Flying to a ski resort sounds quick on paper, but door-to-door it often swallows an entire day. Going by rail from the UK, says a new Guardian Travel round-up, can be just as fast in daylight hours — and a sleeper train effectively buys you two extra days on the snow. Given that taking the train is the single biggest emissions cut a skier can make, and Alpine glaciers are visibly shrinking, the case for rail has rarely been stronger.
The headline news for this season is the Travelski Night Express, a dedicated skiers' sleeper launched last winter with an added route for the coming one. It runs on Fridays out and Saturdays back on two routes — from Paris, and from Amsterdam and Brussels — stopping at Moûtiers, Aime-la-Plagne and Bourg-Saint-Maurice in the Tarentaise valley of the French Alps. Couchette berths are standard, but the real draw is its retro speakeasy-style bar-restaurant car. UK skiers simply connect via Eurostar to Paris or Brussels.
Austria works overnight too: Eurostar to Paris or Brussels, then a Nightjet to Salzburgerland, or a Nightjet from Amsterdam or Cologne for Innsbruck and the Tirol. For daytime travel, Eurostar's ski service, Eurostar Snow, is the smoothest option — it carries skis and snowboards free on top of normal luggage, running London to Lille with a cross-platform change onto the train to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The catch: the last outbound departure this season is 20 February, a decision that has annoyed tour operators. Ski Flight Free's Iain Martin calls it ridiculous to blame weak demand, while Peak Retreats and Inghams — whose rail-inclusive packages now cover 75% of their French resorts plus some in Switzerland, Italy and Austria — say customers genuinely want more trains, including in popular March.
The round-up's 12 resorts span France and Austria, and the mix is genuinely useful. Fastest of the lot is Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise at just under eight hours — a small, quiet 'hidden gem' with lasting powder on north-facing slopes and strong beginner provision. La Rosière (7h 44min) sits on the Franco-Italian border, and Peisey-Vallandry (7h 47min) plugs into the 425km Paradiski domain with a notable Nordic skiing scene. Les Menuires offers Three Valleys skiing — 600km of piste — at prices well below Courchevel or Méribel. Montgenèvre, France's oldest resort, is pedestrianised, family-friendly, budget-priced and getting lift upgrades ahead of the 2030 Winter Olympics. Saint-Gervais-les-Bains combines Mont Blanc views with thermal baths and a station-to-village gondola. In Austria, St Anton am Arlberg (10h 30min via Zurich) delivers world-class terrain and legendary après-ski, while Alpbach — arguably the prettiest village of the set — is reachable overnight via a Nightjet to Jenbach.
Prices quoted are competitive with flying: seven nights half-board at Alpbach's Hotel Alphof from £955pp including travel, Les Menuires rail-and-pass packages from £1,356pp, or self-catering at Sainte-Foy from €600pp for a group of six. For skiers who'd rather sleep than queue at an airport, the timings alone make the train worth a serious look.
