Paris Breaks

I was asked a question about which UK Documents are needed for Paris Breaks recently, here it is:

I travel myself a lot to Paris. I have a friend who would like to go there one day but his passport expired a while ago, so now he only has his UK driving licence. Do you think that would be good enough?  - thanks for any suggestions.

The answer, I’m afraid is that UK citizens need a full passport in order to cross the border from the UK to France. A driving license, even a modern one with a photo ID does not count as a passport.

EU citizens can travel around member countries with a national ID card, but the UK does not have an ID card scheme at present, nor planned.

If you are taking a car from the UK to Paris, then the car also needs documents, such as the registration document (log book), MOT and insurance, a drivers license and sometimes special equipment that is required in EU countries but not the UK such as a breakdown triangle.

There’s been a bit of inflation in Pars over the past year and although the pound has recovered a little it’s still unfavourable for UK travelers on Paris breaks so what we try to do is get the best possible Eurostar deals and then keep the hotel expenses down. Now there are two ways of going about this. One is to look for Eurostar deals with hotel included, in which case you know exactly how much most of your short break to Paris is going to cost, and the other way is to book one of those £59 return Eurostar deals – usually including a Saturday night stay, and then find a cheaper hotel in Paris when you get there. A third alternative I suppose is to organis your own hotel in advance, by phoning up or booking online, but I’ve never done that myself.