One day tours to Paris from London

You'll find a number of possibilities by googling "London to Paris day trip," all involving the Eurostar train from St. Pancras in London to Gare du Nord in Paris, and return. Since the trip takes about 2 1/2 hours and you need to be checked in at least half an hour beforehand, you'll spend six hours in transit -- a big time investment for a small exposure to Paris.

I don't know about any of the guided tours, but this is a day trip you could do on your own if you're comfortable navigating Paris. The earliest train leaves London at 5:47 AM and reaches Paris at 9:17. The last train back leaves Paris at 9:13 PM and arrives London at 10:39. (Paris time is an hour later than London time.) So you could spend almost 12 hours there, enough to get an overview of the city by hop-on-hop-off bus with a few hops off to explore a few places of interest.

This wouldn't be a day trip I'd be interested in, since it's too rushed and invests too much of the day in the train rides. I'd either spend the day in or near London or invest more time in Paris, depending on how long your overall trip is. Both cities deserve much more than a day trip from each other. But if you want to split a vacation between them, the Eurostar is by far the easiest and fastest way to go, and quite affordable if booked far enough in advance.

EDIT: I just realized you've posted this under "Rick Steves Tours." He doesn't offer any one-day trips to Paris from London, or vice versa. His company's tours are described under the "Our Tours" link above and to the left.

A package tour might be the way to go since the tour operators are likely to have access to discount Eurostar tickets. If you were to go to the station and buy a return ticket, it would be at the highest price. For instance, tomorrow, May 1, It is 448 USD, or equivalent in GBP, for a one-day round trip ticket.

You've put this post in the Rick Steves' Tours area - he doesn't offer a one day tour.

Thank you guys for your info...I have never posted before so I must have put it in wrong category.

I did one of these London to Paris day tours about 10 years ago. Unless you're just looking to "check the box" on Paris, I wouldn't recommend. Most of the time in Paris spent on a bus stuck in traffic. Yes, I saw some sights from the bus, but overall it wasn't worthwhile. Wait until you can spend a few days in Paris.

I did the Eurostar daytrip from London to Paris in 2011. It was a long day, but it was totally worth it for me. I don't know when (if ever) I'll get another chance to get to Paris, so I was glad to at least get a taste of the city. It was worth it to have the tour guide and bus travel arranged, as I know we would have spent valuable time just trying to figure out where we were and where we wanted to go.