Day trip to Les Arcs with 8 year old on Eurostar - Trip Report!

A snowHead

We're back! And we had an absolutely brilliant time - could not have gone better despite fears of thunder (blue skies!) and concerns over thigh burn (I have a long thread in Bend ze Knees but it was not an issue!) - covered nearly a marathon distance of skiing and half a descent of Everest (which is a lot for two not-very-mountain experienced intermediates, especially an 8 year old!) so we truly made the most of the hours we had - from 9am until past lift closing time!

So Friday evening, and our trip began from our local station in Hemel, which is of course where most of our hours on snow have happened over the last few years. Everything went smoothly, and we got a taxi from Euston to St Pancras because the huge bag with all the boots in was not a bag I’d like to drag far for long as it kept twisting on the smallest bumps, and there were so many crowds of commuters I knew I’d catch a few ankles.

Neither of us had eaten since lunchtime so I bought a Yo Sushi takeaway platter for us to share at St Pancras. However once we got to the Eurostar check in we didn’t have a chance to eat it until we were on the train as there was always something. Glad we had it though, because the “light evening meal” (choice of lasagne or tartiflette) in Premium Economy isn’t served until well after Ashford. So closer to past 9pm - very late for an 8 year old to eat, and for me!

The train left on time, all went to plan. Surprisingly the best phone signal I had all weekend was in the Channel Tunnel. Once we’d eaten there were still people chatting quite loudly and being sociable as you would obviously expect, but my daughter passed out anyway before long. The seats recline a little in Premium Economy (they don’t in Economy) but I don’t feel it was enough to make a proper difference. You get a blow up neck pillow and an eye mask and oddly a muesli bar all wrapped inside a fleecy Eurostar branded blanket that you keep for the return journey.

I got practically no sleep. It was nobody’s fault - the carriage got very quiet past midnight (although I could hear rowdiness elsewhere on the train - hoping it was just the bar and not another carriage) but even that died down 1-2am. All the same, I was so wired after days of prep I just couldn’t get to sleep. And it was uncomfortable of course as well. I got maybe an hour or two of crap sleep. My daughter did rather better but still well below her normal amount!

We got croissant and some yoghurt muesli thing for breakfast. We got into Bourg Saint Maurice (BSM) at 6:23am, a filthy time of day. The last hour was backwards as the train needs to turn around at Albertville due to there not being a spur or something weird. The coffee shop opposite the station opened up as we arrived. There was no menu and I wanted something other than pain au chocolat especially given I’d just had a croissant and I was after something with a lower GI and hopefully a bit of protein but I couldn’t see what else might be on offer. So I went with the pain au chocolat and a coffee.

We then headed over to the funicular, which involved wandering around looking lost looking for the free navette to get there before finally asking at the info desk and it was hidden round the back behind a load of other buses. It is only a 5-10 minute walk but again the boot case is very rickety.

There was hardly any queue for lift passes which we got for 28 euros thanks to the SamediJeSki promotion. By this point it was 7.30am and the ski hire and luggage drop place we were using at the foot of the funicular (Polaire Star) did not open until 8.30am. Cue a very bored and grumpy 8 year old. Classics such as “We don’t need skis, I can do boot skiing” (!!) and “This place is NEVER going to open” really loudly just as the owners walked past I could probably have done without wink

Ahh, children.

Anyway once it opened we collected our skis (we brought our own boots, helmet), rearranged the luggage and carried the few bits and bobs (camera, passports etc) I wanted on my person in a forward facing rather large waist pack style thing. This was such a great investment as I hardly felt I was wearing it, yet I had easy access to my decent camera, wallet, phone, portable chargers, water, buffs and the rest of it. You know the drill. And it didn't get in the way when skiing or on the chairlifts.

We missed the next funicular by precisely five seconds (especially annoying as some people barged in front of us at the ski hire place and got served first after we’d been waiting outside for an hour!) so waited a very frustrating 20 minutes for the next one. In this time though, the sun came out and it was stunning!

