If you want to celebrate Christmas with your loved ones, it is better to book your train tickets as early as possible, from the beginning of October. Because this year, one detail may well shake up the organization of many families.
As a general rule, families take the time to organize themselves in advance to bring the whole family together for the Christmas holidays. If grandpa and grandma, cousins or aunts and uncles don’t live in the same town, the end of year celebrations are always a good opportunity to get together. But this year it may be a race and the roads could well be even more crowded than in previous years. But why ? Also, if you plan to take the train, here is the date to book your tickets to be sure of getting places.
Why will the Christmas weekend pose a problem for families this year?
If in 2023, the Christmas weekend risks giving families a cold sweat, it is because of the children’s school schedule. You know, the Christmas vacation are common to the three academic zones, which means that all schoolchildren are on vacation at the same time. Last year, students in zones A, B and C no longer had school from Saturday December 17, 2022. This year, the vacation date is very different, since schoolchildren will all be on vacation on Saturday December 23, 2023, in other words the day before Christmas Eve. Result : everyone will have to travel the same day to spend New Year’s Eve with family.
Solutions to consider for spending the Christmas holidays with family
As you will have understood, traffic for the Christmas weekend promises to be very busy, both on the roads and in the stations. Contacted by our editorial staff, the SNCF Voyageurs press service assured us that “like every weekend called ‘great departures’, as many TGV and INTERCITES trains as possible will be used to meet demand.“ The train is also a good solution to avoid traffic jams on the road. But you still need to have a train ticket. For this period, it is often advisable to reserve your place in advance.
The date on which to book your train tickets for the Christmas holidays
SNCF opens the sale of its train tickets, TGV Inoui, OUIGO and Intercités, for the end-of-year holiday period from Wednesday October 4, 2023. On this date, the railway company announces that travelers will be able to take advantage of “best prices” for TGV Inoui journeys made from Sunday December 10, 2023 to Tuesday January 9, 2024. OUIGO trainsthe TGV low cost version of the SNCF, the tickets which will be put on sale will be those for journeys between December 10, 2023 and July 5, 2024.