There will be twice weekly departures from London, one day ski train leaving on a Saturday morning and the overnight ski train leaving on Friday evenings. The overnight Eurostar ski train service arriving around 7am in the morning will give you 8 days on the piste, just make sure that you can check in at your accommodation early or leave your baggage somewhere in resort.

The snow train that Rail Europe used to run / sell several years ago is still not available -see here http://ski-concierge.com/blog/snow-train-cancelled-this-season/. The Snow Train was the overnight sleeper (with couchettes) from Paris that was on the same route as the Eurostar ski train, stopping at Moutiers and Bourg St Maurice. This does mean that unless you are happy to book the French TGV from Paris independently (in my opinion the best method of travel – more in later posts), the Eurostar ski train is the only option for travelling to French ski resorts by train.

Resort Destinations with the Eurostar Ski Train:

Get off the ski train at Moutiers for the following ski resorts (transfer times in brackets).

Courchevel (30 minutes), Les Menuires (40 mins), Meribel (20 mins), Valmorel (40 mins) and Val Thorens (35 mins).

Get off the ski train at Aime La Plagne for La Plagne ski resort (30 minutes). Note the Eurostar train does not stop at Aime La Plagne train station on the way back, you will need to get to Bourg St Maurice by your own means.

Get off the ski train at Bourg St Maurice for the following ski resorts:

Les Arcs (35 minutes), La Rosiere (40 mins), Tignes (25 mins) Val d’Isere (25 mins).

Les Arcs provides perhaps the easiest transfer with a short funicular ride from Bourg St Maurice station up to Les Arcs 1600. All other resorts are accessible via public transport links, or taxi.

Eurostar ski train tickets go on sale now from £149 return, it really does offer a valid alternative to flying.

You can book your Eurostar Ski train tickets at www.eurostar.com.

In the Eurostar Bar

As Lastminute.com put it it’s “One day, one train, one hell of a good time with Eurostar straight to the Alps”.  Basically you head to St Pancras after work on Friday evening (assuming you work near London) to get on the overnight Eurostar to Bourg St Maurice (leaves at 20:31).Remember that the seats on the Eurostar are the normal upright seats, there’s a bar on the train to ease you to sleep though! You’ll arrive in Bourg St Maurice at 06:30 on Saturday morning.

On our trip we then took the funicular straight from Bourg St Maurice station to Arc 1600, this is perhaps the easiest resort to get to, but you could also try Val d’Isere or Tignes or alight earlier at Moutiers and pay a visit to the Three Valleys. The funicular is included in your Les Arcs day lift pass which you can buy online in advance here for 41.50euros, they’ll post it to you so you don’t need to worry about sorting it out when you arrive.

When you get to Arc 1600, turn right out of the funicular station, there is a pub that opens for breakfast and can store your bags for a day for a small fee. There is also a ski hire shop next door to there, Sport 2000 I think, so you can sort everything you’ll need easily when you get up to Arc 1600.

Then you’re just left to ski the whole day. Les Arcs is a great ski area, you can find out more about Les Arcs on our resort review. The day we were there was the most glorious January day with clear blue skies. We had lunch back down at Arc 1600 and then skiied until last lifts in the afternoon. Obviously skiing only one day the you’re at the mercy of the weather even more than usual, and all you can do is hope you get lucky!

Restaurant La Tartiflette, Bourg St Maurice

You then have time for a few drinks back at Arc 1600 to relive your day and then head back down on the funicular to Bourg St Maurice. The train leaves at 22:15 giving you time for dinner in Bourg. Don’t go anywhere other than restaurant La Tartiflette on Avenue de la Gare opposite the station, it’s really the best restaurant in Bourg and is usually rammed which is a good sign.

After another night on the Eurostar you’ll arrive into St Pancras at 07:12 on Sunday morning, giving you a bit of time for some R&R before going back to work on Monday with that sense of elation after having really maximised your weekend!

Lastminute.com are running this trip and they currently have availability on Friday 5th March and Friday 19th March. And best of all it only costs £129 per person! Go on give it a go, you only live once!

Their latest statement reads: ‘ONLY CUSTOMERS WHO HOLD A TICKET THAT WAS ORIGINALLY FOR TRAVEL ON SATURDAY 19 OR SUNDAY 20 DECEMBER WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR TRAVEL ON TUESDAY 22 DECEMBER. Seats will not be bookable in advance.

Customers holding tickets for Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 December will be eligible for travel on Wednesday 23 December. Customers holding tickets for Wednesday 23 or Thursday 24 December will be eligible for travel on Thursday 24 December.’

Due to the continuing bad weather, speed restrictions are in place on our high speed lines, adding up to two hours to journey times. As a result we can not operate as many trains as planned and trains are departing from our terminals as and when they become available from their inbound journey.

Tickets for Sunday19th or Monday 20th December

If you hold a booking leaving London St Pancras or Paris Nord on Sunday 19 or Monday 20 December and are not already at the station, please do not travel to the station on Monday 20 December as unfortunately we are not able to accept any more passengers for travel on Monday.

If you hold a booking leaving Brussels, please check-in one hour before your service is due to depart and you will be put on the next available train.

