For us the flight option from the tour operator was hellish. 0600 dep LGW would have meant leaving home at 0200. 0830 arrival at Geneva then 3.5 hours in a coach to Tignes. Departure from Tignes was 0500 (so getting up at 0400) to arrive back at LGW at approx 1200. Add in a week’s car park charges to dear old BAA. Ugh.

Snow train departure was Friday 1730 St Pancras, arriving Saturday 0830, with a 45 minute transfer to the resort. Leaving the resort was 1700 Saturday, St Pancras 0930 Sunday.

Did I sleep as well as in my own bed? No, but I got about 6 hours good sleep both directions. The bar/disco is not obligatory, and frankly if it hadn’t been for the hype on the web about it, I would never have know the bar car was on the train.

Luggage? Yes, we slept with our bags in the compartment but we could have checked bulky stuff in the baggage van if we’d wanted, but as we only had two of us in a six berth compartment it didn’t seem worthwhile.

And you can’t argue with eight days skiing, compared with the six that flying would have offered.

One more thing. The train was on time. I can’t remember the last time I took a ski flight that wasn’t late in one or both directions.

The first part of the trip by Eurostar was perfect and fast unlike the snow train which was cold and slow. As described it is cramped, male and female strangers to share a 4 or 5 bed cabin. I could not find any kiosk on the train serving food, only alcohol, peanuts and crisps. After 10 hours on this train I could not wait to get off.

The best and cheapest way travel, is to go from Ebbsfleet International in Kent to Lille, then catch an internal flight on to the Alps.

If you book in advanced, the entire trip should cost £200 per person and its faster too!
With the remaining money you could probably hire a car for £15 and find a local hotel near Ebbsfleet for a night!