How to Travel from Paris to Strasbourg (The Easy Way)
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Strasbourg is one of the best cities in France and shouldn’t be missed. The good new is that it is super easy to travel fro Paris to Strasbourg.
The bad new is that it can be quite expensive- especially if you don’t book your ticket in advance!
You can travel from Paris to Strasbourg by train, bus, car, or ride share, but the only realistic way for a tourist to travel from Paris to Strasbourg is by train. It takes over 5.5 hours to drive from Paris to Strasbourg. The Paris to Strasbourg train takes less than 2 hours. The train from Paris to Strasbourg is slightly more expensive than the bus or a ride share, but it is worth the extra money to arrive in Strasbourg quickly!
In this post, we’re going to discuss all the different ways to travel to Strasbourg from Paris, so you can figure out what transportation method is the best for you.
But it will most likely be the train!
Table of Contents
Option One: Taking the Train from Paris to Strasbourg
It isn’t even a discussion.
The best way to travel from Paris to Strasbourg is to take the train!
It is the quickest way to travel between the two cities and is the only real viable option for tourists. Especially if you’re taking a day trip to Strasbourg.
I’m not going to sugar coat it.
The Paris to Strasbourg train can be expensive, but we’ll discuss the best way to lower your ticket cost a little bit later.
The price is worth the convenience the train provides!
How Long Does the Paris to Strasbourg Train Take?
There is always some variability in the length of your train journey.
It depends on what time of day and how busy the train lines are.
On average, the train from Paris to Strasbourg takes just under 2 hours!
That’s significantly faster than any other mode of transportation!
How Much Does a Train Ticket Cost?
There is a lot of fluctuation when it comes to how much a train ticket from Paris to Strasbourg costs.
Tickets range anywhere from €16 to €230. That is approximately $19USD to $275USD.
That’s a huge price difference!
You don’t want to get stuck paying a fare closer to the higher end of that range.
There are a number of things that impact the price of your ticket:
- How far in advance you book your ticket. The earlier you purchase your ticket, the cheaper it is.
- What time of day you depart. It is always cheaper to travel during off-peak times.
- What day of the week you travel. Weekends are more expensive than weekdays.
- Your age. France has discounted train fare for people under 26 and older than 60.
- What class you travel in. Second class is much more affordable than first class.
Out of all of the factors, the most important one is booking your ticket early!
You can book your train ticket 3 months in advance.
The closer you are to the date of departure, the more expensive the ticket is. Even if there is still lots of seat available, the ticket price continues to rise as the date nears.
It requires some advance planning, but it is well worth planning and knowing when you’re travelling from Paris to Strasbourg as close to three months in advance as possible.
I like to wing my trips a fair amount, but I’m 100% down to plan in advance if it saves me a lot of money!
The last time I booked a train ticket to Strasbourg from Charles de Gaulle Airport, it was around €40, and I booked it almost exactly three months in advance.
And then reluctantly had to cancel it because of COVID-19.
Where to Purchase Train Tickets
You can either purchase your ticket online in advance or at the train station.
I highly recommend purchasing your ticket online in advance. It will save you a lot of money!
You can easily book your train ticket through the SNCF website.
The website is super easy to use, have an English option, and accepts foreign credit cards.
One thing to note is you do need to print your ticket and have a paper copy to show the ticket checker onboard.
The other option is to purchase your ticket at the train station.
You can either purchase it a few days in advance at the station or purchase your train ticket on the day you departure.
Look out for the yellow SNCF ticket booth.
That’s where you purchase the train ticket from Paris to Strasbourg. You can also purchase it from a ticket booth employee, but, in my experience, there is always a long line to purchase your tickets from an actual human being.
Using the ticket booth is a much simpler option!
But buying your ticket online in advance is the best option by far!
Where Does the Train Depart from in Paris?
You can jump on the Paris to Strasbourg train from either:
- Paris Est
- Charles de Gaulle
Both are convenient, and it is really a matter of what is the best station for you. Most people depart from Paris Est, but some people arrive at Charles de Gaulle and go directly to Strasbourg.
