Train-travel booking guide
Train companies don't make booking tickets as easy as they could – or should. Here's our guide to help you book journeys
Train journeys to ski resorts are more fun, social and sustainable than flying or driving. You've plenty of space and time to make your journey part of the holiday as gorgeous scenery glides by.
But how best to book your rail journey? Train companies and rail-booking websites don’t always make booking trains simple.
At the outset, these websites make the search seem simple. You only need to enter your origin and destination stations and dates of travel. However, as you'll read below, these online search results sometimes inadvertently hide options from you.
However, SnowCarbon is here to help. We don't book journeys for you, but we can offer advice based on years of experience and constant research. We don't make any commission from people booking rail travel—there is no commercial influence behind our information.
Overall, the most useful pieces of advice we can give you in this intro are, "Don’t trust just one source for journey information or prices," and "Treat everything with a pinch of salt"—good advice for life in general.
This article aims to guide you through your booking options, including independent travel online, independent travel through a rail-booking agent, and a rail-inclusive ski holiday from a tour operator.
Booking rail travel online
Photo: Daniel Elkan
Booking a train journey from the UK to the Alps isn’t as simple as booking a flight. Rail operators across the UK and mainland Europe have made a minor dog’s dinner of integrating their booking systems.
As a result, sometimes booking rail travel online is simple, and sometimes it isn't.
Most rail-booking websites have access to the same underlying tickets and prices. However, the algorithms they use may not find the optimal options and fares available to you. It’s therefore worth checking more than one source.
For journeys involving two or more trains, there might be more suitable schedules that algorithms won’t generate. In some cases, bookable train journeys don't show up online or are marked as 'not available'. It’s ridiculous, and the more travellers know this, the better.
If you want extra time for a stopover, you may find that online booking systems—which automatically minimise the time between trains—simply aren’t suitable.
An alternative to booking independent rail travel online is to use a rail-booking agent (more on this below).
Websites for booking rail travel online
If you want to book train travel independently, you can book it online or ask an expert rail-booking agent to do it for you. Here are some of the most popular options for buying tickets online.
Eurostar.com
Eurostar’s website can be useful for the Eurostar leg of your journey and for some Eurostar + TGV journeys. However, it offers a limited range of destinations and doesn’t include local TER trains.
Rail Europe
An online ticket-booking agent with a relatively easy-to-use interface and well-written guides.
Trainline
An online ticket-booking agent, with a similarly intuitive interface and some useful guides.
SNCF Connect
The French rail company SNCF’s booking website. It’s not particularly user-friendly, but it’s another option.
It's worth checking out our guide on how to book the lowest fares, as well as this blog article with all the key booking dates for 2025–26.
Also, if you sign up to SnowCarbon's newsletter (at the bottom of any page on this website), we'll let you know as soon as we know when tickets go on sale.
Booking with an expert rail-booking agent
A good option for booking independent rail travel is to contact an expert rail-booking agent.
Travel agencies have experienced staff who use more sophisticated booking systems than consumer-facing websites. They can reserve tickets as soon as they go on sale and access rail options and fares you might not find online.
One big advantage of agencies is that they tailor your journey. You can choose a schedule that suits your party best without worrying about the frustrations of making it work when booking online.
You benefit from human, rather than algorithmic, intelligence. Rail-booking agents can create an itinerary of trains you want and book them in the most convenient and economical way possible.
In cases where tickets for different legs of a journey appear at different times, booking agencies can hold tickets for one train while waiting for others to go on sale, before combining them to give you a no-commitment quote at the best available fare.
For this service, agents charge a modest fee, which is often your best value for time and money considering the benefits of their service. Indeed, the main disadvantage of using a rail-booking agent is that you’ll need to wait a short time after contacting them for their response.
Similarly, in the unlikely event that you need to claim a refund for a cancelled or delayed train, it can take longer to get a refund because the agency will contact the train company on your behalf. This can save you the hassle of dealing with an elusive train company, but it can take a bit longer to receive your refund (as it's a manual process that the agent does on your behalf).
Recommended rail-booking agents
Below are SnowCarbon’s tried-and-tested recommendations for rail-booking agents. They have helped countless British skiers book travel since the late-80s, and we are very glad they exist.
Railtrail
With over 40 years of experience, Railtrail has a knowledgeable team that can help book almost any journey.
Railtrail charges a fee of £20 per traveller (sometimes less for larger groups)
Phone: (+44) 01538 382323 (09:00–17:00, Monday to Friday)
Email: enquiry@railtrail.co.uk
Trainseurope
Established in 1987, Trainseurope's knowledgeable staff can help book almost any journey.
Trainseurope charges a fee of £10 per traveller.
