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London to Paris: Different ways to travel London to Paris, the two enthralling cities: You cannot avoid making a visit to one if you already are in the other, they being so close. There are quite a few ways to travel between London and Paris. You choice will depend on your budget and time available. This article will take you through the various options available and assist you in deciding on a suitable option. You will also find important website links as you go along, to check details on fares and timings. By Bus One of the many options available is to go from London to Paris by bus. A trip to Paris from London and vise versa takes about ten hours. A roundtrip can cost between €36 to 45. Eurolines France is one of the largest tour operators in Europe. They have their own arrival and departure points at the terminus of Metro Line 3 (Gallieni) in the eastern suburb of Bagnolet. This is because the French Govt. does not allow entry of long haul buses into the centre of Paris. Even if this would take an extra 35 minutes travel to center of Paris, many people still like to travel by bus. You can reach Eurolines at www.eurolines.co.uk. By Ferry There are round the clock Ferry and Hydrofoil services between England and France. The timings are scheduled to coincide with arrival and departure of major trains especially from London and Paris. Railway stations being at walking distance from the piers make this even more convenient. Hovercraft and Hydrofoil take approximately 40 minutes to go across the channel from Dover, England to Calais, France. This is one of the most popular and shortest routes to reach across. Slower moving ferries depend on the weather and tides and may take several hours. It is important to make prior reservations if a car has to be transported too, since the space below the decks is usually crowded. The biggest drawback lies in chances of last minute cancellations of trips due to storms and bad weather. P and O ferries is one of the leading ferry operators to go across the channel. They make 25 crossings each day between Dover and Calais and each trip takes about 75 minutes. A one way ticket will cost you about €10 per person. Trips to and from other destinations are also available. Rates and timings may be checked on www.poferries.com. There is also Hoverspeed, which runs about 12 hovercraft crossings daily between Dover and Calais, each trip taking 35 minutes. They also have a catamaran service propelled by jet engines called Sea Cat which takes some more time. A one way ticket will cost you about €28 per person. Bookings can be made on www.hoverspeed.com. Charges for transporting a car start from €130 or $169 one way. Before you take a hired car into another country, check license and insurance requirements with your car rental company. Many rental companies do not allow transportation of their vehicles across borders with sufficient documents. By Air You can find many airlines that fly frequently between city and other airports of London and Paris. Several flights are also available from big cities like Edinburgh, Manchester and Southampton. To get more details on flight timings, airports and fares, use the following contact links: Air France- www.airfrance.com, Aer Lingus www.aerlingus.com, British Airways - www.britishairways.com and British Midland -www.flybmi.com). For cheaper airfares, have a look at budget airlines like Ryan Air (www.ryanair.com) and Easy Jet (www.easyjet.com). Though the airfare is very less, remember to take into account the extra local travel charges as these fly from airports away from the city centre. The flight travel time is only 1 hr 15 minutes but the check in wait time at the airport must be taken into account and bus ride from the city center. If you total up the flight and local travel costs you can land up paying anywhere between $60-110. The total time for commuting time including local travel and flight is about between 4-5 hours. You can get some discounts on online, advance, roundtrip or bookings for weekdays. By Channel Tunnel – Eurostar An attractive option is to go across through the Chunnel, the popular name for the Channel Tunnel. This great engineering marvel was constructed at a cost of $15 billions in 1994. Besides being a unique experience by itself, this mode is almost as fast as air travel and also eliminates the hassles of weather related delays, seasickness and need for advance reservations. The tunnel is made of 3 interconnections which consist of 2 rail tracks, one from each side and a service tunnel. The total length is 31 miles. Of these 31 miles, 23 miles are underwater, with an average depth of 150 under the sea bed. The 50 km. journey is completed in 35 minutes out of which 19 are spent under water. Duty free stores, restaurants and other services are provided on both sides and there is bilingual staff to assist the passengers As you can see, Eurostar is the quickest way to reach Paris via Brussels from London. It is a super duper fast and a high passenger capacity train, which takes just 2 hours and 35 minutes to travel between the two destinations. The most convenient part is that you can get picked up and dropped at the city centers. There is a daily service between Waterloo, London to Gare Du Nord, Paris. The main stoppages are London Waterloo, Ashford International, Calais –Frethun, Lille Europe, Brussels–Midi/Zuid and finally Paris Gare du Nord. Similar to airlines check in system, you need to pass through security check and passport identification. For this, passengers are required to check in half an hour before the departure time. Eurostar tickets can be bought at the Rail Europe website, www.raileurope.com. There are special deals for people having rail passes, students, challenged people and their companions. You can also purchase other Eurostar linked tour services from their website. You can find a range of facilities to select from standard class, premium class, leisure select and on board dining. Passenger cars, chartered buses, taxies and bikes can be transported under the channel from Folkstone in England to Calais in France. For heavy traffic timings, they provide a 15 minutes service and a service every hour at night. To buy tickets, present yourself at the tollbooth at the entrance of Le shuttle tunnel. You can check details at www.eurotunnel.com. Prior to boarding, motorists are required to stop at the tollbooth and clear both British and French immigration formalities at the same time. You can then drive into the AC carriages of the train. During the journey you may either stay inside their cars or step out to relax. You can simply drive off your car at the end of this trip. The entire process takes about an hour. To conclude, you can see that there are many options to select from for traveling between London and Paris. What you need to do is, decide the time you are willing to spend in travel and the money you want to shell out. Some travelers may be required to apply for visa to go from London to Paris. Visa requirements depend on visitor’s nationality, passport and visa you hold. For visa policies and detailed information, you can visit www.ambafrance-uk.org. Paris is not far after all! Related
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