Among the many, many benefits of night trains, one of their key attractions is the fact that they are so darn easy. You doze off in one place, cover vast distances while you sleep and wake up in an entirely new place, hopefully supremely well-rested, chilled-out and ready for a day of exploring.
Across Europe, night trains are back on the rise after years of decline (see a cool map of all the new routes here). And now yet another new sleeper route has been announced – and, excitingly, it’s specifically designed for skiers.
A new night train called the Ski Express will take skiers from Amsterdam and Utrecht in the Netherlands all the way to the Austrian Alps. The route is a collaborative project from travel company Tui and Green City, a Dutch night train provider.
Here’s the idea: you load up your skis and gear onto a train in the Netherlands, turn out yer lights for the night and wake up in the morning full of energy and ready for an action-packed day of skiing down Austria’s famously picturesque, powdered slopes. Dreamy stuff, right?
Tui’s new service will run weekly from December 23 to March 31, 2023, with the route leaving Amsterdam at 5:30pm on Fridays before heading on to Utrecht. At the Austrian border the train’ll split in two: half will go to Tyrol and the other to Salzburg.
As for the sleeper cabins themselves, passengers will get to choose between couchettes sleeping two, three or four travellers. Here are a couple of pictures of the cabins.
Tui’s Ski Express isn’t the only ski-targetted night train to launch this year. A similar collaborative project from rail operator European Sleeper and travel agent Sunweb between ‘Dam and ski resorts in the French Alps is apparently also gearing up to begin services this winter.
Trips on the Ski Express can only be booked as part of one of Tui’s 10-day package trips. Find out more on the Tui website here.
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