London to Paris day trip options

Eurostar is the way most people take a day trip to Paris.

However, with Covid rules constantly changing, is it worth it. As of now, everyone returning to the UK will have to do an additional Day 2 test.

Although travel requirements will no doubt change before your trip, at present, a day trip isn’t very feasible. You will have to abide by whatever rules there are for entering France (probably testing or at the very least, form filling) and you will have to do the same to get back into the U.K.. There has been testing upon arrival in the U.K. for 2 years, so this isn’t likely to change.

You will each need a pass sanitaire to dine in France or enter public buildings.

Do you mean Viator? This is a third party booking site,

An additional wrinkle is that if you wait till shortly before your trip to see whether entry requirements change, you will probably pay a very high price for the Eurostar tickets.

Paris is wonderful, but there are lots of wonderful day-trips to be made from London that don't involve crossing a border, spending 4-1/2 hours on the train, 1 hour (required early-arrival time now, which might be inadequate) at St. Pancras Station for security/administrative procedures, and probably additional travel time between London hotel and St. Pancras. That's an awful lot of hours spent not-in-Paris. I am perhaps an odd traveler, but I would actively dislike making my first visit to a sight-rich city like Paris via day trip with tons of time lost in transit. From an emotional standpoint, I'd be focusing on the grossly inadequate amount of time I had and what I was missing rather than enjoying what I was able to see.

And not to forget also at least an hour at Gare du Nord for departure requirements too.

A Paris day trip from London used to be a bit of a wacky idea. Now, during Covid, I would strongly recommend against it. France and the U.K. — and particularly France with relation to the UK — have instituted too many spur-of-the-moment restrictions up to and including simply forbidding travel between the two to make it recommendable.

I'll vote with the others to give this one a skip. Besides being very, very expensive for a family of 8 (I'm not seeing anything under $305 pp for this trip on the Viator site), Viator is, as already mentioned, a 3rd party distributor of tours/tickets, and so you are not working with the company who will actually be providing your tour. That can be a problem when problems arise, and there are umpty warnings about that from posters on the TripAdvisor site (TA owns Viator, BTW).

As well, listen up to their cautions about traveling between countries with different COVID mandates. While no one knows if things will change between now and May, I personally wouldn't risk having to deal with cumbersome tests and whatnot to travel between England and France for just a matter of hours. And what if it decides to pour rain on the day you booked this tour? Nope, I'd save the City of Light for a future trip when you can give it the same amount of time as you're giving London.

Your BOL tour is realistically only 5 full days plus part of another, and there is a great deal to be seen in and round this city so it's great that you've chosen to arrive a few days early! What I might suggest is looking at exploring some of the interesting attractions which won't be covered by the tour? For instance, take a day trip to Hampton Court or Greenwich, take a long walk through Hyde Park, run up to the British Library for a look at the fascinating collection in the Sir John Ritblat: Treasures Gallery (Free: https://www.bl.uk/events/treasures-of-the-british-library#) or book free tickets to the Museum of London for background on this old and interesting city. Anyway, lots to do, and the folks who've spent lots more time there than I have will be able to provide more ideas.

Hate to rain on your parade but it is very impractical to do a day trip to Paris. As much as anything it is a timing issue. Train to and from Paris is time consuming with min time in the city. And what do you do? Take a swing by the Eiffel Tower and call it a day? Since you are going in and out of the Schengen zone you have to go through both immigration and customs in London to Paris and the reverse in Paris to London. That adds a couple hours. With 8 people you will need two cabs when you hit Paris. Actually the bus is probably your best option for your limited time --- it is drive-by visit at best.

If you are serious about seeing Paris fly into Paris a few days early -- plan perhaps three night including arrival night. Get in a couple of good sightseeing days and then take the Eurostar to London. Do London and come home from London -- probably cheaper when you add up everything. Makes for a more efficient use of your time.

+1 for Frank's idea of arriving early in Paris. If you have not bought the air tickets yet, do not do so until you find out that it costs virtually nothing more to fly Open-Jaw ("Multi-City" on an online ticket purchase site.) This eliminated the cost of one train leg, and all the wasted time on that portion of the journey.

Visiting Bath, England for the day from London, England is not remotely like visiting Paris, France from London.

As others noted, the train ticket is sold like a plane ticket. Once they block of tickets is put on sale, it's cheaper in advance, and much cheaper if you pick a departure time that business-travelers don't usually want. Note also that England is not in the E.U. (Setting aside Covid rule differences for a moment.) You have to be at the Eurostar terminal at least an hour early for customs and Immigration formalities, which are done BEFORE you board. They will turn you away if you come too late for the processing, never mind the train's scheduled time.

With the current check-in requirements and the local transit time in either city, it will take almost 8 hours round trip between your London accommodation and Paris' main sights. Gruelling doesn't even half-describe it...

Thanks to all for your info and suggestions. Seems the Paris day trip will not be much fun, considering all the add on issues. We will plan other local activities.

I agree, but you could to a 2 day trip. That would a much better idea. Or as have been suggested, book an open jaw ticket to Paris and home from London.