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Use this
form to buy special tickets from almost any station in
Britain to a destination called London
International (CIV), in other words, St
Pancras, to be used in conjunction with Eurostar
tickets, see the booking
tips below for more info.
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Booking
tips...
1. Tickets to London International
(CIV)
are a well-kept secret! They're
just like a normal train ticket to London, but (a)
they include the Underground to St Pancras if
you need it, (b) they have fewer time
restrictions than an equivalent normal ticket
to London, so are much cheaper if you need to
travel in the Monday-Friday peak hours, and
(c) they ensure that 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,
see
explanation & full details.
2. Select an arrival time at London
International (in other words, at St Pancras) at least 50 minutes before your
Eurostar departs, to allow for check-in & a
possible delay to your UK train. Allow
longer if you like...
3. When you select a fare, check that
it's a special ticket to 'London
International' for use with a Eurostar
ticket, not just an ordinary ticket to St
Pancras, by clicking on 'For details
of the selected fare, click here'. If
the details say
'These tickets can only be purchased with
proof of onward European travel' &
'Individual Train Company & CIV Conditions
apply', then you've got the
right ticket!
4. You can now go ahead & buy your
ticket to London International
online. Be prepared to show your
Eurostar tickets on board the train, if
asked.
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If this system fails to produce suitable
through fares in the results, simply buy
separate tickets from your local station to
London as shown here.
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On this
page...
We don't all live in London, and most of us will start our journey to mainland Europe at our local station.
This page explains the best way to arrange the UK part of your journey, with
advice on how to cut the cost or even by-pass London using direct
cruise ferries from the
south, west & north of England to mainland Europe... Here are the main
options:
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Option 2:
Buy a separate train ticket to London to connect with Eurostar.
There are special fares from almost any station 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.
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Option 3:
Pick up Eurostar at Ebbsfleet or Ashford, ideal if you live in
Kent, East Sussex or South London. South Eastern Trains offer free
train travel from any of their station to Ebbsfleet or
Ashford, just show your passport & Eurostar ticket;
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Option 4:
Take an overnight cruise ferry from Scotland, 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...
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Option 5:
Take a ferry from the West Country or South Coast to France
then a train to Paris,
by-passing London.
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Option 6:
Take a ferry from East Anglia to Holland,
by-passing London, for trains to Milan, Vienna, Prague or Switzerland.
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Option 7: Belfast & Northern
Ireland to Europe: Take a rail+sail journey to London,
see the Northern Ireland page.
Option 1: Buy a Eurostar through ticket...
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...from 130 towns &
cities all over Britain to Paris or Brussels.
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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.
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Use the online
booking form below to see
which UK stations have through tickets to Paris, Lille & Brussels
& to book online.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
Option 2: Buy a separate train ticket to London...
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European train booking agencies such as Rail Europe
or German Railways UK office can
only generally 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...
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...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.
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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.
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From Scotland, you can combine the overnight
Caledonian Sleeper with a morning Eurostar to Paris or Brussels,
see here for details.
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From Cornwall or Devon, you can combine the Night
Riviera sleeper with a morning Eurostar to Paris or Brussels,
see here for details.
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These are a well-kept secret! There are special
fares from most
railway stations in Britain to a destination called London International,
specially for use in conjunction with a Eurostar ticket. They come in two
versions, Advance (cheap, book-ahead, inflexible, price varies) and Saver (flexible,
can be bought on the day, price doesn't vary).
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You can buy these fares online
using the booking form above,
at any time after you've bought your Eurostar tickets.
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Or you can buy them at your local station.
You must show your Eurostar ticket to qualify,
although sometimes the booking printout is sufficient. The flexible
Saver variety (but not the cheaper Advance type) can be bought on the day of travel if necessary, 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 be prepared to be polite but firm.
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Or buy 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 during office hours. The staff there are very helpful.
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Fewer time restrictions: The flexible
Saver (as opposed to
inflexible train-specific Advance) tickets to London
International generally have no time restrictions at all. In
other words, you can hop on any train you like, even in the Monday-Friday
business peaks when normal Off-Peak fares are not valid, in order to connect
with your Eurostar to Europe. This can be very useful. A handful of
operators introduced time restrictions for these fares in December 2007, so
please check, but you'll
still find the time restrictions more generous than with normal Saver fares.
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You're then 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.
