Eurostar with small children (under 4)

[aseftel]

I’m planning a Eurostar trip to Amsterdam with a 3 year old and 1 year old (and two adults). I’m aware that they can travel for free on our laps. I’ve looked at pricing and it’s about the same cost to either 1) travel in Standard Premier with children on laps or 2) Travel in Standard, paying for seats for the children. Which option would HfP readers recommend?

Also, does anyone have any experience using Eurostar gift cards? I see it’s an option from my Monese stash, any caveats?

[ChrisC]

4 hours is a long time to have even a child sat on your lap even in a premier seat with some extra room.

I suggest you pay for 4 seats in standard around a table.

[aseftel]

Thanks.

[TGLoyalty]

Honestly the difference between standard and premier is huge.

There’s far more room. Is a 3 year old really going to want to sit on your lap anyway for 4 hours when there’s literally space to move around

My last trip standard was heaving while I had a bank of 4 seats to myself in premier …

[elguiri]

To answer your question on the Monese gift cards – no issue at all. We did exactly this and we’re thankful for the 20% saving. When going through to payment page there is a gift card or similar box to enter the code in and it takes the amount off the total.

We also did Eurostar to Paris with littleun. When she was 1yo we had her on our lap and she was happy, but wouldn’t have coped with her at 3yo on lap.

[NigelHamilton]

The trip to Amsterdam is four hours and I wouldn’t personally travel with young kids on my lap for that long. However there’s a number of things to think about:

1) Standard premier is roomier and comes with a light meal (for the adults). Standard can be quite cramped for legroom but a table for four with two small kids will be fine.

2) You can reserve your seats (for free!) on Eurostar. There aren’t many seats in standard with a table so early reservation useful. You can also see how many other people have booked seats in the carriage you are looking at. Depending on how popular the time you are travelling at is, you might well get unused seats close to where you booked. My experience is that Paris in Standard tends to be busy, but Lille/Brussels/Amsterdam is a bit quieter. Haven’t travelled the Brussels route post-covid mind.

3) If you collect Club Eurostar points, you will get more (obviously) with Standard Premier. This is partly because only the traveller can get the points for their journey – we had to set up separate accounts for our kids.

Note – if you have an AMEX platinum you can use the lounge at St.Pancras and you should get the kids in as well. I’m pretty certain you need a business premier or carte blanche to use the (non-Eurostar) Amsterdam lounge.

Be interested to hear about your experience as planning an inter-rail style trip to Croatia via Amsterdam, with kids that are now a bit older!

[aseftel]

Thanks for the tips. Couple more questions:

– Standard Premier is more spacious, but is there actually space for kids to run around (and an environment where that would be appropriate)? Is is spacious enough to park a small pushchair (e.g. Yoyo) with a kid in it?
– Is there a way to see which seats are available on a train before you book?