An Overnight Success

by admin in RSS Social News. Posted February 8, 2026

The new Travelski Night Express sleeper train gives you eight days’ skiing instead of six. But what’s the journey like?

Fall asleep on a train, wake up in snowy mountains. Who doesn’t dream of doing that?

Well now you can. A dedicated new sleeper train, the Travelski Night Express (TNE), departs from Paris every Friday just before 11pm, headed for the popular Tarentaise region of the French Alps and returning overnight the following Saturday.

This means you can ski the day you arrive and the day you leave – creating a holiday with eight days on the slopes instead of the usual six.

The TNE stops at Moûtiers, Aime-la-Plagne and Bourg-Saint-Maurice stations, a short transfer away from resorts like Méribel, Val Thorens, La Plagne, Peisey-Vallandry, Les Arcs, Sainte Foy, Val d’Isère and Tignes.

French tour operator Travelski, which has chartered the service, says that their train has couchettes with flat berths and, intriguingly, a restaurant-bar carriage, too.

You can book the train as part of a train-plus-accommodation ski package from Paris, or just buy the train ticket alone. To connect to it from the UK, you just need to book a Eurostar from London to Paris.

What would this overnight journey be like? I decide to take this new train to the ski resort of Tignes.

Friday, 16:31

Coming from London, you can take a 17:31 Eurostar and arrive at Paris in time to catch the TNE. But to give me more time in Paris, I opted for the 16:01. Eurostar is a relaxed start to a train journey to the Alps. If you splash out on the extra comfort of Eurostar Premier, you get a tasty meal with champagne and wine, too.

20:00

Eurostar arrives at Paris Gare du Nord, two stops on the RER (part of the Metro) to Paris Gare de Lyon, where the TNE departs from. Switching stations is pretty straightforward, leaving me plenty of time to sample French onion soup at one of the many brasseries opposite the station.

20:45

Sipping soup at the Brasserie Les Deux Savoie, I wonder what this new train experience will be like. For its inaugural season, the TNE has been marketed only to the French. But the British have a rich history of overnight rail travel to the slopes, dating back more than a century.

For many years, Rail Europe ran the ‘Snow Train’ from Paris to Bourg-Saint-Maurice, packaged with a connecting Eurostar from London. There was a bar-disco carriage with a DJ playing vinyl records; much booze was drunk, much dancing done and some marriages apparently resulted, too. In the morning, skiers – still reeking of booze – would literally fall out of the train. But with the financial crisis in 2008, the service was pulled and never came back.

French national rail company, SNCF, used to run night trains between Paris and much of the French Alps. But in 2016 they axed almost all them. Following a public outcry, SNCF has promised to bring its sleeper trains back – sometime around 2030.

Until Covid, Eurostar also used to run a direct overnight Ski Train from London to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. But this had only sit-up seats. In its latter years, booze was banned on it following some particularly raucous nights when its British clientele didn’t know where the stop-drinking button was.

22:25

At Gare de Lyon, Platform L is where the excitement is tonight. Skiers and snowboarders wheel suitcases, duffels, ski and snowboard bags along the TNE platform, the outside of the train branded with ski-resort logos. The atmosphere feels like people boarding a new kind of funfair ride.

Inside, the train has a charming, retro feel. You can even pull down the train windows in the corridor to open them and feel the air rushing past – a treat you don’t find on modern trains. The couchette compartments contain six bunks which, if not all occupied, create additional space for luggage. Each bunk has a pillow and pristine white folded sheets and a little TNE welcome pack containing an eye mask, ear plugs and aloe-vera disposable face wipes. A few lucky compartments have a double space in the middle – ample room to swing a cat.

I pull the door open to my couchette to find three French guys already lying on their bunks scrolling their phones, which feels like a bit of a downer. I introduce myself and then head off to the café-bar-restaurant.

Walking along the train corridor, the atmosphere is friendly. People nod, smile and say ‘Bonjour’ as they squeeze past each other. I pass a few families with young, wide-eyed children – surely their first sleeper train experience. There’s a definite spirit of bonhomie on board.

22:52

On time, the train begins to slip out of Gare de Lyon on time. I reach the restaurant-bar and take a breath: it’s impressive! Decked out with red leather seating, wood-and-formica tables and soft lighting, it resembles a 1920s speakeasy.

23:30

The café bar is filling up. In couples and small groups, everyone is chatting way, bringing beers (€3.50 – €5) and glasses of wine (€6.50) from the bar. The age range on board runs from early 20s to 60s.

00:15

I count about 54 people in the café-bar at its peak. The music is kept at a low level making it easy to talk in groups. The ambience is great. It’s time to find out what people think about the train.

Regine, from near Paris, heading to La Plagne, tells me:

“When I was little there were lots of night trains. So, I think a lot of people here are really delighted to have that nostalgic feeling.”

Two friends, Julien and Alexander, also from Paris, going to Les Arcs, say:

“We’ve chosen the train because it saves time to travel overnight, it’s more practical. You can work on Friday, have dinner and then get the train.”

