For Eurostar Deals to Amsterdam up until now, the advice has been to take the Eurostar train from St. Pancras International in London to Brussels Midi Station and then catch a connecting train to Amsterdam. But starting this winter, there are changes which will make the through route a lot more conveient. In December, a new high-speed rail connection between Brussels and Amsterdam opens, cutting the journey from London to Amsterdam by a whole hour, making short city breaks to Amsterdam by train much more practical.

More about Fyra, the Brussels to Amsterdam High Speed Train

New Fyra train for Eurostar deals to Amsterdam

Fyra is the name of the new high-speed train which will start duties between Brussels and Amsterdam in the autumn of 2010, and means `four’ in Swedish. The name is derived from the fact that it will link up the four major cities in Belgium and the Netherlands, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. How this will affect the kind of Eurostar deals available from London, I’m not exactly sure yet – the best thing to do probably will be to have a good look around on the Eurostar Planet booking website for now.

Fyra is a project of cooperation between the national rail network NMBS and Hispeed, a consortium of the Dutch railways NS and the Dutch airline company KLM. By 2010 the high-speed train will travel between Brussels and Amsterdam sixteen times a day using 19 trains, three of which will belong to NMBS and sixteen to Hispeed. The rail infrastructure of the high-speed train has been finalised in Belgium and in the Netherlands, but Fyra’s safety system must still be checked by the European ERMTS. Over the next few weeks test drives will be conducted across the entire route. If the tests prove successful, the Italian company AnsaldoBreda can start the production of the trains. The Fyra will not be the only high-speed train on the route, with the Thalys travelling from Paris six times a day from December to Amsterdam. The Fyra will only take to the tracks a year later, when competition for Eurostar deals through the channel tunnel will become very interesting indeed.

Photo credit Arnold de Vries

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The good news is that Eurostar Deals are continuing into the late season and on up until the New Year. Yes, there are still plenty of those bargain £59 return Eurostar deals available, so you can plan your own Paris breaks for weekends or midweek getaways, or have a look at the all in package deals that Eurostar offer with train tickets and central Paris hotel included. For the Autumn 2009 there are some special Eurostar deals with up to 40% off train + hotel combinations in Paris, Brussels, Bruges & Disneyland.

Eurostar Deals to Paris, Brussels and Bruges

These new Eurostar deals mean you can get a 2 night stay in Paris in a three star hotel with Eurostar tickets for just £128, 2 nights in Bruges in a four star hotel with Eurostar tickets for £126 and two nights in Brussels in a five start hotel with Eurostar tickets for just £125.Other great prices are also available in November and October – perfect for an autumn treat long after the Indian summer has concluded.

Eurostar Deals to Paris

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With the best value Eurostar deals to visit Paris on a short break you are unlikely to be staying in the 8th arrondissemnet but it’s certainly somewhere to experience whilst you’re in the city. The showcase of the 8th arrondissment in Paris is the Champs-Elysées, a prestigious big boulevard with extra wide pavements stretching from the Arc de Triomphe at the top all the way down to the Egyptian obelisk at the place de la Concorde at the bottom.

Throughout the 1970s from when I was working in the area, way before the Eurostar tunnel have even been planned, the Champs Elysées slowly turned into a garish mall street, with excessively noisy traffic, lots of American fast food outlets and the broadways a major gathering place for thieves and beggars of all types. In the 1990s the new mayor of Paris launched a cleanup campaign in the area, widening the pavements, restricting traffic and planting new trees. So now you can find fashion houses, smart hotels, restaurants and shops. Everything in the 8th arrondissement is the city’s best, grandest, and most impressive, although the idea that this street is an implant from the USA and not really Parisian at all, still pervades to some extent. The top restaurant is the Taillevent and there are celebrity nightclubs too such as the Crazy Horse Saloon and the Lido. The place de la Concorde is still worth a stroll and you can cut through to the Seine to catch the Batobus there as well – a favourite tip for getting about Paris on Eurostar trips. The great Arc de Triomphe is still in the middle of the craziest roundabout but now you can see all the way across to the Grand Arche at La Defense as ell, carefully ligned up. Arrive via Charles de Gaulle Etoile metro, Georges V or Franklin D Roosevelt, the world oldest underground station.

To conclude about the 8th as a destination for Eurostar Deals, I wouldn’t want to make it the main base for a Paris trip, you’d miss out on far too much of the genuine Parisian charm, but on the second or third day you may well want to drop in for an afternoon or early evening to experience a different side of life. Uptown as a change from downtown perhaps.

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The disadvantage with flying, as any regular taker of Paris breaks will tell you is that it can take twice as long to get from Charles de Gaulle airport to your hotel. The Eurostar high speed train on the other hand, offers a smooth check-in, more leg-room than the President’s Bentley, a genuinely decent food and drink menu and the promise of arriving straight into the Gare du Nord in Paris. Or in the case of Disneyland arriving within sight of the hotel at Disneyland Resort Paris.

