn't even have buses.

I should have reread my own post. Question #1 should have been, what is the distance from St Pancras to Paddington and about how much would this taxi ride cost us. Certainly don't want to do the tube with two large suitcases and two carry ons.

 

Thank you for the information.

 

And you are correct about mutiple transportation sytems in the large US cities. For the past few years I've lived in a small town in Florida that doesn't even have buses.

 

It's about 3 miles, I would guess at about £15 and up to 20 minutes (again, remember, large city, and with roads based on Roman and Medieval layouts :)). No need to worry about booking anything - there are always plenty of London cabs serving St Pancras, just follow the signs to the rank.

It's about 3 miles, I would guess at about £15 and up to 20 minutes (again, remember, large city, and with roads based on Roman and Medieval layouts :)). No need to worry about booking anything - there are always plenty of London cabs serving St Pancras, just follow the signs to the rank.

 

Thanks again for helping. The Heathrow Express is 20GBP, whew, that's a bit pricey for a 15 minute ride.

 

From Heathrow we'll get a cab to the Holiday Inn. Would you recommend we get off the Express at Heathrow Central?

Thanks again for helping. The Heathrow Express is 20GBP, whew, that's a bit pricey for a 15 minute ride.

 

From Heathrow we'll get a cab to the Holiday Inn. Would you recommend we get off the Express at Heathrow Central?

 

You can take the slightly less frequent Heathrow Connect train, which stops at a few stations on the way for about half the price and about twice the time (http://www.heathrowconnect.com)

 

There are four or five Holiday Inn properties in the Heathrow area, but for most of them Heathrow Central would be the nearest. But I am now starting to think you could be better off arranging a car service from St Pancras direct to your hotel, more convenient and around the same price, if not cheaper, than adding these elements together.

Here's what you have to watch and compare.....in the past, and it may no longer be true, if the first time you went to eurostar.com and the first screen asked where you were located, if you answered USA it inserted a cookie into your computer and re-directed you to the rail Europe web site. Thereafter every time you tried to go to eurostar.com, you were re-directed to raileurope. You had to get that cookie out of your system. It may no longer be true.

 

The greatest variety of fares is found at eurostar.com and on the first screen, indicate you are in the UK. Usually, but not always, you will find the greatest variety of fares there as well as noted the ability to choose your specific seats and the ability to print your tickets at home.

 

Sometimes rail europe runs a special and matches or beats the fares so it's worthwhile checking but in general they charge for delivery of the tickets and you don't have the ability to choose our specific seat.

 

But it's worth checking. I only use eurostar.com myself. They have senior tickets for those over 60 but do surcharge credit card purchases but at least I print my own tickets for free.

Here's what you have to watch and compare.....in the past, and it may no longer be true, if the first time you went to eurostar.com and the first screen asked where you were located, if you answered USA it inserted a cookie into your computer and re-directed you to the rail Europe web site. Thereafter every time you tried to go to eurostar.com, you were re-directed to raileurope. You had to get that cookie out of your system. It may no longer be true.

 

The greatest variety of fares is found at eurostar.com and on the first screen, indicate you are in the UK. Usually, but not always, you will find the greatest variety of fares there as well as noted the ability to choose your specific seats and the ability to print your tickets at home.

 

Sometimes rail europe runs a special and matches or beats the fares so it's worthwhile checking but in general they charge for delivery of the tickets and you don't have the ability to choose our specific seat.

 

But it's worth checking. I only use eurostar.com myself. They have senior tickets for those over 60 but do surcharge credit card purchases but at least I print my own tickets for free.

 

Does it happen where booking on the Eurostar can get really wierd?

On 24 January I booked our seats from Paris to St Pancras (via eurostar.com). Now, two days later, I thought I would go out there again and their calendar won't even pull up June. In addition, looking at the May schedules, the seniors rate is almost 1/2 what we paid for the June (seniors) seats. What is this all about?

 

 

There are four or five Holiday Inn properties in the Heathrow area, but for most of them Heathrow Central would be the nearest. But I am now starting to think you could be better off arranging a car service from St Pancras direct to your hotel, more convenient and around the same price, if not cheaper, than adding these elements together.

