I Rode Eurostar from London to Paris: My Unfiltered Thoughts
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As an American, to be critical of the Eurostar trains at all feels a bit silly.
I mean, of course I love the Eurostar. It took me from London to Paris, underneath the Strait of Dover in 2 hours and 34 minutes. On a bus, that would’ve taken over 8 hours.
The Amtrak I take from New York to Burlington is just 60 miles further, yet takes 7 and a half hours.
As somebody used to taking Amtrak, the Eurostar is a spiritual experience.
On the one hand, it felt futuristic, a thrill to watch the vineyards of northern France zoom past me with a soft hum. On the other hand, a sadness sank in. My country is nowhere near building something similar.
And yet, the Eurostar, despite its speed, still has all the typical problems that can come with traveling.
In this article, I’ll share my Eurostar experience and all the intel I have for you.
Let’s get into it.
Overview of the Eurostar Experience
The Eurostar train service began operations in 1994. It connected the UK with continental Europe via rail. To do this, they had to complete the Channel Tunnel (often called the “Chunnel”), one of the world’s most ambitious engineering projects of the 20th century.
To put into a U.S. context just how incredible this is, the North Atlantic Rail proposal to connect Boston and New York in a similar timeframe proposes building under the Long Island Sound, which is 21 miles at its widest point.
We’ve yet to start this and it’s considered a pipedream, but Europe did something more impressive back in the 90s.
The existence of high-speed rail itself is amazing. I would take the speed alone, even if it meant the attendent spat in my face when I boarded.
Routes Offered on Eurostar
Eurostar continues to expand. Here are their key routes.
- London to Paris: The flagship route, connecting St. Pancras International with Gare du Nord
- London to Brussels: Connecting to the heart of Belgium in just over 2 hours
- London to Amsterdam: A newer route launched in 2018, taking around 4 hours
- London to Lille: A quick connection to northern France
- Seasonal routes: Including direct services to southern France (Avignon, Marseille) and the French Alps during ski season
The London-Paris route remains the most popular. They have trains departing roughly every hour during peak times.
Basic Stats: Eurostar vs Flying and Other Options
The London to Paris Eurostar journey covers approximately 306 miles (492 km) and takes just 2 hours and 16 minutes on the fastest services. The train reaches speeds of up to 186 mph (300 km/h).
Here’s how it stacks up to other London-Paris options.
| Transport Method | Travel Time | Check-in Time | Total Journey Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eurostar | 2h 30m | 45–60m | ~3h 30m |
| Flight | 1h 15m | 2h minimum | ~4h minimum |
| Bus | 8h+ | 30m | ~9h |
| Car + Ferry | 5h 30m+ | 1h+ | ~7h |
Aside from the speed, there are a few other clear advantages of Eurostar.
City-Center Connection
London and Paris’s airports are far outside the city center. This means that for flying, you have to factor in other travel time and money. The Gatwick Express, which I took when I flew Norse to London, cost over $25.
Eurostar, on the other hand, takes you right to the city center.
No Luggage Limit
While airlines often charge you extra for carry-ons these days, Eurostar has no luggage limit. They write, “All we ask is that you’re able to transport your bags safely on and off the train and that they’re stored out of harm’s way in our dedicated areas.”
So as long as you can carry it without a problem, you can take it on the Eurostar.
Way Better for The Environment
Eurostar is fully electrified. Meanwhile, flying uses a ton of jet fuel. I’ve written elsewhere about how destructive flying is for the planet.
You can take the Eurostar ten times before you’d match the environmental footprint of one short flight.
Booking Experience
My partner and I planned our Europe trip well in advance. When booking months out, we were able to buy tickets for $76 per person for a 9am train.
However, if you buy last-minute, the tickets are in the hundreds of dollars.
Seeing these types of prices on last-minute trains makes me a little sad. We should be encouraging people to use the most sustainable form of transportation.
Regardless, the lesson here is clear: buy your tickets weeks in advance.
This is a Thursday, five days out, and the cheapest is $290. I don’t have solutions, I’m just hear to complain that I don’t like this. We should incentivize the cleanest option.
Eurostar is flexible with changes
My partner and I had to move our Europe trip to a whole 8 months later. We lost money on the flight changes, but even with the Eurostar Standard, to rebook our train, all we had to do was pay the difference. In our case, this was nothing because we booked it way in advance.
In fact, you can exchange your tickets for no fee up to an hour before it leaves.
Aside from that, the booking experience has nothing noteworthy or annoying.
