We arrive on Eurostar from Paris to London St Pancras at 11:45 on a Saturday. We need to be in Oxford by 16:00 to rent our car. Is there direct bus or rail service from St Pancras or Kings Cross or do you have to connect to rail (Paddington) or by bus (Victoria) service via the tube. Which service would provide the most direct service and/or result in shortest travel time. Is 16:00 achievable or should I just rent a car at Heathrow to avoid the London congestion fee?
...Regards...Jerry T...
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
Take the Circle Line from Kings Cross St Pancras (any Westbound train with the destination "Hammersmith", don't get on any others) to Paddington and the train to Oxford from there. Usually there is very little delay getting off the train at St Pancras. 1600 will be fine, with time to spare to buy tube and rail tickets.
Travelling by train will almost certainly be faster than bus or hired car. Certainly going all the way to Heathrow to hire a car will be a huge waste of time. The Euston Road is the northern edge of the congestion charge zone - don't know if there's a car hire outlet near St Pancras but if there is you could definitely drive towards Oxford without crossing the charge zone.
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
I looked online and there are both Avis and Sixt car rental outlets within the station. If you're planning on hiring a car once you get to Oxford, I don't think there's any real reason not to hire a car at St Pancras, if you have big-city driving experience.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33992 posts
Congestion Charge? What Congestion Charge? Not on a Saturday. Only during working hours M-F.
If you feel confident enough to drive, and you aren't doing something absurd like flying transatlantic to CDG on a cheap fare, immediately going to Gare du Nord and onto a Eurostar to get off and immediately heading to Oxford to drive - all on the same day (please say you're not) - then it makes less sense to take a train and a rental car on the same day. That's what Ed used to say, but a bit more colourfully.
Saturday lunchtime isn't a bad time to drive out of London, and the route is so so easy. A straight line all the way.
Get the car at St Pancras and turn right onto Euston Road, right outside the top of the station and just follow the signs to Oxford. Don't turn left or right. You are on the A40 when you start, and in about 10 miles or so it turns into the M40. Over the Chiltern Hills, and down to the flat lands. You can bear left onto the A40 short of Oxford (junction 8) and that will lead you around the north side of Oxford and towards Cheltenham. Burford is a great town to visit on that route and has some good tea rooms, a wool church and a great high street with an ancient bridge; over that bridge, turn left and right and you are straight on for Bourton-on-the-Water and Stow-on-the-Wold.
Or when you get off the M40 at that junction 8, it will be mostly dual carriageway for several miles and then the traffic will slow down and you will pass a McDonalds on the left. After that keep your eyes open for signs to the A44 and peel off for that highway near where you cross the A34. The A44 is not as fast a road as the A40 but still a very good road. It takes you through Woodstock, with Bladen where Churchill is buried and Blenheim with all its associations, through Enstone and Chipping Norton to Moreton-in-Marsh and onwards to Chipping Campden or veer off after Chipping Norton to Stow-on-the-Wold.