Where Does the Train Arrive at in Strasbourg?
The train arrives at Strasbourg Station.
It is the only train station in Strasbourg, and it is located in the city centre!
Advantages of Taking the Paris to Strasbourg Train
- Fastest way to travel from Paris to Strasbourg
- 14 trains depart per day
- Train departs and arrives in central areas
Disadvantages of Taking the Paris to Strasbourg Train
- Expensive
- Have to book months in advance to get a decent price
- Have to have a physical ticket (electronic tickets not accepted)
Option Two: Taking the Bus from Paris to Strasbourg
The next best option is taking the bus from Paris to Strasbourg.
It is a distant second place but second place nonetheless.
I don’t really see a reason to take the bus to Strasbourg from Paris unless you have a lot of time on your hands and are on a very tight budget.
How Long Does the Bus from Paris to Strasbourg Take?
This hurts to tell you.
On average, it takes 8.5 hours to travel the 491km from Paris to Strasbourg.
That’s three hours longer than it takes to drive straight to Strasbourg from Paris. It is a painful journey.
The journey time is the reason I don’t recommend taking the bus between these two cities.
It isn’t that much cheaper, and it is actually more expensive than the train when you factor in what your time is worth!
How Much Does a Bus Ticket Cost?
The bus ticket isn’t as inexpensive as you may think!
I kind of expect such a long journey that takes four times as long as the train to come at a discounted price, but it doesn’t really.
Of course the price of a bus ticket fluctuates based on what time of day you leave and what day of the week it is.
On average, a bus ticket costs €21 (approximately $25USD).
That is actually more expensive than the cheapest train ticket! It is, however, about €20 less than the average price of a train ticket.
Let’s be honest though. Those six extra hours you’re on the bus is worth a whole lot more than €20!
Where to Purchase Bus Tickets
Just like the train, you can purchase your bus tickets either in advance online or in person on the day of departure.
There is no price advantage to purchasing your bus ticket online in advance like there is with the train.
If it were me, I would just pick up my ticket at the station the day I leave. Just make sure you leave extra time in case there is a line for tickets!
The best place to purchase bus tickets online in advance is through Omio. They historically have the best ticket prices around!
Most buses accept an electronic version of your ticket, so that is a nice change from the train. You’re good to go as long as you have a screenshot or email with the ticket code on it!
Where Does the Bus Depart from in Paris?
The bus from Paris to Strasbourg departs from Quai de Bercy.
It is located right along the Seine about 5km south of the Louvre.
The closest metro station to Quai de Bercy is Cour Saint Émilion, and it is only a couple blocks away from the bus station.
Where Does the Bus Arrive at in Strasbourg?
The bus arrives at Place de l’Étoile in Strasbourg.
It is very central and is less than 200m from the train station!
Advantages of Taking the Bus from Paris to Strasbourg
- Don’t have to purchase tickets in advance
- Can present an electronic ticket
- Dedicated luggage storage under the bus
Disadvantages of Taking the Bus from Paris to Strasbourg
- Very time consuming
- Not much cheaper than the train
- Departure station in Paris less central than Paris Est
Option Three: Catching a Ride Share from Paris to Strasbourg
I’m not going to chit chat about these last two options in too much detail.
They are by far the least used options, and I don’t think many of my readers will see them as the best option for them.
But a few of you may, so I want to give you all the information!
The third best way to travel from Paris to Strasbourg is to participate in a ride share.
You can connect with other people ride sharing through Carpool World. It connects passengers and drivers who want to ride share, save on gas, and help the environement!
It is difficult to give you an exact price for ride sharing from Paris to Strasbourg. There are just too many variables.
The biggest thing that changes the price is how many people are participating in the ride share. The more people that share a ride, the less expensive it will be!
If you drive straight from Paris to Strasbourg without stopping, it will take about five hours to make the journey to Strasbourg from Paris.
I think participating in a ride share is a good option for people who are free spirited and up for an adventure.
You’ll probably meet some very interesting people when you participate in a ride share!