Through-fares from Birmingham to Paris, Brussels and the resort itself start from around £80 standard return and £210 Leisure Select by choosing Eurostar deals in conjunction with Virgin Trains. There are 12 Eurostar trains a day to Paris, and seven services to Brussels throughout the year. In just 5 hours 20 minutes, you will be in the heart of Disneyland Resort Paris. Very impressive.

Just a couple of hundred yards from the smart Marne la Vallee Eurostar terminal stands the Hotel New York, where the rooms are themed around the US city with stylish furnishings, plenty of room and lashings of American attitude. Local staff are exceptionally friendly, in accordance with the Disneyland vision.

Check out summer availability for your Eurostar Deals to Disneyland with hotel deals and through tickets from UK railways.

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Book a two night hotel stay through the Eurostar website before June 2009 and they’ll give you a third night completely free. This deal is valid on loads of different hotels including the four star Villa Beaumarchais in the fashionable Marais district, ideal for romantic Paris breaks. You can stay for three nights for £300 per person, including the Eurostar train tickets. These Eurostar deals are valid if you book before 1 June 2009 and take your trip before 31 October 2009.

** book 3 for 2 Eurostar Deals **

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Eurostar trains hurtle at high speed straight to the heart of Europe and the current Eurostar deals make international rail travel through the channel tunnel the best option by far. Taking you direct from one major European city centre to another, Eurostar deals puts the convenience, ease, and sheer pleasure back into travelling. Onboard a Eurostar train you will enjoy excellent service and regular, reliable schedules. With no long check-ins or tedious airport transfers, Eurostar deals often prove faster than flying – and you get to see the country you are travelling through. You can leave from London St Pancras or Ebbsfleet International in Kent to travel directly to

• Paris
• Lille
• Brussels
• Calais
• Disneyland Resort Paris
• Avignon
• The French Alps (on the Eurostar Ski Train, which runs from end of December to the beginning of April)

Great Eurostar deals

London to Paris Eurostar deals in just over 2 hours from just £59 return Lille Eurostar Deals from Lonsdon in under 1½ hours* from just £55 return Belgian Eurostar Deals to Brussels in under 2 hours* from just £59 return

Faster Eurostar Deals This Year

Journey times were cut by up to 20 minutes when Eurostar moved to St Pancras International in November. As well as the improved high-speed service, the new stations at St Pancras and Ebbsfleet provide better and easier access to Europe from more of the UK. Plus – watch out for a new Eurostar stations at Stratford, east London which is already completed.

Upgrade your Eurostar package deal to Leisure class

Why not treat yourself? Travel in style with a Eurostar Leisure Select ticket from just £119 return to Paris, and you can enjoy:

• a meal and drinks served at your seat
• a carriage just for Leisure Select passengers
• power sockets at your seat
• free newspapers and magazines

Find out for yourself why more seasoned cross channel travellers than ever this year are switching from airport misery to Eurostar deals.

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Disruption has swept across other parts of the French transport network in Paris as both public and private sector workers have been on strike to protest at the deterioration of the French economy.

Hundreds of thousands of French workers attended more than two hundred rallies across the country in protest at president Nicolas Sarkozy’s inability to protect wages and jobs.

Postal workers and teachers angry with plans to shed 13,000 positions in 2009 and also court officials have all joined the day of protest alongside transport and local government workers.

Reports suggest however that disruption to travel in the capital has not been as severe as expected. Some 60 per cent of services are operating normally, while Eurostar Paris services are unaffected. So anybody arriving on Eurostar deals to Paris today can expect to arrive punctually at Gare du Nord but may face some delays with their onward journey.

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The section of the Channel Tunnel hit by a serious fire last September, causing changes to the Eurostar Paris timetable, will be reopened in three weeks time, tunnel operator Eurotunnel has announced.

The part of the tunnel known as “interval six” will reopen in the early hours of 10 February, said Eurotunnel who are responsible for the tunnel through which Eurostar trains travel.

High speed passenger service Eurostar said that from 23 February it would return to a normal timetable with all services to Paris and London operating at full speed. So that’s great news for anybody booking Paris breaks for the near future.

Tags: Eurostar Paris

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from 2:15 up to 2:31hours in Paris it’s Gare du Nord and in London it’s St. Pancras (it was Waterloo before)! You should book early to get cheap tickets!

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How to Find Eurostar Deals for London to Paris by Train

Here’s a brief introduction to Eurostar Deals for those unfamiliar with the international high speed rail service.

What are eurostar deals?

