Toulouse in the snow picture by Flickr User orange 74

To coincide with the ski and snowboarding seasons, Bmibaby has launched two new routes from East Midlands airport. The first is to Chambery launched on 16th December, and the second to Toulouse on 23rd December.

Flights to Chambery will operate on Monday and Friday and the service to Toulouse will run twice a week.

Julian Carr, managing director, bmibaby, said: “As the gateways to the best French ski resorts both in the Alps and the Pyrenees, the new routes will enhance our appeal to skiers and snowboarders.

“With convenient flight times, low fares and a great service guaranteed, we are confident the routes will prove very popular, perfectly complementing our existing ski destinations from the Midlands.”

Spain is the favourite country for people going abroad, with the Canary Islands – and Tenerife in particular – the most popular, according to ABTA.

Egypt has continued with its recent popularity and Tunisia and Turkey have also sold well.

Snow sports attract enthusiasts to Geneva to access the Alpine resorts of Switzerland, France and Italy.

Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Milan and New York are the top five city break destinations.

People are travelling to the Channel Islands and cottages in Cornwall, East Anglia and the North of England if they are staying in the UK.

ABTA chairman John McEwan said: “Easter is the traditional curtain raiser to the summer and I am delighted to see that hundreds of thousands of our customers are taking the opportunity to take a well earned break both here in the UK and overseas.”

Ski picture by Flickr User CoppaDelleDolomiti

The recent snowfall seems to have captured the imagination of UK families as there has been a sudden surge in ski holiday bookings across the Alps and Pyrenees. Ski resorts have seen an increase on average of around 17%.

Self-catering accommodation over February half term week is in particular demand. Check out holiday villas at our main website here.

“Snow conditions are currently excellent across the Alps with lots of fresh snow and cold temperatures reported, particularly in the Southern Alps in resorts such as Alpe d’Duez and Vars, where snowfall of up to 14cm per day is expected this week,” a Pierre & Vacances spokesperson said.

Sales for the end of March are already strong, with ski trips booked for the week before Easter – commencing March 27 – being particularly popular. This week is classed as ‘off peak’ in France, but is a school holiday for much of the UK. British customers are taking advantage of being able to get a low season price for a holiday in a high season week.

Perhaps the practice of skiing cross country in the UK snow for some people has given them an appetite for more snow abroad!

Ski Train - courtesy of Flickr User McGeez

The Guardian has published an interactive guide aimed at helping you get to ski resorts by train. It lists 10 train-accessible resorts. It’s a little bit fiddly, but clicking on the thumbnails below the main picture on their guide, brings up more info on that ski resort, and enables you to see a map of the journey from station to resort.

Many of the resorts are accessible by Eurostar. So you board a train at St Pancras, go through the Channel Tunnel, and most often change at Paris for a train bound towards the slopes.

For example, to get to Montgenèvre, you could board the 5.30pm Eurostar from St Pancras, before changing to the Briançon-bound sleeper train at Paris. From there, a morning bus takes you to the resort itself. The whole journey, from London to the slopes, takes around 14 hours. And you get a good night’s sleep on the train, and avoid long waits at airports, and all the hassle of getting out to Heathrow or one of the regional airports.

And it’s probably a bit less of a hassle to take your skis on the train, too!