Eagle,

Can you give me the names or websites for these car services?

From Heathrow we'll get a cab to the Holiday Inn. Would you recommend we get off the Express at Heathrow Central?

I'm now a bit confused.

 

When we were looking at your trip a couple of weeks back, one discussion was about whether you should fly if you were actually trying to get to Heathrow; or whether you should take the Eurostar if you were actually trying to get to London. The consensus (and correct) advice was that if you were trying to get to Heathrow, it made more sense to fly because you could then simply connect there to your onward flight.

 

I'm now unsure about why you are going to take the Eurostar to London only to go on to Heathrow; or why you're doing that when you're not actually flying from Heathrow but staying at a hotel near Heathrow. (I say "near", because there are only a small handful of hotels that are actually at Heathrow, and none of them is a Holiday Inn.)

 

If you are not flying home from Heathrow until the next day, for example, you would probably do better off getting off the Eurostar and staying at a hotel in central London, and going to Heathrow the next day in time for your flight.

 

At the moment, your plan seems to involve you taking the worst bits of all the possible options.

I'm now a bit confused.

 

When we were looking at your trip a couple of weeks back, one discussion was about whether you should fly if you were actually trying to get to Heathrow; or whether you should take the Eurostar if you were actually trying to get to London. The consensus (and correct) advice was that if you were trying to get to Heathrow, it made more sense to fly because you could then simply connect there to your onward flight.

 

I'm now unsure about why you are going to take the Eurostar to London only to go on to Heathrow; or why you're doing that when you're not actually flying from Heathrow but staying at a hotel near Heathrow. (I say "near", because there are only a small handful of hotels that are actually at Heathrow, and none of them is a Holiday Inn.)

 

If you are not flying home from Heathrow until the next day, for example, you would probably do better off getting off the Eurostar and staying at a hotel in central London, and going to Heathrow the next day in time for your flight.

 

At the moment, your plan seems to involve you taking the worst bits of all the possible options.

 

OK, here's what happened. Post cruise we plan to go to Paris. So, upon reading the posts here I felt that the most expeditious way to get to Paris from Southampton would be a flight instead of all the taxi and train transfers. Princess would not take us to St. Pancras, I phoned and asked. I booked us on flybe - Southampton to Paris.

 

On the return to London, we wanted to experience the Eurostar having never done this before. I booked us from Paris to St Pancras (one day before our flight back to the US). So, now I'm trying to figure out how to get from St Pancras to a Holiday Inn "near" Heathrow which is already booked. I've chosen a Holiday Inn "near" LHR because of the 6:00 am flight and I'm using my club points.

 

Is it clearer now?

 

Most all of my plans were based on tips I got here.

Does it happen where booking on the Eurostar can get really wierd?

On 24 January I booked our seats from Paris to St Pancras (via eurostar.com). Now, two days later, I thought I would go out there again and their calendar won't even pull up June. In addition, looking at the May schedules, the seniors rate is almost 1/2 what we paid for the June (seniors) seats. What is this all about?

I just answered my own question. I went to the Eurostar website and played around and found that I was able to make a reservation in June because I told the site I was a resident of the US. When I went in as a resident of the UK, I could only book into May and the seniors rate was half as much as the seniors rate for US citizens. I call that discrimination.

Also, discovered that much of the instructions I received about this itinerary were actually on another thread - Transfer from Southampton to Paris.

Now that my brain is totally fried, I'm walking away from all this for a while.

 

 

I think what happened is when you indicated you were a US resident you were bumped somewhere other than the Eurostar web site, perhaps not Rail Europe but to some web site handling eurostar transactions. It's much like what the theatres sometimes pull when purchasing theatre tickets. You try to either call in or log on to a theatre web site and if the traffic is very heavy you are automatically re-directed to one of the booking agencies that theatre uses and nabbed with much higher prices plus booking fees. It's a long time scam.

