help with eurostar plans please

my daughter and i will be taking our first trip to paris in a little over a month. i have gotten great advise from all of you on many topics so far. we have decided that because this is the once in a lifetime trip, we want to go to london for the day. i would love opinions and advise as how to go about this. should i book my tickets on the eurostar website? what times are good to depart and return. we are staying at the marriott rive gauche so i don%26#39;t even know where we will go to catch the eurostar or how long it will take to get there so i don%26#39;t know which time to get a ticket for.

thanks

|||

i would take the earliest train (i think 6am or so) and then take the last train back - that way you have more time.

the station departing from paris is the gare du nord - easy to get to BUT beware them etro lines that do not start running early - i had to take the RER B there after realizing the #4 line does not start as early as i had hoped. it was a stressful start to the day.

once in london, you arrive at the waterloo station - get a tube pass, and then you can get around very quickly. the london eye is within walking distance of the waterloo station, and makes a great first stop - you can pre-book tickets online.

i would book the eurostar tickets online, also, and do it as early as possible for the best rates.

|||

Sorry - one correction - the eurostar no longer goes to waterloo station, but rather st pancras - my mistake.

|||

Bear in mind that you%26#39;ll gain an hour going and lose one coming back. Thus if you leave Paris at (say) 8am you%26#39;ll arrive in London around 9.15. Coming back, if you were to leave London at 8.30pm you%26#39;d arrive in Paris at around 11.45. The journey time (around 2 hours 15 mins) doesn%26#39;t change, the clocks do.

|||

Take the RER fron the Denfert-Rochereau station [the next stop on your Metro line] to the Gare du Nord.

|||

Book your tickets direct on Eurostar.com. The train is very comfortable and the cheapest tickets are perfectly adequate for most people.

If you buy the first class tickets, these can sometimes be very reasonable, then you get an airline style meal, a bit more leg room and generally a more tranquil experience.

If you are coming in a month then you should book up immediately, tickets will rise in price as you approach the departure day

|||

thanks everyone.

francophool, can you help me a little more with those directions? do i take the metro to the Denfert-Rochereau station, then switch to RER and then take the RER to the Gare du Nord. and is the Gare du Nord where we get on to go to london?

are metros close to RER stations?

|||

At Denfert Rochereau the metro and RER are in the same station, just follow the signs.

Gare du Nord is indeed where you catch the train for London, get there at least 30 minutes early, you have to go through security and passport control. If you are picking up your tickets at the machine or ticket window allow more time again.

|||

thank you so much. i had no idea that rer and metros were in the same station. sooooo confusing to me.

i will purchase my tickets on line this weekend.

|||

-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-

This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.

To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html

We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.

Removed on: 10:17 am, September 21, 2009