|
||||
|
|
||||
|
|
to London, but (a) they include the
Underground to St Pancras (if your train
arrives at one of the other London termini),
(b) they have fewer time restrictions
than an normal ticket to London, so are much
cheaper than normal tickets if you need to
travel in the Monday-Friday peak hours to
connect with Eurostar, and (c) they
ensure that the international conditions
of carriage (CIV) apply to your
UK journey, covering you if you miss a
Eurostar because of a late-running UK train
or vice versa,
If your
journey starts outside London...
We don't all live in London, and most of us will start our journey to mainland Europe at our local station, be that in Scotland, Wales, the Midlands, the North, the West Country, wherever. This page explains some clever ways to add affordable UK train travel to your Eurostar journey, and some clever ways to by-pass London completely using ferry services from the North of England, East Anglia, the West Country and South Coast direct to Europe, avoiding London. Here are the main options:
-
Option 1: Buy a Eurostar through ticket.
Eurostar offers cheap fares from over 130 UK towns & cities to Paris or Brussels, cutting the cost of reaching Europe from the regions...
-
Option 2: Buy a separate train ticket to London.
There are special fares from many stations in Britain to a destination called London International (CIV) (meaning St Pancras), designed to be used in conjunction with Eurostar tickets. They're a well-kept secret! Read all about them here, then buy one using the online booking form opposite, after you've bought your Eurostar tickets.
-
Option 3: Pick up Eurostar at Ebbsfleet or Ashford, ideal if you live in Kent, East Sussex or South London.
-
Option 4: Take an overnight cruise ferry from Newcastle or Hull to Belgium or Holland by-passing London. Spend the day in Amsterdam, then take a direct sleeper train to Prague, Zurich, Munich, Copenhagen or Warsaw, a wonderful way from the North of England or Scotland to the heart of Europe without flying and without negotiating London...
-
Option 5: Take a ferry from the West Country or South Coast to France then a train to Paris, by-passing London.
-
Option 6: Take a ferry from East Anglia to Holland, by-passing London, for trains to Milan, Vienna, Prague or Switzerland.
-
Option 7: Belfast & Northern Ireland to Europe: Take a SailRail journey to London, see the Northern Ireland page.
Option 1: Buy a Eurostar through ticket...
...from 130 UK towns & cities to Paris or Brussels.
-
Eurostar now offers through tickets from over 130 UK towns & cities to Paris, Lille & Brussels in partnership with 9 UK train companies: These through fares are usually cheaper than buying separate UK tickets.
-
To state the obvious, if you're heading for (say) Switzerland, Italy or Spain and want to take advantage of these through fares from UK cities to Paris, then instead of booking from London to Switzerland, Italy or Spain at www.raileurope.co.uk and buying a separate UK train ticket to London, first book a through ticket from your local UK station to Paris at www.eurostar.com, then book a ticket from Paris to Switzerland, Italy or Spain at www.raileurope.co.uk.
-
How these Eurostar through tickets work: Booking opens around 12 weeks (90 days) in advance. After booking, you are emailed two reservation codes, one to get the UK part of the ticket out of the FastTicket machine at your UK starting station, the other to get the Eurostar part of the ticket out of the e-ticket machines at London St Pancras. For longer distance travel (for example, Manchester to Paris) they are only valid on the specific UK train which directly connects with your Eurostar, so if you want to stop off in London for any reason, or stay flexible, you should buy separate tickets as shown in option 2 below.
-
Advantages of buying a through ticket: Your whole journey will be covered by the international railway conditions of carriage, known as 'Convention Internationale pour le transport des Voyageurs' or 'CIV' . Amongst other things, this means that if your UK train is late and you miss a Eurostar through no fault of your own, you will be re-booked on the next available departure even if you ticket is theoretically non-changeable. A useful protection!
-
A comment about these through fares... The booking system seems to work best from stations close to London that have 'walk up' tickets to London such as Reading, Stevenage, High Wycombe, where the system can simply add a fixed-price add-on to whatever the Eurostar price is, without the need to check seat availability. Stations further from London (such as Leeds or Manchester) require the system to check availability for the domestic leg to London, using a quota of tickets allocated specially for these European through journeys. Sometimes this quota isn't very big and gets used up, particularly from stations like Edinburgh or Glasgow where they don't seem to allocate many tickets in the first place. Instead of doing the sensible thing and automatically adding the price of a 'walk-up' always-available Off-Peak Edinburgh-London ticket to the Eurostar fare, the system simply says there are no trains which meet your requirements, when there certainly are. If this happens, just buy a London-Paris ticket and buy a separate ticket to London International CIV as explained in option 2 below.
