Exeter to St. Pancras Best Method of Travel

Paddington to St Pancras by tube is fairly easy. You can take the Hammersmith & City or Circle Lines all the way in one trip. The slight confusing thing is that there are two different sets of Circle Line platforms at Paddington - you want the set that are above ground and quite a walk beyond the high-numbered train platforms, NOT the underground set that have the entrance that is close to the ends of the main line platforms. Follow the signs that say Hammersmith & City. There are lifts at both stations for the luggage.

If you have heavy luggage and want to take the tube to St Pancras from somewhere in the outskirts, your best choice is somewhere on the Metropolitan Line, which serves northwest London.

Another issue is how expensive the rail fare will be compared to car fuel, and this depends on how far ahead you are travelling which you haven't said. There are cheap rail tickets that can be bought a couple of months in advance online, but if you want to travel next week or similar, the tickets will be very expensive. The direct route from Bath to St Pancras by car will NOT take you through the congestion charge area.

You could drop the car at Luton airport. There are trains to St Pancras Intl about every 15 minutes and it takes about 1 hour.
Also, you could take the Euostar from Ashford Intl. That would get you to Paris 1 hour later than your plan, since there are only a couple of trains a day from Ashford.

I did similar 2 years ago from Taunton, and chose your option B.

By contacting Eurostar (I did this by phone) I was able to get them to 'link' the domestic train ticket I purchased online with the Eurostar ticket (already purchased online) to take advantage of CIV conditions. To quote www.seat61.com "So if the UK train is late and you miss your Eurostar, the CIV conditions of carriage oblige Eurostar to put you on the next available Eurostar without additional charge, even if your ticket theoretically restricts you to the specific Eurostar you've booked".

This included the tube fare between Paddington and St Pancras - which I don't remember being a difficult transition with luggage. We just showed our tickets at the manned tube entrance gate and were let through.

You can also buy Eurostar tickets starting in Exeter - but what I describe above is what we did as we had already purchased Eurostar tickets. http://www.seat61.com/UKconnections.htm#.VaGvMnhRnzI

We didn't do your option A or C because option B was much relaxing, there was no worry about missing trains, and we purchased the domestic train tickets sufficiently in advance that the cost of the train wasn't prohibitive. If we had wanted to sight see on the way from Exeter to London, or there were more than 2 of us, I would have probably chose option C and driven to Heathrow to take the tube from there (have done this recently and was easy).

I certainly wouldn't recommend driving to St Pancras unless you feel really confident. The Euston Road can be pretty hellish and navigating around the station to the car parks is not that easy.

The station you would want in Exeter is St Davids.

I've just come off the &^$& Euston Road. It took me almost 20 minutes to go through the flaming underpass. There are days when the traffic in London is a piece of cake. Today ain't one of them. It was trouble all the way between the Westway and Kings Cross. grrrr

It was worse down by the river today. All my little well worn rat runs were plugged up.

Sam, usually your transport advice is spot on. Today, you've dropped a clanger. Never in all my puff would I advise somebody coming from the southwest of London to circle all the way around to Luton which is well outside the M25 to the north. And the stretch of the M1 between the M25 and Luton airport comes with its own custom built horrors. No way - sorry.

Either leave the car at Exeter, get to Exeter St Davids by bus, taxi or train, nice easy smooth fast ride to Paddington and a short taxi from there to St Pancras, or an easy predictable tube ride (lifts at both ends or escalators).

or

Drive slowly and boringly in to London on the M5 and then M4 to Heathrow and Heathrow Express to Paddington or 55 minutes on the Piccadilly Line to St Pancras with no changes, lifts and escalators at both ends.

Train trip? As fast as just over 2 and a half hours. Relaxing, comfortable. Get the tickets ahead and reasonably inexpensive. Use a Two Together card and even cheaper.

Car? I'd think twice about driving all the way, but if you do you need to allow at least 4 hours to 4 and a half plus getting lost time.

You will need to be checked in at least 45 minutes ahead at Eurostar (per them) and I recommend at least an hour or more.

Thanks to all who replied. This is exactly what I was looking for. We will be staying in Chulmleigh in Devon in September, so I will be able to buy the train tickets in advance. I already purchased the Eurostar tickets so I will use the info for the CIV to purchase the train tickets. This is why I like this forum. The info is timely and plentiful. Thanks to you all.

I presume that you are trying to get from Exeter to Paris? That being so, I would have flown direct from Exeter Airport to Paris with www.flybe.com

http://www.skyscanner.net/transport/flights/ext/pari/cheap-flights-from-exeter-to-paris.html?adults=1&children=

I presume that you are trying to get from Exeter to Paris? That being so, I would have flown direct from Exeter Airport to Paris with www.flybe.com

... or even from Bristol with BMI Regional / Easyjet. Or possibly to Brussels with Brussels Airlines.

But it seems this ship might have sailed ...

Plan C, take a train to Paris from Ebbsfleet in Kent. Some Eurostar trains stop at Ebbsfleet, see timetable here.
Ebbsfleet is a "Park and Ride" station near the M25 on the edge of London.
Drive slowly from Devon to Kent, seeing places on the way. Stay overnight somewhere near Ebbsfleet station, and then drop off the car there before catching your train to Paris. Avoids going in to London at all.

The only difficulties with the Ebbsfleet plan C are:

it looks like the only national car rental places there seem to be only Europcar.

it is just off the A2, just east of the Dartford Crossing. The Dartford Crossing can back up onto the M25 (technically it is not part of the M25 but looks and feels like it is) past the A2. I wouldn't want to be caught up in that, and if I missed my exit the next one is in Essex, involving the tunnel one way, the bridge the other and £5.50 of tolls which have to be paid online or in a shop by midnight of the next day and there are no toll booths.

And the third and biggest problem is that it appears that John has made up his mind and decided on the train, a couple of posts upthread.