barbara

Looking for advice as to how to go from London to Paris the most inexpensive ways. Also, England to Normandy inexpensively - any advice would be a great help. Travelling July 31

jhm

A bus can take you from London to Dover, and then a ferry from Dover to Calais. There are other options (try www.buzzaway.co.uk or www.go-fly.co.uk), but I think this would be the cheapest.

AnnaC

There are several options. Obviously the cheapest would be to walk and swim, but now I'm just being facetious. <BR> <BR>Fly - one of the cheap airlines (www.ryanair.com, www.easyjet.co.uk in addition to the 2 already mentioned. Not sure if they go to Paris, but probably do). Don't forget to factor getting to and from the airports into the price on these. The cheap airlines usually fly from either Stansted or Luton - a fair distance from London. <BR> <BR>Eurostar. Fast and efficient city centre to city centre service, but probably not the cheapest way. <BR> <BR>Other train services, combined with ferry. You can get a train from London to various channel ports, get a ferry and then a train from the port on the other side to Paris. Not sure of the cost, but almost certain to be cheaper than Eurostar (less convenient of course) <BR> <BR>Bus and ferry, as mentioned in the previous post. Similar to train and ferry, but likely to be cheaper still. <BR> <BR>England to Normandy rather depends on where in England to where in Normandy, but I expect the train/bus and ferry option would be the best bet again. <BR> <BR>There are several different ferry routes, but Dover/Calais is the quickest crossing, and Dover is pretty easy to get to from London. <BR> <BR>

james

No problem here - get the bus from Victoria station I think. Try National Express. I did it years ago and it was easily the cheapest way. If you can afford the train take Eurostar.

RailRider

By all measn go via train if budget permits - and when comparing costs, remember that this takes you from city center to city center, without need for time and cost of taxi to/from airport <BR> <BR>RyanAir does fly London to Paris, but lands in Beauvais, which is over an hour from Paris itself. They do run a bus (cost around 10 USD or so) to the outskirts of Paris. Not a bad option, but does eat up some time. <BR> <BR>The ferry is quite fun, and cost is probably midway between Eurostar and RyanAir.

Mel

Barbara: When thinking "inexpensive" don't forget to figure in that time is money. While the ferry from Dover to Calais is probably still the least expensive way to go, you must get the bus in London and take it to Dover, ride the ferry to Calais, then bus to Paris. I did this in 1994 (pre-chunnel) and it seems to me the time went about like this: <BR>Bus out of London at 8:00 am <BR>Reached and boarded ferry at 10:30 am <BR>Arrived in Calais around 11:30 am (allowing time for debarkation) <BR>Bus to Paris--arrived in Paris around 5:30pm <BR>The ferry to Normandy is much longer, I believe. <BR>If you're only going one way (sounds like it from your post), reconsider the chunnel. 3 hrs from London to Paris, city center to city center. Traveling on Sunday is, if I recall correctly, the least expensive. Certainly worth checking into. <BR>Have a great trip!

Rex

Follow-up to Railrider: <BR> <BR>The information about the location and (moderate) inconvenience of Bauvais ("Paris") airport is accurate. <BR> <BR>But RyanAir does NOT fly to or from London to Beauvais - - only Glasgow (Prestwick) or Dublin. <BR> <BR>Not always such a bad option to fly to Dublin or Glasgow, though - - if you have never been to one or the other. We flew London-Dublin AND Dublin-Paris for about $40 USD in 1999 - - and got our first taste of Ireland - - felt like a freebie, at half the cost of any other way of getting from London to France (we were not headed to Paris per se). <BR> <BR>Last of all - - to get to Normandy, look into Ryanair for service to Dinard (almost Brittany, at the western edge of the Normandy coast). <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>

coco

Barbara, <BR> Sorry I don't have the details, but there is ferry service between Portsmouth (I think) and Normandy, perhaps Cherbourg? It is very cheap. <BR> <BR>I was at a wedding in Normandy 2 years ago (near Bayeaux) and a number of kids departed this route for London. <BR> <BR>

sarah

P and O do a service from Portsmouth to Cherbourg or Le Havre their website address is www.poportsmouth.com Brittany Ferries do a service from Plymouth to Roscoff ( Brittany) www.brittanyferries.co.uk the crossing from Dover to Calais is with Sea France don't know their website sorry. For fares and information on National Express coaches to France as mentioned in an above posting - you can use www.eurolines.com

wendy

If my time is not an issue, I usually fly stand-by on Air France for around $50-70 each way between Heathrow and Paris. <BR> <BR>Bon Voyage! <BR>Wendy

Vicki

Check out the hoverspeed.com website for their crossings.

Mel

The Ferry from Portsmouth to Roscoff takes about 8.5 hours, so if you choose to go that route, you might want to plan on boarding around 11:30 at night (they DO have one that leaves at that time) and getting a cabin.