You lost me. How many total nights? What are your primary destinations, London, Paris, others? Re read your post.

I simplified it.

How many nights, other destinations etc... are not relevant. I want to know what you would do if these were your options for getting from London to Paris within 24 hours of landing at LHR :)

(Seriously that's all I a curious about :) )

One night in London isnt really enough to do anything other than get over your jet lag. You might as well just fly to Paris on your arrival day.

The only reason to stay a night in London, and it is a good one I think, is that your Virgin flight is not absolutely guaranteed to land on time and you make a separately booked flight. If you are late and miss the flight to Paris, you will be out that ticket and have to buy another one. Taking the Eurostar the next day adds a level of comfort that you will make it, and you are far enough ahead (I think) to get a decent price on the Eurostar ticket(s).

Option 1 - Hang around LHR for 4 hours and fly onto Paris (NOTE: This is a separate ticket from my trip to London so nothing happens if I don't take the flight)

A separate ticket is bad news, not good news.

• Possible delays on incoming flight = 0-60 minutes
• Taxiing, walking through corridors (Heathrow has lots of corridors), IMMIGRATION = 30-90 minutes
• Pick up bags = 5-20 minutes, less if you have been waiting a long time in immigration. Customs = 30 seconds.
• Do you need to change terminals? = ~30 minutes.
• Minimum check-in time for flight to Paris = 45-60 minutes.

As you can see, you will probably make the flight, but there is a risk. IF you had this as a single booking, you would be protected and if it all went pear-shaped, you would be put on the next flight at no extra cost to you.
I would choose option 2. Find a hotel within walking distance of St Pancras station (plenty to choose from), and book an early train to Paris. Book ASAP to get the cheapest fare: https://www.eurostar.com/rw-en/

If it is a very early morning arrival, I would go ahead and fly to Paris.

I'd go with Option 2. With Option 1 you could either end up spending 4 hours spinning your wheels in LHR which seems dull, or your original flight gets delayed and you may end up having to haul butt to get your next flight to Paris. Neither of those sound appealing to me. I'd rather just arrive, not stress about whether my flight got in on time or not, then just check into a London hotel and do something - even if it's just walk around and see a few things from the outside (e.g. palace, Big Ben, Westminster), get some dinner and have a few drinks in a pub.

My other reason would be that I absolutely hate flying in or out of CDG unless I fly business class. I've found whenever flying coach there, the lines at CDG are horrendous and it's just always a clusterf*#k of inefficiency. Taking the train in or out of Paris is just so much easier.

I'd go with taking the train as well. At least on your arrival afternoon you can wander around London to get some sunshine and then head to Paris the next day.

(PS - I'm glad you chose Paris. I can't stay away either, hahaha!!)

(PPS - And WOW, what a great deal on airfare!)

If you already bought a flight to Paris, as your Option 1 seems to imply, then I'd go ahead and try to make that flight.

If you have not already bought it, then I'd go with Option 2, for the same reasons mentioned above.

I, too, would opt for the overnight in London and the train to Paris. I dislike flying the international flight from the US and then flying out the same day to my interEuro destination. I prefer to relax after the long flight. And I'll take the train over flying most times...just more pleasant and direct.

Hi,

Given the options as presented above, I would pick option # 2. I did exactly that in May, flew from SFO to LHR,landed in the morning, booked one night at a B&B, the next afternoon, took the EuroStar to Paris. At the end of the trip back-tracked to Paris and London each for three nights before the return flight LHR to SFO.

I'm slow but now I've got it. We had a similar choice this summer and, since we were flying to Lisbon we chose to overnight at a beautiful hotel near Gatwick and fly the next day. That night of sleep and not having to worry about connections was good. I'd opt for #2, train the next day.

2 without a doubt!

I left out one detail. I have done unprotected connections at this airport probably 10 times. I have left myself about five hours. I'm not worried about the connection I understand the risks.

And I already have both the plane ticket and the train ticket. So even if I do decide to go with option one and there's a delay I'll get the Paris the next day with option two.p

Thanks for your feedback. More to think about

I'd get a hotel near Kings Cross and get a good night's sleep in London. Take the Eurostar at a reasonable hour the following day.

Overnight in London. The last thing I want to do after a 10+ hour flight is to hassle around with checking in and wait around in an aiport. I'd much rather get out and stretch my legs, spend time in the daylight to help adjust to local time. If I can check in early a quick shower is really refreshing and makes me feel human again.

I presume from the split of responses that you are no closer to making a decision based on these, so why not just toss a coin?

I am actually leaning towards staying in London, but the coin toss is a good idea :)

I have done Option 2 a couple times. Works great for me.

Spent the night at the Renaissance Hotel at St Pancras Station (used points, it was free!). Had dinner and did a little site seeing, slept well. Took the just before noon train to Paris (1st class was on sale, so got that with food and drinks included at no additional cost). Arrived well rested, well fed, and ready to go.

If you are on a direct flight from one American city to LHR, I would not worry about missing your connection. While I normally get my connections on a single ticket from the same airline, I think that 4 hours is enough.

Because I have had some nasty British immigration lines at LHR (45 minutes or more "Non EU" line, of course), it would be helpful if someone makes it clear whether you can avoid entering the U.K. to get the connecting flight. I don't know the answer.

Edit: I neglected to make the observation that changing terminals at LHR can be slow and annoying. We haven't been there in years (partly for that reason) but some issues are the bus traffic time, followed by the long security line for new passengers entering a big terminal. There is a price for saving so much money, alas.

If you already have the train ticket (as you said in one of your responses above), I would take the train.

And I already have both the plane ticket and the train ticket.

And in answer to Tim's question, since you wouldn't be on a true connecting flight, yes, you would have to go through immigration to enter the UK, then to check in for your next flight, go through passport control and security to go back on the secure side of the airport to catch your next flight.

No actually you don't always have to go through immigration. Generally I have my non-protected connection on a SkyTeam carrier so I just follow the signs to "connecting flights" and go to my new gate area. (NOTE: This only works if you don't check luggage!)

Five years ago we did the fly-to-London-train-to-Paris on the same day. We were tired but we took a nap on the train to Paris. We allowed 4 hours from landing to taking the train and that was good. The train ride was hours 2 hours 15 minutes. So that's already 6 plus hours. Since you already will be at the airport with your bags packed I would suggest that you fly to Paris the same day and wake up the next day in Paris. If you stay in London you have to go back and forth from the airport, check in and out, unpack and pack wich takes away time from you. Have fun

Not sure why you'd "go back and forth to the airport" if you were going to take the Eurostar out the next morning.

I would not be going back and forth to LHR. If I don't fly out of LHR on the day I land I would be taking the train from London. Which actually goes as a positive since that means I would not have to deal with CDG at all :)

I still have a while to make my final decision :)

Yes, that was rather a reply to Nestor as the sequence they were mentioning didn't seem to fit the logic of what you are considering!