There is a moment, somewhere between booking the hotel and packing the Mickey ears, when the same question always lands: what is the best way to actually get to Disneyland Paris? It is one we have wrestled with more than once, because over the years we have made the trip by car, by Eurostar and by plane, and each has left us with strong opinions and the odd cautionary tale.
The honest answer is that there is no single best way, only the way that suits your trip, your budget and your tolerance for motorway service stations. So rather than pretend one route wins outright, we thought we would lay all three out side by side, warts and all, and share what we have actually learned from doing each of them ourselves.
Here is how car, train and plane really compare when you are heading for the gates of the magic.
By car
Option 1 is that you can drive to Disneyland Paris. Driving, for many, signals your holiday has started. The moment you pull off the driveway you're on your way. Some people choose to go via ferry; we choose to go via Le Shuttle from Folkestone, which carries you and the car through the tunnel to Calais in about thirty-five minutes. You stay in your own car the whole way, there is no clambering about with luggage, and before you have finished the flask of tea you are rolling off onto French soil. It's simple, quick and easy.
From Calais it is roughly three and a half hours down to Marne-la-Vallée, almost all of it on toll autoroutes. We use an electronic toll tag on the windscreen, which lets us sail straight through the tag lanes without ever stopping to hunt for cash or a card, and it genuinely takes a lot of the faff out of the drive. If you would rather pay as you go, the booths take cards and euros, so just keep a little change handy. The bit that catches most first-timers out is not the motorway at all, it is the moment you pull out of a service station and your instincts try to send you into the left-hand lane. Concentrate at junctions and you will be absolutely fine.
There is a little admin to sort before you go, and it is worth doing properly because the French police can and do fine on the spot. You are legally required to carry a hi-vis jacket for every person in the car (kept inside the cabin, not in the boot), a warning triangle and headlamp beam deflectors, plus a UK identifier if your number plate does not already show one. Do not forget your licence, passport, insurance certificate and V5C logbook.
One thing worth keeping half an eye on is the EU's new biometric entry system, which is gradually being brought in across the Channel crossings. It has not started at Le Shuttle yet, so for now the crossing runs just as smoothly as it always has, but it is worth a quick check of the latest advice before you travel in case that has changed by the time you go.
Arriving at the resort could not be simpler. We usually head straight to our Disney hotel and check in, and parking there is included for hotel guests, so the car is tucked away for the trip with nothing more to think about. If you are visiting for the day rather than staying over, there is an enormous visitor car park charged by the day, but staying on-site quietly takes even that off your plate and tips the maths of the whole trip in the car's favour.
So who is the drive for? In our experience it is hard to beat for a family or a group, because once the fuel and the tolls are paid for, the cost barely shifts whether there are two of you or five, whereas train and plane tickets multiply with every extra person. You can throw in as much luggage as the boot will swallow, you have your own transport for the whole trip, and you can even break the journey or tack on a night somewhere along the way. The trade-off, in all honesty, is that it is a long day: the driving is tiring, and doing it all in one go after an early start is not everyone's idea of magical. If you would rather arrive fresh and let someone else do the work, one of the other two options might suit you better.
By Eurostar
Your second option is to go via Eurostar. For years, Eurostar ran a direct service from London straight to Marne-la-Vallée (Disneyland Paris), the station that sits right at the park gates. Sadly that direct train was withdrawn in June 2023 and has not come back, so the journey today involves one change. It is still a lovely way to travel, but it is worth understanding how it now works before you book.
You set off from St Pancras International in London where you have two ways to reach the gates. The more straightforward option is to change at Lille. You take the Eurostar to Lille Europe, then pick up a connecting French high-speed train (a TGV) through to Marne-la-Vallée Chessy. It is not quite the simple step-across-the-platform some people imagine: you come off the Eurostar, head up to the main station concourse, and wait there for your onward platform to be shown on the boards and called, just as you would for any connection. You can book the whole journey in one go on the Eurostar website by choosing Disneyland Paris (Marne-la-Vallée Chessy) as your destination.
Lille Europe is small and easy to find your way around, though, so it is a world away from battling across a big city. One word of warning from our own trips: the connection does not always run like clockwork, and we have had some long waits at Lille between trains. In summer that is no great hardship, but in the depths of winter the concourse can be bitterly cold, so pack a warm layer in your hand luggage rather than burying it at the bottom of a case.
The alternative is to travel to Paris Gare du Nord and take the RER out to the resort. It works, and plenty of people do it, but with cases and tired children in tow, threading across Paris on the RER is noticeably more of a faff than the Lille change, and it tends to take longer overall. If it is your first time, we would point you firmly towards Lille.
Either way, you step off at Marne-la-Vallée Chessy just a few minutes' walk from the parks and the Disney hotels, which is still one of the real joys of arriving by train: no transfer, no shuttle, just the magic almost within sight the moment you leave the platform. And if you want to go straight into the parks you can use the Disney Express Luggage service, which lets you drop your bags at the station and collect your park tickets so you can head straight in, just remember it needs booking in advance. You can read our full guide to how it works here.
By plane
Flying is the option that opens Disneyland Paris up to the whole of the country rather than just London and the South East, and if you are starting anywhere further north it is often the quickest and simplest way to go. The hop across to Paris is a short one, a little over an hour in the air, and there are flights from airports up and down the UK.We have flown twice, and both times we came into Paris Charles de Gaulle, which is the nearest airport to the resort and the closest of the two Paris airports. The other you can fly into is Paris Orly, though it sits further out, so Charles de Gaulle is the easier arrival and the one we would point you towards.From Charles de Gaulle there are a number of ways to reach the gates, everything from a taxi or Uber to the train. We have used two of them ourselves and can give you the honest version of each: the Magical Shuttle, the paid-for coach service to the Disney hotels, and the fast TGV train. Both were reliable and good services, so we would recommend them to anyone.
At a glance
| By car | By Eurostar | By plane | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Families and groups who like door-to-door freedom | London and the South East | The Midlands, North and Scotland, or keeping the travel day short |
| The journey | Le Shuttle (about 35 minutes) plus roughly three and a half hours' drive | Eurostar from St Pancras plus one change (Lille recommended) | Around an hour in the air, plus an airport transfer |
| Luggage | As much as the boot will swallow | What you can comfortably carry | Airline limits and bag drop |
| Arriving | Drive straight to your hotel, parking included for hotel guests | Step off right by the park gates, no transfer | A transfer from Charles de Gaulle by Magical Shuttle or TGV |
| The trade-off | A long, tiring day at the wheel | The change, the odd long wait, and fares that climb per person | Airport faff and a transfer at the far end, priced per person |
Our verdict
So which would we choose? Honestly, it depends entirely on the trip. That is not a cop-out, it is the whole point: each of these three has been the right answer for us at different times.
Our advice? Do not agonise over finding the one perfect way, because there isn't one. Weigh up where you are starting from, how many of you are going, and how much luggage you are hauling, and the right choice will make itself known. Whichever you pick, the same magic is waiting at the end of it, and that is the part that really matters.
