Eurostar train tickets

It can sell out. But a bigger problem is that if you plan to buy them on the same day, it can be ridiculously expensive. If you buy them in advance you can get a single ticket for €45, compared to €250 if bought the same day.

in Phoenix where we live there are no trains so I did not even think of that. thank you we will definitely get them in advance

I'm sorry to hear that.

There are many train operators in Europe and all of them have their own ticket rules. But in general long distance trains are like flights and have flexible pricing. Buy your tickets in advance and you can get great deals, buy them last minute and you might pay 5-10 times as much for the same ticket. Local and regional trains on the other hand in general have fixed price that stay the same no matter when you buy them.

When buying the tickets and planning your journey, also take note of the suggested check-in times. Eurostar are currently recommending you arrive at St Pancras 90 minutes ahead of time to allow for security and passport control. The whole experience (including the need to buy tickets a long time in advance) feels much more like an air journey than the simple “jump on a train to Paris” experience that perhaps it once was, or should have been.

that makes me sad that the train situation is starting to feel more like the airline one. one of the reasons we are choosing the train is to avoid that 3-hour check-in time at the airport kind of thing. at any rate we are looking forward to enjoying a train ride.

I'd suggest you use the Eurostar app to book your train tickets then you can put them directly into your AppleWallet if you use that. You can book online at the www.eurostar.com website and still put them on your phone.

If you are not used to using your phone for transactions such as this you might try with this.

If you book online you will get an email with how to access your tickets electronically. I access this email on my phone and then take a screen shot of the tickets and file in my photos so I can get to that easily as well.

You can, of course, print out your tickets bought online.

The St Pancras station is pretty good before you go thru Eurostar security. You can shop for some food for lunch or snacks. While there is airline type security there is no limit on liquids so you can take drinks thru to.

“that makes me sad that the train situation is starting to feel more like the airline one. one of the reasons we are choosing the train is to avoid that 3-hour check-in time at the airport kind of thing. ”

This only applies to Eurostar trains and only because you will need to go thru passport control and security. For regular domestic trains you can simply arrive at the platform a couple of minutes before departure.

We just did the journey last week.easy as anything. We bought tickets several months ago. Arrived two.hours early and took maybe tops.fifteen minutes to.go.through security and immigration. Monday morning at 11:30 AM.

that makes me sad that the train situation is starting to feel more
like the airline one

I agree, but (mostly the british) politicians forced Eurostar to adopt that procedure. Fortunately the security checks are pretty relaxed compared to what you find at an airport.

And since the UK is not part of Schengen you need to go through passport control before boarding. And Brexit added a customs check as well. So remember that there are strict restrictions on what you can and can not bring on the train. Especially regarding food.

..... For regular domestic trains you can simply arrive at the platform a couple of minutes before departure. ...... One exception is the Spanish trains. There is a very light, walk through screening at the head of the platform. All of ten seconds, maybe. Also in Spain we were not allow on the platform until 15 min or so prior to the train arrival. That was about five years so it could have changed.

Plus, the Eurostar terminals are in the city. You’re not spending an hour getting to Heathrow and an hour getting back into the city from Charles de Gaulle. Or vice versa. I’ll take the train any day.

As Pam says, get the tickets online. She gives good info.

When my Eurostar was impacted by a strike - as in cancelled - I got all the info I needed to re-book via email.

Eurostar also gives you info about how soon to arrive for your train. It generally doesn't do any god to get there earlier - they will probably still be boarding the earlier train. E very time I have done this or been through the boarding area there are lots of people waiting around for "their turn" through security.

Merely an FYI regarding St Pancras. No clue if still
providing lunch but do check out the Booking Office while in the Terminal.

Had a lovely lunch there a few years ago. Not cheap. Didn’t care. Pleasant staff and very tasty meal. Atmosphere was stellar.

For those of you encouraging purchase of Eurostar tickets early to avoid high prices, how early is "early"? I'm looking to travel from London to Paris on April 20 (just over 3 months from now), and tickets are 168 euro per person. That seems really high when folks in this forum are talking about 50 euro advance prices.

Alas, ticket prices never go down. It's not like airlines. They only go up. This said, I do not know where you are checking prices because I see 111€ for London-Paris and less than 100€ the other way.

You've picked the one day that is very expensive. It's Saturday pricing and weekends can be busy.

I can also see prices from £97 on 20/4. In contrast a Saturday in June starts at £57. So you really are a bit late booking for April for best prices, although you should be getting cheaper prices than you are finding.

Sorry, my Eurostar prices are in dollars, not Euros, so that's my mistake. I'm looking at the official Eurostar website, St Pancras to Gare du Nord. The price I previously stated of 168 (again dollars, not euros, sorry) is for any ticket at a reasonable hour. The other responses of cheaper available tickets are technically accurate for someone who doesn't care anything for what time they travel...there's a nice cheap departure at 6:30 in the morning (which would require getting to the station at 5am), or departing so late it would effectively take up a whole day. I did, however, miss one train at 10:24 am that's all of $23 cheaper, so I'll book that one.

The lesson for the group is to book Eurostar more than 4 months in advance and/or don't try to travel on the weekend. Tickets for a weekday are literally 1/2 the cost.

One of my favorite memories on my 2013 trip was going on the Euro star. I recall going through a couple quick tunnels and then a very long tunnel which was obviously going under the English Channel but there was no announcements as suc

Buy your ticket online as soon as possible. Also, remember to be inline to clear both security and passport control 90 minutes before your departure time. Passport control from the UK to the Schengen Area occurs at St. Pancras.