Snow holidays by plane and train

[NowIveSeenEverything]

We're looking to take our first family holiday maybe February ish 2026 with the kids (then 7 and 4). We're looking for guaranteed snow, transport by plane (from London airport) and train on the other end. Not fussed about country, just snow this time! Is there anything anyone recommends, mainly for travel convenience?

The other 3 who aren't me suffer extreme travel sickness, even on planes for dh - kids haven't been on one yet, wouldnt surprise me if they are plane sick too. Medications, bands etc have little effect - son is a specialist hospital frequent flier across several counties, I've tried it all. Trains are by far their least sick option. Its very limiting, it's not just 1 or 2 sicks before anyone asks (which is easily managed with bags), it's every 5 minutes until the motion stops. I've been jumped on for this before 😅

Thanks if anyone has any golden destination tips!

Eurostar have just announced they're restarting their snow trains (but you do have to change in Lille). That way you wouldn't have to fly at all.

are you trying to avoid windy roads? If so the Austrian ski resorts are often a more gentle approach by road than the French ski resorts
in France you could look into flying to say Lyon or Geneva and then getting a train to bourg st Maurice and then there is a venicular to Les arcs.

though are you looking to go skiing? If so will they cope with chairlifts/ bubble lifts etc?

@bestbefore We don't ski, it's more of a snowman trip 😅 No, trying to avoid any car/bus/coach transport - eldest cant make the 5 minute taxi or ambulance to our local a&e, i don't want to be grappling with foreign language fines!

Thanks @crackofdoom I hadn't considered that! We've done eurostar pre kids, i will explore!

Ah ok. What a nightmare!
scrap what I said then as that’s related to ski resorts.
You might be better off looking at North Pole type trips?

Hmmm. Tricky. Given shifting weather patterns, you might have to go up quite high for absolutely guaranteed snow. How are they with cable cars?? Trains in Switzerland go up pretty high I think- have you heard of the Glacier Express? That's supposed to be amazing. (Apparently a normal locals' train runs the whole route for a fraction of the price).

Have a look at seat61.com for more ideas of how to travel all over Europe by train, and the best routes. You can easily get from London to Switzerland in a day.

@crackofdoom I've no idea about cable cars - I'm sturdy, but I imagine any rocking will be an issue for the kids. Dh can of course take care of himself (at his advanced age ;) ) but trying to aim both kids into bags simultaneously is a real possibility I can imagine on anything that sways! Ds was sick on the big ferris wheel last summer which was slow and lasted 10 minutes in total. I fear dd is worse due to lack of practice...

This is my specialty! Easy enough to do my train via Eurostar to the alps but for super easy you could fly to Oslo and catch the very straightforward trains to one of the Norwegian resorts.

The NightJet sleeper service will be running from I think Amsterdam down to the Austrian snow areas this winter, so connecting with Eurostar there. Or a flight. I looked into it but we’re based in the north and the timings wouldn’t work for us with school. Otherwise I’d jump at it.