London/Paris 8 day trip

To me the Eurostar train is very easy. You have to allow time up front before your train departure time as you process thru outbound immigration AND inbound immigration before you get on the train. SO...going London to Paris you pass thru UK exit formalities and EU entrance formalities before you get to the waiting area for the train. Do plan to get your tickets well ahead of time (as soon as they go on sale for May) and you can get the cheapest prices. They are like airline tickets...they only go up, lol.

IF you change your mind on the open jaw ticket, I'd fly in to Paris since you want to spend more time in the UK.

Yes, it is that easy. We have done that round-trip from London to Paris and back to London twice, and it was very pleasant.

What a wonderful opportunity for everyone. Does the 8 days include travel to/from US to Europe? 8 days isn't a lot even if the travel days are not included; so you really want to be efficient with your time. Everytime you change locations, you should consider it a half day spent. Not sure why you don't want "open jaw" but if it's due to pricing, have you priced out the tickets to/from London to Paris because Eurostar is pricey as well. The earlier you buy the better the price, but it's not cheap. Eurostar is a really nice way to travel, but also cuts into your experience time; and it's best to consider traveling to/from UK to Paris is...checking out of hotel; getting to train station; 2 1/2 hours to Paris; train station to hotel; checking into hotel. So doing this one way makes sense, but doing it as a return takes away a lot of experience time for your son and his girlfriend.

For my money, I'd do 5 days in London and 3 days in Paris. (Or whatever combo of days is best for you.) Send them home from Paris and you take the train back to London at your leisure and enjoy your extended trip through England. You have the time, but they don't. (Or as has been suggested by others and even more efficient for all is to fly into Paris first then fly home from London.)

Whatever you decide; enjoy!

because Eurostar is pricey as well. The earlier you buy the better the price, but it's not cheap.

It depends by what you call not cheap. But if you book well ahead (bookings currently open until well into January 2025) fares on any day of the week start at £51, and in Eurostar Plus £97.

The trick is either booking early, or if booking closer to the time choosing the right time of day and day of week (don't expect a bargain in the middle of the day at a weekend for instance).

You do have to be at St Pancras or Paris Gare du Nord 90 minutes before departure, so it is effectively 4 hours, but city centre to city centre it is still significantly faster than flying. And cheaper if you can get the lead in fares.

Do you mean they work M-F and can have eight weekdays plus a weekend off of work ? For a total of 10 days off of work ? Or do you mean they have 8 straight days during which they can be away ? It really makes a difference.

I'm waiting right now for dates to open up in April for the Eurostar, and plan to snap them up as soon as they appear. But I think that ticket prices have gone up, Stuart. I was checking it out about a month ago and tickets only went up through December, and they started at around £51. But now looking at February of 2025 (which is as far out as you can go), they are starting at £68.

I'm just happy that one of us will be age 11 and gets a reduced price. :-)

On the UK Eurostar website all trains on February 1 to 8 (the dates currently open) are showing between £51 and £63 excepting 2 peak trains on Sunday 2 Feb at £86), but at the current exchange rate £51 would be $US68 close enough.
Even on 2 February there are 6 other trains currently at £51- 0801, 0931, 1024, 1231, 1531, 2001 and 2031.
On the £86 trains at 1631 and 1801 Business Premier is currently only £11 more at £97- a bit of a no brainer to upgrade if you had to be on those specific trains.

Stuart, my mistake! I did not even realize that the $68 was in dollars. It must have automatically converted to the US page. Sigh, that makes me feel much better—thank you! It's been one of those days. :-)

mistimetotravel, FYI, if you join Club Eurostar (their free rewards program), you automatically get 200 points, which gives you £5 off you tickets. :-) Nothing to write home about, but better than nothing.

We would like to do 3 days London, 3 days Paris and 2 days back in London

Under that scenario there would be two trips on the Eurostar, which would add to the expense and precious time lost. That's a convincing argument for flying into Paris, or at least save Paris until the end of the 8 days so the young people could fly home from Paris.

Yeah, whether it's 8 days or 10 days total, that's still 2 1/2 days fewer than that total on the ground, and going back and forth really kills you with that number of days. I would definitely buy open-jaw tickets for the son and girlfriend so they don't have to go back to London to fly back out.

I will echo everyone else here - fly open jaw. Into Paris, out of London. Can you tell us why you don't want to fly open jaw? If it's the price, make sure you are looking at Multi-City tickets, NOT two One-Way tickets.

If you are absolutely set against open jaw, then I would say take the afternoon/evening Eurostar from London to Paris on the day you arrive. Risky? Maybe a little, but I know others on here have done it. Rest on the train, arrive in Paris in the evening, have dinner, and get to bed early. Spend however many days you want there, then return to London. This at least cuts out one hotel change (although you're still dealing with two Eurostar trips).

I agree with the others, mistimetotravel. My open-jaw tickets arriving in London and leaving from Paris for this coming trip were no more expensive than flying in and out of London, and will save me both time and money.

FWIW, I believe that it is cheaper to fly out of Paris rather than London. I read someplace that there is an UK Air Passenger Duty tax that is applied when you fly out of London. I could be wrong, and someone please correct me if I am. ETA: Here is one thing I read that discusses the outgoing tax London charges on airfare. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/to-avoid-expensive-london-airfares

Yes UK Air Passenger Duty is £88 for long haul flights of 2,000 to 5,500 miles, or £92 over 5,500 miles. All US airports are deemed to fall into the 2,000 to 5.500 mile band.

The rate is scheduled to increase to £90 on 1 April 2025, but may be further increased in the October budget.

In seats of over 40 inch pitch the rate is £194 (£216 from 2025).

Those rates are included in your ticket price.

Thank you everyone for your replies. You have convinced me to look for open jaw fares. The reason I was thinking of avoiding them was because at one point they seemed so very expensive, at least from my more remote airport. Our son and his girlfriend will be flying from San Francisco, and it of course makes sense, now that many of you have have spelled it out for me, to not waste their time and to see about open jaw fares and plans for them.

I am glad that it is pretty easy to make this trip, and glad to know I should be getting tickets early.
Is the website for buying Eurostar tickets easy to identify? Any reason to get a more expensive ticket than the basic fare?
Oh, and unless their job situations change, they can only be gone about 9 days total from work.

Here is the Eurostar site - https://www.eurostar.com/us-en - and it’s very easy to navigate. It’s up to you, of course, but I wouldn’t bother springing for all the extra stuff and paying more money, given that it’s only a few hours on the train. It would be different if it were a 5+ hour ride, but it’s not.

We did not upgrade on Eurostar and found it was very comfortable and there before you know it. We went one way London to Paris and it was much better than flying that route.