I traveled on the Eurostar from London to Paris on a $45 ticket and returned on a $136 ticket. As solo traveler who packed light, the upgrade was unnecessary.

In November, I traveled from my home in London, UK, to Paris, France, for work and decided to make it a train journey by taking the Eurostar. 

It's not the first I've traveled on the Eurostar as I grew up going on European family vacations and visiting relatives in Luxembourg, where my grandparents live.

However, I've never traveled by train across countries by myself. Given that my colleagues in the US and the UK have completed multiple train journeys and had various thoughts on whether it's worth upgrading classes, I thought I'd see what I made of traveling on the Eurostar at two different price points. 

On my outbound journey, I booked a $45 standard-class ticket from London's St Pancras International station to Paris's Gare du Nord. For the return, I booked a $136 standard-premier class ticket on the same non-stop route. Both journeys took around two hours and 15 minutes. 

Insider paid for both trips, in accordance with our editorial policies for expenses and gifts. 

As Insider previously reported, the Eurostar has become one of the most popular methods of traveling across countries in Europe ever since it was first built in 1994. The train, which travels underneath the ocean in the Channel Tunnel between the UK and France, can fit up to 900 passengers on board. 

The train company itself is jointly owned but its majority stakeholder is now the country of France after the UK sold 40% of its stake in 2015 for £757.1 million, or around $910 million, the BBC reported at the time. 

Today, the train service offers travelers three types of ticket classes: standard, standard premier, and business premier. 

Even though the standard-premier ticket cost over three times as much as the standard ticket, I still didn't have access to the exclusive Eurostar lounge as it was reserved for passengers traveling in the business-premier carriages. 

Nevertheless, while waiting to board the Eurostar in the UK, I passed the time by grabbing a coffee at Pret a Manger before finding a seat in the very crowded waiting area. 

On my return to the UK from France, I found the waiting area equally, if not more crowded. I couldn't find a place to sit so ended up parking my luggage by the help desk and popping a squat on the ground. 

But since you only need to arrive before a Eurostar journey a maximum of one hour before the train departs, it wasn't long in either case before boarding began.

Size-wise, the standard and standard-premier carriages on the Eurostar were similar. The real difference came down to how many seats were in the coaches.

In standard class, rows of seats were placed much closer together and there were at least over 20 passengers in the entire coach.

Meanwhile, in standard premier, there were just eight seats available. That meant that there was so much more space to walk around the carriage, place extra baggage, and – as I later discovered – for Eurostar staff to come through with a trolley carrying food and drinks. 

In terms of the designated storage space in each coach, it was pretty identical for both classes. 

Again, the biggest difference came down to how many passengers were traveling in standard class versus in standard premier. I was one of the first people on board during my outbound journey, so when I was traveling with a standard ticket I was lucky to find space to put my small suitcase in the designated area. But passengers who arrived later had to either find space for it elsewhere in the coach or in another emptier coach. 

Conversely, as there were fewer than 10 passengers in the standard premier coach, there was easily enough space for everyone to put their suitcases in the designated area. I also noticed that fellow passengers in standard premier had the luxury of bringing on larger suitcases as they had plenty of space to fit them on board. 

Lucky for me, a group of young women traveling together in my standard coach decided to move elsewhere on the train so they could all sit together. This gave me the opportunity to have a two-seat row all to myself. I could place my backpack in the seat next to me which gave me a lot more room to stretch my legs. 

But even though I managed to finesse that extra space in standard class, it was no comparison to what I got in my seat in standard premier, which had no seat in front of it. This made it ideal for passengers traveling with wheelchairs or those with young children sitting in strollers. 

However, as a solo traveler carrying a small suitcase and a backpack, the extra space wasn't noticeably beneficial to my journey.

Both standard and standard-premier coaches had European and British outlets available for passengers to charge their electronic devices. However, I did notice that if I had to sit next to someone in standard class, I would've had to share the plug with them if neither of us had brought an adapter. 

If I take the Eurostar again, it's definitely something that I would keep in mind. 

I also noticed that on both journeys, my connection to the WiFi was quite spotty and would drop out from time to time. This wasn't a massive issue as I'd downloaded TV shows on my phone to watch, but it could've been a problem if I'd needed to work while traveling.

I wasn't massively hungry on my outbound journey from the UK to France as my train had departed at 8 a.m. Before I left, I'd managed to pick up a coffee and a granola bar at the station. 

But in any case, I wanted to see what dining options were available for passengers traveling standard class so I walked to Café Metropole, a small restaurant-type space that can be found in coaches 6 and 13 on original Eurostar trains and coaches 8 and 9 on the newer trains. The cafe served a variety of hot drinks, light bites, and alcohol.

The priciest option on the menu is a bottle of Champagne, which costs £46, or around $55.

Meanwhile, in standard premier, a Eurostar employee came around with a trolley carrying complimentary drinks and food minutes after departure. 

According to the Eurostar website, one of the most significant differences between standard and standard-premier classes is that a meal is served to passengers who book the latter. 

As I knew this ahead of time, I thought I'd be able to afford not to have dinner in Paris. But I was wrong. The meal I was served consisted of a tiny portion of cold, cooked salmon on top of a quinoa salad, a dry bread roll, and a brownie. Flavor-wise, everything was fine, but it was just way too small for me to consider it a sufficient dinner. I did get a complimentary drink and chose Coca-Cola, which was nice. 

I opted to wait until I got home to cook myself a meal but if I'd really wanted to I could've gone to Café Metropole, where I'd bought myself a brownie and tea on my outbound journey in standard class.

If I was a passenger who required more space, either for traveling with children or in a wheelchair, for example, it would be ideal to be in the standard-premier class as the bathroom was massive in comparison to the standard-class coach. 

That said, both bathrooms were cleaned to the same standard so for me, at least, the space wasn't a game changer. 

I traveled from the UK to Paris during the day, so I was able to get such great views of the countryside in the sunlight. 

As I was in standard class, I needed to walk through different coaches to go to the cafe, which meant I had more opportunities to take these views in, explore different areas of the train, and stretch my legs. 

I particularly liked visiting this bar area at the cafe where two gentlemen were casually catching up. 

In my standard-premier coach, there was a young couple traveling with an infant. Seeing them board the train with their stroller and being able to easily park it behind their seats without having to fold it up made me think about how much more challenging it would've been in standard class. 

Moreover, there was a passenger in the standard-premier coach next to mine that was using a wheelchair. The space and wheelchair-accessible bathroom in the standard-premier coaches were ideal for passengers traveling under those circumstances. 

Given that the standard-premier ticket cost just over three times as much as the standard ticket, I found that from my own experience, it wasn't worth it. 

The additional cost did get me complimentary food and drinks but it wasn't enough to convince me to consider upgrading when I travel on the Eurostar again. Unless I bring lots of baggage or have children with me, I think I'll stick to traveling standard class for the time being. 

For solo travelers like myself, space is always welcome. But when the journey is only two hours, it's a luxury I'll happily skip.