In December 2024, Iain from The Ski Podcast travelled by train from the UK to Courchevel in Les 3 Vallées in France in Switzerland.

This is a pretty simple resort to travel to by train, with one change after Paris taking you to Moutiers – the access station for Les 3 Vallées.

From here a 30-minute transfer will get you to Courchevel, La Tania or Méribel, or slightly longer to Les Menuires or Val Thorens.

London-Paris Gare du Nord

My day started from Brighton on a 06:00 train, scheduled to arrive into London St Pancras at 07:20. I have to admit I was getting slightly nervous as it was a few minutes late, only arriving at 07:26.

That left me 35 minutes until my departure time, but I needn’t have worried. It was literally took me six minutes to get through Eurostar check in, security and two passport controls. This was exactly the same amount of time as on my previous trip to Crans Montana in September.

I’m not saying you ‘should’ cut it this fine. I’m just saying that it is entirely possible. The key point is that train travel is not like flying – you do not need to turn up hours beforehand and it typically takes less time to go through at London St Pancras then it does to walk to the gate at an airport.

We arrived in Paris bang on time. Then it was down to Line D on the RER to take the two stops to Gare de Lyon.

It then took around 25 minutes from arriving at Gare du Nord to reach the concourse at Gare de Lyon (and that including some extra faff to update my phone and access my pre-bought tickets).

If you’re concerned at all about getting across Paris, it’s a very straightforward journey, which is detailed in the video below:

Paris Gare de Lyon-Chambéry

Depends on your day and time of travel, you may be able to take a direct train to Moutiers, but my journey required a change of trains at Chambéry, shown on the board below as the 15:53 to Bourg-Saint-Maurice (your destination for Tignes, La Rosiere and Val d’Isère).

The journey to Chambéry was in first class as it was only €10 more – definitely worth paying for

The connection is simple: I didn’t have to change platforms and there was only 15 minutes between trains.

 

Chambéry-Moutiers 

The only negative is that the second train was very busy, with people heading to ski for the opening weekend. It’s also a stopping service, so after flying at ‘grande vitesse’ through France to this point, it feels like you’re crawling along.

Moutiers-Courchevel

I was lucky enough to be collected by a friend, but a taxi to Courchevel typically costs around EUR80 – good value if you are in a group, but less so if you are travelling alone.

During the season there are regular buses going to all the resorts of Les 3 Vallees, organised by Altibus. You can check timetables and buy tickets online on their website.

Timings

Dep London – 08:01
Arr Courchevel – 17:30 (16:30 UK time)

The total journey took 8½ hours from London

Costs (return)

Eurostar – £98
Paris Metro – £4
Paris-Moutiers – £71 (Paris-Chambery 1st class)
Moutiers-Paris – £63

Total – £236

Carbon Footprint

Research by Protect Our Winters shows that travelling by train generates less than 5% of the equivalent carbon emissions created by flying.

The example below uses Tignes, a similar distance away from Geneva as Courchevel. The carbon footprint of flying is 500 kg/CO2e, compared with 22 kg/CO2e by train.