Option Four: Renting a Car and Driving from Paris from Strasbourg
Your final option is to rent a car and drive from Paris to Strasbourg.
I don’t recommend this option unless it is part of a larger road trip around France or Europe.
It simply isn’t worth the expense or stress of driving from Paris to Strasbourg when you can take the train.
Kick back, relax, and enjoy the scenery from the window of a train!
If you do choose to drive from Paris to Strasbourg, it will take about 5 hours. Most people who road trip aren’t driving almost 500km without stopping.
I highly recommend you take your time and stop at some small towns along the way to get a sense of what life outside of a big city in France is like!
Pro tip: before spending an arm and a leg on car insurance, make sure you look into what insurances your credit card has. Most travel credit cards come with extensive car insurance, so you don’t have to pay for the expensive insurance car rental companies try to sell you!
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a number of different ways to travel from Paris to Strasbourg.
There is only one realistic and viable way, and that is taking the Paris to Strasbourg train.
It is the quickest way to travel to Strasbourg from Paris by a long shot! The next quickest option is about three hours longer than the train!
You could literally travel from Paris to Strasbourg and Strasbourg to Paris and still have an hour to kill before someone driving arrived!
I think you should most definitely visit Strasbourg. I always recommend for people to get out of Paris and see more of France.
The Top Places To Travel To From Paris By Train
When it comes to living in Europe, you’re not limited by your city or town—perhaps the best thing about living in Europe is how easy it is to get out and about on the Continent and see what all your neighboring countries and cultures have to offer. This, for me, has to be the best thing about living on this side of the pond…
As I’ve often said, one of my favorite things about living in Paris is the opportunity to get out quickly and easily for day trips, weekends, long weekends, and beyond…
When I think about travel from Paris, it’s more Venice and London that pop into my head rather than French destinations, but it’s unfair of me to discount all the fantastic tourist destinations in France when there are so many great options.
Visiting Reims
A couple weeks ago, we visited Reims, the hub of the champagne region, which is just about an hour from Paris by train or car. It was our first trip there, and we enjoyed it so much, I think we’ll make a point of going at least once a year from here on out.
Here, you’re spoiled with choice when it comes to champagne wineries. There are hundreds of champagne houses in the region, and in Reims alone you can visit a dozen or more, nearly all reachable by foot from the town center. Of the houses located in centre-ville,you could tour Veuve Clicquot, Mumm’s, Taittinger, Pommery, Charles de Cazanove, and many more. At these houses you can take cave tours, have a guided tasting, or do a culinary pairing and tasting. Or you can take a short drive out of town and walk among the vines.
My personal recommendation is to visit the Pommery house, which is much more than just its champagne. Here, you can walk the gorgeous grounds, visit one of the most beautiful art nouveau houses I’ve ever seen, tour the caves (previously Roman salt mines), and do the usual tastings. These caves are unique, though, in that they also double as an art venue. Temporary exhibits are housed throughout, adding a nice dose of culture to your day drinking.
Reims is a cute little town with little more going on than its champagne culture, but if you like champagne and small-town France, this place is lots of fun. On weekdays, trains leave hourly for Reims, and it’s just one stop on a direct line that leaves from Gare de l’Est.
Where Else Can You Visit By Train Within A Couple Hours Of Paris?
1. Versailles
Versailles, of course, where we took our daughter for the first time this summer. It may not be an original idea, but it’s certainly worthy of the bucket list. Likewise an hour ride, you can leave from several stations in Paris, and it’s a short walk from the Versailles station to get to the chateau and its gardens.
While the interior of the palace is certainly worth a visit, it’s the gardens that I continue to go back for to this day. No matter the season, there is some unique aspect of the landscaping to enjoy, so it’s all wonderful at any time of year. For a real treat, take the time to visit Marie-Antoinette’s manmade village… a lonely, homesick girl’s idea to make herself feel more at home and less alone in a foreign land. At the farthest edge of the walkable grounds, well past the manicured gardens, you’ll find this little folly—complete with farm animals to pet.
