More Eurostar Delights

Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 9:04 am. 2 comments

You’d think I’d been travelling to France on Eurostar long enough to know the tips and tricks. In reality I go 2/3 times a year at most which hardly qualifies me for their frequent traveller club (in fact I don’t think it does).

So I learnt two things today that make my journey even easier. Firstly you can get special fares on your UK train travel to St Pancras if you show your Eurostart ticket. Normally I buy two singles, the outward anytime because I’m normally travelling peak, and an off-peak back. My friendly station ticket master Malcolm told me this morning that if I show him my Eurostart ticket then I can get a Eurostar High Saver. A return journey on any route at anytime for £30.00. Marvellous. I am not sure if e-ticket confirmations count so it may mean continuing to receive paper tickets for a while.

The second thing is getting across Paris from Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse on the metro. To avoid the queue for metro tickets I’ve now realised you can buy a carnet of ten tickets at the Eurostar information desk that can be used anytime up to a year. No more queue, no more need for change and slightly cheaper too. I think it’s laziness that’s stopped me thinking about this before, but today with my shortest cross Paris transfer window, slightly under the advised 1 hour, this might help save some useful time, especially given I might have over packed and my suitcase is rather heavy this time. Besides any time spent sitting in a cafe rather than standing in a queue is a bonus.

Seat61, the most wonderful and helpful guide to train travel especially for us train geeks, gave me a heads up on this, and they also have more useful information on the Eurostar tickets to St Pancras CIV. It seems that being protected by European conditions of carriage also apply, providing a useful insurance bonus as well as cheaper and more flexible fares. ONline booking available from this site.