First just thanks so much to all for your info that helped us plan the most amazing trip of our life! We just came back from 24 days in Europe and all the info culled here on this site helped to make the trip mostly trouble free and well planned.
I just wanted to share with anyone planning to go to Paris or London via the chunnel give yourself extra extra time. They say per the tickets to get there 30 mins before..if you do you will be sorry. On the way to Paris from London i gave us an hour (thinking well I will give us extra time) we almost did not make the train. The eurostar staff were very disorganized and they were moving people in front of us who were trying to catch the train before us... which was fine if we had enough time but the lines were crazy they did not have enough staff and they were not moving at all. When we finally got to the ticket machine where you enter your ticket to then walk through to the security area the tickets would not work in the machine so they sent us to another line where we had to go all the way to the end again. In any case we made the train with 5 mins to spare and a lot of stress.. so on the way back I gave us an hour and 45 mins well it was the same mess if not worse in paris and we got the train with 12 mins to spare and less stress but I felt bad for those who were on line after us as I am sure they were stressing out.. Paris has you go through British immigration check there as its not done on the London side so that takes extra time as well. So advice is traveling this way be sure to give yourself a lot of extra time.. and if you stilll have to pick up your tickets allow even more.
Posted by
TX, USA
10 posts
Thanks for the advice; we are taking our family next month. We know now to leave plenty of time. What time of day were you travelling? Do you recommend buying the tickets far in advance, or can you get them there?
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33778 posts
Sara, If you don't have your Eurostar tickets by now for a July trip you will be paying full price or nearly so. Some trains sell out. Go today to the website and buy yours to take advantage of any discounts yet left. You may find it so expensive that it will be cheaper to fly. Please, do it now.
Posted by
victoria, Canada
11507 posts
Oh sara,, now, yesterday , last week,, tickets bought last minute are top dollar. Also note, yes, you cannot validate your tickets( which if ordered to be picked up are not actually tickets its a confirmation) in the machines unless you have a chipped credit card( which most americans don't)
Posted by
Oxford, United Kingdom
5453 posts
>Paris has you go through British immigration check there as its not done on the London side so that takes extra time as well.< It is the same as in London where you go through French immigration before boarding the train - the difference may be that there generally is no British emmigration check. Never personally encountered any queues to speak of on Eurostar at London, Paris, Brussels or Lille, but it is always sensible to budget your time for the possibility.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33778 posts
It took myself and my wife over an hour in the check in queue at Paris coming back in April and over 20 minutes in the check in queue in London on the outbound trip. EDIT: finger slip - 20 minutes in London not my previously typed 2.
Posted by
Napa, CA
3580 posts
Over the past few years I have bought my Eurostar tickets at eurostar.com. It was easy to print out my tickets at home and take them with me. I never had a problem with the barcode not being readable. My train journeys have usually been in the am from London to Paris or the reverse. Many people, but not terrible crowding. Sometimes what seems like crowds may be tour groups gathering and waiting for the signal to go to the train. If they are milling around in the train station before the entrance to the Eurostar, you can just go around or through them to the barcode reader and immigration.
Posted by
OP
Staten Island, New York
217 posts
All advice to buy now is good advice... I bought mine 60 days in advance and should have earlier as the cheaper seats were filled up. it can get very expensive Trust me something must be going on with eurorstar recently as the lines were insane both ways and we had two and a half weeks in between London to Paris and Paris to London. I ordered online.. and printed out the confirmationdid not allow me to print out tickets.. I had to pick them up and that took time as well. Perhaps I missed something There was a problem with thier machines on the way down that was why my tickets were not being read .. it was not only us others as well but they were very disorganized and it seemed like they were scrambling to get people on earlier trains and were way behind in checking people in we thought it was just a bad day on the London end but then when we came back it was even worse in Paris as after the London experience we gave ourselves and extra 45 mins.. Then there is the fun of trying to stow your luggage. People on the way down had no where to put their larger bags.. we had smaller ones and managed but it was difficult for those with larger ones. we must have had a different train on the way back as the luggage storage was much better.
Rick really knows what he is talking about when he says pack light.. we thought we did with one small bag each and a back pack about the same size but decided if we ever did this again we would cut it all in half.
Posted by
Portsmouth, NH
17 posts
Thought I'd jump in here with a question as we are going next week to London and taking the Eurostar to Paris a few days later.
I noticed Pat's comment: "in the machines unless you have a chipped credit card( which most americans don't)" I thought this was not true of the Eurostar ticket machines. We bought our tickets online and will need to pick them up at the station. I believe we read in the FAQ's that a chipped credit card was not required. Anyone have a recent experience with this? We are taking a 7:54 train. Sounds like we should be there at least an hour before.