It was easy to get the train ticket on my Apple Wallet.
Train Station Experience in London: Terrible, Honestly
They recommend getting there 45-60 minutes beforehand. I agree with this.
I’m going to blame this on Brexit, but getting through customs, the waiting area, and boarding was a total shitstorm.
Before you board in London, you go through European customs. When you fly, this comes after you land, but for the train, you do it before.
You even have to go through security, which sucks because that’s partly why I hate flying.
Once past security and customs, it wasn’t much better
After getting through all of this, hundreds of people were crammed into a waiting area that looked a lot like an airport gate. We didn’t even get a seat. Eventually, they called our train car, and then we had to wait a long time and cram together to go up the escalator to the train platform.
My advice: get there An Hour Early
The good part is you can buy coffee and some food past customs, just like an airport. But this 8am train was full, and there was a line for these things.
I would say get there a bit early. We arrived about an hour before the train. However, getting there early won’t solve all of your issues, because they don’t let you go through security until they announce the trip, and then everybody goes through at once.
My understanding of these problems is that this international checkpoint didn’t need to exist when the UK was part of the European Union. I have taken international European trains before (Italy to Switzerland), and the border crossing was non-existent.
This means their facilities aren’t built well for the border crossing.
The result is an unpleasant boarding experience.
The Seats: Cozy, Clean, and Comfortable
Once we boarded, the rest of the Eurostar ride was much better. We started going up the stairs at 7:40am and boarded at 7:48 (timestamps thanks to the photos I took).
The train left right on time at 8:01.
The seats themselves are nothing special. Again, as slow as Amtrak is, its seats are more spacious and more comfortable. But of course, I prefer the speed.
This isn’t a long enough route for mildly stiff seats to matter much.
Outlets, Tray Tables, and Functioning Wifi
Aside from that, it checked all the boxes. I started my virtual workday and busted out as much as I could in the two hours. The tray table, working wifi, and outlets with both UK and EU capabilities made that easy.
The wifi was good enough for email and docs, but I wouldn’t try to do calls on it.
Cafe Car: Excellent
One of my favorite parts of riding trains is going to the cafe car to chill. The Eurostar cafe cars don’t have the seating of Amtrak, but they have friendly attendants, tea, coffee, and food for sale.
It was a short ride, but since it was the morning train, there was a short line (about four people ahead of me) to order their caffeinated beverage of choice.
We Bought Paris Metro Tickets On The Train and You Should Too
The attendants told us they had Paris metro tickets for sale on the train at the same price as they do in Paris, and that it would be smart to buy them ahead of time.
We bought a pack of ten metro rides for our three days in Paris.
I recommend you do this too. You’re arriving at a busy train station, so you might as well take care of this while it’s easy.
Arriving in Paris: Smooth Sailing
As someone who’s lived in big cities like New York, I know how to manage big, often chaotic train stations.
If you’ve traveled in cities, Paris is nothing you’re not used to. The signs to connect to the metro were clear, and we were on our way!
The U.S.’s Lack of High-Speed Rail Hurts My Soul
Despite the issues with customs and boarding, the fact that we got to the two cities with relative ease and without much fanfare is a testament, first and foremost, to the investments both France and the UK have made into creating high-speed rail.
The only reason not to take the train for this route is the price. If you buy it ahead of time, it’ll be comparable to flying, way more convenient, and cheaper once you factor in things like airport transportation.
All I want is for my country to realize that building great infrastructure like this is a great investment, not “government handouts” or “wasteful spending” or whatever talking points opponents of rail are throwing out there these days.
One day, we could have an experience where the biggest problem is crowded boarding like Europe, unlike the typical hours of delays and slow routes to begin that that we have on our trains.
High-speed rail FTW.
After Paris, We Took Ouigo to Southern France
We left Paris for our next destination in Southern France, on route to Barcelona, where I went on exchange when I was 18.
We booked that last-minute, and it was expensive but not unreasonable. It was the SNFC’s (Which is to France what Amtrak is to the U.S., more or less) “low-cost” operator, called Ouigo.
Would you like to hear about it? Let me know. I’ll write a review of anything if one person wants to know.
More Train Reviews
If you’re in the U.S. and you’re going to take a long-distance train, I recommend booking a roomette. You can read about my experience here.
Headed to South Florida? I went way out of my way to read the Brightline, which is higher-speed, but not high-speed.
In both, you’ll get to see how happy taking trains makes me.
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