We are 2 adults and 2 youths traveling in July on the Eurostar from Paris to London. I%26#39;ve read many posts saying that Rail Europe was too expensive, and suggesting to purchase from the Eurostar website, but when I try to do that, it gives me the French Eurostar site. Both voyages-sncf and www.eurostar.com (which comes up in French; I must have clicked something somewhere) are giving me outrageously high prices compared to Rail Europe, where the cheapest total fares are 420 USD (restricted fares for all of us, plus a discount for the kids). Eurostar.com and voyages-sncf are quoting me 894 Euros (again, total price for all 4 of us; no discount for the kids). I read some posts suggesting to call Eurostar directly, but I can%26#39;t see their phone number on the website. Should I just buy the Rail Europe tickets and be done with it? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
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Without knowing the exact date you are travelling and the ages of your kids, it is a bit difficult to find an exact formula that would work for you. Using the arbitrary date of 13 July I was able to find a one way fare of 190€ for 2 adults and 2 youth (age 12-25). I also found RT fares for the same group for 240€.
Sometimes a RT request will turn up better fares than a one way request. (Just discard the return coupon in that case.)
If you are flexible with your date and time of travel that will help too.
And yes, you are right. For whatever reason if you give your country of origin as France (which you must) you appear to be restricted to French. (I didn%26#39;t look around to see if there was a workaround for this.)
If you give us all the info someone I am sure someone will be willing to run another check for you if I am not around.
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We are travelling on Sun., July 23, and unfortunately can%26#39;t be flexible with the dates. The cheapest fare we found (the 420 USD one) was a reduced rate for trains departing between 11 and 3, which was pretty much when we wanted to leave anyway. My children are 12 and 15, so they are considered youths (ages 12 -25).
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IrishRovr, thanks for taking a look for me. I tried it with the date you used and also came up with the 190 Euro fare. It doesn%26#39;t come up on the day we are traveling, so it must not exist on Sundays, or it%26#39;s sold out. They have it on Monday, so I will discuss changing our plans with my family, but I have a feeling they want to get to London since we will be flying home the following Wednesday. A discounted fare should exist somewhere, though or Rail Europe wouldn%26#39;t have it. Wonder where it came from.
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You are correct about the lowest one-way fare on 23 July being over 800€. The problem is that July is peak travel season and Sunday a very popular travel day.
But be of good cheer! I had no difficulty finding a 240€ RT fare with the Paris-London leg on the date you want and my choice of just about any train. I used 2 August as the return date, which of course doesn%26#39;t matter as you won%26#39;t be using that ticket.
I%26#39;d grab it as fast as you can if I were you. And be aware that you may not be able to get four seats together if the train you select is already heavily booked, as trains in the time-frame you are looking at are likely to be.
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BTW, 850€ or whatever it was for 4 one-way tickets and 240€ for RT tickets??? Is that crazy or what???
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I know, it%26#39;s just ridiculous! Who knows what they%26#39;re thinking! Anyway, I%26#39;m so glad I%26#39;ve started reading the TA forums to make me aware of what I should know. Otherwise I%26#39;d have been happy with the over-priced Rail Europe tickets. As it is, we%26#39;ll have a nice souvenir: the unused return portion of our tickets, which I just got online. Thanks for your help!
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You couldn%26#39;t be more welcome!
Bon voyage!
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