Paris travel frenzy for World Cup final

A report in the Times in the UK says that Eurostar has laid on extra trains between London and Paris in the days leading to the England v South Africa game on Saturday and estimates that 25,000 people will use the rail service to travel to Paris between Thursday lunchtime and Saturday afternoon.

Although tickets are selling fast, the company has limited availability on Friday and Saturday.

A spokesman for the rail operator said he couldn’t accurately give an estimate for ticket prices but said: “Our lead-in fare of £59 return sold out several months ago and fares now will vary from train to train.”

A search on the Eurostar website is currently showing availability throughout Saturday at a cost of £154.50 one way, and £309 for a return, coming back on Monday, as Sunday availability is very limited.

If these tickets sell out, the Eurostar spokesman suggested that rugby fans look into travelling directly from London to Lille, which takes one hour and 40 minutes, then transfer to a TGV train to Paris, which takes a further hour.

Bookings are increasing on this route already, the rail agency RailEurope (call 08708 306050 to book travel in the next seven days) is currently quoting £348 for a round trip ticket, going out on Saturday morning and returning on Sunday afternoon.

There is limited flight availability between London and Paris, but most do not go direct, and fares are steep.  Travelsupermarket.com, a price comparison website, is returning searches for flights between London and Paris on Friday. The cheapest is £162 with Alitalia, but there’s a catch: the flights are via Milan and the total journey time is more than 11 hours.

The next cheapest fares flying on Friday are over £1,000, and are not direct, but the journey time is around four hours.

Flybe has increased capacity on flights to Paris this weekend by using larger aircraft, making 1,000 more tickets available between Birmingham, Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Southampton and Paris. Flights from Birmingham to Paris are being quoted as £538 going out Saturday morning, returning Sunday afternoon, and from Southampton the return fare is £460, returning on Sunday evening.

On the whole, flights from regional airports to Paris are proving better value. Expedia is displaying Air France flights from Manchester to Paris direct from £646, arriving at 8.55am on Saturday and leaving on Sunday afternoon.

Hotel availability is promising. Travelsupermarket.com is retrieving rates from £30 a night for two night stays in Paris on Friday and Saturday night, but prices vary according to the hotel star rating and location.

Another website, Hotel Club set up a dedicated page for rugby supporters looking for accommodation in France at the start of the World Cup competition. Availability for Saturday’s final is currently showing more than 25 hotels, ranging from one to five star properties, which can confirm instant availability for the night of Saturday 20 September, and a host of other properties that may have availability but will commit only to confirmation within 48 hours.

However, on further investigation some of the hotels showing availability are fully booked – a spokesman for the company claims that a surge of bookings on the site since the match on Saturday is to blame, and advises users to refresh the page to get the latest availability. He also said that the site would not take payment unless availability was confirmed.

Expedia has flight and hotel packages from £512 per person, but the cheapest deals are for hotels at least 20km from the centre of Paris and flights get in at 6pm, making the timing tight to comfortably reach the Stade de France stadium at St Denis for the 9pm kick off. To stay at the same hotel but take a flight that lands at 4pm in Paris, and goes via Strasbourg from London, would cost £577.

The message for rugby fans who want to get close to the action in Paris this weekend is to investigate flights from regional airports to Paris, and to be wary of hotel deals that look too good to be true. Most travel websites will display the hotel location on a map, or in the case of Lastminute.com, will list its distance from various Paris landmarks.

A Report by The Mole from The Times