Once we got to the top and Arc 1600, we caught the Mont Blanc lift and skied down the run of the same name for a warm up as recommended here. As always with the first run on a mountain after a long break it was a bit of a shambles. I was concerned that my daughter had forgotten how to ski despite doing well at Hemel as she seemed to be snow ploughing in straight lines for much of it. Not that I was a lot better, skis flapping all over the place on the fairly hard corduroy which probably didn’t help.

Anyway we needn’t have worried, once the first run was out the way we improved drastically over the next few hours - it’s just adjusting your mindset from predictable snowdome which is rarely hardpack in that way, to unpredictable mountain with so many different types of snow.

It’s a bit of a blur of various blue runs after that, but we caught a few lifts and eventually ended up in 1800, whereupon we stopped for a sandwich and a drink. Then we headed up high to Col de la Chal in the telecabin, skied down, found an Igloo hotel style thing that we both thought was brilliant with all the ice sculptures (5 euro entry, 4 for children). We had a hot chocolate served by the igloo kiosk, and sadly whilst we drank it on the picnic tables we had a small child start throwing snow at my daughter for no reason whatsoever whilst his parents ignored it - she was quite upset! We did a bit of exploring on the runs around 1800 and the highlight for my daughter at least was the vallee d’l’arc run due to the bumpy bits at the side of the piste. And the fact it was so quiet.

At this point we wanted to eat again so we went back up to Col de la Chal and had a nutella crepe with cream in the Creche place, and I had a coffee. We had a brief look at the snow park above 1800, but still not being hugely confident as it was effectively day 1 on a mountain following 2 years off, AND we’d had barely no sleep it seemed a bad idea to do anything much beyond gently go over some rollers. It looked like amazing fun though. Whilst we were doing this there was the only light snow shower all day - the rest of the time was brilliant sunshine.

It was getting near the end of the day after this so we did a few more runs around 1600 (a repeat of Mont Blanc, gollet (that was very pretty!), a few bits of red runs here and there, and finally a dash down a nearly empty Arpette and back to the funicular. By this point we were skiing with lots of confidence and had improved immeasurably over the first run of the day. Then my daughter fell over on the grating whilst standing waiting for the funicular and hurt her knee..!

We caught the funicular back down, dropped off skis and picked up luggage, got changed in the shop as we were wearing full thermals underneath the whole 36 hours, and walked into town. We bought some presents for the family and then tried La Refuge but they were fully booked. So we went for Le Tonneau next to the station instead which was a great choice as it turned out. Somewhere to put luggage (right next to us!) and a typically Alpine menu. I went for the raw meat and egg and my daughter went for goats cheese salad. I did want the raclette but it’s for two and my daughter would not want a whole one! The staff were very friendly and it was definitely a child-friendly establishment.

We still had two hours before the train left so we sat in the waiting room at BSM for half an hour or so before realising the gates had opened and we could queue up to get on the train. It was noticeably quieter on the return journey as people were clearly knackered, although this did not stop one chap from leaving his phone notifications on loud even after his friend pointed out it would be disturbing people! I had my second dinner (beef stew, from a choice of that or mushroom tartiflette) but my daughter was already asleep. The staff on board found her a spare double seat as she kept flopping into the aisle which was nice of them. I then had a double seat myself but found it more uncomfortable having my legs squashed up than being vertical where at least you can sort of stretch them out.

I got a bit more sleep - maybe four hours this time, and the Eurostar (after having another croissant breakfast) got into St Pancras half an hour early, which meant we could catch the first train out of Euston and we were at home by 8am!

Whereupon I realised my feeling crapness was aided at least in part by the fact I’ve just developed a stinking cold. Still, at least it wasn’t 24 hours earlier.

Anyway, we had an absolutely brilliant time, really really enjoyed ourselves. Our skiing improved loads as did our confidence, and absolutely everything went to plan or near enough (for once!!) It may have been exhausting spending 20 hours out of 36 hours on trains, but I do think it was worth it - especially if, like me, you can’t be away from home for long due to 12 month old baby, or can’t take days off work/school etc.