2. Fontainebleau
For a less cliché trip, perhaps try Fontainebleau, the “other” Versailles. Before Versailles, the monarchy of France took its ease at this site, renowned for its hunting and its famous horseshoe staircase. The surrounding forest of Fontainebleau is one of the most visited nature escapes for Parisians, and in addition to hiking, it offers excellent conditions for rock climbers.
3. Melun
Melun is one of my favorite towns near Paris, mostly thanks to its role in art history. Near the woods of Barbizon, this is where the Barbizon school of painters made their mark. Coming from Paris to escape the artistic status quo of the time, they wanted to paint en plein air and from nature. Rousseau, Millet, Corot, Courbet, and Daubigny were some of the better known. These were the pre-impressionists—the precursors to Monet, Renoir, Manet, Degas, and all the names you are likely to know so well.
And the town has done a wonderful job of retaining the feeling of rustic authenticity throughout, plunging you back in time with its inns and restaurants. Plus, at less than 30 minutes from Gare de Lyon, with nearly 70 trains stopping there from Paris every day, it’s got to be one of the shortest and easiest trips to get properly out of the city and feel a world away.
4. Giverny
But if a weekend trip for art’s sake is on the docket, you could do no better than taking the train to Giverny, about an hour and a half from Paris’ Saint-Lazare station, including the shuttle from town to the famous house itself. This is where Monet lived from 1883 until his death in 1926, and the property has been preserved more or less as it was. Monet created his famous Japanese gardens and ponds and found them a constant source of inspiration—most of the works of his later life were of some aspect of his beloved Giverny.
5. Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte
Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte is another that’s close to my heart. There are many stories about this chateau’s construction, the idea behind it, and how it went on to influence the renovations that would create the Versailles that we know today. They are too many and too convoluted to get into here—just know that there’s a salacious history to go along with this chateau, arguably just as visually impressive as Versailles… perhaps even more so. Depending on which train you take from which station, the trip is either 45 minutes or an hour and a half, and you’ll need to arrange for transport to get to the chateau once you arrive (it would be a long walk).
Those are my current favorites, but my wish list is much longer… there are countless amazing escapes within just a couple hours of my apartment—and I hope to see at least one a month for the rest of our days in Paris.
How to Get from Paris to Disneyland Paris
If your holidays in the French capital include a day trip to Disneyland Paris, then it’s important to figure out how to get from Paris to Disneyland Paris.
There are many ways to travel to Disneyland Paris, and this quick Paris to Disneyland guide will tell you everything you need to know to choose how to get to Disneyland Paris.
Disneyland Paris is one of the most popular day trips from Paris. Click here for the list of best day trips from Paris
There’s no best way to get to Disneyland Paris: travelers on a budget will look for the cheapest way to go to Disneyland Paris whilst families with little kids may want to look for the most comfortable way to travel to Disneyland Paris.
This article gives information and our best tips on how to get to Disneyland Paris from Paris center. After reading this quick guide, you will see that it is straightforward to travel to Disneyland Paris!
If you are looking for information on how to go to Disneyland Paris from the airport, then head to this post.
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Guide to Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris Crowd Calendar
Where is Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is not in Paris but in the outskirts of Paris, known as petite couronne. More precisely, Disneyland Paris location is a town called Marne- la-Vallée, 40 km East of Paris.
Marne-la-Vallée is home to the two Disneyland Parks, all the Disneyland Paris Hotels, a shopping mall, and not much more. Nevertheless, this is a good place to stay – at least for one night – if you decide to visit the two parks.
Disneyland Paris Transportation Overview
How to Get from Paris to Disneyland Paris
Car
If you want to travel to Disneyland Paris in your own car, then the journey time Paris to Disneyland Paris is approximately 40 minutes without traffic. Disneyland Paris has a large area devoted to car parks.
Private Car Transfer
If you are looking for a comfortable door-to-door service for you and your family, Welcome pickups can help. Welcome proposes comfortable transfer services with good cars and the best English-speaking drivers in Paris. This service is particularly interesting on the way back when the kids are destroyed after an exciting day with Mickey and his friends.
