Getting to Disneyland Paris from the UK

There's no longer a direct train from London to the resort; the service that ran to the park gates stopped in 2023. The route now is the Eurostar from St Pancras to Lille Europe, then a high-speed train on to the resort. The quickest published end-to-end time is just under three hours, and once you add check-in at St Pancras and the connection at Lille, most South East families are looking at 4 to 4.5 hours door to door.

The Lille change is easier than it looks. Lille Europe is a small station with four platforms on one level, all clearly signed, and the connection is usually a short walk to another platform rather than any underground maze. Booked connection times run around 20 to 30 minutes, which families with a pushchair describe as comfortable. The Lille train is run by SNCF as either a full-service TGV inOui or its budget OUIGO version; both are high-speed, take about an hour and carry under-4s free on a lap. The difference that matters for a family is luggage: the OUIGO fare covers a single suitcase each and charges for extra bags, where the TGV allows two, so with a lot of kit the TGV is usually the easier booking.

If you book the whole journey through Eurostar as one transaction, a delay to the Eurostar leg is covered and you're put on the next available train at no charge. Booking the Lille train separately can be cheaper and gives you more choice of times, but that protection doesn't apply, so leave more time at Lille if you go that way. Whichever you choose, book as early as you can: the best combinations of price and timing tend to go around six months out.

The Paris route, and when it suits

The other way in is the Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord, then the RER commuter trains out to the resort: the RER B to Châtelet-Les Halles, then the RER A to the resort station, about an hour in all from Gare du Nord. It suits you if you want to fold in a day or two in Paris, if the Lille connections don't fit your times or if the Paris fare is much cheaper. With young children and a pushchair it's harder work than Lille. Châtelet-Les Halles is one of the busiest interchanges anywhere, the lifts aren't always working and the RER carries more pickpocket risk than the other options, so it's worth avoiding the Paris rush hours if you go this way. If you're basing yourselves in Paris for the whole trip and just want a day at the parks, there's an official same-day return coach, the Disneyland Paris Express, from several city-centre points including Gare du Nord and the Eiffel Tower area; you book it alongside your park tickets.

On board with young children

For families the train itself is the easy part. There are no liquid restrictions, so formula, milk, water and snacks all travel without decanting or binning, which for a bottle-feeding family is reason enough on its own. Book a table seat, a bay of four facing each other, for room to spread out colouring and snacks; the family coaches sit at each end of the train and the table bays go early, so book ahead. There's baby changing on board, roomier than a plane's, and staff at the café car will warm a bottle.

Pushchairs travel free on top of the luggage allowance and fold into the racks at the ends of the carriage; for a large double buggy, tell Eurostar in advance. Under-4s travel free on a lap, though they don't get their own seat unless you pay a child fare, and children roughly 4 to 11 travel at a reduced fare. There's no separate baggage check and nothing to reclaim at the far end, and the luggage racks fill fast in Standard, so board early and claim your space.

Passports, the border and timing at St Pancras

Give yourselves more time at St Pancras than the 30 minutes Eurostar asks for: 45 minutes to an hour with children, and longer in the school holidays. Part of that is the EU's Entry/Exit System, in force since April 2026, which records a photo and fingerprints for adults at kiosks before you board. Children under 12 are photographed but don't give fingerprints, and the registration lasts three years. For the Eurostar this all happens at St Pancras on the UK side, so it adds nothing at the other end, unlike flying. A separate EU travel permit, ETIAS, isn't in force yet; check GOV.UK for where it stands before you travel. There's a step up onto the train at St Pancras, awkward with a toddler and bags at once, so a sling for a baby frees your hands.

No single route is best for everyone. From London and the South East the Eurostar via Lille is the usual choice, at 4 to 4.5 hours door to door once the border and the connection are counted. Driving suits South East families too if the car's full and you want it at the resort, at five and a half to six and a half hours. From the Midlands, flying and the train come out much of a muchness on total time, and a local flight often edges it.

From the North West, Yorkshire and further north, flying is normally the sensible option; the drive to London for the train adds real time and cost, and driving the whole way from Manchester runs to eight or nine hours, usually with an overnight stop. From Scotland, flying is effectively the only practical choice, with the drive a full day each way. If you want your own car at the resort for supermarket runs and the freedom to come and go, though, driving is the one mode that gives you that, wherever you set off from.

The routes compared

These are rough door-to-door times from London and the South East. From further north the train and drive times stretch, and flying becomes relatively quicker.

Cost, and packages versus booking it yourself

Driving is usually the cheapest for a family of four or more with a full car, and the more of you there are, the stronger that gets. The Eurostar is competitive from the South East when you book early, around six months out. Flying can show the lowest headline fare from northern airports, but baggage charges, the airport transfer and the odd long border queue reduce the saving, so it pays to book early and off-peak.

You can either book the parts yourself or buy a package that bundles the hotel, park tickets and travel. A package through the official site or a UK Disney specialist is covered by the Package Travel Regulations, which is worth having on a trip this size, and it can come out close to booking separately when Disney is running an offer. Booking the transport on its own is often cheaper for travel alone. It's worth pricing both for your dates.