Our recommendation is that if you do not need to travel before Christmas, you postpone or cancel your journey and we are offering a free refund or exchange. Please see the relevant FAQ for further information

If you do need to travel before Christmas, you will be offered a seat on a train on Tuesday 21 December. The time of your new train is shown on the Eurostar website here.

Tickets for 21st to 24th December

If you have a ticket for travel between 21st and 24th December they are recommending that you don’t travel if you don’t need to. If you do need to travel before Christmas, please come to our stations one hour before your train is due to depart and you will be given a seat on the next available train. Please note that due to weather delays, we will not be operating our normal timetable, with trains departing as and when they become available from their inbound journey.

If you have been stranded, Eurostar are offering compensation as follows: From Eurostar website – We will be reimbursing reasonable out-of-pocket expenses caused by the overnight delay. This includes hotel accommodation (up to £150/€150 per room per night), transport (taxis, underground and parking) and meals.

In order to claim, please write into Traveller Care at traveller.care@eurostar.com, ensuring you attach a completed compensation form, booking reference number, scanned copies of any relevant receipts, and any other supporting information. Please make sure you also keep a copy of any receipts or tickets for your own reference.

Below is what was posted last year about the same time with similar problems:

I thought that seeing as I am one of the travellers that have been affected by the current Eurostar delays that I would write a post giving some information on what to do. The Eurostar website does not currently seem to be providing a lot of information to travellers apart from the fact that they are unsure when the delays will end. Any updates are being provided on the Eurostar website http://www.eurostar.com

There are no trains running today (Sunday 20th December). If you are in Paris now then you are entitled to 150euros each per person for accommodation and food for tonight. Iit states on the website that this is only for passengers affected on Friday and Saturday but having spoken to a Eurostar member of staff they confirmed that this will also cover travellers today (Sunday).

Tomorrow they are hoping to start running Eurostar services although there is no guarantee. We have been told that seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis, the trains normally run from 5am and you can start queuing for these trains as soon as you like (if you want to spend an evening in a freezing cold station). According to a member of staff there is only likely to be 1 train running per hour.

Some passengers are choosing to get a train / bus to Calais and get a ferry. Alternatively Eurolines are running coaches from Paris to London.  Times and current prices for 1 person are shown below for the next week.

Eurolines Times from Paris to London

There is currently no advice from Eurostar as for exactly when trains will start running through the tunnel again but what is sure is that there will be a huge backlog and there will be no guarantees of when you will get on a Eurostar train.

Eurostar are providing some answers to popular questions here http://littlebreakbigdifference.com/blog/2009/12/19/responding-to-questions-about-todays-disruption/.  As we find out more information we will post is here and add to out twitter feed ski-concierge.

Please be aware that this information is provided from our experience only through speaking to Eurostar staff and passengers at Gare du Nord, we have had no official communication with Eurostar Head Office.

There will be twice weekly departures from London, one day ski train leaving on a Saturday morning and the overnight ski train leaving on Friday evenings. The overnight Eurostar ski train service arriving around 7am in the morning will give you 8 days on the piste, just make sure that you can check in at your accommodation early or leave your baggage somewhere in resort.

As we mentioned in a post several days ago http://ski-concierge.com/blog/snow-train-cancelled-this-season/ the Rail Europe Snow Train has been cancelled this year. The Snow Train was the overnight sleeper (with couchettes) that was on the same route as the Eurostar ski train, stopping at Moutiers and Bourg St Maurice. This does mean that unless you book the French TGV from Paris independently, the Eurostar ski train is the only option for travelling to French ski resorts by train.

Resort Destinations with the Eurostar Ski Train:

Get off the ski train at Moutiers for the following ski resorts (transfer times in brackets).

Courchevel (30 minutes), Les Menuires (40 mins),  Meribel (20 mins),  Valmorel  (40 mins) and Val Thorens (35 mins).

Get off the ski train at Aime La Plagne for La Plagne ski resort (30 minutes). Note the Eurostar train does not stop at Aime La Plagne train station on the way back, you will need to get to Bourg St Maurice by your own means.

Get off the ski train at Bourg St Maurice for the following ski resorts:

Les Arcs (35 minutes), La Rosiere (40 mins), Tignes (25 mins) Val d’Isere (25 mins).

Les Arcs provides perhaps the easiest transfer with a short funicular ride from Bourg St Maurice station up to Les Arcs 1600. All other resorts are accessible via public transport links, or taxi.

Eurostar ski train tickets go on sale tomorrow 7th July from £149 return, lower than last year, it really does offer a valid alternative to flying.

You can book your Eurostar Ski train tickets at www.eurostar.com.

The Eurostar Ski Train stops at many of the key hubs in the Northern Alps. You can reach Meribel, Coucheval and Val Thorens from Moutiers or stop at Bourg St Maurice for Val D’Isere, Tignes, Les Arcs and La Rosiere.

All resorts are no more than an hour from the rail stations, far more relaxing than that 3 hour transfer from Geneva and save a bit of your carbon footprint too.

For more informationon the ski train visit the Eurostar website.