You can get these day trips for £109 from Lastminute.com for economy class but there’s not any left this season - think they go fairly fast once they’re available. There was a screwup when I was booking mine so I ended up going direct to Eurostar, and for some odd reason I never fully understood, they decided to offer me premium economy for not a huge amount more so I went for that instead. But generally you just go to Lastminute.com as they seem to have the best prices.

Excluding travel to St Pancras and food etc, it would work out about £150 per person including ski hire and lift pass for the day which I think is pretty excellent especially as it’s a weekend.

Now no mountains until next season and early January in Tignes with all six of us (only the baby won't be skiing!) Not sure I can wait that long but it's not like there is a choice!!

And I'd like to personally thank holiday_lover for her fabulous trip report from a few years ago - without which I don't know if I'd have been brave enough to do this. Her detail gave me the guidance I needed to feel confident that I could pull it off, which is partly why I've put in similar levels of detail here for anyone else (especially those who are considering taking child/ren) who might come across this review in the years to come!

A snowHead

Excellent trip report, sounds like fun Happy

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

@sparklies, I have really enjoyed reading this - I thought I would skim through it but went back and read it all - what a great trip. Well done.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

@sparklies, well done, an enjoyable read and sounds like a great mother/daughter outing!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@sparklies, great trip report. Could you persuade your daughter to write her own report? Would love to see the trip from a child's eye view, it must have been so exciting for her.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Your daughter will probably remember that trip for ever. Fantastic effort. snowHead

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks for taking the time to write this @sparklies.

You now have an excellent story to tell people when you go back out with your family next season snowHead

After all it is free

Nicely done. We're off on the Eurostar over the Easter week with the kids so it's good to get the perspective of taking the train with the young'uns

Geat detailed review. I am glad it went well. How were your legs the next day. Following the little one in straight ahead snow plough must be exhausting.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Great report @sparklies, I enjoyed reading it.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Well done Sparklies. I'm glad you found the Igloo style restaurant. It sounds as though you had a great time. It is a pity some people were a bit noisy and inconsiderate on the outward train and if I'd been in your position I can imagine I'd have been too alert/excited to sleep too!

Thanks for posting the report which was enjoyable to read and a good source of useful info on left luggage, restaurants in Bourg etc.

snow reports

Thanks all! She certainly will remember it, and it did us both the world of good. She has started a diary thing which I am keen to have her finish (she was too exhausted yesterday!) so I might share parts of that when she's done.

There weren't many children on the train but it was Premier Economy rather than Economy which I think is partly why as it would cost much more for a lot more people. Also Crystal book by default into Economy and I imagine a lot of families would book through them as one of the few Eurostar package providers. We'll be going economy in January when we go to Tignes, it'll be interesting to see how it is different. Certainly compared to when we flew with three children last time I can see it will be a lot easier and less stressful.

@johnE, funnily enough they are fine! Most of my aches and pains are simply from sleeping at a weird angle. Luckily she didn't keep up the snow plough for more than the first run or so, and my skiing wasn't much better for that run either, but after that we were fine. Typical warm-up scenario!

I'd like to do something similar again next year only next time maybe extend it until the Sunday night with a hotel in BSM, and find a different way back. It was so sad at the end of the day handing back the skis! Believe me I would have gone for longer if I could have this time, but the baby needed me!

@sparklies, While Crystal do book the train package their prices tend not to be that competitive for families travelling to self catering accommodation, particularly in school holidays and if you book through them you only have the choice of economy on the train and you will be squashed into the smallest apartment your party will fit in, in resort. If you haven't already booked I'd suggest comparing the Crystal price with Ski Collection/Peak Retreats as when we have booked holidays by train their prices have worked out cheaper overall and their customer service is far better.

We have tried premium economy and economy on the train and enjoyed both (you get more food/drink in premium economy on the daytime service). I would only use premium economy for the overnight one though. I suspect there weren't many families on your train at all this time as it was termtime. In school holidays the whole train (both classes) is packed with families some travelling with grannies and grandads!

You know it makes sense.

@sparklies, Very Happy

Brilliant report!

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

@sparklies, Great report! Glad you both had so much fun. snowHead

A snowHead

Thanks both!!