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They include the Underground to
St Pancras: Tickets to London International include the Underground across London to St Pancras, if
you arrive at one of the other London terminal stations and need the Underground
to reach St Pancras. From Euston, it's easier to walk 5 minutes along the
main road than to try and take the Underground for just one stop.
Option 3: Board Eurostar at Ebbsfleet or
Ashford...
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Ebbsfleet International (M25)...
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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.
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But you can also travel to Ebbsfleet
free of charge by train from any South Eastern Trains station just by
showing your passport & Eurostar ticket. From December 2009 South Eastern
will operate high-speed trains from places such as Dover, Folkestone,
Canterbury, Ashford direct to Ebbsfleet International, but in the meantime
regular trains run on their classic routes to nearby stations such as Gravesend,
with a FastTrack bus link to Ebbsfleet International (no longer free - a small
fare is now payable for the bus).
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To see an access map of Ebbsfleet,
see a list of station facilities, also to confirm arrangements for this free
train travel and see a list of participating South Eastern stations, go to
www.eurostar.com, click 'Travel Information', then
'Eurostar terminals' then 'Ebbsfleet International'.
Ashford (Kent)...
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A handful of Eurostars call at
Ashford International, which has good direct train connections from Brighton,
Hastings, Canterbury, Maidstone, Dover.
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You can travel to Ashford by train
free of charge from any South Eastern Trains station just by showing your
passport & Eurostar ticket. To confirm arrangements for this free train
travel and see a list of participating South Eastern stations, go to
www.eurostar.com, click 'Travel Information', then
'Eurostar terminals' then 'Ashford International'.
Option 4: By-pass London with a cruise
ferry from the North of England or Scotland to Europe...
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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.
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Above: 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
See the video... |
Take a direct cruise
ferry from Scotland or the North of England to Europe...
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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.
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Hull-Rotterdam & 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
http://bahn.hafas.de to check train times to destinations further into
Europe.
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Edinburgh-Zeebrugge: Norfolkline (www.norfolkline-ferries.co.uk)
starts a new Rosyth (near Edinburgh) to Zeebrugge service from Spring 2009.
Sailing at 17:00 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, arriving Zeebrugge at 13:00
next day. Returning, it sails from Zeebrugge at 18:00 on Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays, arriving Rosyth at 14:00 next day. Book online at
www.norfolkline-ferries.co.uk or
call 0844 499 0007. A range of cabins is available. Take a taxi to Zeebrugge
station then a half-hourly train to Bruges & Brussels, you can check train times
& fares at www.b-rail.be.
It promises to be a good quality service, but a test booking for May came up
with a £5 foot passenger fare plus £255 for a (compulsory) cabin, so
different-planet I checked it by phone, so you may still want to take a train
south to Hull or Newcastle and go from there daily!
... then take a direct sleeper train from Amsterdam to Vienna, Milan,
Switzerland, Prague, Munich, Warsaw, Moscow...
It's worth knowing that there are
overnight sleeper trains from Amsterdam Centraal direct to Vienna (Fri, Sat &
Sun), Milan (Fri, Sat & Sun),
Prague (daily), Munich (daily March-Nov, only on Mon, Fri, Sat Sun at other times), Switzerland
(daily March-Nov, only on Mon, Fri, Sat Sun at other times), Copenhagen (daily), Warsaw
(daily) and even Moscow (daily). 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/citynightline (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
http://bahn.hafas.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 0900-1700 Monday-Friday.
Option 5: By-pass London, taking a ferry from
the West Country or South Coast...
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Travelling from the
West of
England or South Coast? The ferry alternative...
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.
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Above: Brittany Ferries 'Bretagne' waiting to sail from Portsmouth to
Caen... |
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.voyages-sncf.com (English button at the bottom).
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.
Option 6: By-pass London, taking a ferry from
East Anglia to Holland...
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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 National Express East 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 £29 each way using the daytime ferry or £55 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 Vienna, Milan,
Prague, Munich, Switzerland...
It's worth knowing that there are
overnight sleeper trains from Amsterdam Centraal direct to Vienna (Fri, Sat &
Sun), Milan (Fri, Sat & Sun), Prague (daily), Munich (daily March-Nov, only Mon,
Fri, Sat Sun at other times), Switzerland (daily March-Nov, on Mon, Fri,
Sat Sun at other times), Copenhagen (daily), Warsaw (daily) and even Moscow
(daily). 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/citynightline (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
http://bahn.hafas.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. |
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