We were keen explore the train

A group of 10 mates travel to the alps every year together, normally flying, but we were keen explore the train option after successive years of waking at 2.00am to travel to the airport and then waiting around for hours to board the plane. Daniel from Snowcarbon guided us through the various options of train travel, resorts most suited to our group and with a short transfer from Bourg St Maurice.

He even gave us chalet options to compliment the ones I had already found, one of which we ended up choosing for the week. Our journey departed from St Pancras at 9.35am after a very quick security check and passport control (around 30 mins). together. We all took plenty of our own food and the odd bottle of plonk to ease into the journey, substantially cheaper than a pint of glass of vino in the airport. 

Photo: James Woolley

The first time I asked one of the guys how far away from Bourg we were, I was told “2 hours away” – the journey had flown, thanks largely to the relaxing chairs on the Eurostar, having all my mates sat around me, eating, drinking and also having ventured into the bar carriage for a couple of beers to chat with other travellers heading to the Alps. We arrived into Bourg at around 6.00pm feeling refreshed, if a little merry to our short transfer up to La Rosiere (35 mins).

We were unlucky on the way home, being delayed by a smoking van in the Channel Tunnel, but were expertly looked after by the Eurostar team, relocated to a hotel, provided with dinner and taken home early the next morning with a full refund for the affected journey and free return trains to the Alps (or any other Eurostar destination in Europe) – I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have had the same treatment or refunds with any airline carrier. We are already looking at Chalets for next year with Daniel and of course, on the Ski Train.