All may not be lost.....

When exactly did you check the train fares and when are you travelling ? The cheap fares only go on sale about 12 weeks in advance so we're right on the limit at the moment, early September will be out but later dates aren't.

Also, where in the Midlands and what are the times at St Pancras?

We have been looking for a few days, but we travel 1st September and leave Paris 4th. The dates and times of the trains to london have now been offically released, and the prices are astronomical!! they want £86 return each, and that is the cheapest we have found. Virgin which boast cheap deals have nothing, nor midland mainline.

We are going from Hinckley in Leicestershire and have tried the stations of nuneaton, Leicester and even as far as market harborough, but nothing is coming up.

We have to get to London to check in around 1pm, so need to leave here around 11am. Coming home we need to get home before 2pm.

Any ideas!!

Hi Ya Cookie,

We park at High Barnet tube station when visiting London the tube goes to Charing Cross, we have stayed the last few times at Boreham Wood Innkeepers Lodge but several years ago left the car at High Barnet for three days you could also check the parking at Boreham Wood Station and catch the train direct to St Pancras and EuroStar.

Dave

Hi Dave

Thanks for that, we shall check into it.

When we normally visit London for the day we always park at Stanmore, but looking at different sites, they say that although you can park it overnight for a few days but, recently cars have been getting vandalised or broken into. We don't have a flash car, but what we do have we would rather was safe!!!

We have thought about leaving the car at a hotel and staying there on the Thursday night.

Can you remember how much the parking was?

Cookie,

I'm confused (for 2 reasons...)!

Firstly your quote of £86 return each. This doesn't make sense, that price doesn't tally with any of the tickets I can see. In fact the Saver Return from Hinckley to St Pancras via Leicester is only £42.20 so it doesn't even add up to £86 for 2! The Open Return is over £100 but you don't need that because you can travel on trains where the Saver is valid. The Saver would be useful because as long as you avoid the peak hour you can buy it on the day, don't need to reserve and if the return Eurostar is late you don't have to worry about missing the booked train and losing the ticket because it's valid for any off peak train for a month (and not even Eurostar have come in 4 weeks late!!). The Saver Return from Nuneaton to Euston is £32 but you would have the cost of getting to or parking at Nuneaton which woud soak up most of the saving and you'd have to walk to/from St Pancras, so it's probably not worth it.

Second confusion is where the advance tickets have got to. In fact they are still not out for your dates, latest I can find are 4 weeks before you (August 4-7) on which dates you can get Hinckley - St Pancras Advance Singles from £14. So that could be as low as £28 return (that's £14.20 cheaper each than Savers). If you want to try for these I'd keep trying over the next few weeks and see what pops up, but these come with fixed reservations and if you miss the return train they might say you can't use the return ticket.

try it yourself at http://www.thetrainline.com and just put from Hinckley to London (don't worry about which London or where via) and request a return journey - if 2 singles are cheaper it will tell you.

Incidentally, although it's no use to you now if you've already got Eurostar booked, Eurostar will sell you a through ticket from Leicester to Paris for £80.50 return in small numbers on certain off peak services. And coincedentally, I'll be passing through the Tunnel on the 10:00 to Brussels that day!!

Hi Steve

Thanks for looking aswell. I was looking at the Virgin website ans this is where the prices were high. Like you said the savers have not been released yet, so I shall have to keep looking. With regards to Nuneaton, we live about 5 miles away, so getting the bus there is not a problem. My husband looked at this option, but he got costings of £32 each for a single but the return was £67 each.

Maybe we have not been looking at the best sites, you seem to be a regular traveller, so you possibly have all the better sites to hand. I shall definately have a look at the site you have posted.

I don't travel on the trains very often, just to go to Birmingham shopping, so I have not got a clue on finding the best prices!!

I think I can see what's happened. On the Virgin website, after you've selected the journey it asks how many people are travelling before going on to check availabilty. The price it shows on the next page is the TOTAL for that number of people but it doesn't make it clear, so if you said two people at the middle stage it will give a price of £32 each way for "semi-flexible" (which is actually the Saver) - but that's £32 for both not each. If you do the query for 1 person it shows the individual price. This lack of clarity must be losing Virgin business!! The Trainline site is quoting the same fares but doing it more clearly so appears cheaper. Just to repeat, this price (or the £42.20 Hinckley - St Pancras) does not have to be booked in advance, you have to avoid the Monday-Friday morning and evening peaks but can buy it on the day.

hia guys, i,m travelling down to london for the motorshow in july and have booked a travellodge in kings cross. i was thinking of driving to somewhere outside london and parking up and getting the train into the city, so i would wellcome any advice on the best place to park and what type of travel ticket would be my best option, i will be travelling down on a friday and staying overnight. thanks in advance !

