Eurostar

Any advice on booking very early with Eurostar or not? The cheapest is at 5:25 am, would we  not be able to find cheap transportation to where Eurostar leaves that early?

Any advice on booking very early with Eurostar or not? The cheapest is at 5:25 am, would we  not be able to find cheap transportation to where Eurostar leaves that early?

According to an internet search, the underground trains start running from about 4.30am and it is recommended that you arrive at the Eurostar stations at leat 30 minutes before, so you should theoretically be able to use the tube and get there on time, which will be cheap. Otherwise, I think there are some buses that run 24 hours, or if necessary you could get a taxi, but that could be expensive.

If the tube or buses aren't practical then I think you'd have to weigh up paying the cost of a taxi to get an early train compared to paying the higher price for a later train. Hopefully someone more knowledgable about typical London taxi fares can help on that one .

It depends on your starting destination.  But there are usually at least night buses to St P's from most places.

Vicky

If your heart is set on taking the Eurostar then it is best to book as early as possible. The cheap fares go early and for a July booking you'd be lucky to get a good ticket as it is. There are night buses or you can pull an all nighter at the station or nearby.

If you want to see Paris and Amsterdam, weigh but the costs of going into one and out the other. Doing it on a round trip ticket is a waste of time and in some cases money... although I always enjoy a reason to get back through Paris.

Well I booked Paris through Eurostar and through the "UK" site because it was 1/2 the price. On the address page I entered my real US address and the page after didn't warn me or anything and had me confirm the price of 118GBP for both of our tickets, outward and inward. I read the website agreement and the ToS on the checkout and saw nothing that tipped me off. I chose to pickup the tickets at the station so hopefully everything works out. How could they deny us the tickets or charge more later when they found out we were in the US? Hopefully not...

I don't think you'll have any trouble with it - if there had been any problem with paying with your US card and address it wouldn't have let you book the tickets and pay in the first place.

I was just concerned that the reason for the US/UK residence choice at the beginning was because the UK site wouldn't take US credit cards registered to a US address (some US sites won't allow you to pay with a UK card - I had that trouble when I arrived in the US and tried to buy things online with my UK card... I had to wait until my US card arrived to place the order instead). However, it seems that's not the case, so I'd assume you'll be fine - especially as you will most likely be collecting your ticket from a self-service machine anyway.

Looking at the Eurostar site FAQ, it seems like the purpose of the country of resident option is to purchase the ticket in your own currency (so you don't have to worry about currency conversions - your credit card company may charge you a small international payment fee, but that's about all that could happen):

When you first log onto the Eurostar web site you will be asked to select your country of residence.

This determines which currency you pay when booking your Eurostar ticket.

If you access the United Kingdom site, you will be able to pay for your booking in GB pounds. Accessing the French or Belgium versions of our web site will allow you to pay in Euros and accessing the United States version will allow you to pay for your booking in US Dollars. All other versions of our web site are available in Euros only.

If you wish to change to a different country version, you will need to delete any Eurostar cookies stored in your web browser. Please refer to your web browsers help file on how to do this.

I'll take a $3-15 fee any day over an extra $100!

No exchange rate fee whatsoever. I also go the exact exchange rate of the market as I purchased, which was 1.97. So that's good news. I hope it stays that way when I withdraw from Bank of America terminals when there, that'd be great.

Anyone have good/cheap hostel reccomendations for Paris? Are "lockouts" common and just something you have to work around? The hostel we're looking at that looks nice and has a private room is only 40 euros, but there's a lockout from 11am to 4pm (as if we'd want to be there during that time anyways.)

Thanks as always everyone.

We had a double en suite room here:  www.hoteldenevers.com/ a few weeks ago for around 50 euros. All night reception breakfast extra but we didn't bother as we'd rather just have coffee and croissants at a cafe on our way out. They have a room where you can leave luggage if you arrive early or check out late. Basic but clean, quiet street (although some noise from the large Bastille traffic roundabouts nearby). Nice friendly staff and a short Metro ride from the Gare du Nord and Gare de Lyons.  Very good location for walking to Notre Dame, Marais, Ile de la Cite etc and even up to Notre Dame if you don't mind a longer walk:

Is that place per person or per night? The prices page isn't exact. It says per person next to the tax, so I didn't know if that was separate...

Is that place per person or per night? The prices page isn't exact. It says per person next to the tax, so I didn't know if that was separate...

Just checked out the link - I read it as the prices in the table are per room per night (the cheapest being 45 euro for the room, independent of whether there's one or two people). Then on top of the 45 euro, they will charge you 0.42 euro per person per day for tax.

So for one person, it's 45.42 euro per day/night and for two people, it's 45.84 euro per day/night. If you want breakfast too, I think that's 6 euro per person (not sure exactly though as it doesn't say 'per person' specifically).

Some info on the hotel tax in France (from http://www.france-hotel-guide.com/nocommissioneng.htm):

Information about city tax.

• City tax, also sometimes called tourist tax ("taxe de séjour" in French) is compulsory: it applies to everybody (except for children younger than 13) and is collected by the owner of the accomodation. The amount of city tax varies according to the hotel classification and the town. City tax in France can currently be between €0.20 (minimum) and €1.50 (maximum) per person per day.
• Room prices shown on France Hotel Guide generally include city tax. When city tax is not included in the price, the amount to be applied is detailed.

Anyone who is really interested in train travel anywhere in the world, check out http://www.google.com/search?q=the+man+in+seat+61&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a, the man in seat 61.

There is a great booking agency at 1 Regent Street, London SW1, Rail Europe.  I went there the other day with my boss - we're taking the train from London St Pancras down to Siena, Italy in September.  Excellent service, will even sell you a carnet for the Paris metro at cost.  We are going on a train from London to Paris, change heading for Florence with couchettes, and the train on to Siena the next morning, round trip £234.  Yes, I know I could fly cheaper in theory, but first the fun of the travel and the time for a meal in Paris and Florence and the ability to move about and have a meal on the train as well (plus my boss will be quite pregnant at the time and can't fly anyway).

Is that place per person or per night? The prices page isn't exact. It says per person next to the tax, so I didn't know if that was separate...

It's price per room per night.