Brothers Guilhem and Xavier, going to Val d’Isère, say:

“It’s been a while since we went by train – but this is great use of travel time and this kind of train is the type we took when we were kids. We plan to ski tomorrow morning – the black La Face run!”

Am I the only English person in a train that can carry up to 600 skiers and snowboarders? For a while, I’m convinced so, until finally I bump into an English couple, Lucy and Josh from Northampton, in the café-bar.

“Some of our family is driving out to meet us in Tignes, so we are having a bit of a race – and we are going to beat them!” Lucy says. “This is way more relaxed than the Eurostar direct overnight train. You couldn’t drink on that train, and this train has a lovely café-bar. The couchettes aren’t huge, so it’s been a bit tight with all our luggage, but that’s fine – and it’s fun!”

00:45

Time for a midnight feast. There’s a menu with three main courses: Tartiflette au reblochon, grilled sausages with potatoes or vegetarian taboule couscous, each priced at €10.50). The tartiflette isn’t the greatest I’ve ever tasted, but we are on a train. And it’s served on a real plate with real cutlery, which feels good.

01:40

The bar has quietened down, but there are still people chatting away. I walk back along the corridor, peering out at the lights of villages sweeping past and then reach my couchette, climb onto my bunk and fall asleep.

06:30

Time to see what breakfast on the train is like. Moments after waking, there’s a soft, growling sound from one of the other bunks. It’s a fart and it’s a potent vintage. I flee to the safety of the corridor and down to the café-bar. There, I spot a small group of people, beers in hand. Incredibly, they seem to be standing in the exact same position as five hours ago, when I left the bar.

“Have you guys been to bed?” I ask. “Umm, no!” is the grinning reply. “We met each other here, got chatting and the conversation has been too interesting to go to sleep. But we definitely won’t ski today!” This social bonding would be unlikely to happen in an airport.

I order the breakfast pack, including a cappuccino (€12 in total) and sit down, peering out the huge windows as we plough through the dim morning light of the Tarentaise valley.

Manon, travelling with her husband and two young girls, tells me: “The girls are very excited, it’s their first time to come skiing by train. It’s such a benefit to sleep en route, and it feels like an adventure.”

Our conversation is punctuated by excited exclamations from the girls whose faces are pressed against the window: “Mama, mama! La neige!”

08:09

After stops at Moûtiers (07:36) and Aime-la-Plagne (07:55), we arrive at Bourg-Saint-Maurice on time at 08:09. I’ve booked a local bus transfer for the 40-minute ride from the station to Tignes-les-Brévières, where I’m booked into a 21-person catered chalet called Chalet Roskso. It’s run by British company Chalet Chardons, which has a number of catered chalets in the village. By 09:45 I’m kitted out with my rental boots and board from the local Skiset shop and ready to hit the slopes.

The next eight days

Tignes shares its slopes with neighbouring Val d’Isère, a combined area of 300km of pistes with a tantalising range of gradients and two impressive glaciers.

The vertical range is from 1,550 metres in Les Brévières to a lofty 3,456 metres at the top of the Grande Motte cable car. You can ski here all day for eight days and still have plenty more to explore.

Undoubtedly, the stand-out days of the week to ski here are Saturdays because that’s the ‘changeover’ day where 90% of holidaymakers are arriving at or leaving the resort. By contrast, the lucky ones arriving or departing by overnight train get extra hours on the slopes on these quietest of days.

Tignes-les-Brévières makes a great setting too. The friendly village is comprised of beautiful wood-and-stone buildings, several welcoming restaurants and a couple of laid-back bars. Lower altitude than Tignes’ other villages, it compensates with its authentic aesthetic and homely ambience.

The great thing about catered chalets, of which there are many in Les Brévières, is how social they are, creating a home-from-home feel. At dinner on the first evening, I get chatting with Tim and Simon, who have travelled all the way by train from Cornwall – first on a sleeper train to London, then a Eurostar to Paris and then a TGV to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Also in the chalet is father and son Andy and Alex, who by coincidence also travelled on the TNE, too.

The weather during the week is an unpredictable tease of powder snow dumps with a mix of bluebird and poor visibility days. And if you choose not to max out every day on the slopes, there’s plenty of other activities that the resort offers: the summer adventure park has now opened for winter too, featuring three zip lines ranging from 60 metres to 150 metres; there’s Evo2’s ice-diving at Tignes-le-Lac; a 16-metre indoor-climbing wall; and the huge Lagon swimming complex now has a renovated spa.

Tignes knows how to party, too, with DJs at Boillin and live bands at Cocorico, where people are still dancing their ski gear long into the evening.

On the penultimate day, it snows non-stop – a virtual whiteout. The next morning, as those flying home or taking daytime trains reluctantly leave resort, I’m on the gondola smugly ascending for a day of powdery exploration – my eighth day on the slopes. And they are freshly powdery.

Later that night, the journey home is smooth. My head touches the TNE pillow as we travel through the landscape. I can’t help feeling that this new rail option is an overnight success.