Recently, I went on a weekend getaway to Lille France with one of my best girls and had the best time ever. As a frequent traveller, there is nothing I love more than exploring new places and for me this came in the form of hoping on the Eurostar and visiting the small town of Lille France. I love the quote by the Dalai Lama “once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before” – I live by this quote literally and figuratively.
Weekend getaways with my best girls are one of my favourite adventures to go on. I am a solo traveller through and through but I do love going somewhere with my girls and just living our best life. Our weekend getaway to Lille France was one we planned after one conversation and whilst it wasn’t perfectly planned, it turned out better than we thought. In this post, I will share the total cost of the trip, where we stayed, what we ate and what we saw.
Weekend Getaway to Lille France
It was 2016 when I sat on the Eurostar on route to Brussels, Belgium and the first stop on this journey was a little town of Lille, France. I had not heard of it but I made a note of it and vowed to visit the town one day, fast forward to 2022 and I fulfilled my own little dream to visit Lille. I am glad that I never forgot about this promise I made to myself and I finally went on a weekend getaway to Lille France and I highly recommend it.
In today’s post, my goal is the share with you my first hand experience and even though it was a weekend getaway, we spent under 24 hours in the town but we made the most of it. Although it is a small city, I would have liked some more time to explore the gastronomy scene because it’s not all croissants and smelly cheese the French are known for but they have the best cuisines and know their wines. Unfortunately, during this trip, we didn’t manage to indulge.
Where we stayed
Because we were only going to spend one night in Lille and we weren’t sure how accessible their public transport was, we opted for a 3* hotel outside the Eurostar station. This was the best decision in terms of proximity to the Eurostar and the fact that they allowed you to keep your luggage with them for free once you checked out. Since they are so close to the train station and we wanted to explore the city before catching our Eurostar to London, we asked if we could leave our backpacks which they agreed with no fuss.
The hotel is called Hotel Lille Europe, a three star hotel perfectly situated between the Eurostar station and the Gare de Lille Flandres station (train station) making it the perfect location. Our room was medium sized, came with two European sized twin beds, i emphasise ‘Europe’s sized’ because they are smaller than the UK standard size. The beds whilst small were very comfortable, the pillows were soft but too flat, woke up with a bad neck. Extra blankets and decorative pillows were available for those who might need them. The bathroom/toilet was very clean, I always complain about most showers but not this one as the shower had great pressure and it got hot (scolding hot) which I love. For those who wished to eat at the hotel, they offered breakfast for €13 (£10) per person but we opted for cafes. Overall, great hotel, very friendly staff, clean and would recommend.
Total cost for one night was £52 (+ £3) for city tax = £55
Getting to and around Lille France
We bought our tickets to Lille during one of Eurostar’s promotional periods so please remember the price you pay might be more or less. For two people, we paid £197 in total or £98.50 each, this is more reasonable than regular prices of a Eurostar ticket. When it came to moving around the city, you can buy a card that allows you to travel on the metro and buses but as the city is small, we walked everywhere we wanted to explore and recommend it. The city is very accessible via metro, buses, taxis including Uber which is available in this small French city. So during our visit to this city, we spent £0 on public transportation since we walked everywhere.
Total cost for two people was £197
What we ate
If there is one thing the French are known for, it’s their French cuisines but we are embarrassed to say outside of pastries (of a sweet kind) we didn’t venture much into the French cuisines. This had a lot to do with us not booking a table in advance at some of the restaurants we wanted to give a try, they were booked for 2-3 days straight which meant we couldn’t be choosers and settled for a cafe/bar style establishment. We comes to the pastries, we ate our fair share and came back with the biggest sweet tooth ever with out favourite being Cannele – a small crisp, caramelised brown cake with a custard-like centre that has a hint of rum and vanilla, made with flour and egg yolks. Our former colleague used to make these for us and we just had to give them a try. Even though it didn’t look like it at the time but once I sat down to calculate our spending, we spent around £120 which is reasonable for two people.
Total cost of all our foods came to £60 each, this includes the one meal, breakfast and snacks.
What we saw
Having travelled consistently for 6+ years as a solo traveller, I have developed a style that I have settled into and love. For every new place I explore, I have to visit at least 2-3 places that are recommended by other tourists and 2-3 places which I completely stumble upon or on recommendation from a local (mostly the hotel staff). For our little weekend getaway to Lille France, I decided not to research much in terms of popular places to visit but my companion did. The places we visited were those that are quite popular but as we walked everywhere, we came upon new places that were not on the recommended list of places.
Town Hall Belfry
The Belfry is listed as a World Heritage site and gives an impressive 360 degree view of the city’s skyline, it stands at 104 metres with 100 steps to climb then you take a lift to the top. I must admit that my lung capacity was not up to the challenge of 100 steps but we did it anyway and hyperventilated all the way to the top in the lift. What I found interesting is that their is a maximum number of people that they allow to be in tow building at any one time, so we queued for about 30-45 minutes before it was our turn to enter. We paid 15 euros (or 7.50 euros each) for entry and spent around 30 minutes inside enjoy the view of the city already the mesh net and dirty windows did make it hard to take good pictures of the city skyline.
The Old Stock Exchange
The Vieille Bourse or the old stock exchange is one of the finest buildings in the city that we stumbled upon during our early morning Sunday walk. It is made up of 24 little houses surrounding a courtyard, it is considered a historic monument and its easy to see why. If there is one place I wish to return and take my time exploring, it will have to be this location. We didn’t go inside so we didn’t spend any more to see the building.
The Old Lille
The old town was my favourite place to explore, I think just like most European cities, the old town is were the history is and feel and look of the place just wanted me to stay longer. With the eye catching 17th century architecture, the old town truly brings to harmony of brick and stone together very nicely. This is also an area of the city I would love to explore in a little more detail on my next visit. Again, it was free to see the incredible old upon so we didn’t spend any money except on coffee and croissants.
There are so many other places that we saw but did not explore and don’t feel I would be doing them justice if I just made superficial comments about them so I have only included them in the pictures but more talked about them in this post. Hopefully on my next visit, I can dedicate an entire article on places you should visit whilst in Lille France.
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