My husband and I are going to Paris in April for our 30th anniversary. We want to go to Normandy and Versailles and take the Chunnel to London. Any tips for flying into/out of one country or the other and moderately priced accommodations in decent areas near public transportation greatly appreciated!
Posted by
Tunbridge Wells
6113 posts
The first two weeks or so of April will be Easter school holidays, so places will be busier and more expensive then.
Book the Eurostar asap for the best prices.
What is your London budget per night in £?
Posted by
92 posts
My advice would be to fly into one country, and out of another, to save time (and possibly money, but definitely time) backtracking. You want an open jaw or multi-city ticket/itinerary, not two one-way tickets. (Certainly you could just take a day trip from Paris to London via the Eurostar, if that is what you're asking, but I read this as you wanting to split your trip between Paris and London. Apologies if this is incorrect.)
For travel from city center to city center, London to Paris, the Eurostar (the high speed train that runs through the Channel Tunnel) is a good choice for travel. Book well in advance for the best prices, and on their website. Do be aware there is a one hour time difference between London and Paris.
The Man in Seat 61's website offers good advice on all things train in Europe.
I'm not the person to ask for advice about Normandy, but others will know. Are you wanting to stay in the area, or take a (long) day trip from Paris? Versailles can be done as a day trip from Paris.
For advice on "moderately priced accommodations," please provide a nightly budget in pounds for the UK and Euros for France. Websites such as xe.com and oanda can help with conversions.
You can use a map to see if an hotel is close to public transportation; Google Maps is good for this.
Anywhere you're likely to stay in central London is safe as long as you are aware and use your big-city smarts. As a rough guide, I'd say look for someplace that meets your budget and requirements that is close to a Tube station and either within the yellow Circle line on the Tube map, or on the South Bank.
I hope that gives you a starting point. It would also be useful to know, how long your trip is, overall, please.
Happy travel planning!
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
It is often (but of course not always) less expensive to fly into London and out of Paris than the reverse, as London airports have high departure fees. So, be sure to use the "multi city" option on Kayak http://www.kayak.com/flights or Matrix ITA http://matrix.itasoftware.com/, and check in both directions.
Book your Eurostar ("chunnel") ticket as soon as your plans are firm - you may have already missed out on the cheapest tickets, and once a fare class is sold out, the price only goes up. http://www.eurostar.com/us-en
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks all. We would like to spend 4 or 5 nights in France and England, and probably one night in the Normandy area. It seems like a good idea to fly into England first, Eurostar, then on to Normandy, spend a night there, and on to Paris after that. We will go later in April due to the Easter break. We would like to stay around $100-$130 a night ( looks like today $1 = .92€ = 1.45£ )
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15777 posts
Will the Easter break still be in April even though Easter is in March?
Posted by
PA
2856 posts
Do note that your route will involve backtracking, as the easiest way from London to Normandy is Eurostar to Paris, switch to Gare St Lazare train station, and take the 2 hour (and inexpensive if in advance) train from there to Caen/Bayeux. Which you will then subsequently return to Paris on. We did this last April, and it was easy (although Paris was only a pass-through, we went on to Belgium from Normandy), and flew home from Amsterdam. You will pay close to a hundred dollars more for the privilege of flying out of London to return.
BTW, we had great luck with the weather on our three week trip then. We brought light shells, and almost never needed them. Temps were fine,. negligible rain.
Normandy lodging is easy at your price range, London is not, inexpensive is already going out of the top end of your range. Try the Celtic Hotel, off Russell Square.
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11746 posts
With regard to London lodging, you will need to increase your budget or stay quite far from the center. I hate to waste time traveling into a city to save money on lodging, so we put more of our budget towards lodging, get a small apartment, and do a little more eating in (lunches out, easy dinners in when we are exhausted from touring). Try VRBO for studio apartments.