Phone: (+44) 01354 660222 (09:00–17:00 Monday to Friday; 10:00–15:00 Saturday & Sunday)
Email: info@trainseurope.co.uk
Booking travel for groups of 10 or more
Photo: Daniel Elkan
For groups of 10 or more, a rail-booking agent is essential because train websites only allow you to book for 1–9 people. To get group discounts and to maximise your chance of being seated together, you'll need to book through an agency such as those above.
Apart from the fun of travelling in a large group, there are two advantages to booking in groups of 10:
1. There are unique discounts for groups of 10+. As a rule of thumb, this discount is around 10%, although the exact figure varies depending on several factors, such as the size of the group, date of travel, etc.
2. In some cases, groups can book further in advance than the normal public-booking window.
Rail-inclusive ski packages
Photo: Daniel Elkan
While many ski tour operators offer ski holidays with flights included, fewer offer rail-inclusive ski packages.
It's not from lack of desire: with rail-inclusive skiing getting ever more popular, ski-tour operators would like to be able to offer more. Eurostar has traditionally made it difficult for them to do so, due to its reported reluctance to work with ski tour operators. This is a huge missed opportunity by Eurostar, but the company seems to operate in a rather solipsistic world, much to the frustration of the winter travel industry.
Some years ago, several ski tour operators sold packages that included the direct Eurostar Ski Train. In winter 2023–24, Eurostar replaced its direct ski train with Eurostar Snow, an indirect service via Lille.
For winter 2025–26, the following ski tour operators and ski-travel agents may offer rail-inclusive packages via Lille or by Eurostar + TGV via Paris:
- Inghams
- Peak Retreats
- Travelski
- Snowfinders
- Ski Solutions
- Skiline
At SnowCarbon, we’ve campaigned for years to get rail and tour operators to work together so that skiers can easily book rail-inclusive ski packages. Unfortunately, train operators are big beasts and difficult to persuade. It will take time and, most likely, top-down or political intervention.
To help you find both packages and accommodation alongside independent rail options, we've created a ski-by-train holidays section. There, you can view potential ski holidays by train that include accommodation, transfers and either a fixed or an estimated price for rail travel.
Furthermore, if the rail travel element needs to be booked independently of the accommodations, SnowCarbon can help advise.
Don't let algorithms fool you
Photo: Daniel Elkan
The ability for travellers to book rail journeys online is important. Most rail-booking websites are powered by algorithms (fixed computational pathways) to show you possible journeys and available tickets based on your search criteria.
Unfortunately, algorithms are rarely personalised to match your ideal journey. They’re automated machines that present you with the most popular options they can find. However, like dating apps, they’re a flawed tool for achieving your preferences!
Moreover, algorithms run through multiple booking systems, journey options, and ticket types before presenting you with them—booking systems and ticket types that weren’t created with algorithms in mind! It's like someone searching through a library in which the books haven’t been logically arranged. They might not find the book you’re looking for, or they might not find any book at all.
Put simply, online algorithms often fail to show you the best journey options. By knowing this, you’re in a better position to plan your journey.
How to find hidden train journeys online
The idea that rail-booking websites hide some of the best journeys between the UK and the Alps might sound mad, but it happens often enough.
Of course, booking websites don't hide journeys on purpose; rather, the booking algorithms can't cope with the task users ask them to do. The video above shows you how this happens and how you can find these 'hidden journeys'.
These blog articles will tell you more, too:
Rail-booking websites give wildly different results
Cats, cucumbers and rail-booking algorithms
Don't let rail-booking websites screw up your travel plans.
How to find hidden train journeys to ski resorts online
Contact details for train companies
Eurostar
Eurostar's reservation centre can not only book the Eurostar Ski Train for you. They can also book indirect Eurostar + TGV journeys to quite a few French destinations. It can take around 10 to 40 minutes to get through sometimes, so make sure you are sitting comfortably.
Phone: 03432 186 186
Mon to Fri 8:00–19:00 (GMT); Sat & Sun 9:00–17:00 (GMT).
Booking fee: £10 per booking (not per person)
SNCF
SNCF does have a customer service phone number: +33 1 84 94 3635
The line is open every day, 8:00–20:00 (CEST).
The contact-SNCF-by-telephone page also gives an indication of the quickest times to get through.
Deutsche Bahn
The German rail operator can book any journey to European destinations and has expertise as a booking agent.
Phone +44 8718 80 80 66 (costs depend on provider)
Mon to Fri 09:00–20:00 (GMT); Sat & Sun 09:00 to 13:00 (GMT)
Email: sales@bahn.co.uk
Website: bahn.co.uk
Booking Eurostar Snow for winter 2025-26
Eurostar Snow
Eurostar Snow is now on sale for winter 2025–26.
