Europe Trip

Bill - If you are planning on taking the Eurostar to London, I would catch it at Gare du Nord. The RER B goes there from CDG.

Did you consider flying into London and home from Paris? That would make a little more sense. To catch the Eurostar you will need to go into Paris. Calais is on the coast and you would have to go into Paris to get to Calais. Probably not cost effective for a rail pass but you need to calculate the point to point fare prior to making a decision.

Frank, That would have made sense but I am using miles and it got complicated. This made it easiest. It is my understanding that Chunnel train has one of it's stops at Calais. Am I wrong?

No all Eurostars stop in Calais. There is BIG problem in Calais with illegal immigrants trying to get to England and it is not pleasant.

Maryann are you suggesting staying away from Calais for getting the Chunnel? Do you have alternative ideas? Thanks.

There are only two Eurostar trains per day that allow boarding in Calais on their way to London.

There are more trains that stop in Lille on their way to London. If you want to avoid having to go into Paris and catch the Eurostar at Gare du Nord, then it would be better to take a TGV from CDG to Lille and connect with the Eurostar there.

There are 17 trains/day that go from Paris to London. Obviously, those that are non-stop do not stop in Lille. Not only do you have a choice of more departure times, if you book at eurostar.com well in advance, it probably will be cheaper to buy a Paris-London Eurostar ticket than to buy a CDG-Lille TGV ticket plus a Lille-London Eurostar ticket. The fare on the RER B from CDG to Gare du Nord is less than 9 EUR.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will see what a quick flight to Heathrow will cost since I am already at the airport. Shouldn't be much different then trains. Right? Any recommendations.

Re the second part of your trip Bill, most people on this board will tell you they saved lots of money, by just booking point to point tickets instead of a rail pass. There are exception, but I'd say it's the rule.

Also, just a thought - if you don't have to be anywhere in particular on any given date (if that's true), I'd think of flying from London to Munich, then Zurich South of France, Amsterdam.

You'd save a ton of time just traveling the strait line once, instead of doing a loop, and flights are cheap.

Just a thought! Chris

The only 100% correct answer to the rail-pass question is to cost out all the alternatives and see what makes sense to you. (You might even put a flight from London to Amsterdam in the mix.)

However, unless you are young enough to be eligible for the 2nd-class passes, I doubt a pass is worth the cost on such an itinerary.

If you plan to do enough rail travel within France, the French-only rail pass, second class, can be a good value. Again, in your case, with the itinerary you've outlined, I don't think that will be the case--but you should check for yourself. (And don't use Rail Europe for a price check--they inflate their ticket prices to make their passes look good by comparison.)

Some people value the convenience and flexibility of rail passes and are willing to pay a premium for that. My only advice is to check prices so that you know just how much that premium is.

A final note: Just about everywhere in the South of France a car is useful for getting around, seeing more, and going into the countryside. So I wouldn't just get a car to drive back to Paris, but to use while you are in the south.

Have a great trip!

Your best budget airline choice is CDG-Luton on easyJet. British Airways often has fares for CDG-Heathrow that are in the same range as the budget airlines.