The Eurostar fast train service under the English channel is one of the most famous railway journeys in the world, joining the world capital cities of London and Paris from city centre to city centre. Launched in 1994, the prestigious Eurostar trains have helped to make journeys quicker and more convenient for buisness and leisure passengers, when compared with the traditional ferry crossing or short haul air flights. Eurostar deals are best value travel packages with inclusive return tickets for the Eurostar train and an optional hotel stay for two or more people.

Air travel versus the Eurostar train

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There are several advantages of the Eurostar over air routes

* city centre terminals
* fast check in and boarding
* less inconvenient security measures
* less environmental impact

Current deals

Eurostar Deals from London can include a central Paris Hotel with a return rail fare for a reasonable price provided two people are traveling and staying together and sometimes there is a stipulation that you have to stay over a Saturday night. So weekend eurostar deals are particularly worth looking out for.

Connecting to Other Mainline Stations in Paris

Arriving at Gare du Nord, the other mainline stations are all within easy reach but you should allow an hour to get to Montparnasse, forty minutes for Gare de Lyon and Orleans, a bit less for St Lazare and Gare de l’Est. The Paris metro is very frequent and efficient but if you are more used to the London Underground then it’s important to realise that the metro stations are closer together, so a journey of just a couple of miles will comprise of more stops, and therefore take a little longer than in London, but this is balanced out by the fact that the lines are not so deep underground, being mostly cut and cover tunnels, so there are not so many steps corridors and escalators to navigate except in the biggest interchange stations such as Montparnasse and Chatelet.

The RER metro service also runs from Gare du Nord providing a faster journey but to less destinations.

Non stopping Eurostar Deals to France bypassing Paris

Paris is wonderful to visit as often as possible and it’s great that you can get eurostar deals for short breaks weekends or even day trips but the eurostar can also be used for getting further into France quickly. It’s always been possible to combine a eurostar ticket to Paris with a TGV journey from one of the other Paris terminal stations to somewhere further down. I used to catch one to La Rochelle on the West coast, but this generally meant allowing a full day for the journey. Now there are some direct services such as to Avignon in the summer and Winter Ski Train Eurostar deals to Moutiers and Bourg Saint Maurice which is wonderful news for winter sports enthusiasts who want to get to the alps without all the fuss at the airports and difficult onward journeys.

The Times business observes:

The airline industry has been crushed by the price of kerosene and deserted by passengers fed up with delays. After decades of disappointment, false dawns and virtually bankrupt Channel Tunnels, we have finally arrived at the age of the train and the evidence is in the crowd at St Pancras.

Traffic growth on Eurostar increased by 21 per cent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period in 2007, with growth in the second quarter supposedly at similar rates. So the combination of fuel prices, airport delays and the shaving of 20 minutes off the London-Paris Eurostar journey time has boosted income by 25 per cent according to The Times.

When the channel tunnel was first mooted in the 1980s, a lot of people were expecting a road tunnel they could drive through. More said they would be afraid to go into a long tunnel under the sea, and would stick with the ferries, though it was feared the ferry companies might be driven out of business by the new tunnel. The roll on roll off ferries from Dover are still running, providing cheap cross channel deals for slightly less urgent freight transport, but it’s the short hop airline routes between the south of England and the business cities in the North of France, Belgium and Holland which were always the main competiton for the Eurostar express trains, with their city centre to city centre advantage.

So the problem now is that the old award winning Waterloo terminal for Eurostar is closed while the new St Pancras Station is getting near to capacity already. So why didn’t they build it bigger or else plan to keep both running, giving travellers a choice between South and North London connection points for the Eurostar Paris trains?

I suppose the shortage of waiting areas at St Pancras might be eased when the Stratford International station comes into service, taking some of the strain for passengers heading for Paris breaks originating from East London and the City. I’ve heard it has already been built but can’t be opened because it’s in the middle of an Olympic Games 2012 building site.

If you’ve never been on a Eurostar Paris trip, here’s a longish video from youtube which gives a nice impression of what the journey is like.

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Eurostar Paris trains from London getting busier

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Flickr: Discussing All Night Shoot to Paris

Originally uploaded by AndyRoberts

Paris is probably the most photogenic city in the world so any photographer would want to spend some free time in the Parisian streets, especially Londoners. Keen photographers who congregate on the Flickr photosharing site have formed into groups for arranging meetups and photoshoot events and the London Flickr group is one of the best organised. Now they’re even making arrangements to take a trip to Paris together, taking advantage of the special Eurostar deals for clubbers.

Instead of dancing the night away in some ‘boite de nuit’ they’ll be walking along the banks of the Seine in the middle of the night then catching the early Eurostar home in the morning. Perhaps some of them on the first visit will fall in love with the city, as many do, and want to return again and again for longer Paris breaks than just a quick overnighter.