Eurostar launches 20% off sale to Paris and more — here's how to get tickets
Dreaming of a Euro summer?
If you fancy a getaway, now is the time to book, as Eurostar has launched a summer sale across all of its destinations.
Tickets to city-break favourites including Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Lille, and Rotterdam will be 20% off, with the discount automatically applied online.
But you'll have to be quick, the sale is only on for five days, starting June 3 and ending June 7, at 10:59pm.
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The sale offers discounted fares for travel to all the destinations across the Eurostar network, to and from London St Pancras. This is across both Eurostar and Eurostar Plus classes.
Popular cities of course include the likes of Paris and Lille, as well as those slightly further afield, such as Amsterdam, Cologne and Dusseldorf.
Eurostar say there will be a 20% discount applied to fares.
Before the sale began, there were tickets available for a long weekend in Paris in July (leaving London on Friday July 18 and returning Monday July 21) for £170 return.
With a 20% discount, this fare would be dropped to just £136.
Prices mid-week are expected to be even cheaper. A ticket for travel to Paris (one-way) on Wednesday July 8 before the sale cost £57. With a 20% discount, this would be just £45.60.
The discount is applied automatically to fares for travel between 24 June and September 9.
There are some 'blackout dates' though, where passengers won't be able to get a discount.
These are: June 27, 29. July 6, 7, 25, 26, 27, 28. August, 22, 25.
Due to engineering works, there are also no trains to Amsterdam on June 28 and 29, and no trains to Rotterdam on August 9 and 10.
Eurostar Snap is a spur-of-the-moment service where you can bag leftover tickets based on whatever seats are available last-minute.
You pick travel dates and a time slot (either before or after 1pm to or from London, or 2pm for all other destinations), then Eurostar picks the specific train times, which are sent to you via email 48 hours before travel. More Trending
Eurostar you can get up to 50% discount, and you can even book tickets for up to three other people – although you're unlikely to be sat together.
Bookings can only be made up to 14 days before travel on routes to and from London, or up to eight days before on all other routes. Routes in include are London and Paris, Brussels, Lille, Amsterdam and Paris and Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne.
It's worth bearing in mind though but if plans change, you'll lose out on the cash. Snap tickets are non-exchangeable, non-refundable, non-transferable and non-cancellable.
A TikTok travel influencer also recently shared their hack for getting Eurostar tickets for free.
For three decades, Eurostar has held a monopoly on passenger trains in the Channel Tunnel since it opened in 1994. But this year, new potential rivals have emerged, which could turn the game on its head.
Richard Branson's Virgin Group announced said there are 'no more major hurdles to overcome' in its £700million rail project to operate cross-channel trains.
The company made the positive claim after the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) confirmed that Eurostar's Temple Mills maintenance depot could be used by other train operators.
In March, Gemini Trains unveiled their own plans to connect London St Pancras with Paris and Brussels. The firm said it planned to offer seats at prices that would rival Eurostar, and would include services from Ebbsfleet in Kent. It's also since announced a partnership with Uber, who would co-brand the trains.
And Italy's national state-owned railway company, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FS Group) have also said it will launch a new high-speed rail service between London and Paris by 2029 that would compete with Eurostar.
The group, which is a co-owner of Avanti West Coast, could extend the route to Marseilles, Lyon and Milan, and is also looking at a possible reopening of Ashford International in Kent.
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Eurostar has 17 e320 trains that are serviced at this depot, while its eight e300s are serviced at Le Landy depot near Paris. We enter a warehouse store room described as the 'Ikea Zone' with more than 80,000 components stacked on high shelves. Nuts, bolts, windscreens, coffee machines. If another operator moves in, they will need their own warehouse space. Another canteen. More trains. More blocks in the game of Jenga. This store room is an example of what moving another operator into Temple Mills would entail. There are other nuances in the discussion of capacity at Temple Mills. There are two 'Cripple Roads' at Temple Mills that house old Eurostar trains that are stripped for parts, and the ORR's initial report suggested the roads in the reception area could plausibly be put to more effective use. But when the independent regulator says there's potential space for another operator to squeeze in, this is not the same as saying such a squeeze is practically viable for all parties. And anyway – Eurostar has its own plans for expansion. The French-owned firm plans to invest up to £1.5bn in a new 50-train fleet and new facilities at Temple Mills, as well as increasing capacity at stations including St Pancras International. They say that there are a number of other suitable sites available for competitors, including one at Stratford not far from Temple Mills. 'There's got to be an answer that gives everyone else who is prepared to invest the same opportunity to build their own facilities,' says Williams. 'A solution needs to be found, but it's not going to be found on one road in this shed.' Cheaper travel on the horizon For passengers, the sooner things get sorted in Temple Mills, the better. Competition would likely mean more destinations on the map. All of the rival firms have hinted at plans beyond the current Eurostar map featuring Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Lille, which has seen stops like Lyon, Marseille and Disneyland Paris crossed out over the years. Potential new routes to Bordeaux, Milan, Zurich and Frankfurt are all on the table. Even Eurostar agrees competition is no bad thing: 'It's not competition that kills companies, it's stagnation,' says Gareth Williams. Tickets could become cheaper too. The infrastructure consultancy firm, Steer, predicts that growth in capacity in the Channel Tunnel (from 11m to 35m by 2040) could see ticket prices go down by up to 30 per cent. There is also the potential that the overall service would be improved as well. Eurostar has had a monopoly on the line since 1994. Any new pretenders will be keen to offer unique services, whether it be quicker Wi-Fi, more leg-room, greater eco-credentials or finer dining options, to set them apart. For now, that's all hypothetical, as the rail firms have this week been ordered to file final submissions 'at pace' to allow the ORR to make a decision, by October, as to whether they will be granted access to Temple Mills, or if Eurostar will be given the nod to expand. As I left the Temple Mills complex, something about its carbuncular boxy exterior made me reflect on the Hagia Sophia comparison once again. For the first thousand years of its existence, Istanbul's most iconic holy building was used as a church, before being converted into a mosque in the 1300s, a museum in the 20th century, and more recently, a mosque once again. It is an example of how buildings can be repurposed and adapted through the ages as dynasties rise and fall. In a matter of months, we will know whether the throwaway comparison was more prescient than Eurostar's General Secretary intended.
