Two hours and fifteen minutes from St Pancras to the middle of the city, with no airport at either end. For anyone in the south-east, Paris is closer than Edinburgh.
On journey time door to door, the train wins for most of southern England — and it's a nicer three hours.
A flight to Charles de Gaulle is 75 minutes, but add two hours at the airport, an hour into the city on the RER, and the security queue home, and you're at five hours. Eurostar is 2h 15m from St Pancras to Gare du Nord, both city centres, with a 45-minute check-in. It costs more than the cheapest budget flight and less than a flexible one, and you arrive in the tenth arrondissement rather than 25km outside the périphérique. We price both.
Paris rewards doing less. Three or four of these properly beats eight in a rush.
Book a timed lift slot weeks ahead, or climb the stairs to the second floor with no queue at all — 674 steps and worth it.
Vast. Pick two wings and ignore the rest. Wednesday and Friday evening openings are the quietest slots by a distance.
The Impressionists, in a converted railway station. Smaller than the Louvre, better for a first visit, and the building is glorious.
Medieval streets, the Place des Vosges, falafel on rue des Rosiers, and the only quarter that opens on a Sunday.
Sacré-Cœur and the view. Go at eight in the morning; by midday the steps are impassable and the portrait artists descend.
One coffee buys the table. Sit outside, watch the street, and don't feel you should be somewhere else.
Paris is a spiral of twenty arrondissements. For three nights, stay inside the first eight or in the Marais.
Central, medieval, walkable to Notre-Dame and the Louvre, and lively in the evening. Our usual recommendation.
Left bank, bookshops and cafés, close to the Orsay and the Luxembourg gardens. Expensive and lovely.
Cheaper, central, and full of small restaurants. Busy and a little rough around the edges.
Where Parisians actually go out. Ten minutes from Gare du Nord, which matters if you're on Eurostar.
April to June and September to October are the best. August empties of Parisians and fills with visitors.
Spring and early autumn give you mild weather and open terraces. July is warm and busy; August sees many restaurants and small shops close for the month while the city fills with tourists — a strange combination. Winter is cold and grey but the museums are empty, the Christmas markets run along the Champs-Élysées, and hotel rates drop sharply in January and February.
Eurostar 2h 15m from St Pancras to Gare du Nord, or 75 minutes by air to CDG or Orly from most UK airports.
RER B from CDG takes about 45 minutes to the centre. The Roissybus goes to Opéra.
Euro. Cards everywhere, including buses and the metro.
Walk, and use the metro for longer hops. A carnet of ten tickets or a Navigo Easy card beats singles.
We'll price Eurostar and flights side by side, book hotels in the right arrondissement, and write the payment plan out in full.
Depends where you start. From London and the south-east, the train wins on total time and comfort. From Scotland or the north-west, flying is usually quicker.
Three. Two is possible by train because there's no airport time, but three lets you take an afternoon slowly.
Yes — 40 minutes by RER from the centre. A lot of families do two nights in the city and two at the parks. Ask us for that version.
No, but it's formal. Greet people before you ask for anything and the whole experience changes.
Flights, a central hotel and transfers as one package. We book the museum and gallery slots that sell out, and tell you which ones to book yourself.
Guide prices, per person, based on two sharing, including return flights, central accommodation and airport transfers. They indicate what a break of this type has typically cost and are not an offer or a quotation. Your price depends on dates, party, departure airport and availability, and is confirmed in writing before any payment is taken.
Ready-built itineraries with flights, transfers and internal hops booked as one package, ATOL protected. Every one can be reshaped around your dates.
10 nights · May–Jun, Sep–Oct · from £1,449pp
11 nights · May–Jun, Sep · from £1,149pp
10 nights · Mar–May, Sep–Nov · from £849pp
12 nights · Apr–May, Sep–Oct · from £2,399pp
11 nights · Nov–Apr · from £2,199pp
15 nights · Dec–Apr · from £2,399pp
