Taking Bikes on the Eurostar

Bappio

I was wondering if anyone had any experience of taking their bikes on the Eurostar? And if they have any tips or advice for doing so.

Me and my girlfriend are heading over to Cologne in August and we are looking to take our bikes on the Eurostar to Brussels and then get the train from Brussels to Cologne. We are just looking at the options and we just want to get a feel for the possibility of using a train for the journey instead of a hire car or flight.

Cheers in advance.

Monty Dog

Eurostar have a baggage limit size - most rigid bke boxes are too big/heavy for carriage on the train and has to be taken seperately / checked in advance. My experience was to use a soft bike bag - it'll fit on the racks at the end of the carriage and doesn't need to be pre-booked. Arrive a little early for security checks and making sure you can get the bike into the rack before everyone else gets on board.

sungod

if you can take off wheels, pedals, and turn bars so it fits in a soft bag (large plastic bag woulfd be o too i think) you'll be able to take it onboard and get it on the luggage racks - no extra charge, but get on first as there's limited space in the racks

this is the best way, the other options you have to pay for...

you can reserve space for them in the baggage car but that's fiddlier and if it's a busy train you might not be able to get a reservation if you leave it too late

otherwise you can book them as baggage, but weirdly they don't guarantee it'll be on the same train

tells you all about it on the eurostar website...

http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/t ... cycles.jsp

Butterd2

+1 to soft bike bags, my wife and I took ours to Brussels no problem and I have also taken mine to Aix via Paris.

Both times we have got on at Ebbsfleet and the Eurostar people could not have been more helpful, calling lifts to get us down to the platform, changing our seat bookings to put us is a carriage with more luggage space, and having someone waiting on the platform to help.

The difference in experience between Eurostar and flying bikes Easyjet/Ryanair could not be bigger.

StanwaySteve62

I fancy taking my bike down to Lyon and cycling home.
Sounds like I can't take me bike on without being in a bag?

mikeq

you could always post the bag back to your home address

LaAndy

Hi guys

We have our bikes booked onto the Eurostar (with us) on the return leg of our London 2 Paris ride in July.

Unless we have seriously misunderstood the text, we can turn up at the station with our bikes, they are loaded onto the Eurostar, we get on, when we arrive in London we can get our bike back...

No bags, packaging, disassembly needed.

Andy

BE1

LaAndy wrote:

Hi guys

We have our bikes booked onto the Eurostar (with us) on the return leg of our London 2 Paris ride in July.

Unless we have seriously misunderstood the text, we can turn up at the station with our bikes, they are loaded onto the Eurostar, we get on, when we arrive in London we can get our bike back...

No bags, packaging, disassembly needed.

Andy

Andy

as long as you have booked the bike on the same train you are corrcet. I did this a couple of weekends ago, Brussels London return. I rode to the station in Brussels and arrived just over an hour before the train left. I took bottles pump etc. off the bike and gave it in at the baggage desk. At St Pancras by the time I had got off the train and walked to the baggage centre (which is right at the back of the station by the car park) the bike was there.

Same procedure on the return except that they were unloading the bike from the train as I was walking past so I picked it up there and then.

One thing, it is easiest (but not essential) to have a copy of the consignment note for the reservation. esprit Europe, the company who manage the baggage at St Pamcras will e-mail this to you: Esprit.Europe@eurostar.com

Have a good trip