Hello Terry,

As you can see from my earlier posts on this subject two good places to park are Borehamwood and High Barnet, if you are staying in Kings Cross then Boreham Wood station is ideal, I beleive parking on a Saturday is just a £1, as you are arriving on a Friday I don't have any idea what the best ticket option is for you but the ticket office will advise, Kings Cross is approx 1/2 hour by train.

Hope that this helps,

Enjoy London, we do.

Dave

terry

you're unlikely to get much choice on fares within London commuter-land for the journey you want, especially since it's not even covered by a cheap day return (because of the overnight stay). The only real difference might be if you buy the ticket with the Underground connection added in. In fact by the time you add on the petrol to get that far it may be cheaper to go all the way by train on an Advance ticket (if you book now) - again get it through to the correct Underground zone if possible. Where are you coming from? Another thing to check is whether the train company is able to sell discounted admission tickets for the show this year.

Hi - have you considered going to Ebbsfleet instead to pick up the Eurostar? It's near the Dartford Tunnel on the Kent side. I've not been there yet but I bet you anything that it has a giant car park attached.

David (Mod) - thanks for locking me out in mid reply on the other thread!!

I was also about to say this is not the first query we've had like this in recent months. Anyone else not living in London/Ebbsfleet area thinking of booking Eurostar should check the option at http://www.eurostar.co.uk to book through from many British mainline stations. Todays query was from Gloucestershire - a random enquiry for mid December shows they still have some seats Gloucester -Paris for £43.50 one way. If you could match up a return journey at those prices the Gloucester-London bit would work out at less than £20 return. Another benefit is that if you car/ bus gets delayed and you miss the Eurostar they may not accept a non-flexible (ie cheap) ticket on a later service - if the British train they booked you on gets delayed they will transfer you to a later Eurostar.

Two problems though:

Eurostar may have the fastest trains in Britain but their website appears to be steam powered.

And if you are looking at a package the tour operator may not be bright enough to offer the regional connection option. You could try the magic phrase "Do you want my money or not!!" but it's not guaranteed to work...

not sure where you got your info from, just tried eurostar cheltenham to paris, and it returned £350 each! Can't see how you could get from Gloucester to Paris for £43 when the cheapest London to Paris is £55. It also means catching a train at 5.30 to arrive in Paris late afternoon. You can get a bus from Oxford to London (every 12-15 mins) for £16 return, but difficult to park the car at the Oxford Park and Ride (3 day max. stay). So the other option was to drive in to the outskirts of west London and park there. Need details of any secure car parks in that area please?
Cheers

I got the info from their website about 20 mins before I posted. As i said it was purely a random selection of date and these prices will only be available in small batches per service and need booking in advance (like easyjet cheap fares).The biggest problem seems to be the old one of British train companies not loading their trains onto the reservations system early enough so if you go too far in advance it says there are no services. I was a bit surprised that there were any left for December. I don't doubt that if you check the exact trains that you have got and they are before January you are unlikely to get a bargain now - but had you tried at the time you booked things might have been different. The £55 promotional fare is to Lille, Paris is £59 but that is RETURN (has come down £10 since I last went!). The £43.50 fare was one way so would be £87 return if you got both legs at the same price, which would make the Gloucester-London add-on £28 return.

I've just done a random request from Cheltenham to Paris on 9 December returning on 11 December. This time it's offered outward at 08:31 arriving 16:53 for £76 but the return leg (depart 11:13 arrive 16:03) is now down to £39.50 (or £43.50 travelling two hours later).

Sorry can't help with the parking question, as you'll see there was no easy answer last time it was asked. Bearing in mind the need to be at St Pancras might be an idea to think about a local rail station on the Bedford line - or thinking really off the wall, Luton Airport? The problem is that all this is going to extend the journey time so the early bus might still be the best idea.