Bus Disneyland Paris (Disneyland Paris Express)
Disneyland Paris does offer a shuttle bus service from the city center. This Paris-Disney shuttle is called Disneyland Paris Express, and it offers 2 options:
- Shuttle 1 has pickups/drop-offs at Gare du Nord (8:20 am), Opéra (8:30 am), and Châtelet (8:45 am)
- Shuttle 2 has pickup/drop-off near the Eiffel Tower, with pick up at 8:10 am.
Both Paris-Disney shuttles arrive at the parks by 10 am. The shuttles then depart the park at either 8 pm or 9 pm, depending on the seasonal opening hours.
This Disneyland Paris Shuttle can be added to your Disneyland Paris tickets, but you cannot buy this service on its own. Sometimes sites like Get Your Guide offer interesting packages like this Disneyland Paris Express + Disney tickets, so it is worth checking.
The main inconvenience of this service is the lack of flexibility, you need to take the bus at the scheduled times.
Train to Disneyland Paris
RER A (red line) is the train that travels from Paris to Disneyland Paris. The train journey from Paris center to Disneyland Paris lasts 45 minutes, and it is very straightforward.
The RER A train to Disneyland Paris has 5 stations within Paris, so you have different options depending on where you are staying in Paris or your nearest metro line:
- Charles de Gaulle – Etoile in Paris 8, connected to metro lines 1, 2 and 6
- Auber in Paris 9, connected to metro lines 3, 7, 8, and 9
- Chatelet – Les Halles in Paris 1, connected to metro lines 1, 4, 7, 11
- Gare de Lyon in Paris 12, connected to metro lines 1, and 14
- Nation in Paris 12, connected to metro lines 1, 2, 6, 9
When you enter the RER A, look for the direction Boissy-St-Léger /Marne-la-Vallée (RER A Est). You will see that most of the signs in this direction feature a Mickey head.
Then, when you are on the right platform, beware that after the station Vincennes the RER A splits into two paths both going to the East so make sure you board a train going to Marne-la-Vallée. You will see this information on the screens /panels located on the platform.
The screens fixed on the walls will tell you the destination the next train is going to. All these trains in the picture below are going to the East but only the trains to Marne-la-Vallée, with the Mickey head, go to Disneyland Paris.
Don’t take the coming train, it does not have the Mickey head!
Then, the huge panels hanging on the platforms will tell you all the stops the next train is going to do. In this case, the next train is a train to Disneyland Paris because the light next to the train station Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy is ON.
Finally, the train itself will display its final destination and all the stops on the screens onboard.
TRAIN TICKETS PARIS TO DISNEYLAND PARIS
The RER A ticket from Paris to Disneyland Paris (on the top of the picture) is different from the T+ tickets you use for the metro, and it costs 7,60€ (one way). You can purchase this ticket in the machines in the metro or RER stations, located right before the automated turnstiles.
If you are using a Navigo Easy for getting around Paris, you can load these Disneyland tickets on it, but for some people (me included), this may be too confusing. The Navigo Easy is not a nominative travel card, so you can load all the Disneyland Paris train tickets for all your tribe in this single card.
If you are using the weekly or monthly Navigo Pass, the tickets to Disneyland Paris are already included, yay!. Remember that the Navigo Pass is a nominative pass, so only the pass holder can use it.
Once you are on the right train and in the right direction, get a seat and enjoy the ride, the Disneyland Paris train station is also the line’s terminus. From the terminus, it’s less than a 5-minute walk to the Disneyland rides.
So there you have it, the Disneyland Paris transportation guide with everything you need to know to travel smoothly from Paris to Disneyland Paris for a wonderful day trip to Disneyland Paris.
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About World in Paris
Quirky Parisian explorers with a preference for the lesser-known sights, we are continuously looking for new ideas and tips to bring you the best of the City of Light.
Source https://travelswitherica.com/paris-to-strasbourg/
Source https://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com/in-focus-europe/places-travel-from-paris-by-train/
Source https://worldinparis.com/how-to-get-from-paris-to-disneyland-paris
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