@snowymum, we went self catering with Crystal to Plagne 1800 in 2013, but we flew that time. The apartment size wasn't too bad but I had done my research before choosing! This time round we're doing half board in a chalet so it's less of an issue. We're tending to go with Crystal right now, because it makes the childcare simpler as it's all fairly well integrated - once they're all skiing we'll probably use somebody else or most likely DIY as I'm getting a feel for what is needed by now. Or even drive..!

Glad to hear there are more children on holiday trains! It didn't bother me much with my 8 year old because I know she is well-behaved in these sorts of circumstances at least, but I would feel mortified if we were the only ones with toddlers in a carriage full of adults. There was a 13 month old on the way out and the parents were trying hard to keep her quiet, but children are children and it's not always easy after all - they managed pretty well but then they didn't have three bigger ones to deal with too, like we will!

A snowHead

Great report! Thanks for sharing.
Wanted to do it for some time but never seen any tickets for less than 160-180£ Sad

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

@sparklies, You mentioned driving and I have to say that with children in tow it is by far the easiest way to travel to a ski resort! Providing of course you do not detest driving. It also really opens up the options for where you go, you could for example stay down in BSM and go up the funicular every day to Les Arc. Or drive, or bus, to one of the other nearby resorts if their snow looks better!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

I always drive these days but am normally skiing out of school holiday time. And I don't have to travel on Saturdays. At quiet times I can park within a few metres of the "front de neige", pop into shops, drive down empty motorways etc. At peak times when the roads are packed and parking spaces near the lifts at a premium it would be a very different picture and with kids I'd want to be somewhere within very easy reach, with kids in ski boots, of lifts and ski school meeting places. And leave the car in covered parking for the week. And my kids, having to sit 3 in the back of the car, were always adamant that they'd prefer to fly or go by coach. We did three holidays by coach - travel direct to the door of your chalet and half the price of flying. It's no more of a hardship than sitting up on an Economy flight to North America and a small fraction of the price. wink

But then we never did that in school holiday times either - we always took them out of school.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@sparklies, great report. Glad you enjoyed the experience

You'll need to Register first of course.

I don't mind driving, although I am a hopeless passenger! So although my husband can drive too, I might find it hard to relax, but I'm not sure I could handle ten hours of straight driving either. That's why I like the train I guess! Same amount of time but no driving. Not sure I could handle the coach for that long though as I do tend to get travel sick and so do some of the children.

Pam has some excellent points about it being busy, these are all things we'd have to consider. Saying that, next year we are (shhh!) going to take them out of school. Never done that before, but it saves three grand and I am prepared to justify it to the headteacher if needs be! Apparently though she's not very judgemental about such things (the fines etc are obviously out of her hands but it's still a huge saving) so it could be worse. When my 8 year old is in Y6 and SATs we'll obviously not do it from then on, but that still gives us two ski seasons to save a bit. It might not be so bad to park further from the lifts etc when they're a bit older anyway.

In fact it's going to be soooo much easier when they're a bit older and can carry all of their own stuff and perhaps a bit of the communal stuff too! Because right now, well, you can probably imagine. The older two can carry small amounts but that still leaves waaay too much for us!

@Tom W, I booked mine in January time and there seemed to be plenty at £109 on Lastminute back then. I think only Lastminute do the special deal - keep an eye open from October/November time I guess!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

There's just no easy way to take kids on a ski holiday. But having taken an 8 year old all the way for a day trip you're already ahead of the crowd and I'm sure you'll manage fine.

The ideal for driving is two drivers doing two hour stints and swapping regularly. I drive the whole thing in one, on my own (which is about 5000% easier than doing it with kids) but if the weather gets bad - especially if it's foggy - I would stop and if necessary find a hotel for the night.

If you or the kids are car sick then driving is probably not a great idea. The train has lots of advantages - we did an overnight sleeper to Aime la Plagne once - 6 berth sleeper - and were up at Plagne 1800 on a local bus before the tour operators had finished faffing round with coaches. But that involved a good few hours in Paris and a trip across the city. Was fine for us as we had friends living in Paris but - would have been a bit much with kids.

