(Editor’s note: DIspatches recieves no remuneration for this post on Eurostar Snow. We just want to keep you out of the traffic jams and on the slopes.)
Boy, you know summer is over when you start getting fed promotions for Eurostar Snow. But we’re cool with that, no pun intended. Eurostar Snow tickets are now available … on sale earlier than usual this season. This is the second year for the direct-to-the-slopes service from Eurostar.
Every Saturday, from 20 December until 11 April, 2026, you can hop on a Eurostar Snow train and go straight to the resorts in the French Alps – Chambéry, Albertville, Moûtiers, Aime-La-Plagne, Landry en Bourg-Saint-Maurice – from a number of cities including Amsterdam Brussels and Antwerp.
Outward journeys to France are every Saturday from 20 December 2025 to 4 April 2026.
Return journeys from France are every Saturday and Sunday from 27 December to 11 April 2026.
If you’re traveling from a Belgian location other than Brussels, Liège or Antwerp, the Eurostar Snow Connection ticket allows you to take any domestic SNCB train between Brussels-Midi, Antwerp-Central and Liège-Guillemins (your departure or arrival station for Eurostar) and the Belgian station of your choice.
Eurostar promises that you can depart on a Saturday morning from Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels or Antwerp and be on the slopes in France in the afternoon. For the return journey, you can depart on a Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.
The details
Tickets start at about 115 euros for 2nd class one way and go up to 219 euros for 1st class. You can book tickets here.
Final destinations in the Alps include Chambéry, Albertville, Moûtiers, Aime-La Plagne, Landry and Bourg-Saint-Maurice, give you access to the the biggest names in French resorts including Les Ménuires, Courchevel, Val Thorens, Paradiski, La Rosière and Les Arcs.
| Top 3 reasons to choose Eurostar Snow |
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 | High-speed travel in comfort |
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| No hassle, no changes : Travel straight from Brussels to resorts in the French Alps |
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| Bring two bags per person, and fees are included |
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As we noted last year, these are the rebranded high-speed trains that used to be Thalys Snow, and it’s all part of the expansion of Eurostar services.
We are, admittedly, big fans of trains. And you seriously don’t want to drive to the Alps at the peak of the Christmas ski season. In 2014, a 27-year-old man died in the Belledonne mountains near Isère after his car plunged off a mountain road. That accident and others, along with gendarmes turning back cars that didn’t have snow chains, snarled traffic not for hours, but for days, according to news reports.
“We were stuck in traffic for 33 hours,” our friend Rita Stephens told me at the time. “There was no place where we could get off” the French auto route.
By comparison, trains are pretty reliable. Of course, the challenge is, “What am I going to do with my skis on a train?”
We’re glad you asked. Adults can take up to two pieces of luggage up to 85 centimeters long, one piece of hand luggage, and skis or a snowboard. (No weight limits, by the way.) If you’re traveling in Eurostar Premier, you can bring the same items, but with three pieces of luggage instead of two. Check the luggage allowances here and rules on sports equipment.
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You can see more on skiing here in Dispatches’ archives.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
