17 January 2012.
Train times valid from 11 December 2011 to 9 June 2012.
London to Andorra La Vella
The little church of St Coloma, just outside Andorra
la Vella.
A
French count and a Spanish bishop disagreed over who should rule
a small rural enclave high up in the Pyrenees.
They decided to rule jointly, and the result was the
Principality of Andorra, the only country in the world whose official language
is Catalan. Today it's no longer
rural - its spectacular scenery is home to more ski resorts
and
duty-free perfumeries than you can shake a stick at.
But if
you look hard enough, the odd bit of historical interest
remains...
Andorra has no rail station or airport, but it's easy to get
there by Eurostar from London to Paris, overnight 'Lunéa' train from Paris to
l'Hospitalet près l'Andorre (the station just outside
Andorra) and then a bus ride across a spectacular mountain
pass into Andorra. It's cheap too: If you book online
in advance, London-Paris starts at just £69 return,
Paris-l'Hospitalet by overnight train starts at just 20 euros
(£18) one-way in a reclining seat or 35 euros (£33) in a
couchette, then it's just 9.50 euros for the connecting bus to
Andorra. That's centre-to-centre.
Train times London ► Andorra
Travel from London to
Paris by Eurostar, leaving London St Pancras at
16:22 and arriving Paris Gare du Nord at 19:47.
Cross Paris by métro
to the Gare d'Austerlitz.
Travel from Paris to
l'Hospitalet près l'Andorre overnight by 'Lunéa' sleeper train,
leaving Paris (Gare d'Austerlitz) at 21:56 and arriving
at l'Hospitalet at 07:21. This train has 1st class
4-berth couchettes, 2nd class 6-berth couchettes and 2nd
class reclining seats. It does not run on 24 or 31
December, and won't run 6-19 May 2012. It can sometimes be affected by
engineering works, so
check the service for your date of travel using
www.raileurope.co.uk
or
www.tgv-europe.com.
A daily bus
service connects with the train, leaving L'Hospitalet
station forecourt at 07:45 for Pas de la Casa (arriving 08:15),
Soldeu (08:40), Encamp, and Andorra La Vella, arriving 09:05.
It's a very scenic ride through the Pyrenees - try and get the front seats for the best
views. The bus is operated by La Hispano Andorrana
SL,
www.andorrabus.com. Subject to cancellation when
the mountain passes are blocked by snow!
The
bus leaves Andorra La Vella at 16:45, Soldeu
at 17:20, Pas de la Casa at 18:00, arriving
at l'Hospitalet station forecourt at 19:15. In Andorra la Vella,
the bus does not leave from the bus station, but
from bus stop number 510 outside the
Poste Française (French post office). The bus will
be at this stop at about 16:35, then it will wait until
16:45, so get
there in good time. The bus company is La Hispano
Andorrana SL,
www.andorrabus.com. On arrival at l'Hospitalet,
the station ticket office, waiting room and toilets will
be open until the departure of the night express for
Paris, so you will have somewhere warm to wait...
The 'Lunéa' overnight train
leaves l'Hospitalet près l'Andorre at 20:50, arriving
Paris Gare d'Austerlitz at 07:28 next morning. It
has 1st class 4-berth couchettes, 2nd class 6-berth
couchettes and reclining seats. It does not run on
24 or 31 December or on 7-20 May 2012. It can sometimes be affected by
engineering works, so
check the service for your date of travel using
www.raileurope.co.uk
or
www.tgv-europe.com.
A
Eurostar leaves Paris
Gare du Nord
at 09:13 and arrives London St Pancras at
10:36.
What's it like on the Lunéa train from Paris to
l'Hospitalet?
The train has air-conditioned couchette
cars and a reclining seats car. Couchettes are
flat padded bunks, each provided with a clean pillow and (on
these French Lunéa trains) a special lightweight
sleeping-bag, a welcome change from the traditional sheet
and blanket. 2nd class couchettes have 6 bunks
per compartment (upper, middle and lower on each
side of the compartment), 1st class couchettes have
4 bunks (upper and lower each side). There are washrooms and toilets
at the end of the corridor.