I think I'd take kids out of school, still. Not just because of the money but because of the horrible crowds on the roads and the slopes. And I wouldn't be too bothered about 8 year olds and SATS, either. But then I'm a rubbish mother. wink

After all it is free

There's just no easy way to take kids on a ski holiday. But having taken an 8 year old all the way for a day trip you're already ahead of the crowd and I'm sure you'll manage fine.

The ideal for driving is two drivers doing two hour stints and swapping regularly. I drive the whole thing in one, on my own (which is about 5000% easier than doing it with kids) but if the weather gets bad - especially if it's foggy - I would stop and if necessary find a hotel for the night.

If you or the kids are car sick then driving is probably not a great idea. The train has lots of advantages - we did an overnight sleeper to Aime la Plagne once - 6 berth sleeper - and were up at Plagne 1800 on a local bus before the tour operators had finished faffing round with coaches. But that involved a good few hours in Paris and a trip across the city. Was fine for us as we had friends living in Paris but - would have been a bit much with kids.

I think I'd take kids out of school, still. Not just because of the money but because of the horrible crowds on the roads and the slopes. And I wouldn't be too bothered about 8 year olds and SATS, either. But then I'm a rubbish mother. wink

If your husband spelled you for a bit in the middle@sparklies, ? This year we left home morning (not early from Essex) and inspite of huge delays at the tunnel we were in Morzine by around midnight, on the way back we stopped off overnight in Rheims. The last couple of years I have flown and my husband has driven with grown up sons and some partners, and 'I think' he appreciated alternative drivers for a short part of the way Laughing

If its busy you drop one parent, plus all the kit, off at the bottom of the lifts whist the other goes and parks!

Older offfspring carry littlest kit, parents carry the rest! The last few year because I have some health issues, my sons often carry my kit Laughing

I am sooo glad our children were at school when time off was a matter of sensible discussion between school and parents!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@sparklies,
Great report and I am certainly with @pam w, on the don't fret the kiddies education too much.
However if you feel you do need to take them skiing in the Feb break DIY trips outwith France were not for us either particularly expensive or crowded and worked very well. The big caveat being that you can arrange reasonably priced travel either by booking flights early or by driving. Then there is Easter of course..........

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

snow reports

@sparklies, So glad it ll worked out for you. I was living vicariously through the whole trip! We're 'train-ing' through the day in 2 weeks time - our usual mode of family transport in the winter, although we do get the 'switch in Paris to couchettes' overnighter when doing a boys trip. Very civilized we think. (as one friend put it, you'd pay a fortune for this bed on a plane...)

But we drive in the summer -probably looking to spend a couple of days in Lyon on the way down - with the bikes on the back.

Yup we do all ways!

AR

@pam w,
It probably does a little, but in around 10-12 years I never had anything too bad. though only a proportion of these trips coincided with English half term. This year sounds like it was a particularly bad and rather unusual clash of virtually every major European holiday.
For all my own love of Easter skiing the children were very definitely of the opinion that the Feb holidays were better for skiing in.

You know it makes sense.

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

Great to hear that you had such a good time. I tried to book just 1 ticket for last weekend a few weeks ago, but both Lastminute and Eurostar failed to deliver. The Lastminute website would only let you book two tickets and after 5 phone calls nobody was able to do anything, but give me another phone number and so I gave up. Eurostar knew nothing of the Lastminute deal and could only sell me full price tickets. It is amazing how difficult some companies make it to buy their product.

In the end I flew to Inverness for 2 days. Skied at Cairngorm on the Friday and Nevis on the Saturday. Glorious sunny days, and some ok skiing, but it wasn't Les Arcs!

A snowHead

I really want to do this one-day trip thing and your report has inspired me even more for next season!

A snowHead

Brilliant - you guys are hardcore!

