 Poster: A snowHead
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@Lucywuk, couldn't find any mention of the "direct" (ok, change at Lille) to BSM that theyran for a few weeks last year. Have you seen anything on that?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Arctic Roll wrote: |
| @Lucywuk, couldn't find any mention of the "direct" (ok, change at Lille) to BSM that theyran for a few weeks last year. Have you seen anything on that? |
Tickets on sale from 9 July. Service runs 21 December to 2 March.
https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/train/france/ski-train
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Argh it looks like they are doing out Saturday return Sunday 
They will then no doubt remove the service due to lack of demand ....
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I wonder how much it costs. It’s interesting. But no flexibility with times and I can’t travel back Sunday.
So I think I’ll book London/Paris and maybe have an afternoon/evening in Paris. And then go south mid morning.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Interesting. I wish their useless press department would reply to my emails & phone calls. Great to see that it's back and with more rotations than last year.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Origen, when your say "ruinously expensive" how much are you talking about? I've found French trains to be very reasonably priced.
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| turboblackbeard wrote: |
| They will then no doubt remove the service due to lack of demand .... |
TBF they have increased the number of services for 24/25 (still pretty limited supply though)
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Ridiculous not running it into the Easter school holidays
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Macker13, no doubt they have done an analysis and concluded its not good business
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Flights have also been cut back dramatically for Easter. For example flights from Birmingham to Geneva on Saturdays went from 4 on Saturdays and a couple every other day of the week to one on Saturdays and only a couple the rest of the week. The airlines switching to "summer" destinations.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Easter is late next year, 20 April, so most resorts will be closed by the holiday weekend itself.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@ecureuil, many of the small ones may be, but the large ones will still be open.
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There's 20% off Interrail passes at the moment, which makes them very good value and likely the cheapest way of travelling to the Alps for many people.
For e.g. return train travel from anywhere in the UK (assuming the UK travel is on the days your leave and enter the UK) to Bourg St Maurice works out at ~£250 for a 28-59yo. It would be considerably cheaper for anyone older or younger. You only pay seat reservations for kids up to 11, so they'd travel for ~£65.
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You know it makes sense.
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We'll be going via Paris again. I took advantage of the interrail offer and got 1st Class Interrail tickets for £660. That's for 2 adults and 1 junior. Plus a freebie for our 11 year old.
Additional reservation prices will add about £400.
Still significantly cheaper than the £3000 Eurostar wanted for Plus tickets on the Snowtrain when I went to book it on Tuesday.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I'm trying to check prices for the Snowtrain...lots of adverts but no links ...anyone got any ideas?
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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thanks for that but it seems that the website doesn't work on Firefox , but I managed it on Chrome
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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| DaveD wrote: |
| I'm trying to check prices for the Snowtrain...lots of adverts but no links ...anyone got any ideas? |
I looked a few days ago and it was coming out at c.£396rtn per person, so pretty expensive on the face of it when the return flights are less than half that. BUT then add the transfer from GVA and it gets a little better. But the Saturday outbound and Sunday return is insane. Unless they've done a deal with hoteliers in BSM and it's a racket  .
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@aberdeenski, buy an interrail pass. All countries, 4 days in one month (perfectly adequate to get to most of the Alps and back from N Scotland). If you get first class it includes 1st class on LNER free so a big saving on food/ drink while going to/ from London. Passes currently on sale for £244 (ie with 20% discount) (https://www.myinterrail.co.uk/interrail-pass-sale/) but rush as sale ends in two days…
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Inboard wrote: |
| @aberdeenski, buy an interrail pass. All countries, 4 days in one month (perfectly adequate to get to most of the Alps and back from N Scotland). If you get first class it includes 1st class on LNER free so a big saving on food/ drink while going to/ from London. Passes currently on sale for £244 (ie with 20% discount) (https://www.myinterrail.co.uk/interrail-pass-sale/) but rush as sale ends in two days… |
Good tip - thanks.