-
How to buy these through tickets if you live in France, Belgium or overseas: You can buy these through tickets in either direction, so for example you can buy a one-way or return ticket from Paris to York or from Brussels to Bath. But you must change the site setting on www.eurostar.com to UK English at top right so that you make the booking in pounds sterling on the UK version of Eurostar's website. These 130 UK regional destinations will not show up on the French, Belgian, Dutch, US, or Rest of World versions of their site. This is because UK train companies won't accept payment in euros or dollars, and Eurostar won't speculate by taking payment in euros but settling with UK train operators in pounds. So only the pound-based UK version of the Eurostar site can sell tickets to these UK destinations beyond London. Or perhaps we just don't want any French or Belgians visiting York or Bath or anywhere beyond London?! There are no problems in booking with 'UK English' selected even if you live in France, Belgium or overseas.
Option 2:
Buy a separate train ticket to London
European train booking agencies such as Rail Europe or German Railways UK office can usually only sell tickets starting at London St Pancras, Ebbsfleet or Ashford, so you'll need to buy a separate ticket to London to connect with Eurostar. You have two options:
...Buy a normal train ticket to London.
-
...at whatever the cheapest fare happens to be. You can check fares and buy online using the booking form above, or via www.nationalrail.co.uk, or you can buy at the station ticket office. The 30-second guide to British train tickets on the UK travel page will help you understand the 3 different types of UK train ticket.
-
Make sure you allow plenty of time to connect with Eurostar, allowing for the 30 minute Eurostar check-in and any delay to your UK train.
-
From Scotland, you can combine the overnight Caledonian Sleeper with a morning Eurostar to Paris or Brussels, see here for details.
-
From Cornwall or Devon, you can combine the Night Riviera sleeper with a morning Eurostar to Paris or Brussels, see here for details.
...or buy a special ticket to London International.
-
These London International tickets are a well-kept secret! There are special fares from most railway stations in Britain to a destination called London International, specially intended for use in connection with a Eurostar ticket. They come in two versions, Advance (must be booked in advance, the price varies, it's only valid on the specific train you book) and Open/Saver (flexible, usually valid on any train that day, can be bought on the day of travel, price doesn't vary). Since 2010 these special tickets to London International no longer exist from every station in Britain, but they still exist from most stations on most train companies' networks so are well worth knowing about.
-
Advantage 1: Fewer time restrictions! The flexible Open/Saver fare to London International generally has no time restrictions at all. In other words, you can hop on any train you like, even in the expensive Monday-Friday business peaks when normal Off-Peak fares are not valid, to connect with a Eurostar to Europe. This can be very useful. A handful of operators introduced time restrictions for these fares in 2007, so please check, but you'll still find the time restrictions more generous than with normal Off-Peak fares.
-
Advantage 2: You're covered by the International Conditions of Carriage (CIV): If you use a ticket to London International (CIV) to connect with Eurostar, you are covered by the international conditions of carriage (Convention Internationale pour le transport des Voyageurs or 'CIV'), rather than the normal domestic National Rail Conditions of Carriage, for your whole journey. So if the UK train is late and you miss your Eurostar, the CIV conditions of carriage oblige Eurostar to put you on the next available Eurostar without additional charge, even if your ticket theoretically restricts you to the specific Eurostar you've booked. Similarly, if your return Eurostar arrives late into London and you miss your onward UK connection, the UK train operator is obliged to let you take the next available train, even if you have a train-specific Advance ticket.
-
Advantage 3: They include the Underground to St Pancras: If you arrive at one of the other London terminal stations and need the Underground to reach St Pancras, tickets to London International include the Underground. Although from Euston, it's easier to walk 5 minutes along the main road than to try and take the Underground for just one stop.
-
How to check if these special tickets exist from your local station: Go to www.brfares.com. Enter the name of your local station. Enter 'London' and select 'London International' from the list that appears. If any fare appears in the results with the word 'EURO' in it (but without the letters ITX, that's a special rate for tour agencies) then you can indeed buy a special ticket to London International. If there are no restrictions shown, you can hop on any train. Green background = returns, orange background = one-ways. You can only buy them to London International (one way or return) you cannot buy one ways or returns starting in London.
