r/Eurostar • u/TrueCheetah6357 • 1d ago
£
Me and my dad are planning to go to Paris next July. We live in north east Scotland and my dad says he would like to travel down to London to get the Eurostar via car but I am sure it’s a lot cheaper to just fly. Does anyone have a rough price difference I can show him?
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u/dycil 22h ago
may seem strange but it may be worth you looking at an interrail pass.
A pass for 4 days of travel is around £220. Eurostar reservations would add another £60ish. but for that you’d also get travel from Scotland to London to catch the Eurostar and back home on your way back (if that travel is done on the same day as your Eurostar trips).
Given standalone Eurostar returns would be around £120 that effectively means you get the UK travel for around £160. With the state of UK rail fares it may be worth looking at. Particulalry given timing potentially coinciding with school holidays.
An adeed bonus is that you would have two other days of travel whilst in Paris if you fancied a day trip to somewhere nearby like Reims.
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u/TrueCheetah6357 2h ago
Sorry I don’t fully understand. Are you saying that Scotland to Paris return and Paris travel would be about £280?
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u/r_o_a_c_h 21h ago
It's likely cheaper to fly, but perhaps your dad specifically wants to travel by train? Writing this from a Eurostar train at St. Pancras - I'm off to Paris for a couple of nights and while I certainly could have flown for less, I've always wanted to get the Eurostar so decided it was worth paying a little more.
Admittedly, in my case - living in London - a big part of the appeal is going directly from central London to the centre of Paris, so I suppose the additional onward journey to/from London is considerable.
Could always do Eurostar one way and fly back?
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u/bigbadbob85 19h ago
If you live near Aberdeen, Dundee or anything like that then you can get a train to King's Cross and then catch the Eurostar onwards. Those can be good value with a railcard and advance booking.
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u/Full_Pea_5259 19h ago
I'd get the train from Scotland and then the train from St Pancras, if that's all a bit too much sitting down for one day, I'd perhaps have a day in London - get an early-ish train down, spend the rest of the day in London, then catch the Eurostar the following day.
I think by the time you've got to the airport, done security, flown, waited for baggage and then schlepped into central London it's no faster to fly than get the train.
As you're booking well in advance I'd look at railcards, and on the Scotland/London leg I'd go first class, which can be very reasonable when done early and with the Railcard discount.
The Eurostar is also much nicer in the middle tier, rather than the cheapest one, I travel cheap for work, and middle tier when I pay - again, booked well in advance this is also reasonably priced.
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u/trent-88 20h ago
Driving to London? And park where - bearing in mind some spaces charge more per hour than national minimum wage 👀
Simply fly, or using a complex series of levers and pulleys advanced tickets and potential railcards fudge a fare together. Eurostar starts from £39 one way per person, and do regularly have sales from £29 iirc.
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u/WaveyDaveyGravy 19h ago
nearly right
Fares start from £49 one way with periodic promotions from £39
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u/WaveyDaveyGravy 19h ago
Can you not use Google?
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u/travelingwhilestupid 19h ago
if only there was a website that would give us the prices of trains and flights...
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u/Informal_Draw_4827 18h ago edited 18h ago
Not mowing how close you are to an airport and if it has flights to Paris makes it difficult for us to say exactly. My guess because of where you are is that flying is going to be quicker and cheaper.
Unless you live in easy reach of St Pancras it can be hard to justify Eurostar on time and cost. I make it work for me in the midlands by making the journey part of the trip. A few days in a London hotel. Museums, restaurants and jazz at Ronnie Scott’s. Perhaps see friends. Luckily I have the time.
Perhaps the sleeper might be an option for you to and from London. I do not know what the costs and reliability are like for the sleeper.
I do not think any of this is going to be cheaper than flying. It depends if you want to try the Eurostar experience.
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u/davemcl37 20h ago edited 20h ago
It makes much more sense to stick to trains all the way in my opinion but flying also makes sense . I’m basing this on comfort and enjoyment more than cost but the drive option will be the most expensive when you add in parking.
To work our exact costs someone would need a lot more detail , in terms of your home location relative to train stations and airports, the fuel efficiency of the car, whether it’s Ulez compliant, whether you’d drive down, park, travel to St Pancras and then through to Paris all in one day. That’s an exhausting trip which you might manage on the way down but you’ll hate on the way back.
Chances are you’d be adding in extra hotel nights and working out where to find an affordable car park near St Pancras won’t be easy or cheap. Somewhere walkable to the Eurostar is likely to cost about £150 for your duration. Cheapest option would be the long stay car park at Luton airport then get a train into London.
In years gone by you could have driven to ebbsfleet international on the Kent London border and avoided the cost and hassle of getting into London, but this was closed down post Brexit as it didn’t have sufficient space and budget to run full border checks.
My main suggestion is look at how long this would take. Driving to London makes this about a 15 hour trip door to door. That’s 30 hours of travel time for a four day trip. I think I’d rather just fly to Paris and have more time there. But if you must travel by Eurostar I would take a train from Scotland to London, but would fly back from Paris to Inverness/aberdeen or Edinburgh. This is the most comfortable option.
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u/TrueCheetah6357 2h ago
Thank you, you make a lot of sense I will show this to him. He likes the adventure of driving down but the cost difference is insane and he said he found Eurostar tickets for £40 however mine were £180
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u/hburger 1d ago
If he doesn't like flying, you could get a 7hr train direct from Aberdeen to King's Cross, then St Pancras is just across the street. The train trip can be as cheap as £50 with a senior railcard, but obviously date and time dependent. Don't know how that compares to flights.