I had a quick play on Eurostar and SNCF and buying separately didn’t seem to come out substantially cheaper, and there was nothing to Lille Europe from the Alps on the Saturday, so would be a Paris change. Landry is my preferred station for Montchavin-Les Coches, where we usually stay for Paradiski, but it’s a smaller station so may slightly limit the trains compared to Bourg.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The train from Chambéry and Lyon stops at Landry on the way to Bourg. Some of them don't, but others do.
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| Inboard wrote: |
| @aberdeenski, buy an interrail pass. All countries, 4 days in one month (perfectly adequate to get to most of the Alps and back from N Scotland). If you get first class it includes 1st class on LNER free so a big saving on food/ drink while going to/ from London. Passes currently on sale for £244 (ie with 20% discount) (https://www.myinterrail.co.uk/interrail-pass-sale/) but rush as sale ends in two days… |
This seems like a great idea, are there costs on top of the inter rail pass to reserve seats? Much prefer the train where feasible and not desperate for the direct trains find changing in Paris good fun. I guess as well as taking you out of the book early or not at all scenario, the inter rail pass potentially opens up more complex routes with a overnight stop / sleeper (beyond BSM / Moutiers etc).
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Do interrail do the 20% discount offers very often? I’ve never considered train to the alps as getting to St Pancras is a faff and expensive, but I might consider it for long trips to Morzine in future. 1st class for about £200 as I’m now 60.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Bradlex, @andy from embsay, interrail pass will mean you pay for a pass holder seat reservation on Eurostar (currently I think £26 std class, £33 std premier so inc food/ wine - each way). TGV also requires seat reservation for pass holders. Check out seat61 website he has good info on using interrail effectively. German/ Swiss/ Austrian trains can be free but on fast German ICE it may be worth getting seat reservations (e5 usually).
If the uk leg home to St Pancras is expensive then interrail case becomes more persuasive. We can get first class on LNER Aviemore to London (8hrs on train with loads of food/ drinks) for free with the first class interrrail pass. No brainer.
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We’re in Yorkshire @Inboard, but 1st class LNER Leeds to Kings Cross can easy be £75 each way, even booking in advance with a senior railcard. Have always fancied the train and this would enable us to have a stop off somewhere on the way - or it’s possible to do Skipton to Cluses (35mins from Morzine) in a day - leave at 7am, into Cluses by 9pm French time.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@Bradlex, if you go onto the interrail website you can check your journey and the “from” cost of reservations. For us from Skipton to Cluses it says “from” €50 each way (most of which is the Eurostar fee of €30ish).
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| andy from embsay wrote: |
| @Bradlex, if you go onto the interrail website you can check your journey and the “from” cost of reservations. For us from Skipton to Cluses it says “from” €50 each way (most of which is the Eurostar fee of €30ish). |
Thanks helpful  also based in Yorkshire (though most of the folks I ski with start from London) we've taken the train on probably half the trips over the last ten or so years, it's always been the journey from here to London that often tips over the cost comparison when compared to flying. That said with flying I often find people in my group forget about transfers and the often significant cost of transport/parking to the airport. Taking the train has generally been much more enjoyable if less efficient on time.
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I tend to get cheap (<£100 return) flights, but you’re right - add in 4/5 days’ airport parking at £80, hire car (though we’d need a taxi from Cluses to Morzine that’d be €40 each way at a guess) and other than a bit of time it’s probably cheaper and definitely more pleasant. Time-wise we tend to leave home mid-pm for a teatime Manchester flight and get to Morzine for 11pm or so - so about 8hrs vs about 13/14 by train.
Will definitely give it a go when I stop working and am going for longer trips - the opportunity to see some other places on the way is a bonus.
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You know it makes sense.
