travel between London And Paris

Never flown from London to Paris, but have done the Eurostar and highly recommend it. It's failry cheap if you book far enough in advance. You don't have to go through the hassle of going through the airport and arriving early. With all of the waiting around at the airport, it's probably faster than flying. Plus, the train drops you at Gare du Nord, so you'll be in the city practically as soon as you step off the train.

Definitely take the Eurostar from London to Paris. City center to city center in less than 2 1/2 hours is faster than flying. Book ASAP (up to 120 days allowed) at eurostar.com to get the lowest fare. If you wait, the price will only go up. British Airways flies to Heathrow from both Orly and CDG. Booked well in advance, fares are reasonable. For a list of Heathrow hotels with links to detailed information on each one, go to this page on the London Toolkit site.

If you have not yet booked your transatlantic tickets, book into London and out of Paris. Even if this is "more expensive," you will save a lot of money and time (getting back from Paris to London is not free). If your transatlantic tickets are already booked and cost too much to change, you have to be very careful. A ticket from Paris to London, bought separately from your transatlantic ticket, means you have to watch for several possible problems: 1. The weight limit and size limits for luggage (both carry on and checked) on the PAR-LON flight will be much lower than on a transatlantic flight. 2. Your bags ill most likely not be interlined, so you will have to retrieve your bags in London and re-check them. 3. Most important of all: since you are traveling on separate tickets, if your first flight is late and you miss your LON-ORD plane, you will have no recourse. You will have to buy a last minute ticket from LON to ORD, and you can imagine what that costs. If you are ticketed on 1 itinerary, even if the route is PAR-LON-ORD: 1. The higher transatlantic luggage allowances apply to all legs. 2. Your bags will be checked through to ORD.
3. If you miss your connection, the airline will put you on the next available flight, at no extra expense to you. If I had to travel on separate tickets, I would either allow a large number of hours, or else plan an overnight in London, to ensure I didn't miss my flight home. continued..

continued.. For your first question, that's easy. The train (called Eurostar) goes from central London to central Paris, painlessly, in less than 2 and a half hours. Even if a flight is cheaper, you have to factor in the time. money, and hassle it takes to get to and from the airports at each end - not worth it. The tickets start out affordable, and then go up in price as you get closer to the travel date. Book as soon as you know your schedule for best fares. As for airline choice, British Air and Virgin Atlantic get somewhat better reviews overall than United and American (your choices for nonstops between Chicago and London). However, in coach, it probably doesn't matter too much; I'd choose based on price and schedule. If you are flying business or first class, however, there are apparently significant differences in the airplane beds, arrival lounges, and such, and someone who has actually flown them should be consulted (flyertalk.com is a good resource).

When choosing a trans-Atlantic airline, I pay attention to the policy on advance selection of seats. They vary on when selection can be made, if at all. British Air has earned criticism for its narrow attitude, especially towards economy passengers.

Nancy, While you could travel from London to Paris via budget flight, using the EuroStar would be a much better idea, and probably much faster. As previously mentioned, prices for the EuroStar are much cheaper when purchased well in advance. Have a look at This Website for further information. When will this trip be taking place? Flying back to Heathrow may not be a good idea, considering the problems they've been experiencing lately. This will likely get much worse when the Olympics are underway. If you're not able to get open-jaw tickets to fly home from Paris and still want to use a budget flight back to London, you might find better and cheaper flight options into Stanstead, Luton or Gatwick. For example, EasyJet has flights from CDG to LTN currently listed as low as €32.99 (plus a few "fees"). Happy travels!