We've done a couple of blogs about the pricing this season:
https://www.snowcarbon.co.uk/blog/how-much-was-eurostar-snow-this-time
SnowCarbon also has a guide to the Eurostar Snow.
Tickets are available on the Eurostar website: https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/train/france/ski-train
However, be aware of the following problem with Eurostar's website: it doesn't distinguish clearly between a train that is sold out and one that hasn't gone on sale at all. This silly bug is something that travellers need to be aware of and that Eurostar needs to change. You can read our (angry) blog about it here.
You can also book Eurostar Snow, in some cases, as part of a rail-inclusive ski package. As mentioned, last winter, these tour operators and travel agents offered it:
- Inghams
- Peak Retreats
- Travelski
- Snowfinders
- Ski Solutions
- Skiline
As soon as we hear more, we'll update this section and send information out on Snowcarbon's newsletter.
Booking Eurostar + TGV journeys
Dog on TGVPhoto: Daniel Elkan
Travelling to Paris by Eurostar and then to the Alps on a TGV train gives you a wide range of possible ski destinations.
Tickets for Eurostar trains go on sale 6–8 months in advance, a new vague booking window that we've written about here, as a huge own-goal for Eurostar. Tickets for TGVs and other French trains go on sale approximately 60 to 120 days in advance.
Although you can book the Eurostar in advance, the table below shows the optimal dates for booking combined Eurostar + TGV journeys.
In general, the earlier you book, the lower the fares.
| Independent rail travel by Eurostar + TGV |
|
| Travel period | Tickets go on sale* |
| 14 Dec 2025 - 07 Jan 2026 | 01 October 2025 |
| 08 Jan - 29 March 2026 | 12 November 2025 |
| 30 March - 11 May 2026 | 28 January 2026 |
*predicted dates, not yet confirmed by SNCF
Here's a blog article with all the key booking dates for 2025–26 listed.
Booking Eurostar + Intercités de Nuit journeys
Intercités de Nuits are sleeper trains that run from Paris to the French Alps, the Pyrenees, and Andorra. You can learn more about them in our Guide to Eurostar + Intercités de Nuit. Booking periods are similar for journeys with Eurostar + TGV, in the section above.
However, from personal experience and research, as well as enquiries from skiers looking for tickets, SNCF doesn’t always put its Intercités de Nuit tickets on sale in a regular manner, much to the frustration of those trying to book. We are trying to talk to SNCF about why this is because, from our perspective, running trains is the hard bit, while selling tickets for those trains should be the easy bit—and if it isn't, at least an explanation is due.
You can also book a taxi transfer between Paris-Nord and Paris-Austerlitz stations, to connect more easily between the Eurostar and the Intercités de Nuit train.
Booking Eurostar + NightJet journeys
NightJet to Austria
One excellent way to reach the Austrian Alps is to combine a Eurostar with a NightJet sleeper train.
The main options are:
London > Brussels > Cologne > Innbsruck
(Eurostar, then ICE train, then NightJet)
London > Brussels > Salzburg
(Eurostar, then NightJet)
London > Paris Est > Salzburg
(Eurostar, then NightJet)
Eurostar trains can be booked up to 6–8 months in advance, and ICE trains about 90 days in advance, while NightJet trains go on sale on Monday, 6th October 2025, for the upcoming winter season.
We recommend using a rail-booking agent for this journey, rather than booking it yourself online. In our experience, rail-booking websites can’t cope with the simultaneous booking of these three services.
If you do try to book it yourself, be particularly wary of using Rail Europe and Trainline websites, which, in our experience, struggle to find journeys involving the NightJet.
Instead, try the Eurostar website and the ÖBB's website in English (you'll need to book the Eurostar and the NightJet separately, in this case). ÖBB is the national rail operator of Austria, which runs NightJet trains.
The excellent website Seat61 also has a useful guide to travelling from London to Austria by NightJet, which includes how to book tickets.
Like more help and advice?
Snowcarbon Founder, DanielPhoto: Sarah Searson
If you need more help and advice on the best train travel options, train-accessible ski resorts, and accommodation, please contact Snowcarbon's founder, Daniel.
He can help with specific advice and suggestions using his years of experience as a ski journalist, travelling to and through the Alps by train.
Daniel knows plenty of accommodation providers, tour operators, and independent providers, so you’ll get some great suggestions.
Just send Daniel an email and he'll get in touch ASAP.
Ski holidays by train — Ask Snowcarbon
At Snowcarbon, we’re always happy to recommend you great resorts, fantastic accommodation, and ways to travel by train.
We look forward to helping you!