French Railways (SNCF)
have relaunched their overnight service as
'Lunéa', and each couchette passenger gets a
small bottle of mineral water, earplugs (if you
really feel you need them), and tissues.
There's a security lock on the door which cannot be
opened from outside, and staff are on hand
if you need them. Only passengers with tickets
and reservations are allowed on board, and there are
minimal stops between midnight and 06:00 to ensure a
safe and smooth journey through the night.
Men
and women share the same compartments in
couchettes, as you don't normally fully undress, but
on French night trains, women travelling alone can
ask for a place in a ladies-only
compartment.
The train also has reclining seats, but a couchette allows you to sleep
properly and is recommended.
Above right: The
night train between l'Hospitalet and Paris, seen
at the end of the line at
Latour de Carol.
Near right: An air-conditioned French 2nd class
couchette compartment with 6-bunks on the night
train to l'Hospitalet.
Far right: 1st class
couchettes have 4 berths and are carpeted and
generally more comfortable. 1st class
couchettes are wider and softer than the 2nd class
couchettes.
The bus from l'Hospitalet to
Andorra...
The bus ride
across the Pyrenean mountain passes into Andorra is
spectacular, although a new tunnel cuts off part of
the original road over the pass.
Get the front seats for the best
views...
www.andorrabus.com for bus times.
If you live in the UK, the best way to buy tickets for both Eurostar and the Paris-l'Hospitalet
overnight train is online at
www.raileurope.co.uk.
Using
www.raileurope.co.uk
you can buy your Eurostar and onward tickets to l'Hospitalet together all in one
place without relying on postage from France,
it's easy to use, and prices are in pounds. If you use a debit card
and collect tickets at the station there are no fees, and it's
backed by a UK call centre if you need any help. Please
read these tips before booking:
This booking form links to
www.raileurope.co.uk.
Tickets can be collected at St Pancras or stations in
France free of charge, or sent to a UK
address for a £2.25 fee.
There's no fee for debit cards, but they charge a 2.5% credit card fee. Only
UK credit cards are accepted.
Reservations for French trains open 90 days before
departure. You can't book before reservations open,
but if you ask
www.raileurope.co.uk
for a date more than 90 days ahead, it may offer to send an
email reminder when reservations open. Eurostar
reservations open 120 days ahead, but I strongly recommend waiting till 90 days & book all your trains
together. Note that the 90 days is often
squeezed to maybe 60 for travel in the few weeks immediately
after the European timetable changes in mid-June &
mid-December.
To see the cheap fares, treat London to l'Hospitalet as
two
separate journeys, one from London to Paris, the other
Paris to l'Hospitalet.
First book the train from Paris to L'Hospitalet and back.
Enter 'Paris' and 'l'Hospitalet pres l'Andorre'
and your dates of travel.
Make sure you book a couchette, not just a seat. Add
it to your basket. Double-check the trains
departure/arrival times before booking the Eurostar
connection, in case they change due to engineering work.
Then click 'Continue Shopping' and book the Eurostar
from London to Paris and back as a separate journey.
Use the Eurostar times on this page as a guide, but feel
free to choose an earlier Eurostar from London, or a
later Eurostar returning from Paris, if these have
cheaper seats available or if you'd like to stop off in
Paris. Don't forget that on your return journey,
your departure date from Paris to London will be the day
after your departure date from l'Hospitalet to Paris!
Tickets are sent from a UK office and normally arrive through the post in a couple of
days.
There is no need to pre-book the
bus from
l'Hospitalet to Andorra. Just turn up, hop on and buy your
ticket on the bus from the driver. You can check bus times at
www.andorrabus.com.
How
to buy tickets by phone or in person...
You
can buy tickets from any UK European rail booking agency, including
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
09:00-19:00 Monday to Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturdays, £8 booking fee) or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (8% booking fee). Rail
Europe have a travel centre for personal callers at 193
Piccadilly, London W1J 9EU, open 10:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, 10:00-17:00
Saturdays. For
more information about how to buy European train tickets,
see the London to Europe general
information page.
Anyone from any country worldwide can buy tickets direct
from the relevant train operator websites as follows:
How far ahead can you book? French trains open
for booking 90 days before departure, you cannot book before
bookings open. Eurostar bookings open 120 days ahead,
but I strongly recommend waiting and buying all your tickets
at the same time. I suggest doing a 'dry run' on both
sites before booking for real, to double-check prices, availability and exact timings for each part of the
journey.
