Ski holiday by train - recommendations please

[XelaM]

Hi everyone,

My daughter is begging for us to go on a ski holiday, but I would really prefer to go by train rather than fly/drive if at all possible. Can someone recommend any destinations? The only website I found is the Travelski website. Is that the only site where you can book ski trips by train?

France would be the obvious destination, but has anyone been to any of the Scottish ski resorts? Ideally, I would like this to be as cheap as a ski trip can possibly be 😬 Any recommendations that won't cost the world? My daughter is nearly 13 and fairly confident on skis and I grew up in Austria as a child and used to ski quite seriously, but haven't been in a few years.

Thank you so much!! Will definitely look at this

Driving wouldn't be a problem, but would need to get winter chains if I were to drive to the Alps

Hi there. We drive out to the French Alps several times a year. You will legally need snow tyres/chains if driving (although you may not “need” them). If it snows and you don’t have them it’s a nightmare.

with the train, there are other options than those mentioned above. Check out Serre Chevalier, Vars, Risoul and Les Orres. Les Orres and Risoul best for beginners. There is a direct train to Briancon (overnight from Paris as well as day options) which stops in Embrun and Mont Dauphin from where it’s easy to get to the resorts (30 min local bus or taxi). The skiing is pretty good there at Easter.

We are getting the train to Austria this February half term, having booked our own hotel. We got Interrail passes for the two adults (they may still be running the 10% off sale I saw the other day - sadly we didn't benefit from it :-)) and the kids passes are free. We are coming from the north of England after school on Friday and crossing to Paris that night, then leaving Paris at 7am and at the hotel by check in time on Saturday afternoon. The cost of it all (both passes, reservation costs for Eurostar and ICE, and Paris hotels both ways) is less than flying or Eurotunnel - if you include petrol and tolls. Five of us for under 1000 euro.

If you're in London, you can take the Eurostar to Lyon (need to change at Paris or Lille though) and get train from Lyon Part Dieu to Bourg St-Maurice or Moutiers. (You can book via trainline.com).
The only bum thing is that many of the local trains are booked out, so you may need to overnight in Lyon in both / one direction.
This is what we're planning to do ... fingers crossed we can sort out ski school and accommodation to fit.

Or, you can take Eurostar to Paris and get train from Paris, Gare de Lyon to Bourg st-Maurice / Moutiers. But you'll need to be quick as most of the trains are already booked out!

Wow that's amazing!! How did you get a train this cheap?!?

Thank you @Radiatorvalves and @FeelingCovidedOut2022 and everyone on this thread. Will check out all options

The two Interrail passes came to about £570 for the adults, and kids are free. Those are first class passes so standard is about £40 cheaper I think. That covers most of the trains. We then paid £300 for the Eurostar reservations you need (so cheaper than actual tickets) and another £150 for the high speed trains to and from Germany. All other trains are included in the pass. Those are passes for four days travel within a month but they have various options and were offering 10% off in a new year sale the other day.

As a PP says though, the Eurostar for the half term weekend will be booking up fast although there may be more availability in first class.

I’ve realised it comes to slightly more than I’d remembered - I’d forgotten the German train cost!

Ok... so I know pretty much everyone on this thread said not to do it, so I am totally preparing myself to be utterly disappointed, but we went ahead and booked Scotland 😬

At least it's an easy direct train journey and I love Scotland anyway, so even if the skiing is terrible (although I'm still hoping at least one of the resorts will be open for a few of the 5 days we're there 🤞🏻) then we could do other things whilst there and my daughter has never been. Our only other realistic option (budget-wise) was Bulgaria, but I've heard there is very little snow there as well, so we might as well stay more local.

The conditions do look pretty good at the moment… fingers crossed it stays that way! I’ve skied there a few times, had a couple of good days but also made it (to glenshee) once to find all lifts closed due to wind. Mind you, also had that in 2Alpes.

Just to update, there was snow and skiing in the Cairngorm Mountains this week! 😃

We arrived on Monday morning and are leaving today (by sleeper train to/from London) and the only day the mountain was closed because of high winds was today. So 4 out of 5 days skiing I think is a great result!⛷️

I must say the conditions were definitely more challenging than I remember from Austria and my daughter from France last year, but I got my daughter a 1:1 instructor who showed her the terrain and she thought it was brilliant 🤩 The instructor did say that if you can ski in Scotland you can ski everywhere 😂 because apart from Monday where we had a day of sunshine, the rest of the time there was definitely pretty high wind in your face (or a breeze as one of the locals told me 🤣).

Everyone was so incredibly welcoming, friendly and helpful that we absolutely loved our time in Aviemore and will be back. And the main thing we GOT TO SKI!

Also to add, it was not overcrowded at all because they limited the number of ski passes that were sold, so it actually felt very safe on the mountain with not too many people, very friendly and helpful staff and ski patrol and the wait for the ski lifts/funicular railway wasn't long at all.

Great to hear you had a good time skiing in Scotland with your DD.