England + Lille + Open to Suggestions

In April after time in Normandy we dropped our rental car off in Lille, then took the train to Belgium where we went to Ghent, Bruges and on to the Netherlands. You can get around easily via train and everything is quite close together so you could choose a city like Ghent or Bruges and also include Brussels then take the Eurostar back to London from there.

KD,

Thank you for this! I forgot about Belgium (somehow). I remember now that when the Eurostar train from London to Lille eventually made its way to Amsterdam, too...

We really enjoyed Belgium. Definitely something to consider as your mystery destination! (And If you like fries/frites, waffles, chocolate or beer....well there's a bonus!) Have fun!

You could fly into France, stay there a few days then Eurostar to London and home from there. Buy one ticket called open jaw. No need to fly into London then Eurostar to France then Eurostar back to London.

If visiting the friend in England I would structure this a bit differently as trying to configure a same day Eurostar connection around the vagaries of international air travel is not easy.

So I would fly into London, time with your English friend, then Lille, then either return to London by Eurostar with a few more days there before going home; or if you went from the UK to France by Eurostar, then open jaw flight home from Paris.

Depending on where in England your friend is the outward journey to Lille could be easiest (and cheapest) by a Ryanair flight to Brussels Charleroi South Airport. That airport has easy connections to Brussels (bus to Charleroi railway station with combined bus/train tickets available), but also a new bus terminal for regional coach (bus) connections to Lille, throughout Belgium and into the Netherlands.

Are you prepared for step 4 to be a one-way air flight? Lille is not "near" a lot of places, although it is well-connected. Note that 90-minute advance arrival for all Eurostars to and from England is annoying but absolutely required. You may be operating from a mistaken assumption that England is "close to" everything. There is also a hint that you think that farther is better. There are plenty of Mystery Destinations (???) near Lille, including Bruges, Antwerp, Cologne/Duesseldorf, Louvre-Lens, Reims, and Luxembourg.

As another noted, you should use the Multiple Cities tab of your airline's website to book the flight home from your second Continental destination. That's an Open-Jaw trip, You may need a two-segment flight to get back to San Francisco, but I have not found that they cost more.

Great stuff, all - thank you!

I don't know about a farther away being better... I'm leaning towards Brussels... only a 1/2 hour train ride from Lille and the tickets are not all that expensive.

Regarding an open jaw/multi-city... maybe I'm doing the research wrong, but every time I've looked into it, it's been so much more expensive...

The direct Virgin Atlantic flight I usually take via Virgin Atlantic gets into Heathrow at 11am and in the past I had taken a 6pm Eurostar to Lille... I figured a schedule like that would probably be safe, barring a luggage mishap.

ebennett1803,
Re flights...don't opt for two one-ways. That is where your higher price comes from. Go for round trip/open cities. Good luck!

Judy,

Wow, yes - thank you for laying that out. I see that flying into Paris or Brussels from San Francisco for the dates I was looking at, then flying out of London back to San Francisco, it's less than $200 more... Eurostar isn't cheap, and so if I don't have to do that roundtrip, it might even be less total, and is certainly more convenient.

Thanks!

Eurostar each way can be as low as £51 if you are flexible about your time of travel, and pick the right day- for instance I just looked at 11 September on the 1704 and the 1904 trains from London. In fact on those trains Standard Premier is only £97- that includes a light meal and drinks.

If doing a one way Eurostar from Lille check in time there is 60 minutes, compared to 90 minutes at London, Paris or Brussels.

isn31c, you're quite right - I've noticed the Eurostar fares vary a LOT depending on times of the day and which day.