If
you live in the UK, it can be better to buy all your
tickets from www.raileurope.co.uk
as shown
above. Then you can buy your Eurostar & TGV tickets
together in one place without relying on post from France, prices are (or
should be) the same as on www.tgv-europe.com, and it's backed by a UK call
centre. On the other hand, there are no credit card or
postage fees at www.tgv-europe.com
and prices are in euros so it's a fraction cheaper because
you'll get a better exchange rate from your own bank.
It also allows you to request specific seating options (such
as a table for two in 1st class) which Rail Europe currently
doesn't. But it's your call!
Step 1: Book the train from Paris to l'Hospitalet.
Buy your tickets at the official French Railways
English-language website
www.tgv-europe.com, or the French version
www.voyages-sncf.com
using
these step-by-step instructions.
Tickets can be collected at the station in Paris.
Double-check the Paris departure/arrival times before
booking the Eurostar.
Step
2: Book the Eurostar from London to Paris.
Go to
www.eurostar.com
and book a suitable Eurostar from London to Paris and back.
Use the Eurostar times on this page as a guide, but feel
free to choose an earlier Eurostar from London or a later
Eurostar back from Paris if these have cheaper seats
available or if you'd like to stop off in Paris. You
can print out your own ticket, or collect it at the station
at London St Pancras. Easy!
There is no need to pre-book the
bus from
l'Hospitalet to Andorra. Just turn up, hop on and buy your
ticket on the bus from the driver. You can check bus times at
www.andorrabus.com.
Moving on from Andorra...
Andorra to Barcelona...
If
you are heading on to Spain, the bus connections back
to l'Hospitalet do not work well with
the local railway to Barcelona. However, there are regular
buses between Andorra and Barcelona taking about 4 hours,
see
www.autocarsnadal.com.
There are trains from Latour de Carol to Barcelona, see
www.renfe.com
(the Barcelona-Latour de Carol route is classed as a
Barcelona suburban service, so ignore the main journey
planner, leave the site in Spanish mode, and look for the
'Cercanias' link below the main enquiry form on their home
page. Select the Barcelona suburban area).
There is a replacement bus service
between Puigcerdá and Ribes de Freser.
Andorra to Perpignan: 'Le petit
train jaune...'
If you don't mind paying for a taxi between Andorra and Latour de Carol
(there's now no bus service), the scenic narrow gauge 'petit train jaune' runs
from Latour de Carol through the Pyrenees twice-daily in winter, much more
frequently in summer, connecting with a standard gauge
service at Villefranche at the eastern end of the line into Perpignan.
This makes for a very scenic and interesting alternative
route into/out of Andorra. The 'petit train jaune' is
run by the French national train operator SNCF, so train times,
fares and online ticketing for the petit train jaune can all be done through the SNCF
website,
www.voyages-sncf.com or
www.tgv-europe.com. For info of the Petit Train
Jaune, see
www.trains-touristiques.sncf.com/region.asp?menu=1&train=jaune&lang=fr.
For train times between London and Perpignan, see the
London to France page.
Right: The Petit Train Jaune from Perpignan/Villefranche
to Latour de Carol...
The Thomas Cook European Timetable
The
Thomas Cook European timetable
has train & ferry times for every country in Europe plus currency
& climate
information. Published since 1873, it costs £13.99.
It's essential for any serious traveller
and an inspiration for armchair travellers. Still
not convinced you need one? More information
on what the Thomas Cook Timetable contains. You can
buy the latest monthly edition online at
www.thomascooktimetables.com with worldwide delivery or
buy it in person from any UK branch of Thomas Cook (ask at the
bureau de change), or from W H Smiths in Victoria or Kings
Cross stations in London.
Or
buy the twice-yearly independent traveller's edition with
laminated cover from Amazon.co.uk:
Winter/Spring 2011/12 edition (Dec 2011 to June 2012) or
(when available)
Summer/Autumn 2012 edition (June to Dec 2012)
The Thomas Cook Rail Map of
Europe is the best and most comprehensive
map of train routes right across Europe, from Portugal in the
west to Istanbul, Moscow & Ukraine in the east, from Finland
in the north to Sicily & Crete in the south. High speed
&
scenic routes are highlighted. Highly recommended!