-
Buy these fares online using the booking form above, at any time after you've bought your Eurostar tickets, just enter 'London International' as your destination. To check whether the fare you choose in the search results is a special fare with CIV conditions of carriage, click the 'i' against the price. If the fare conditions refer to Eurostar, then you've got one of these special tickets! Tip: Sometimes a normal 'advance' ticket to London is cheapest, and may even be the only fare shown in the 'cheapest fares' section - but if you click to see 'Flexible fares', you may find a flexible ticket to London International with CIV conditions.
-
Buy them in person at your local station. You must show your Eurostar ticket to qualify, with some train companies a booking printout is sufficient, but not always. The flexible Saver variety (but not the cheaper Advance type) can be bought on the day of travel if necessary as the price doesn't change, no advance reservation is necessary, and they are available in unlimited numbers. Ticket office staff aren't always 100% familiar with these London International fares, so if they feign ignorance, be prepared to be polite but firm.
-
Buy them by phone from Eurostar's domestic travel office: If you have any difficulty buying a ticket to London International online or at a station, you can buy them by phone from Eurostar on 01233 617913, lines open 09:00 to 17:00 Monday-Friday. The staff there are very helpful.
Option 3: Eurostar
from Ebbsfleet or
Ashford...
Ebbsfleet International (M25)...
-
Many Eurostars call at Ebbsfleet in Kent, near Gravesend and not far from the M25. There's plenty of car parking, around £11 a day.
-
You can also travel to Ebbsfleet by train. From 13 December 2009 South Eastern Trains will operate high-speed 'Javelin' trains from Dover, Folkestone, Canterbury & Ashford direct to Ebbsfleet International, or you can take regular trains to Gravesend, then take the FastTrack bus link from Gravesend station to Ebbsfleet International (the bus is no longer free, a small fare is now payable).
-
Important: Sadly, the arrangement where you could travel free of charge to Ebbsfleet from anywhere on the South Eastern Trains network just by showing a Eurostar ticket is discontinued as of 13 December 2009.
-
To see an access map of Ebbsfleet and see a list of station facilities, see www.eurostar.com, click 'Travel Information', then 'Eurostar terminals' then 'Ebbsfleet International'.
Ashford (Kent)...
-
A handful of Eurostars call at Ashford International, which has good direct train connections from Brighton, Hastings, Canterbury, Maidstone, Dover.
-
Important: Sadly, the arrangement where you could travel free of charge from anywhere on the South Eastern Trains network to Ashford just by showing a Eurostar ticket is discontinued as of 13 December 2009.
Option 4:
Ferry from the North of England
If you live in the north of England or Scotland, by all means buy a Eurostar through ticket or buy a ticket to London to connect with Eurostar. As Kings Cross and St Pancras stations are adjacent, and Euston only a short walk away, interchange is really easy between Eurostar and domestic UK trains arriving at Euston, Kings Cross or St Pancras. But depending on your final destination, also consider by-passing London & Eurostar, using an overnight cruise ferry direct from the North of England to mainland Europe.
 Cruise overnight from Newcastle to Amsterdam with DFDS Seaways, then take direct sleeper trains to Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Milan, Copenhagen, Warsaw or Prague... Photo courtesy of DFDS |
Take a direct ferry from the North of England...
-
Newcastle-Amsterdam: An overnight cruise ferry run by DFDS Seaways sails daily from Newcastle at 17:00 (North Shields ferry terminal, arriving in Amsterdam (IJmuiden ferry terminal) at 09:30 next morning. Buses & taxis link IJmuiden with central Amsterdam. Allow at least 2 hours between your train arriving at Newcastle Central Station and the ferry sailing from Newcastle's International Ferry Terminal, a bus links Newcastle station with the terminal, journey time 30 minutes or so.
-
Hull-Rotterdam & Hull-Zeebrugge: P&O ferries sail overnight from Hull to Rotterdam (for trains to Amsterdam or Brussels, see www.ns.nl for times & prices) & Zeebrugge (for trains to Brussels, see www.b-rail.be for times & prices). Use www.bahn.de to check train times to destinations further into Europe.
... then take a direct sleeper train from Amsterdam to Switzerland, Prague, Munich, Copenhagen, Warsaw...
It's worth knowing that there are overnight sleeper trains from Amsterdam Centraal direct to Prague, Munich, Basel, Zurich, Copenhagen, Warsaw. These are the same City Night Line sleeper trains shown on the other pages of this website as going from Cologne, as that's where Eurostar passengers from London normally pick them up. But they all in fact start in Amsterdam. So instead of taking a train up to London, then Eurostar, then a connection to Cologne, why not cruise overnight by ferry from Newcastle or Hull to Holland, spend the day exploring Amsterdam, then travel on by sleeper? Left luggage lockers are available in Amsterdam. You can book all of these sleeper trains online at www.bahn.de (English button top right).
