Chamonix-Mont-Blanc Travel Forum

What is the fastest way of getting from Paris to Chamonix by train?
Is it via Lyon or Geneva or some other way?
Roughly how long does it take?
Any advice appreciated!
thanks, Karen

Hi Karen.

Here is a great site for all things to do with train travel anywhere in the world.
It has links for most rail routes.

Sorry Karen I forgot the link, here it is

www.seat61.com

Hourly trains to Chamonix depart from St. Gervais-Les-Bains (continuing on to Martigny in Switzerland), so St Gervais where you'll need to get to.

You'll need to depart Paris Gare de Lyon by TGV, which requires advance seat reservation. It looks like your best connections are now by taking the TGV towards Geneva and changing in Bellegarde (Ain). From there, you can take a local train to St Gervais, sometimes with a change in Annemasse. In the past, I have also taken the TGV to Annecy and changed to a train to St Gervais from there.

Take a look at http://www.bahn.de/query.exe/en for schedule details, then go to a ticket window in Paris a day or two in advance to purchase your seat reservation.

(Note: while I'd normally choose the local nation's website, SNCF apparently converted to slick multimedia interface which does not allow you to make schedule inquiries.)

Sorry... the fastest travel time I saw on the website is 6 hours 1 minute. 8)

hi
in winter on saturdays there's a direct TGV from Paris to Martigny where you connect to the train to Chamonix. Probably the easyest way to travel. Timetables on www.lyria.biz (for the tgv only) or www.rail.ch (homepage of the swiss federal railways wich gives you timetables for most of europe).
have fun!
mabu