Anyone taken the train to go skiing

[skischoolhelp]

Finally booked accommodation and ski school!! Now considering the train from Ashford instead of the usual driving as we are staying near Bourg St Maurice and wont use the car when there. Has anyone done it especially with kids? It would be day train not the overnight ski train. Probably with a 24 hour stop off in Paris on the way there. Any advice welcome. Thanks.

Hi there, yes we got the train with 2 dc (7, 4) 2 years ago. When are you travelling? The Eurostar direct service is amazing but is very expensive and gets booked up very quickly for peak season dates. If you go via Paris check out the booking horizon for the internal train as it is often shorter than the Eurostar section. Also the last bit of the line between Lyon-BSM was 3hrs50 as it is a single line and there is no reserved seating. Download everything on to ipad etc before you go and take plenty of snacks/drinks/games.
Crossing Paris very easy btw, 2 stops on RER.

yes in fact we did take the train to our ski resort in Poland. ( me and two children of 10) Well . Eurolines (coach) to Wroclaw and then the train onto the resort...it was like something from Dr Zhivago, the train had icicles hanging from it. Happy days.

Skilover - we wont be on the ski train as we are going after Easter and I think the service only runs until Easter. What is the booking horizon? There is still some availability. Times I have checked seemed to be 5 hours from Paris to BSM or 6 hours with a change.

Anyone experiences of skiing by train but not the overnight ski train? Anyone tried doing stop over in Paris en route? Thanks

Apparently the day train is superb, great scenery etc. Sadly, my lasting memory was the overnight from St Pancras to Bourg about 9 years ago. NEVER EVER again. Luckily on that trip I had to leave holiday early to go to a wedding so I flew home rather than do the return leg. Some of my friends enjoy it as it means they get an extra afternoon’s skiing in.. . Nightmare.. but I’m assured the day train a completely different experience.

We are used to driving there and I hate it so am hoping the train must be better.

I did overnight both ways without kids. Going there was okay. Not a massive amount of fun. We got upgraded to first or business or whatever it's called on Eurostar which made it a bit more bearable. Coming back overnight was awful. Really, really bad. Sorry to be negative but I'll never get the overnight train home again. I imagine it's a lot nicer in the daytime but it's a day of skiing being missed out on.

Coming back we were in standard class. I think it was a combination of being on a low because the holiday was over with the total lack of sleep for the entire journey.

We wont be missing skiing by doing train in the day as we can only get accommodation Saturday to Saturday and they will ski 9 to 5 every day (lessons are booked, some kids are starting at 9 for morning and some finishing at 5 having done the afternoon so they will all be on the slopes for whole duration). We would be driving anyway which is nightmare too so it cant be worse. We will set off on the Thursday and stay in Paris that night and stay in hotel Fri night at Bourg St Maurice so get full day Saturday too although accommodation only starts from Saturday. Any advice for day trains or stop over in Paris??