Ski train St. Pancras to Bourg St Maurice

We are considering taking the Eurostar ski train next season from St. Pancras to Bourg St. Maurice, using the Saturday daytime service. Has anyone used this service and could you tell us what the likely return cost per person would be and also when, or how far in advance, can we book. Thanks in anticipation.

I have been on this train several times and it worked like this.

The tickets usually come on sale at the end of July. But you can phone Eurostar and pre-register an interest in buying these tickets for a certain date. If you're lucky, and you don't want a particularly popular date, you will get on their list, in which case they will phone you and offer you the tickets about a week earlier and possibly cheaper than they become available to everyone else.

If you're a member of the Ski Club of GB you get a small discount.

I think you can expect to pay about £200 return for the tickets, although they do say it is possible to get them for £150.

A few weeks ago I went out on the day train to Bourg, which cost me £96 for the one way ticket, and came back on the French sleeper train to Paris and then returned to London on the Eurostar and this cost me £120.

I really like going on the Eurostar. However, if you go in the economy seats they are a bit basic. And the train is sometimes late. The most recent one I was on was about an hour late getting to Bourg firstly because of a rock fall on the line, and secondly because the train in front of us killed a cow! And previously we have been held up because of a train broken down in the Tunnel, and a bomb scare at Charles de Gaulle airport (which also made us an hour late so that we missed our bus connection and had to take a taxi).

Just make sure you get to the queue in St Pancras at least half an hour before the train leaves, or they may not let you on. I usually aim to be there an hour before it leaves - which is 10 a.m. And it gets to Bourg at 6-50 pm French time.


There is a good buffet bar on the train which takes French and English money so you can have drinks and hot food etc. but quite a few people bring a picnic with them because it's cheaper that way.

I phoned Eurostar up just now, and they've discontinued the pre-registration system for the ski train.

The good news for me is that whilst I was looking at their website I noticed something about refunds if the train is late, and I thought about the rock fall and the dead cow.

So I phoned them up, quoting the reference number on my original ticket out to Bourg St Maurice on 2nd March, and they agreed that my train had been 75 minutes late and I am entitled to a free single train journey on the ski train, or any other Eurostar train.

I am planning on going ski-ing again at the beginning of January, and going out on the ski train, so now I will get a free one way trip :)

I will just have to pay for my journey back. They would also pay half the return price, but I will be coming back on the night train and I don't think that will count as a return ticket.

How did you find the night train? I did the Lunea night train from Paris to Biarritz and back for rugby one year. It was not particularly pleasant, cold and crowded. But it was cheap...

Hi Lota,
I have been on both the Eurostar direct night train between Moutiers and St Pancras, and the French sleeper train between Bourg-St-Maurice and Paris.

The problem with the Eurostar night train is that it doesn't have any beds. The first time I went on it we were in the economy seats and I found it terribly uncomfortable, so I spent the night sleeping on the floor in the bar!

The second time we went on it I booked seats which were one grade up from the basic ones and they were much more comfortable and I could sleep OK :)

I found the 6 person couchette back from Bourg very small and squashy but other than that very comfortable. There were 2 sets of triple bunks, reached by a ladder at the back, behind which you had to put your luggage.

When you were in your bunk there wasn't enough room to sit upright, so basically I just lay down as soon as I got in it. They had a small pillow in a plastic bag, so all you had to do was pull the bag off it. And there was a very thin sleeping bag.

I hadn't requested a special female only couchette, so there was only one other woman in it. The rest of them were all blokes. And they were all French. So I slept in my clothes.

I think the guy in the top bunk totally turned the light off, so we were in the dark. And I just slept, on and off, between Bourg and Paris. I actually found it very restful and I slept quite well - I like trains :)

The train left Bourg at 8-05 p.m. and got to Paris Austerlitz at 06-30. I got a taxi then, to Paris Nord, to catch the Eurostar back to St Pancras, and it only cost me 12 euros. And there was plenty of space in the toilets in Paris Nord so I could get changed and washed etc. I think there was a shower as well.

So I would say that I enjoyed my journey, and I'd do it again. The other people in the couchette were very polite and nice to me, the bunk was comfortable, the temperature was OK - neither too hot nor too cold. And the train arrived on time. They checked my ticket before I boarded the train so I didn't get woken up by a ticket collector.

I preferred sleeping in the couchette to sleeping upright in the direct Eurostar. The only advantage of the Eurostar is that it does go to London direct, so you don't have to change in Paris, and you get there a bit earlier.

I did the night train from Waterloo to Mounties 12 years ago, Eurostar. It was dreadful, never again

I do the overnight Eurostar whenever possible, it's not comfortable, you don't get a lot of sleep, but you do get two extra days skiing. For me being able to 8 days on the slopes instead of 6 is a no brainer.
I can't see any reason for going by train through the day, you gain nothing over flying.

Ally

Thanks. Sharing a berth with strangers is, I'm afraid, my idea of hell on earth!