Winter Train Tickets for French Alps Now On Sale

3rd October 2023

Last modified on October 11th, 2023

It is only for the first part of winter but if you are interested now is the time to book. There is growing interest in taking the train, but currently only 2% of UK skiers do so. UPDATED

The booking period covers Xmas and New Year, with tickets available to January 9th 2024.

Booking dates

10 Dec 2023 – 09 Jan 2024
– sales open at around 6am on 04 October 2023

10 Jan 2024 – 09 Feb 2024
‘Sales open progressively’

10 Feb 2024 – 24 March 2024
– sales open 15 November 2023

25 March onwards
Sales open at a date that SNCF hasn’r revealed.

Bourg St Maurice, France. Image © PlanetSKI

It has been a source of ongoing criticism that trains in France can’t be bought further in advance and with greater simplicity.

“Why on earth does SNCF make something that should be simple, so complicated?” said Daniel Elkan from the specialist train travel website to the mountains, Snowcarbon.

“For the period 10th January 2024 to 9th February 2024 I have tried – several times – to get clarification from SNCF about what ‘sales open progressively’ actually means, in terms of specifics.

“SNCF seems unable to say.”

For OUIGO (a low-cost TGV to some destinations) the entire winter season (and beyond, actually, until 04 July 2024) goes on sale on 04 October.

You can see a list of OUIGO destinations here.

Bourg St Maurice, France. Image © PlanetSKI

While skiing by train does now include one change of train, the breadth of destinations now on offer has grown considerably over the old (more limited) direct ski train, and Brit skiers seem to be wanting more.

“We’re already booking skiers on Snow Train holidays to the big French resorts like Val d’Isere/Tignes and Meribel/Val Thorens,” said Richard Sinclair from SNO.

“Perhaps the most exciting development is how much wider the ski trains are now available, with packages to Austrian, Swiss and Italian resorts like St Anton, St Moritz and Sestriere,” he added.

Websites for booking trains:

Eurostar
Rail Europe
Trainline
SNCF Connect

There seems to be growing interest from UK skiers and snowboarders in taking a train to their ski resort.

Operators and agents are now making extra efforts to promote it.

Switching the plane for a train can reduce the carbon footprint of a holiday considerably.

According to a Greenpeace report, using research from the European Environment Agency ,depending on the route, trains can emit on average, 5 times less greenhouse gases per passenger kilometre in Europe.

Currently around 2% of UK skiers and snowboarders take the train to access their ski resort.

14% drive with the remainder of people, 84%, flying.

It will take a huge change in attitudes and behaviour to make a significant change to these figures, and get more people on trains.

Figures published by the Ski Club of Great Britain and the Mountain Trade Network show that, this winter, Brits’ intention to travel by train to a ski resort has increased to 12% – twice as high as pre-Covid levels and six times higher than last year.

Gwenaelle Delos, Atout France director UK and Ireland, said France and the wider the travel industry needed to “take advantage of our geographical proximity and rail infrastructure to enable more people to get there in this way”, with rail a substantially more sustainable way of travelling to the Alps.

“It’s our responsibility to play our part in ensuring holidaymakers can research, book and travel by train to France as easily as possible,” she added.

PlanetSKI has been taking the train to ski resorts for many years and we are big supporters of train travel to the Alps and the Pyrenees.