London->Paris; DC->NYC Weekend Breaks

This past weekend I made my second weekend trip to Paris and had an amazing time as always (blog post to follow). There are two ways to travel to Paris from London. The first and easiest method is to take Eurostar, the European version of Amtrak, from St. Pancras International to Gare du Nord. Aside from checking in 30 minutes before boarding and going through a relatively short security screening, the entire trip takes two and a half hours. Gare du Nord is also situated in the middle of Paris and connects to various making it quite accessible when staying with friends. The second method is to fly from a number of London airports (Luton, Standsted, Gatwick) to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. Both airports are at least an hour and a half ride, Paris being shorter, from the city and so there is a lot of hassle navigating unfamiliar routes. The best way would definitely be to use Eurostar, though the cost end up being about the same, ultimately the time and hassle saved leads to a better weekend in Paris.

There are 3 methods of travel from DC to NYC: air, train, bus. I'm sure everyone is aware of how to fly in and out of BWI and Ronald Reagan and so I won't elaborate. The train station is located in Union Station (Red Line) and is nearly a 20 min metro ride from Foggy Bottom (Orange Line). Similar to the above, the trip takes about two and a half hours and tickets can be purchased online or at the station; it takes you into Grand Central terminal, and tickets roundtrip are around $150-200. My choice of transportation is the DC to NYC four hour bus ride that costs $30 roundtrip. Though four hours is a long time to sit on a bus, many of them provide free wifi or play somewhat entertaining movies during the trip, I often take a nap =). These buses aren't sketchy as some may believe. Pick up locations in DC vary from Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, and Chinatown to Grand Central, Chinatown, etc. Buses run at various times of the day and are surprisingly reliable.

Serena