Travelling by train to French ski resorts

A snowHead

Because of the recent floods there aren't any trains between Albertville and Bourg St Maurice until the 8th of December.

A snowHead

@Shakira, Thanks for that, I had been told tickets are released 3 months in advance, I'll know not to get too worried if they are not.

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There will be bus replacements for the trains between Albertville and Bourg St Maurice until the 8th of December.

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TGV tickets for March went on sale 15th of Nov and by 8am GMT the SNCF site was crashing, couldn't load a basket and prices going up and up.

Now most of the trains are booked up and you are looking at £400 for a return journey sadly.

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@Ruswit, When I search to go out on March 30th it says they don't know the schedules that far in advance?

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It looks as though some indirect trains are now available but nothing direct. It also says more trains will be announced soon? Not ideal!

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@wills_h, on 15th November you could then book tickets out to 24th March

After all it is free

@andy1234, that explains it Smile

@wills_h, Sorry I forgot the last few days were on the later release NehNeh

If the late March release of tickets is as manic as the ones released on 15th Nov I would definitely be up early in the morning to book them.

Even at 7am UK things were more expensive than I was anticipating (around £100 per leg on the TGV) and by the time my friends had responded saying they were happy to pay £100 more than expected, they'd gone up again and websites were crashing all over.

I'm not sure specifically what time they will go on sale, but given that France is an hour ahead, "early" in the UK will be a more reasonable hour there and might have more people awake and rushing to buy.

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Not sure if it's still the case, but SNCF tickets used to appear online at midnight French time. Booking sleeper trains years ago I would check at 11pm UK time, and found tickets would be a lot more expensive by 7am next morning.

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I checked before I went to bed at around midnight UK time and they weren't available at that point (1 am French).

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So will it be the 15th of Dec that tickets for the end of March and the majority of April get released do you think?

You know it makes sense.

Something I also discovered recently is that there are group fares on SNCF trains that can be very cost-effective.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@sugarmoma666, I'm booking for 2 adults and three kids aged 5,6 and 8 return from Paris to Bourg. It'll most likely be the only trip that I book this year on French rail, do you think it's worth getting one of the advantage cards and if so how do I go about getting one please?

A snowHead

Answering your questions in turn:
- not sure
- see first post in thread

In your case, I'd guess using Interrail would likely have worked out well overall. Again, see first post in thread for why.

A snowHead

@sugarmoma666, ah, thank you. Yes should have looked through the prior messages a bit more carefully.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Jesus Christ, all tickets for Feb 10th are already gone?! Goddamn, so much for my vacation that week.

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@Glowtape, that's UK half term AND French holidays too. Not likely to offer any bargains.....

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Meh, I guess I gotta cross my fingers that some people cancel their tickets before my cancellation period for the hotel ends. According to the French calendar, only one region is in holiday that week, instead of typically two. :[

--edit: News articles in France say the SNCF released "une grosse partie des billets", i.e. a large part of the tickets, so hopefully not everything's sold out yet.

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Is there something you need to do to carnet tickets to get them to work? I bought a pack of 5 on the Eurostar, and none of them let me through any barrier I tried them in.

After all it is free

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@joffy69,

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@ecureuil, From London.

Date dependant, you can do the journey from London to Moutiers for under £250 with the SNCF Card but you'd get in so late that you'd need to pay for a taxi up the mountain instead of a local coach/bus service. Based on the current French train availability you'd wait 2-3h in Paris for a train that includes a transfer at Lyon. This is also on the cheapest Eurostar at 6am and you'd arrive into Moutiers just gone 6pm, so quite a slog when you include arriving with a bit of time in St. Pancras & 30 - 60 minutes to get to your resort.

If you pay for a later Eurostar the price goes up around £40 but you don't have to wait as long in Paris - personal preference really.

The return trains also leave around 6am so you would likely need to pay for a taxi back to the station which does add a decent whack to the overall journey cost depending on the number of people in your group.

The £400 fee was what Eurostar was quoting me for their single ticket (still 2 trains), which probably (?) can't benefit from the SNCF card. These seem to be fully booked for some Saturdays in March.

All direct trains that are feasible with a same day Eurostar seem to be fully booked on my planned dates, perhaps others will have more luck with their dates. Will be more prepared next year hopefully!

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@Ruswit, £400 is ridiculous, and far more than doing the journey using an Interrail pass.

You know it makes sense.

@Ruswit, I'm glad to hear the info here has been of use. I'll try and update the opening couple of posts with additional info as I learn it.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Just got this re. Eurostar, may be helpful to some:

A snowHead

We've taken the plunge and bought the Interrail pass. It's coming in a similar cost to driving as we stop about 5 hours from Calais in both directions, so factored that cost in too (accommodation plus dinner etc that evening).

We're planning to do the outbound trip in one go (we're an hour on the train from London), and use the extra travel days to go via somewhere else on the way back, to extend our holiday. I'm currently thinking Lausanne in Switzerland is looking like a great option.

We're looking forward to the journey. Already feels more relaxed than worrying about traffic, toilet stops etc

A snowHead

@sugarmoma666, thanks for the shout out!
Ive been off for a while, but a coupe of points to note: @wills_h, is correct, Les Arcs funicular now included in your SNCF tickets: but they've dropped the price significantly anyway - €2.5 each way IIRC, so it's great, but not a vast saving.

@Timmycb5, we're doing the new AEurostar "change in Lille" route on their first attempt - 16th Dec. - so we'll let you know. But we've also done similar after missing a flight (a snowmageddon type transfer day) and went from Lyon Part Deux to Lille Main line. A 10 min walk to Lille International was a dead easy transfer, and I'd say its a good idea if you don't want to faff about in Paris.

Just spent the erly evening booking trains to Morzine - or rather, to Geneva airport for the TO bus to pick up - for the beginning of March. Because its a Sun-Sunday booking, we actually need to go over to Paris the evening before, as the timings don't quite match up.

So yes, it IS more expensive than a SleazyJet direct to the airport when you include that hotel, but not by much (and a distance cheaper than BA) especially when additional luggage is taken into account... and soooo much more pleasant.

Managed to get the £39 Eurostar tickets to/from Paris, then €50 each way to Geneva (1st class), with SNCF advantage card - which paid for itself on our December Bourg trip so is now effectively a 'freebie' for the rest of the year - and a 3* hotel with breakfast for €180. So all in all, two travellers: £485 ( oh - and dinner in Paris, which will be nice: but will blow the budget).

Let the train take the strain as someone used to say.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Was thinking about training it in 2025 with the family so have been watching SNCF ticket sales closely.

However, it's GCSE year so we're tied to February hol over Easter (don't want to do Xmas)...and likely to be Paris week for our school.

So, bearing in mind all trains are full already for the respective dates in Feb 2024, I think we'll have to stick to the car. Shame.

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Shorter mid-week break? Out on Monday, ski Tue/Wed/Thu, back Friday?

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After all it is free

So complicated and time consuming compared to the good old days of Eurostar, Ashford to Moûtiers, Aime or Bourg. I realise with that, you ‘just’ got 6 days skiing.

I did this a few times in the 00’s, pretty sure it something like 6 hours, with no having to change modes of transport. Then a short hop to the resorts.

Heavenly and faster than the entire airport and transfer malarkey.

For anyone who hasn’t booked their Eurostar tickets, it looks like there are potentially some good new deals available for the 1st 3 months of 2024 from £39 each way London/Paris. https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/find-lowest-fares

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Not sure how / why but more TGV slots seem to have opened up for the first week of March. Unsure if they stagger releases or what.

Help!!

Travelling by train to French ski resorts

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