A new online journey-planning tool for snow enthusiasts is revolutionising the way that skiers and snowboarders find out how to travel to ski resorts by train. The Snowcarbon Journey Planner enables skiers to view and compare recommended train travel itineraries to ski resorts all over the Alps further in advance and more easily than anywhere else online.

Powered by a unique database, assembled in conjunction with a number of leading rail companies, the Journey Planner displays the best, hand-researched, daytime and overnight journeys for 32 ski resorts, including transfer information from station to resort, to 12 months in advance.

Until now, this information has been difficult for skiers to find whilst for resorts and accommodation providers it’s been hard to communicate. The Journey Planner is available for free as an iFrame for other websites. This can be used on their travel sections, used by ski resorts, tour operators, travel agents and accommodation providers. This will enable them all to communicate train options more effectively by incorporating the Journey Planner into their website.

“Resorts, tour operators, travel agents and accommodation providers have always had the same problem. They want to highlight rail options but had no effective way to communicate schedules to skiers planning holidays” says Daniel Elkan. “Now they can proactively promote train access and options to skiers, from an accurate, updated, comprehensive central information source. That means more skiers having stress-free, enjoyable journeys, and better ski holidays”

“With the school holidays over it’s the time that skiers are beginning to plan a ski holiday. Most rail company websites don’t yet display comprehensive train timetables for skiers for the coming season. Now skiers don’t need to be left in the dark about what their rail travel options are,” says Daniel Elkan, Snowcarbon director

By featuring the Journey Planner, resorts, tour operators and accommodation providers can increase sales by highlighting and communicating rail options to the growing number of skiers who would prefer to travel to ski destinations by train. Snowcarbon do not plan to charge providers to use the Journey Planner. 

Eric Chevalier, director of Les Arcs ski resort in France, one of the first resorts to pioneer the Journey Planner, says: “Les Arcs is the perfect resort to travel to by train with both direct and indirect options from the UK. Rail access is one of our important strengths and we’re really pleased to be able to communicate this to the British market with Snowcarbon’s journey planner”

Holly Fisher, director of chalet company Fish & Pips, with chalets in Meribel, France, says. “We always encourage our clients to come by train – and lots do. It is a far more enjoyable journey and it becomes part of their holiday – you see the difference when skiers arrive this way. We get a lot of clients asking us for advice on what the best rail options are, so the Snowcarbon Journey Planner takes things to a new level in terms of us being able to communicate travel information accurately and efficiently.”

All the travel information on the website has been thoroughly researched, with journey photos taken by Daniel to show what the trains and stations are like. The site’s new Journey Planner, launching in April 2012, is a unique database of hand-researched journeys, showing the best options to each resort on any given date during the season. With over 32 resorts featured in France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Andorra, there are plenty of interesting options. Travelling to the slopes by train is a fun enjoyable experience that creates only a fraction of the pollution of flying or driving.