UK Trains and Eurostar

leehal

We are planning on travelling by train to France in May next year.

Any tips on the best ways to book?

We have a Twotogether saver and my wife has a Senior Railcard (she is 60).

Our journeys would be:-

Durham to Toulouse
Toulouse to Paris
Paris to Durham

We are so used to booking way in advance using planes that the later booking system for trains is a little disconcerting!

becominganobsessivesaver

If you know the dates you want to travel sign up for alerts on eastcoast and then you'll get an email when travel's released. If you're travelling on a weekday go for first class if it's not much more, free drinks, food and wifi. Sign up to a rewards account too.

This only works for the UK bit, someone else can hopefully help with the Eurostar

dzug1

Your two together card will get you both discounted travel from Durham to Kings Cross and return.


Your wife's senior card will get her discounted travel from Durham to Kings Cross and return


subject to any applicable off peak restrictions


But you can't combine the two


There may be age related discounts on Eurostar or TGV unrelated to any card held.

Flugelhorn

If travelling Durham to Toulouse it is a good idea to try the eurostar site or I have also used Loco2.com (the latter asked re railcards - DS has a 16-25 so we got some discount).

The advantage of these sites is that the tickets are marked CIV - meaning that if the first leg of the journey is delayed then eurostar will put you on the next available eurostar and then SNCF will honour the ticket on the next train to Toulouse.
Only problem I find with CIV tickets is that they do tend to leave long transfer times... have 2 hrs in Brussels Midi next week (oh joy) but at least guaranteed to get trip back

cabbage

We've used Rail Canterbury for Eurostar and onward travel.

Have a look at seat61.com (hope it's still going). Lots of tips on there

Flugelhorn

the man in Seat61 is still giving out great advice and hints /timetables etc - well worth a look

leehal

Thanks everyone, I was concerned about delays, you've answered all my questions.