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I aim to do the train this year. To les Arcs so Bourg St Maurice. I can see that Eurostar snow train via Lille is an optiond for the Saturday 1st Feb to go out, for the return though there is only an option for Sunday the 9th, I want to return Saturday the 8th? I assume in which case I would need to buy an SNCF ticket from Bourg St Maurice to Paris and then a seperate Eurostar ticket from Paris to London for the Saturday? Is that the only option? I can't see a return on a Saturday via Lille?
Also I have the SNCF app, its very frustrating, although it lets me select 8th February to look at trains from Bourg to Paris, it just says there is nothing matching my criteria! I assume that can't be the case, is this just because its not released tickets for that date? I can't seem to set up a notification to tell me when they are available either.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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In past experience it's probably that you're looking too early before the full set of ticket options are released. The snow train comes out much earlier than the SNCF booking window from memory. Some good info here https://www.seat61.com/european-train-booking-horizons.htm
Last year we were late to book and went London > Lille - then Lille > Lyon with OuiGo the budget operator, with regional trains onward from there. Worked pretty well, avoided Paris, added maybe 2hrs on to the journey (1 of which you'd need to transit in Paris if comparing) but was nice to see a bit of Lille, get a coffee in Lyon etc... OuiGo was pretty much the same as past TGV's just a different colour and didn't have a cafe bar onboard.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@DHosking yes, for travelling back on the Saturday you go via Paris. Have you had a read of the opening post in this thread?
SNCF won't have released the timetable for those dates yet. The schedule has been pretty much for the last few years, though. See here:
https://www.snowcarbon.co.uk/ski-resorts/les-arcs
The timetable is usually released quite a while before he tickets, which go on sale roughly 90 days prior to departure.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks for those predicted trains. We are going overnight in Paris on the way down as I haven’t been for years. So can see a late morning train south. And return matches what we did last year
Eurostar booked and SNCF planned.
Now my question here. I have an SNCF card that runs out whilst we are there. I can use it for outbound but not inbound I guess? (It will mean 3 discounted journeys ans I’ve already saved more than the cost in 2!)
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@aberdeenski, agree with your analysis that interrail doesn’t work with sleeper on outbound leg from Scotland due to the home-country travel day rule, but it works fine on inbound leg. We’ve done Alps-Inverness using one day of Interrail pass - morning train from Moutiers, mid-afternoon Eurostar from Paris, evening Sleeper north.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@aberdeenski, if you end up doing the train option, there are quite a few cheapish accommodation options near Gare de Lyon, including some apartments I think.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| sugarmoma666 wrote: |
| @aberdeenski, if you end up doing the train option, there are quite a few cheapish accommodation options near Gare de Lyon, including some apartments I think. |
Interesting I’m finding Paris prices near Gare de Lyon more than London. Premier inn KX v citizen M Paris. But we fancy a Paris break so doing that and getting the 11:42 to bourg. Staying Arc 1950 so easy transfer.
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@Lucywuk, I've always found it the other way around. My go-to hotel is the Ibis Styles Paris Bercy, which is about 10 minutes walk from the Gare de Lyon.
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| Inboard wrote: |
| @aberdeenski, agree with your analysis that interrail doesn’t work with sleeper on outbound leg from Scotland due to the home-country travel day rule, but it works fine on inbound leg. We’ve done Alps-Inverness using one day of Interrail pass - morning train from Moutiers, mid-afternoon Eurostar from Paris, evening Sleeper north. |
Good to know! For now I think we’ll have to fly as we are tied by needing a house sitter for the horses so time is of the essence, but one day when there are just a couple of us I am very keen on doing this!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| sugarmoma666 wrote: |
| @Lucywuk, I've always found it the other way around. My go-to hotel is the Ibis Styles Paris Bercy, which is about 10 minutes walk from the Gare de Lyon. |
I’m obviously lazy and was looking 200m
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FAQ
which is more than twice what the flight would be and means we start and finish in London. Transfer from GVA would not add that much on.
