Ski train

[B-well]

latest message from snowcarbon

SnowCarbon

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On Thursday 5th November, SNCF trains in France go on sale, for dates from 4th Jan – 28th March 2021.

This means that you can book Eurostar + TGV journeys for travel on those dates too.

 

[olley]

Looked at that a few years ago to get to Bourg, but we were going in April so drove.

 

[ChesterB]

Do they still run the overnight snowtrain from the back of Calais these days?
I took my better half on her first ski trip for 30 years on that train about 18 years ago, booked at the last minute. Train or car down to Dover on Friday afternoon, then a scruffy old bus onto the ferry & out to a goods yard at the back of Calais - very handy as you only had to carry your luggage along the platform once. Pleasant company (+wine) on the train with the option of a disco car if you were up for it & a proper fold down couchette for the night.
Aime station about 8am, and up the slopes in time for lunch, with at least 7 days skiing before the return run on Saturday evening the following week. We did variations on that trip several times in later years before we bought our first 'van.
Happy days. CB.

 

[The Wino]

Often thought about it but never tried it. I think I heard that the disco bit was no more. Maybe the cheap flights saw it off

 

[B-well]

A quick update on subjects:

1. The Ski Train
Interestingly, Eurostar’s Press Office (i.e., the media team) still says that ‘a decision has not been made’ about whether Eurostar will run the Ski Train or not. However, Eurostar’s sales department has been saying for weeks that the Ski Train won’t run. This is an unusual situation, with two departments contradicting each other.

2. Indirect journeys to the Alps
If you are planning to travel indirectly to the Alps, with a Eurostar to Paris, for example, and an onward train from there, it’s still a waiting game in terms of schedules:
a) Eurostar needs to bolster its winter timetable with more trains, in order for more indirect journeys to be viable, especially journeys to France on Saturdays. It is likely to do this over the coming weeks.
b) Onward trains like TGVs will likely go on sale at the start of October (I’ll confirm the date in a subsequent newsletter). NightJet sleeper trains (for Austria) will publish timetables at the end of September.

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[B-well]

Hello everyone, UPDATE FROM SNOWCARBON

Unexpected, excellent news:

The Eurostar Ski Train will run every week this winter from London to Moutiers and Bourg St Maurice. As before, there will be an overnight service (departing on Fridays) and a daytime service (departing on Saturdays).

An unusual twist is that Compagnie Des Alps (CDA), a major ski lift company for French resorts, has charted the train from Eurostar.

I hope that CDA will make it easy for the many excellent tour operators in the UK to sell tickets, as well as for skiers to book independent travel too.

I don’t have any juicy details like when tickets go on sale, prices, timetable or how to get hold of tickets. But I’ll be following up to help get you all the information you need.

I’ll also be back in touch separately, soon, with good news about Eurostar vouchers.

Best wishes,
Daniel Elkan
Snowcarbon Founder

 

[B-well]

SKI TRAIN

The outbound journey is overnight on Fridays; the inbound journey is daytime on Saturdays. Packages are to seven resorts only: Tignes, Les Arcs, Peisey-Vallandry, La Plagne, Meribel, Les Menuires and Val d’Isere. Some of the dates that the train will operate are still being finalised.
Travelski Express
Packages for the Travelski Express have now gone on sale. As you might have heard, the Travelski Express is this year’s Eurostar Ski Train, chartered entirely by a French tour operator called Travelski. You can only book tickets on the Travelski Express as part of a Travelski package, which includes train + transfer, + accommodation + ski pass.

this is Travelski’s website: https://www.uk.travelski.com/travelski-express

 

[B-well]

Some good news from Eurostar. It’s put loads more trains on sale for the period between 12th December 2021 and 8th January 2022.

That bodes well for journeys later in January, February, March and April too. Although Eurostar hasn’t put additional trains on sale yet for those months, one would expect it to follow suit in a similar way.
This is the link to the Eurostar calendar page: https://booking.eurostar.com/uk-en/eurostar-sales?bookingType=standard&origin=7015400&destination=8727100
Most indirect journeys to the French Alps are via Paris. But actually, you can travel via Lille Europe. There are direct TGV trains from Lille Europe to Moutiers, Aime la Plagne and Bourg St Maurice and to Cluses, Sallanches and St Gervais.
Collectively, these routes access an array of wonderful French ski resorts.

These direct TGVs depart on Saturday mornings from Lille, so to catch them you need to travel from London on a Friday and stop over. Lille is a splendid city, with some cracking restaurants. Travelling this way, although longer overall will get you into resort earlier than if you started out from the UK on a Saturday morning — and adds another element of interest to your holiday.