Eurostar Channel Tunnel Ticket Cost?

Tim, that is good to know. I guess it pays to check both. For a while, the U.S. site always seemed to have higher prices than the U.K. site. Maybe they have leveled things out.

Laura,

You're right. For a while it definitely was cheaper to book tickets as a resident of the UK.

On the French version of the Eurostar site the cheapest return fare is €88 (compared to €75 on the US site). Go figure!

Yes, Eurostar now charges a fee for booking with a credit card.

Anna,

Unless you wait until the last minute to buy a ticket and have to pay full fare, it will not be cheaper if you have a railpass. The passholder fare is £57 for a single ticket and £100 for a return ticket.

And if you go to Eurostar's own website, register as a resident of the UK, and purchase in advance, you may get an even cheaper fare. The further in advance you can buy a ticket, the cheaper it will be. (But remember, you can't purchase more than four months out.)

Eurostar

No guidebook is infallible. They all have mistakes. And remember, they are written months before they are even printed. Fares change.

BTW...never use RailEurope for everything. They don't offer every train and they charge more than anyone. To get around using them, don't say you are in the US. Always pick the UK.

can you do that? select UK? hmmm...

Tracy, you can get the Eurostar ticket for less. The farther in advance you buy the ticket, the lower the price. It is possible that RS was quoting the walk-up fare. If you buy a ticket for Eurostar on the day of travel it is extremely expensive.

You generally want to buy your ticket directly from the Eurostar website to get the best price. When they ask for your country of residence, indicate UK so that you can use the UK website. The Eurostar website allows you to buy up to 4 months in advance. They give you several options for ticket retrieval.

To give you an example, I travelled from London to Paris on a one-way ticket in October and the fare was 51 GBP for a second class non-flexible ticket. I bought this ticket 6 weeks in advance; the fare would have been less if I'd bought it earlier. The prices will also vary depending on the day and time of travel, class of service, and whether you are buying a flexible or non-flexible ticket.

By the way Tracy, there is no issue with selecting UK resident on the Eurostar website. All this does is direct you to the UK site where you purchase your ticket in GBP without all the added markup that is typically on the U.S. site. You get options for printing your tickets at home or picking up in the station (they have automatic machines). When you actually purchase the ticket, you can enter your U.S. address when you put in your credit or debit card details. In October, Eurostar charged a fee (I think it was 3 GBP) to pay with credit card but no fee for debit card. I don't know if this is still the case.

You've check Eurail.com? I rather doubt that since Eurail markets only rail passes, not individual tickets, and a Eurail pass isn't even valid on the Eurostar, although Eurostar does give a discount to Eurail passholders.

If you look at their website, www.eurostar.com, you find that they have a whole tier of prices depending on the time of day, whether the tickets are exchangeable/refundable, etc. That's probably the reason for the discrepancies (that and the exchange rate, since the prices are set in Euro and GBP) in the prices you found.

thank you everyone--that makes me feel a lot better. and i may have been on eurostar not eurail--i've been on so many websites lately they are all starting to blend together!

I was a little worried about that price listed in Rick's book too. But then I got online and found a fare of $74 one-way, so I snapped it up. But, yeah, I kept thinking, "Am I doing this right?"

The book is probably quoting a refundable/changeable ticket, too. There is a vast difference in price if you are willing to commit to a date/time and buy a non-refundable ticket, and it will be even cheaper if you have a Eurail pass.

On the US version of the Eurostar site fares are given in euros and are converted to dollars when booking. The cheapest return (round trip) fare for London-Paris and back is €75. At the current exchange rate that's actually about two dollars less than if you register as a resident of the UK to get the fare in pounds.

We used the "log on to the UK site" in the past, and it worked great for us. As I recall, there was a roudtrip special where the return was virtually free. Also, the fares do go up as the specials get taken, just like airfares do.

I recently noticed that you can go to the kayak.com search engine and enter flights from London to Paris. In addition to the all the airfares (including easy-jet, etc.), it lists Eurostar trains as well. It's an easy way to look at your options. Early or late afternoon trips from $61; it goes up from there for more convenient times.

I usually check all my options before buying -- it seems that the lowest-priced sources seem to rotate a bit.

original poster here...just wondering (and i've wondered this before) would it make more sense--at least money-wise--to just fly from london to paris? i realize it is cheaper at first glance, but when you consider transportation to and from various airports into and out of city center, it makes the most sense to me to just to the eurostar trip. anyone can feel free to tell me that i'm incorrect--as i just may be! i've seen some crazy cheap airfares between the two cities.

Once you add in all the fees that discount airlines charge now, plus, as you noted, the transportation charges to/from airports, it's still at least as cheap to take the Eurostar....and certainly more stress free.

IF you fly, the cheapest fare is £25 each way on easyJet from Luton to CDG. Add £12 to take the train from central London to Luton. Add €8.50 to take the RER from CDG to central Paris. Converting everything to euro, that's about €80.

Booked well in advance, the return (round trip) fare on the Eurostar can be as low as €85.

Flying: around 45 minutes to get from central London to Luton, check in 90 minutes before departure time, 1hr20min in the air, up to an hour to get through immigration/passport control at CDG, 40 minutes to get from CDG to central Paris. Tight quarters in coach seats. Large carbon footprint. Limited departure times.

Train: 30 minute check in deadline, including security and passport control. 2hr15min ride to Gare du Nord. Walk off the train and be on your way to your hotel. Comfortable seats with plenty of legroom. Small carbon footprint. Many departure times.

Why would anyone choose to fly?

thank you. we will take the train--clearly, given all of the advice, that is the best option for both money and stress-free-ness. that is decided, and will be booked before the end of the night. we just booked lodging for the week in london. we are very excited! thank you so much for all of your advice!