‘We’re sorry to announce that the 13:25 flight to London Gatwick is delayed”….
The all too familiar voiceover that greeted us on arrival at Chambery airport last March – our return leg home delayed by reasons best known to Monarch and Monarch alone. Not being the biggest fan of Chambery airport at the best of times, this little piece of news did nothing to abate my raging hangover from a heavy last night out in Dicks Tea Bar. Nethertheless, our travel weary party did our best to while away the next 9 (yes nine!) hours. Several hundred games of snap later and after a three hour feast in Chambery airport’s one and only restaurant got me wondering…..There must be a better way of getting to and from the slopes??

Now I’m never going to be content with a week at Milton Keynes snow dome, so that left me pondering the other methods of transport to Europe. Having spent the last couple of years whiling away the days discussing holidays with Interactive clients, I’ve stumbled across train fans on regular occasions. With all the recent talk of ‘carbon footprint’ and ‘eco-tourism’, surely trains are the suitable alternative?

Besides all the well documented advantages – less pollution and the driving down of carbon cost per person per mile etc; trains rarely suffer from weather related delays and are probably the most time-saving option for mileage hungry skiers wanting to make the most of their limited time off work on the slopes.

Whilst the Snow-train has been the favoured service in past years, Rail Europe made a wretched announcement last month that they are no longer going to be running it for forthcoming winter seasons. Fear not though! The clever people at Eurostar have just released some cracking prices for next season, and you can take their overnight direct service to ensure maximum piste time!

Some of the operators are already offering this service as part of the package – making some package deals just as economical as taking a flight. Take a look at the Chalet Renod in Val Thorens. If you have 8 people going for the week commencing 2nd Jan, you can take sole use of the chalet with the overnight train for £542pp. The train leaves Kings Cross St Pancras at 20:30 on the Friday, getting you into Moutiers for 05:30 on the Saturday morning. The return leg departs 23:10 from Moutiers the following Saturday and gets you back to Kings Cross early on the Sunday. Hence you can get 8 full days of skiing (as opposed to 6 with flights) crammed into your trip!

So there it is…Trains are the answer…Whilst we skiers can never pretend to be 100% green on our holidays, there are ways of doing our bit for the environment. If this means that we get an extra two days in on the slopes, then that’s even better! All that, and we’d be doing it with a clean conscience.
So….will the train be better than my Chambery airport experience?! As it happens, I’m still eagerly waiting to book my train experience for this next season, so watch this space…