My wife and I are landing at London Heathrow at 940 AM and wanting to get to Paris quickly by train that same day. What is the best approach to going from LHR to Paris and how much time should be allowed between a 940 AM arrival with risk of flight delay to a booked train ticket to Paris?
Thanks!!!
Go to St Pancras International via the Piccadilly Tube line, then board the Eurostar. You need to be there at least 90 minutes before departure. Why not just fly from LHr?
LHR to St Pancras takes about an hour via tube.
A minimum of five hours if your flight arrives on time
https://www.heathrow.com/transport-and-directions/by-rail-or-train/st-pancras
but if your flight is delayed and you miss the train, put it down as a learning experience
I would just book a flight from LHR to Paris. It will be cheaper, and less hassle.
Eurostar is "all the annoyances of air travel, but slower and more expansive".
Personally, I prefer not to spend an hour on the Piccadilly line if I have other options. If you want the fastest (but most expensive) way, take the Heathrow Express to Paddington (15 mins) and then the Hammersmith and City/Circle line to St Pancras (10 mins). If you want a less expensive but slightly slower way, I would take the Elizabeth line to Farringdon (35 mins) and then go one stop on the Metropolitan/Hammersmith and City/Circle line to St Pancras. These are better options particularly if you have large bags/a lot of luggage with you.
For the Eurostar, I'd aim to arrive 60-90 minutes in advance. The gates close 30 mins before departure. Good luck!
On 16 November there will be no Heathrow Express or Elizabeth Line train running from Heathrow (you find that out when you try to book a HE ticket) so you will be on the tube.
(but the post referenced above seems to have related to last November, on another day when the HE and Elizabeth Line was closed for engineering work)
Thanks all, this is for an early May trip this year, and we wanted to take the train for a few reasons: a) we love trains, b) the last time we took the train was after dark so it would be nice to see the surroundings, and c) flying into London saved us about $850 on the two airline tickets ($600 after all the train tickets) and because we could get a direct flight into London, the extra time to do all this only costs us about 2 hours total time in exchange for $600 and a free train ride.
Booking this far ahead you can get an Earlybird Heathrow Express ticket for £10 each (just checked). Even adding on the tube fare that is faster and cheaper than the Elizabeth Line.
Note the minimum check in time for Eurostar at St Pancras is now 75 minutes, not 90 minutes. It won't harm to be there sooner, but that is the new minimum.
There is no scheduled engineering work on any day in early May to affect your journey.
the last time we took the train was after dark so it would be nice to see the surroundings.
Not to be facetious but… there aren’t any surroundings for a large part of the journey! And the above ground bits aren’t very scenic at all. The landscape is kind of blah, such as it is.