Buy online
at
www.amazon.co.uk
(worldwide delivery).
See an extract from
the map.
www.hotelscombined.com
is probably the best hotel search system I've seen, a free search tool
which checks all the main hotel booking sites (Opodo, Expedia,
Booking.com, Hotels.com, AsiaRooms, Travelocity, LateRooms and
others) to find the cheapest hotel rates. Set up in
2005, it's probably the best place to start for booking any
hotel online in any country, worldwide.
Other hotel sites
worth trying...
www.tripadvisor.com
is the place to find
independent travellers' reviews of all the main hotels.
www.booking.com is my own preferred hotel booking system
(Hotels Combined being a search/comparison system). It
has a simple interface, a good selection in most countries
worldwide, useful online customer reviews of each hotel, and
decent prices, usually shown inclusive of unavoidable extras
such as taxes (a pet hate of mine is systems that show one
price, then charge you another!).
Backpacker hostels...
www.hostelbookers.com: If you're on a tight budget,
don't forget about backpacker hostels. Hostelbookers
offers online booking of cheap private rooms or dorm beds in
backpacker hostels in Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and most
other European cities at rock-bottom prices.
Travel insurance & health card...
Get travel insurance, it's essential...
Never travel without insurance from a
reliable travel insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover. It should also cover loss of
cash (up to a limit) and belongings, and cancellation. An annual
multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip
policies even for just 2 or 3 trips
a year (I have an annual policy myself).
Don't expect travel insurance to bail you out of every missed
connection, but European international rail conditions of
carriage (known as the 'CIV') contain consumer protection
provisions that entitle you to travel forward by the next
available train if you miss a connection because of a delay to
the first train, irrespective of who operates which train, and
even if your ticket is in theory train-specific and
non-changeable.
Feedback from using
insurance for rail & ferry travel is always welcome. Here are some suggested insurers.
Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these
links.
If you're a
UK citizen travelling in Europe, you should apply for a free
European Health Insurance Card, which entitles you to free or
reduced rate health care if you become ill or get injured in
many European countries, under a reciprocal arrangement with
the NHS. This replaced the old E111 forms
as from January 2006. The EHIC card is available from
www.ehic.org.uk. It doesn't remove the need for
travel insurance, though.
Get a spare credit card, one designed for foreign travel with no currency
exchange loading & low or no ATM fees...
It costs nothing to take out an extra credit card.
If you keep it in a different part of your luggage so you're
not left stranded if
your wallet gets stolen, this is a form of extra travel insurance in itself. In addition,
some credit cards are significantly better for
overseas travel than others. Martin Lewis's
www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-travel-money explains which
UK credit cards
have the lowest currency exchange commission loadings when you buy something
overseas, and the lowest cash withdrawal fees when
you use an ATM abroad. Taking this advice
can save you quite a lot on each trip compared to using your
normal high-street bank credit card! You can save money on ATM charges and exchange rates using a
Caxton FX euro currency Visa Card, or indeed the
multi-currency 'Global Traveller' Visa Card,
find out about these cards & sign up here.
Get an international SIM card
to save on mobile data and phone calls...
Mobile phones can cost a fortune to use abroad, and if you're
not careful you can return home to find some huge bills
waiting for you. I've known people run up over £1,000 in
data charges just by leaving their iPhone connected during a
simple trip to Europe. However, if you
buy a global SIM card for your mobile phone from a company
such as
www.Go-Sim.com you can slash the cost by up to 85% and
limit any damage to the amount you have pre-paid. Go-Sim
cuts call costs in 175 countries worldwide,
and you can receive incoming calls and texts for free in 75 countries. It's pay-as-you-go, so no nasty bills
when you get home. It also allows cheap data access for laptops
& PDAs. A Go-Sim account and any credit on it doesn't
expire if it's not used between trips, unlike some
others, so a Go-Sim phone number becomes your 'global phone
number' for life.
How
to buy tickets online at
If you live in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland or the
EU, try
If you live in the USA or Canada, try
