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Hello,

Looking for some advice on this as we are from the USA and do not have experience with Eurail or Interrail.

This coming August we are looking to take our family of 6 people (2 adults and 16, 11, 11, 6) to a UK/France/maybe Belgium trip.

If we bought a Eurail Global pass is there a way to get from Central London area to Stafford, UK?? When I enter this on the Eurail planning tool, Stafford does not come up on the tool. Perhaps some of you know how to get around this and book it.

Ideally we would want to use this Eurail Global pass to get from London to Stafford, back to London on a later day. Then other travel days from London to Brussels, then to Paris, and maybe then to Versailles and back. Only the Versailles would be the same day there and back and we would be spending overnights in the other destinations. I figure a 4-5 day travel pass should be adequate and probably worth it.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

Stafford trains leave from London Euston : there are at least 2 fast trains per hour (1h20 journey). Timetables after 1st June haven’t been published yet. Don’t worry, there will be loads of trains.

The Eurail pass won’t be useful for Paris - Versailles as the suburban trains (RER) are not covered. Tickets only cost a few € anyway.

You should compare carefully whether advance tickets or Eurail passes make the most sense. With Eurail you need to add seat reservations on high-speed trains and Eurostar has one of the most expensive out there (30€)… there’s also a passholder quota so you must book well in advance, especially with the upcoming Olympics. Please read https://www.seat61.com/interrail-and-eurail-reservations.htm

London - Stafford has very cheap advance tickets : from 9£ one-way. The pass would give you more flexibility for this trip as you can decide on the day which train you take (free optional reservations, recommended).

Honestly I don’t know which option would be best. I guess it depends on Eurostar fares. You’ll have to book those journeys in advance anyway (outside London - Stafford).

@thibcabe Thank you for your response. Its a good point about the added reservation fees which may make this a more expensive option.  Where do you see the 9£ one-way options for London - Stafford?

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

The cheapest fares are advance tickets of West Midlands Trains. Example for next Wednesday : 13£ for the 08:46 train, 9£ for the 09:46.

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