Eurostar offers tickets to the rest of the UK

Eurostar has launched a service for passengers to buy tickets from 68 major towns and cities across the UK.

Eurostar's booking system is now linked with seven major UK train operators including Virgin Trains, First Capital Connect, National Express East Coast (formerly GNER), East Midlands Trains, Chiltern Railways, London Midland and Hull Trains.

The new through-fares now provide greater access for the UK population to reach destinations such as France, Belgium and the rest of Europe.

The new fares are available up to 84 days in advance and include travel on the tube in London for passengers who need to transfer to St. Pancras International.

To search for fares, use our Eurostar fare search on the Eurostar tickets page. Return fares start from £67.

Another good selling point for the new service is that if passengers miss a train due to a delayed connecting service, they will be able to travel on the next available Eurostar at no extra cost.

So now passengers looking to take a snow train to a ski destination in Europe have no excuse!

Happy travelling!

Snow in Kitzbühel!

Austria seems to be the focus of attention for skiers and snowboarders last weekend.

The picture below is taken from Kitzbühel - beautiful blue skies and fresh snow!


Many of my recent posts have talked about some of the Austrian resorts and the abundance of snow at the moment. However, I have failed to help you out by not telling you how to get to Kitzbühel!

Ironically enough, Daniel Elkin produced a great article for the Observer on Sunday which promotes snow train travel to different European resorts. Daniel covered a few options for how to reach ski resorts such as Ischgl and Kitzbühel in Austria, Zermatt and St. Moritz in Switzerland and Chamonix in France.

So to reach Kitzbühel for example, take a Eurostar train from St. Pancras International to Brussels. Then board a Bergland Express train, which takes approximately 13 hours (overnight).

Alternatively, take the Eurostar to Paris, then from the Gare de l'Est you can take an overnight train to Munich. There is a regular Eurocity service train service between Munich and Innsbruck. From Innsbruck, there are serveral services which connect the 1 hours journey between Innsbruck and Kitzbuhel.

A Blanket of Snow Across Europe

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It has been the week for snow in France so far, with well over a metre of snow falling across the country, according to Skiclub. It is the best start to a ski season for years, with snow providing great piste action from top to bottom.

Switzerland and Andorra also had heavy snowfalls, with good skiing conditions on the upper pistes.

In terms of the forecast this weekend, snow is forecast across Austria until Saturday night when the skies will clear. It will hopefully be bright and sunny across France until Sunday when cloudy snowy skies are forecast. Both Italy and Switzerland are forecast to have sunny weekends.

Snow train bookings have also started to accelerate, which is great news. It seems more and more of you are booking your ski travel this winter with Eurostar and Rail Europe, opting to take the rails and see the sights rather than blaze a trail through the sky.

See you on the slopes!

St. Pancras International Gets Festive

I finally had time to look around the new St Pancras International station on Saturday afternoon. I've been to London so many times over the last month, and finally had a couple of hours to spare, so thought I'd get some good pics of the festivities!

St. Pancras has a packed schedule of events running all the way through December, the theme of which centres around the Victorian history of the station.

As soon as I entered the station I could tell immediately it had been well received by the public - for Eurostar travellers and general tourists alike.

It was nice to be greeted by pick feather bower wearing choir, who entertained the crowds for most of the afternoon.













I also had to have a good look at Europe's longest champagne bar too, although I resisted the temptation to taste a tipple. I have posted a couple of photos of the bar at one of my previous posts about the champagne bar.













There was also a couple of Victorian characters to entertain the tourists, with one particularly talented Victorian footballer...






















All in all, a great place to go and visit when you're in London, regardless of whether you are about to buy a Eurostar ticket and head for Europe or not.