St Pancras Station for Eurostar Breaks

Since the new high speed one line was completed a couple of years ago, the journey through East London and Essex is so much faster and you wizz through Ashford and arrive at the channel tunnel entrance at Folkestone in no time. Then there’s the rush through French countryside and as you enter the suburbs or Paris, a curious thing happens. All the French people on the train get out of their seats and start getting their belongings together and queuing up in the carriage corridor. There’s still five minutes left to travel and everybody is going to arrive at Gare du Nord, so why do they do it? It’s a mystery.

Having booked the Eurostar breaks only, we had to find a hotel for our stay in Paris and that’s something I’ve done lots of times before so it’s not a problem, it’s just that there’s a little concern over getting a reasonable hotel these days since the prices have gone up a bit, year after year in Paris. If you go by the websites, then you’d think you have to pay £250 a night ( or rather two hundred and fifty Euros) but that isn’t actually the case. Simply by asking it is common to obtain a 20% discount off the advertised rate for a room, but if the first two or three hotels you look at are already fully booked, then it does make you tend to accept the first vacancy available after that so beware.

Choosing which quarter you want to stay in Paris is the important thing, and after staying in the Latin Quarter so many times we decided to try the Marais instead this time and it worked out really well. The Marais has plenty of interesting streets to wander about in, lively cafes, tasty restaurants and colourful people. It’s all there. The best way to show you how much we enjoyed our Eurostar break in Paris this time in the Marais I think is to included a bunch of photographs from the trip which I hope you enjoy looking through and inspire you to maybe visit the Marais yourself next time you’re travelling to Paris for a short city break by Eurostar from London.

I often go to France, since I like the atmosphere of the cities there and it's suitable for a short break since it is so accessible. Over the years I have spent several short breaks as well as longer trips in Paris and other french cities such as Lille, Dijon, Marseille and Rheims.

But you know, France can be very similar all over due to the centralised state and homogenous culture. It's lovely, but it's always French. So how about eurostar breaks to Brusses or Bruges or even Amsterdam for a change?

Have your weekend break in Bruges. I was wondering how to spend a weekend and came across this option: Take the Eurostar and have a break in Bruges with all those fantastic waterside vistas and ancient buildings. I aquired a tatse for flemish food when I was in Lille, so this seemed to be the next logical step for us. And there are many other interesting destinations in France and the Benelux.

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My husband and I would like to book a day trip to Bruges on Eurostar from St Pancras on 12th July (our 40th Wedding Anniversary) We would like a deal on first class and we are both senior citizens

Eurostar breaks to Bruges can be booked first class to Brussels, the trip taking 1 hrs and 51 mins. Change trains in Brussels onto the half-hourly InterCity train to Bruges, no reservation required, which can be included in your Eurostar ticket.

Valentine’s Weekend Break Ideas
Valentine’s Weekend Break Ideas. Back. 01 January 2010. Valentine’s
day falls on a Sunday this year, therefore a great opportunity to take
off to some romantic place on the Eurostar. The obvious choice is
Paris, the lovers’ capital but as an alternative you might also
consider Bruges ( via Brussels)

Short Breaks – Two Night Paris Break For Two – £652.00
£652.00 This fantastic short break includes Eurostar travel to and
from Paris as well as two nights accommodation in a three star hotel
plus continental breakfast. So the only thing you will need to worry
about is which of the fantastic parisian restaurants you want to
choose for that special dinner.

Paris Breaks 2010
Paris Breaks for 2010 For Paris breaks, 2010 starts with the aftermath
of the unfortunate Eurostar breakdowns with the bad weather last month
in the North of France.

http://ukparisbreaks.co.uk/

The locals have been setting fire to house-sized effigies (or fallas)
for the past 200 years, and on the final night all hell breaks loose
with the aptly named Gran Crema, or Big Burn, where the effigies are
stuffed with fireworks and blown up …. Naturally, I’ll be taking the
train: Eurostar from London to Paris, a snug sleeper on the excellent
City Night Line overnight to Munich, then a slow and scenic daytime
run through the mountains of Austria into Slovenia and Croatia.

Save £3 on all Eurostar Deals | Eurostar Deals
I’m going to explain how you can save £3 per transaction on all
Eurostar Deals and Eurostar Breaks.

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Eurostar breaks to Lille in northern France should not be overlooked when planning short city breaks from London. We don’t know so much about Lille in the UK apart from being a Eurostar station on the way to Paris or Brussels, but the city has both an international history and a modern claim to fame in the art world and museum sector. So what is there to see in Lille of special interest to the busy tourist? Well there’s the magnificent town square first all, with its grand buildings and famous Christmas market. Then there is a classical art museum that is second only to the Louvre in the whole of France, with collections by all the grand masters.

Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Getting to Lille couldn’t be easier with Eurostar Breaks from London arriving in Lille only one hour and twenty minutes after departing from St Pancras. So that makes the Lille appear close to St Pancras than some parts of South or West London, let alone Manchester or Brighton. The return journey usually takes five minutes longer for some reason, maybe it’s because the trains have to go uphill to get from France to England

Lille for Eurostar Breaks

Lille is close to the border with Belgium and has been part of the Flemish state in the past, so some of the atmosphere and traditions of Lille are more Northern European than typically French, so that makes it an interesting culture to discover. It’s very much a part of modern France now though as far as fine dining and general good living are concerned. In the summer there are plenty of good brasseries that lay out their outdoor terraces in the little squares and pavements, while in the winter there are beautiful dining halls and grand hotels in which to escape the sometimes bitter continental weather.

There’s even a substantial zoo or rather parc zoologique which can be a pleasant place to while away a sunny afternoon, with free entrance, picnique spots and of course well looked after animal enclosures which delight both children and adults.

The first ever patisserie, Meert is located in Lille, not Paris, so how about that then? There you can learn how the waffle was invented and take away delicate little fruit cake creations that look far too beautiful to eat.

I’ve only just started to mine the surface of what Lille has to offer, as there is a flourishing modern art scene which would be difficult to pin down to any one specific venue, as it changes all the time but do have a look at the swimming pool, a former Art Deco public baths called simply “La Piscine”. Another is at Wazemmes, la Maison Folie which has art exhibitions and theatre on the first floor, and on Sundays the busy Wazemmes market is a huge attraction just outside the gallery.

Longer Eurostar Breaks

Eurostar breaks to Lille, being so easy to fit in to a busy lifestyle can provide a tempting taste of what the area has to offer, and I’m sure once you’ve been over and had a quick look around you’ll be dying to come back for a longer stay, maybe after seeing the Christmas market and understanding the potential for a relaxing summer break in the North East of France. I’m thinking that a Eurostar to Lille and then car hire for a short week would allow for the flexibility of a smart city break and the chance to explore some of the rural north of France.

picture credit: Peter16

The Channel Tunnel high speed train company said that the £59 return offers triggered an 8% rise in passenger numbers. That’s despite a weak pound chipping the value off European breaks and short holidays for British travellers.

While Eurostar’s overall passenger volumes for the nine months of the year so far are 0.9% down at 6.9 million, the firm said that revenues were almost 7% ahead of the previous year in the third quarter.

Eurostar said the 11% growth in outbound passengers outstripped a 7% increase in travellers inbound from Europe, with 2.6 million travellers using the Eurostar service between July and September.

There were also signs of recovery in the business market with a slight rise in the number of travellers on business orientated Eurostar breaks.

Chief executive Richard Brown said:

In recent weeks a number of our major corporate clients have eased their business travel restrictions. Although it is early days, this may be a sign of an upturn.

Prices are likely to be keener for Eurostar breaks passengers next year with other companies able to to run similar high speed services through the Tunnel to destinations in Europe.

Some of the prices I’ve seen are outrageous (nearly £400 for two days) and I know nothing about booking a holiday. Help!

Paris is not a weekend affair for couples but for louveures (lovers).
Let the boyfriend pay for yourself to go alone or for the two of you to go together. Either way you go to Paris. Though, it is commendable you
want to go dutch (you treating), I find it uneventful that you pay for the trip.
Perhaps go half, 50/50,right down the middle,including to the hotel/motel room. Boyfriend shouldn’t have any problem tipping, paying for meals for two (2),tourism,car rental and souvenirs. However, clothing, shoes and accessories are the girlfriends’ department.
Check with travel agencies,for various prices.Cheap Tickets, book the reservations months in advance. (Go to www.cheaptickets.com)…
Fill out the form over the internet to get prices that way.
Adieu and Bon voyage!

That said, the following can work:

- Set your home country to ‘USA’. This may need you to clear any cookies for eurostar.com, restart your browser and return to eurostar.com.

- Look on lastminute.com. They sometimes have cheaper deals than Eurostar themselves.

If all that fails… Consider flying. If you’re in London, the London City to Paris Orly service is quite convenient: both airports are central and manageable compared to Heathrow and Roissy-CDG.

Although Sardinia can be cheap depending on where you stay, the flights there will usually cover most of the £200 anyway. (Eurostar is also extremely expensive which i have never really understood.)

Alternatively, what you could do is drive yourselves to Paris or Rouen (which would be cheaper and close enough to visit Paris during the day). Taking the Eurotunnel will set you back about £70 each way, depending on the time and date you go through it.

Otherwise, you’ll have to loosen the purse strings,

If not, somerset is quite nice this time of year…