The mountains without a car: the Alps and Pyrenees by train and bus

For the German Alpine Club, getting there is, on average, the biggest source of greenhouse gases in mountain sports [1]. The Vanoise National Park goes further: transport, it says, accounts for 80 % of tourism’s carbon footprint [2]. The good news is that most of the great ranges have a station at their foot, and buses or shuttles cover the rest of the way. Here are the lines to know, range by range, and how to combine them.

Night trains: wake up at the foot of the mountains

The French state runs the ‘trains d’équilibre du territoire’, sold under the Intercités brand. On 1 January 2026, it had 5 national night lines with compulsory reservation, linking Paris with places including Albi, Aurillac, Briançon, Cerbère, Latour-de-Carol, Nice, Rodez, Tarbes and Toulouse [3]. For the mountains, three terminuses matter: Briançon for the Southern Alps, Latour-de-Carol for the Cerdagne, and Tarbes for the central Pyrenees. First-class passengers can use free showers at Paris-Austerlitz and Toulouse-Matabiau stations, on departure and arrival [3].

The Paris-Briançon train has an unusual route. It runs coupled to the Nice train as far as Valence, where the two split; a diesel locomotive then takes over, on a single-track, non-electrified line between Livron-sur-Drôme and Briançon, and the train offers three classes: seats, second-class and first-class couchettes, the French transport ministry noted in May 2024 [4]. It calls at Gap on the way, and the Écrins National Park lists the stations of Gap, Embrun, Mont-Dauphin, L’Argentière-la-Bessée and Briançon among its gateways [5].

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Northern Alps: the stations at the foot of the ranges

From Lyon, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional rail network reaches Chambéry, from where lines climb into the Tarentaise valley, as far as Moûtiers-Salins-Brides-les-Bains and Bourg-Saint-Maurice, and into the Maurienne valley, as far as Modane; other lines lead to Annecy and to Saint-Gervais-les-Bains-Le Fayet, at the foot of Mont Blanc [6]. The Vanoise National Park sums it up: Bourg-Saint-Maurice opens up the upper Tarentaise, Moûtiers the Bozel and Belleville valleys, Modane the upper Maurienne, and Modane can also be reached with the Italian operator Trenitalia [2].

Buses and shuttles leave from the stations. In the Tarentaise, shuttles run from Pralognan-la-Vanoise to Les Prioux or Les Fontanettes, to Champagny-le-Haut, to the Rosuel valley from Landry station, and to the Plan de Tuéda in Méribel; from Bourg-Saint-Maurice bus station, four regional lines serve the upper Tarentaise, two of them, to Val d’Isère and Tignes, all year round, 7 days a week [2]. In the upper Maurienne, buses run in summer from Modane up to the edge of the park: the Orgère valley, the Bellecombe car park and the Pont de l’Oulietta at Bonneval-sur-Arc [2].

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In the Chamonix valley, everything runs through the Mont-Blanc Express. The line serves every village from Saint-Gervais-Le Fayet to Vallorcine, and continues on the Swiss side to Martigny; at Saint-Gervais-Le Fayet, it connects with the French rail network, the TGV and the Léman Express from Geneva [7]. With the guest card, given to you by your accommodation on arrival, the train is free between Servoz and Vallorcine, and the valley’s bus passes are cheaper [7].

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The Écrins and the Pyrenees: the gateway stations

The seven valleys of the Écrins can be reached by train and, depending on the valley, by bus; the gateway stations are Grenoble, Gap, Embrun, Mont-Dauphin, L’Argentière-la-Bessée and Briançon, with the Paris-Briançon line via Gap, the Marseille-Briançon line and the Paris-Grenoble TGV [5]. In the Pyrenees, the national park lists the stations of Pau, Oloron, Tarbes, Lourdes and Lannemezan, from where buses serve the valleys [8]. For bus times, the park refers travellers to SNCF and to the tourist offices [8].

From London and Munich

From London, Eurostar takes you to Paris, city centre to city centre, in 2 hours 16 minutes [10]. Night trains to the Alps and the Pyrenees leave from Paris-Austerlitz [3]: allow time to cross Paris, and a margin for delays.

From Munich, the Bayerische Regiobahn links the main station with Bayrischzell, Lenggries and Tegernsee in the Bavarian Prealps, with Kufstein and Salzburg, with Füssen in the Allgäu and, from Freilassing, with Berchtesgaden [11]. The Deutschlandticket, sold as a monthly subscription you can cancel each month, covers buses, underground, S-Bahn and regional trains across Germany: it costs 63 euros a month, rising to 66.80 euros from 1 January 2027 [12]. The German Alpine Club publishes a map of train and bus lines to the Alps, and its route planner shows the stops at the start of each tour; it also mentions Munich’s BergBus, part of the public transport network since 2024, which ran on two lines from 7 June to the first weekend of November in 2025 [1].

The last mile, the real challenge

The German Alpine Club puts it plainly: people who want to go to the mountains without a car often fall at the last few kilometres between the station and the start of the tour [1]. That is where the trip is won or lost. High-level shuttles run mostly in summer, resort buses mostly in winter, and timetables change with the seasons. In the Chamonix valley, for example, the tourist office publishes a bus timetable valid from 7 September to 18 December 2026, and engineering timetables for the Mont-Blanc Express from 28 September to 6 November 2026 [7].

1. Choose the station closest to your start, using the ‘getting here’ pages of the national parks and tourist offices [2, 5, 8].
2. Book the night train early: reservation is compulsory [3].
3. Check the bus or shuttle for the day and the season, and buy a ticket if the line requires one [2, 7].
4. Note the last return, and a fallback.
5. Pack light: you will carry it from the station to the hut.

Going without a car takes a little more planning, and often opens up traverses that a car parked at the start would rule out: you can finish your walk in another valley. To estimate how long your stages will take between two stops, our guide to calculating walking times will help, and our article on mountain huts explains how to book a night up high. For a first long-distance trek, the Tour du Mont Blanc can be reached by train: the Mont-Blanc Express serves Les Houches, its classic start [7].

Guillaume Hoarau

Camping, wild camping, bushcraft and hiking

Guillaume Hoarau writes for Outfarer about camping, wild camping, bushcraft and hiking. A survival-skills enthusiast and a collector of old field manuals, he likes clear explanations, lists that earn their place and other people’s stories, which he tells well.

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