 

As far as Eurostar, the best fares are to be gotten usually, although from time to time there are exception making a peek at Rail Europe worthwhile, but for the senior rates (60 and over BTW but usually nobody checks although I'm not advocating lying) almost always the eurostar web site, undirected elsewhere is best. The best way to avoid directed elsewhere is by saying on the first screen you are from the UK not the USA. I'm not sure if they still insert a cookie into your system making all your subsequent visits to eurostar.com re-directed to their USA booking agent.

 

Currently, as you noticed as I just checked, the eurostar web site is only booking through May. They release blocs of tickets a couple of months in advance so it's just a matter of time before they start booking into June. The senior rate being shown now is £38.50 for a single ticket between St. Pancras and Gare du nord. If it were me, I would spend the first post cruise day at a hotel in central London and then travelling to Paris the next day in a leisurly manner as it won't matter much what time you arrive in London and yo can certainly control the time you leave for Paris the next day instead of worrying what time the ship arrives back at Southhampton ad starting up with transfers to St.; Pancras to catch a train. Have a dinner, see a show. There are far worse ways to spend a night.

 

The other thing to warn you and others about on the Eurostar web site is that they try to pull the dynamic currency conversion garbage on unsuspecting Americans (and Canadians and Aussies) when making the payment arrangements. When asked, tell them you want to pay in GBP (or UK£). Why? Simple with dcc you get a lousy rate and depending on what credit card you are using, you may be nailed with a 3% foreign transaction fee anyway. There will be a surcharge for use of a credit card (I think it's 4% but either no surcharge with a debit card or a small one, I forget which).

 

That's my advice having booked eurostar tickets dozens of times through eurostar.com. You can also now print your tickets on your cmputer without waiting and worrying about receiving them by mail (you print to a pdf file, save it and can print the one ticket as many times as you need...I always bring two copies storing one with my passport, the other in my baggage and can access the other through my e-mail attachments in case I have to at an internet cafe...nice and convenient).

 

The other thing I might say. Eurostar used to pull the same nonsense the airlines pull namely making a one way ticket very expensive and the cheapest was a restricted return ticket often a same day return. That meant people used to pull what I pulled namely purchase a return ticket and eating the return portion. Those last few trains out of either St. Pancras (it was actually Waterloo at the time) and Gare du nord must have had lots of no shows. They now allow, at least on the eurostar web site, the purchase of relatively inexpensive one way non senior discount tickets but in general, the cheapest tickets for one way travel are the senior discounted tickets as purchased directly from eurostar.com

I've chosen a Holiday Inn "near" LHR because of the 6:00 am flight ...

:eek: Where are you flying to? I didn't know that there were any 6 am flights across the Atlantic.

 

This does raise another set of issues. Assuming that your flight is at 6 am, you'll probably want to check-in at the airport some time around 5 am. (I doubt that any check-in counters will be open much before then.) So you will need to work out how you're going to get from your hotel to the airport at that hour. It may well be earlier than the first Hotel Hoppa, in which case you will have to make sure that your hotel has a reliable car service to call upon.

 

However, given that constraint, I would myself still be wondering whether I would be better off staying at a hotel in town and then getting a car directly to the airport from the hotel. It should only take about 45 minutes from central London at that time of the morning.

I just answered my own question. I went to the Eurostar website and played around and found that I was able to make a reservation in June because I told the site I was a resident of the US. When I went in as a resident of the UK, I could only book into May and the seniors rate was half as much as the seniors rate for US citizens. I call that discrimination.

Now you know what the cruise lines do to us in the UK! In the UK, we typically have to pay a non-refundable deposit as soon as we book, and cancellation involves as a minimum the loss of the deposit. Couple that with limited access to some cruises (ie you can only book them in the US and they are not made available to the UK market, or not made available until all the good cabins have been sold), typically higher prices to the UK market, and a refusal by many cruise lines to allow UK residents to book through a US travel agent so that we are stuck with the less advantageous UK conditions.

thanks so much!

:eek: Where are you flying to? I didn't know that there were any 6 am flights across the Atlantic.