...or cruise overnight to Holland then use daytime trains onward...
Alternatively, take one of these overnight cruise ferries to Holland then use daytime trains to places such as Berlin or Basel, arriving in the evening. Simply use www.bahn.de to find train times, allowing plenty of time for connections, then book those trains by calling DB's UK office on 08718 80 80 66, lines open 09:00-20:00 Monday-Friday, 09:00-13:00 weekends.
Option
5: Ferry from the West or South Coast
Travelling from the West of England or South Coast? The ferry alternative...
 Brittany Ferries Bretagne waiting to sail from Portsmouth to Caen... |
If you live in the West Country or along the South Coast, by all means buy a Eurostar through ticket or buy a ticket to London to connect with Eurostar. But also consider a ferry crossing direct to France then a train to Paris. Once in Paris you can pick up the trains to Italy, Switzerland or Spain shown on the relevant country pages of this site.
| From: | To: | Operator | From: | To: | Operator | |||||
| Plymouth | Roscoff | Brittany Ferries | Portsmouth | St Malo | Brittany Ferries | |||||
| Poole | Cherbourg | Brittany Ferries | Weymouth/Poole | St Malo | www.condorferries.co.uk | |||||
| Portsmouth | Cherbourg | Brittany Ferries | Portsmouth | Le Havre | www.ldlines.co.uk | |||||
| Portsmouth | Caen | Brittany Ferries | Newhaven | Dieppe | www.ldlines.co.uk |
For example, taking the 23:45 overnight Brittany Ferries ship from Portsmouth to Caen with a comfortable cabin reserved arriving 07:30, then taking the 09:24 train from Caen to Paris arriving 11:11, works well to catch an afternoon train to the South of France or Switzerland, or even the overnight sleepers to Italy or Spain. The 22:00 overnight ferry from Plymouth arrives Roscoff 08:00, a train from Roscoff will get you to Paris by around 16:10-18:20.
To check train times & fares from any of these French ports to Paris (and to book online) use either www.raileurope.co.uk (in English, for UK residents) or www.tgv-europe.com, but see this advice before using it). Once in Paris you can pick up the trains to the South of France, Spain, Italy & Switzerland recommended on the other country pages of this site. Remember to allow plenty of time (90 minutes+) for interchange between ferry and railway station at the French port.
Dover to Paris...
Train +ferry options from London & Dover to Calais & Paris are shown on the London to Paris by train+ferry page.
Cruise ferries direct to Spain...
Don't forget that Brittany Ferries sail up to 5 times each week direct from Plymouth & Portsmouth to Santander & Bilbao in northern Spain, see the Spain page. A superb way to get there!
Option 6:
Ferry from
East Anglia to Holland
Travelling from East Anglia? Take the superferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland...
If you live in East Anglia, you can buy a cheap combined train+ferry ticket from any Greater Anglia rail station (for example, Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich, Bury st Edmunds or even London) to any station in the Netherlands (for example, Amsterdam or Utrecht) via Stena Line's Harwich-Hoek van Holland superferries. Fares are great value, around £45 each way using the daytime ferry or £75 each way using the overnight ferry including a private en suite cabin. See the UK to the Netherlands page for details.
... then take a direct sleeper train from Amsterdam to Prague, Copenhagen, Munich, Switzerland...
It's worth knowing that there are overnight sleeper trains from Amsterdam Centraal direct to Prague, Munich, Zurich, Copenhagen, Warsaw. These are the same City Night Line sleeper trains shown on the other pages of this website as going from Cologne, as that's where Eurostar passengers from London normally pick them up. But they all in fact start in Amsterdam. So instead of taking a train up to London, then Eurostar, then a connection to Cologne, why not cruise overnight by ferry from Harwich to Hook and take a train on to Amsterdam, spend the day exploring Amsterdam, then travel on by sleeper? Left luggage lockers are available in Amsterdam. You can book all of these sleeper trains online at www.bahn.de (English button top right).
...or use the overnight ferry then onward daytime trains.
Alternatively, take the overnight ferry from Harwich to Hook of Holland then use daytime trains to places such as Berlin or Basel, arriving in the evening. Use www.bahn.de to find train times, allowing plenty of time for connections, then book the trains by calling DB's UK office on 08718 80 80 66, lines open 0900-1700 Monday-Friday.