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

@pam w, Ahh, we're not worried about SATs for this year, it's more in a few years time and after that she'll be at secondary school. Right now my gut is for our children to not go out of school once they hit secondary but I never imagined I would at primary either so who knows! My personal belief is that they get far more out of a week of skiing than they would an arbitrary (as in, not exam time etc) week of school but that has to be weighed up against my fear of rulebreaking Little Angel

@CaravanSkier, I think that would be what we'd do and have him do the middle bit. We've done that in the past with long trips to see our parents (dark corners of the UK with over 6 hours drivetime each time) I dunno, I guess the part that puts me off is that a ski holiday is exhausting, and the last thing I'd want to do at the end of it is have a ten hour drivetime!

@T Bar, As we need to get childcare sorted we tend to book holidays really early anyway - no waiting around for last minute for us until the children are all old enough to be in ski school. So nabbing early flights won't be a problem!

@Arctic Roll, I was tempted by the switch to couchettes thing. Was going to do it in fact until I found the great Eurostar deal! Still might at a later date as there's much more flexibility over days of the week from what I can tell. As you say, a small fortune for a bed on a plane. And those beds on planes are not comfy at all - unfortunately I actually have experience of it back in 2008 due to a long story involving pregnancy drama whilst visiting the US and our insurance paying for us to fly home with me staying as flat as possible! Totally overrated for the price!!

@dw832, Yes, they were all long gone by that point. My husband wanted to do similar, but he procrastinated and by the time he started looking there was absolutely nothing left, just the high prices you saw. Also Lastminute are guilty of offering tickets that aren't actually left, according to the Eurostar bloke I spoke to. It gets all the way through the booking then at the last minute it says there has been an issue. Yes, there is an issue, no tickets left at that price on Eurostar's computers. That's when I called Eurostar (and wow, I must have wasted hours on the phone at this point too) and the man offered me the last set of tickets(!) at the promotional price despite saying they weren't available to Lastminute. I have no idea what really went on there but I didn't question my luck and grabbed them. I think the secret is just to book really early. Glad you had a good time in the Cairngorms - that was one of the options I was considering too!

@LOTA, It's definitely worth it! Stressful, but it's only 36 hours of your life and at least 8 of those you're having a fabulous time. If it wasn't so near the end of season now and if there were still tickets left I'd be tempted to do it again this year!!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

@sparklies, If you are saving money by going out of peak times and driving, maybe treat yourself to a stopover on the way home? I know its all so much more complicated with children though!

I admire anyone who can drive long distances, I am tired after 2 - 3 hours driving and 5 hours in a day is about my limit!

We were lucky to have our children young in times when fuel was much cheaper and taking the caravan with an economic and flexible option. It did mean we could stop when we needed to and the children would transfer from car to van without really waking.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

^^^ agreed, breaking the return trip up makes a pleasant and relaxing end to holiday.we used to do it when our kids were younger, stopped several times at Aire play areas, nice hotel and still back lunchtime Sunday

You'll need to Register first of course.

Stopping over does make things nicer. Sometimes on our trips to see parents we've broken up the journey. But that was before we had four children! Now it's nearly impossible to book hotels unless we book two rooms and at that point you start to lose some of the price advantage I'd imagine, especially if you do it both ways.

We do have our massive tent but something tells me it's probably not really going to be that practical wink

Sometimes our trips to see the parents turn into 12 hour nightmares so I know I can drive for that long if needs be (obviously with breaks) but it's not pleasant! Then again it's a very different mindset to have a journey you know to be 12 hours with nice planned breaks, than one that was supposed to be 6 hours and has dragged out stuck on the M6 staring at the back of the same lorry for three hours whilst the children are starving.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

Thanks for the TR, bit of an adventure to go skiing for a day Very Happy

Excellent trip report. I am glad you felt the journey worth the time on the slopes. My 6yr old girls is getting good at skiing and I would love to copy your trip one day when she is a little older. I feel inspired to write my last trip report now.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Thanks! Yep, definitely an adventure, but sometimes it's good to push the comfort zone a bit and it was well worth it! @Mike-H, I thoroughly recommend doing similar - children cope better with these things than we do (especially sleeping on a train as they don't get as sore!) and it's a great experience to do together.

Help!!

Day trip to Les Arcs with 8 year old on Eurostar - Trip Report!

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Resort Reviews and Trip Reports