 

This does raise another set of issues. Assuming that your flight is at 6 am, you'll probably want to check-in at the airport some time around 5 am. (I doubt that any check-in counters will be open much before then.) So you will need to work out how you're going to get from your hotel to the airport at that hour. It may well be earlier than the first Hotel Hoppa, in which case you will have to make sure that your hotel has a reliable car service to call upon.

 

However, given that constraint, I would myself still be wondering whether I would be better off staying at a hotel in town and then getting a car directly to the airport from the hotel. It should only take about 45 minutes from central London at that time of the morning.

 

Now you know what the cruise lines do to us in the UK! In the UK, we typically have to pay a non-refundable deposit as soon as we book, and cancellation involves as a minimum the loss of the deposit. Couple that with limited access to some cruises (ie you can only book them in the US and they are not made available to the UK market, or not made available until all the good cabins have been sold), typically higher prices to the UK market, and a refusal by many cruise lines to allow UK residents to book through a US travel agent so that we are stuck with the less advantageous UK conditions.

 

Wow, I didn't know the cruise lines do that to you! It's things like this that some of us don't know. It really pays to do research and more research. CC and Tripadvisor are great resources. Sometimes we get some good info through AARP also.

 

The other thing to warn you and others about on the Eurostar web site is that they try to pull the dynamic currency conversion garbage on unsuspecting Americans (and Canadians and Aussies) when making the payment arrangements. When asked, tell them you want to pay in GBP (or UK£). Why? Simple with dcc you get a lousy rate and depending on what credit card you are using, you may be nailed with a 3% foreign transaction fee anyway. There will be a surcharge for use of a credit card (I think it's 4% but either no surcharge with a debit card or a small one, I forget which).

When I phoned Eurostar and inquired about the pricing, what you said is exactly what I was told - conversion rates, credit card fees, etc., etc.

The six am flight is to Miami via Tap Air Portugal. Not much of a choice there because we booked through Princess. I'm not fond of this schedule for all the reasons you mentioned. I will consider your suggestions and see if I want to rearrange things.

Thanks again for the information.

 

 

So glad I found this thread. We're looking to go from Paris to London on Aug 28 '13. I went to the Eurostar website, checked from the US and got a senior rate of $65 per person. Didn't book yet but went all the way through the booking, selected seats and got to the Pay Screen. As I was reading this thread I have a question about the "actual fare". Do you know if I'll be charged $130 US for two tickets? or is there a currency conversion fee? I didn't see anything about that but want to make sure before I buy. Thanks......

So glad I found this thread. We're looking to go from Paris to London on Aug 28 '13. I went to the Eurostar website, checked from the US and got a senior rate of $65 per person. Didn't book yet but went all the way through the booking, selected seats and got to the Pay Screen. As I was reading this thread I have a question about the "actual fare". Do you know if I'll be charged $130 US for two tickets? or is there a currency conversion fee? I didn't see anything about that but want to make sure before I buy. Thanks......

 

If you book through Rail Europe, that is their fare based on whatever they do. It isn't a bad fare at all...you might save a few bucks by going back and ticking UK location and you will get a fare in sterling. Then it depends on whether your credit card charges a 3% foreign transaction fee or you can use dynamic currency conversion and have eurostar convert to USD at their inflated rate plus be aware, eurostar charges £4 to book with a credit card although no fee for booking with a debit card. I came up with £38 which is about $57.38 at today's official rate. (My credit card gives me the official rate without a foreign transaction fee but the £4 fee for a credit card bring it to £42 which is $63.42 at today's official rate.

 

Rail Europe has, in the past, charged $15 to fed ex the tickets to you. You have to check that. With eurostar, you can print the tickets at home free.

 

Those seem to be what holds today.

Is there really a compelling reason (convenience is not compelling) to buy tickets for UK/European trains in the US?

 

Our experience is that doing so is unnecessarily expensive (RailEurope) compared to doing so in Europe (or the UK).

 

Americans are used to making reservations in order to have a seat on the precious few forms of public transit that exists in the US. Our experience in Europe is that there is ample capacity on trains....if they fill up, a car or two may be added to accomodate the demand.

 

Hence, our approach is to wait to buy train tickets until we are in Europe (and UK).