 Poster: A snowHead
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I may have the opportunity of a cheeky final fling of the season in Les Diablerets this year: anyone who is familiar with this place please fill me in!
Specifically:
does the glacier close in the spring/summer? If so when?
Is the remainder of the ski area (Villars etc) likely to be open in April?
I may take the family: is there any (good) childcare or creche in the village?
The bairn is too young to ski so am not bothered about childrens' ski school. The wife could do with a refresher course mind you!
Is it easy to drive to? Do I need the Swiss M-way tax disk thingy?
Thanks in advance for your help. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Can't help on most of your questions.....but,
Yes, it is fairly easy to drive to and Yes...you need the Swiss thingy 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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the ice perv, if you hire at GVA (Swiss side) the thingy should be thrown in. If you're driving all the way, since (I think) you would not need to drive far in Switzerland, it may not be worth buying the thingy; just avoid Swiss m'ways.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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the ice perv, the Glacier is open till May 1st, then shuts for about 7 weeks, and opens again mid-June for summer skiing. Villars shuts down on either 3rd or 10th April (varies by sector within the total area)
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I'd not bother, I go but I live nearby and I go for the day sometimes.
You'd be better off carrying on up the Valais to Zermatt or Saas Fee really, the conditions will be better and the domains are larger. They also meet the other criteria for a family holiday better.
You'd have to be insane to try and drive from GVA to Les Diablerets, Zermatt or Saas Fee without using the motorway. It's simply not worth the 40chf a vignette costs, anyway a Swiss car will have one.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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ise, I drove from St Bernard Tunnel (I think) to Neuchatel and from there over the border into France without a vignette, and you're right, it was lunacy, or at least more trouble than it was worth. I just thought that as the drive from GVA to Les D is pretty short (75 miles), it might not be worth buying one. But you're right, it would be daft not to.
I think it must have been my pathological aversion to giving money to the Swiss that caused the problem.
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ise, no not at all unreasonable (although the pricing structure does rather fleece visitors - but hey, what else are they for?). I avoided the m'ways when I didn't buy a vignette. The problem was that, reaonably enough, the road signs assumed that you wanted to use the m'ways; I got into a bit of a tangle in Lausanne. That was years and years ago; I now buy a vignette.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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ise, wrote "We expect you to pay for the roads, we do , it's not unreasonable"
Yes, but in the UK it's free to the Swiss, in Austria you only have to pay for 10 days minimum, in France by the kilometre, but the Swiss charge you for a whole year even if you are only making one trip.
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| richmond wrote: |
| ise, no not at all unreasonable (although the pricing structure does rather fleece visitors - but hey, what else are they for?). I avoided the m'ways when I didn't buy a vignette. |
No it doesn't, petrol here's cheaper, on your trip from what you're saving in tax on petrol will go a long way to covering the vignette, that's how tax works.
True for those staying in Switzerland, less so for those popping to France of course.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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ise, and you get to drive through 17km long tunnels at no extra cost. Imagine the toll for the Gotthard in the UK.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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neilswingler, quite, or another comparison would be that the vignette is 40chf or about 25euro, how many French tolls will that pay?
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I don't mind buying a vignette, we buy at least 2 every year but I do object to having to buy one for our trailer.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
the vignette is 40chf or about 25euro, how many French tolls will that pay?
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French motorway tolls average approx 0.05 Euros/km, so the answer is that the cost of the Swiss vignette equates to 500km of French motorway tolls. That's cheap if you are a Swiss resident, but expensive if you are only doing a single trip to Les Diablerets (which is where this discussion started). Geneva-Diablerets return = 190km on motorways so the Swiss motorway bit of your journey will be costing you well over twice the cost of motorways in France on a per km basis
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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ise, it's not the cost of the vignette, it's the fact that the average visitor pays a great deal more per mile (or per day) than a Swiss resident.
There used to be a vignette valid for a short time, 2 weeks or a month, I think. It was about half the price of an annual one, so still a rip off, but less of a rip off than having to buy an annual one. It doesn't seem to be available anymore.
It's a neat way of getting your tourists to fund your motorway system, not that CHF40 is much to worry about.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| richmond wrote: |
| It's a neat way of getting your tourists to fund your motorway system, not that CHF40 is much to worry about. |
You've not thought this through at all, we'd hardly need a motorway system if it weren't for the tourists, the trunk roads would be perfectly adequate most of the time if it weren't for the tourist traffic. In fact, tourists and transit traffic should be the only ones to pay really.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Thanks for the input folks, you've answered most of my questions.
Has anyone any experience of Les Diab childcare or creches??
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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ise, congratulations! There speaks a true Swiss. Rip 'em off and tell them that you're doing them a favour. I take my hat off to you.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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ise,
| Quote: |
we'd hardly need a motorway system if it weren't for the tourists
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This might be true if all the Swiss did was make cheese and cuckoo clocks, and look after foreigners' money, but I thought there was a bit more to their economy these days. Swiss car ownership per head of population is 25% higher than the UK's.
ISE - have you never observed the volume of traffic coming out of Geneva or Zurich on a skiing weekend, of which 90+% is Swiss registered cars.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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...could they not be tourists driving Swiss-registered hire cars from Geneva/Zurich ariports?
I'd much rather pay 40 CHF for a couple of hundred k's in Switzerland than £5 for the privilege of crawling through London.
P.S. Whatever you do, don't try driving from Geneva to Laussane on the final afternoon of the motor show...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Julian T wrote: |
| ISE - have you never observed the volume of traffic coming out of Geneva or Zurich on a skiing weekend, of which 90+% is Swiss registered cars. |
On a Saturday morning round Luasanne less then one in threee cars is actually Swiss you'll find. The majority are Dutch and Belgium.
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Never needed to bother with a vignette in the past as I've rarely taken our own car into Switzerland, but will be this year. I know you can buy a vignette at the border, but do I need swiss francs in cash? Or do they take credit cards?
And is it the same for Austria?
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RobW, In Austria you are expected to buy them from petrol stations as soon as you've crossed the border. In Switzerland you can buy them on the border. Last time I came in to Switzerland (not on motorway) there was someone in uniform standing just past passport control selling them - it didn't look like he had a credit card machine with him, but I think I was given the choice of paying in Euros or SF. If I'd been on one of the motorway crossings (where they sell them from toll booths), I guess it's more likely you can pay by credit card
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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snowbunny, Yes, you can get them online, but I think the handling & postage cost is c.£5, which put me off using this
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Julian T, Agreed, just looked this up and, 1st class postage is included, special delivery add £6. And add a booking fee of £5. The vignette will cost at least £23 depending on delivery choice. Bit much 
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Julian T wrote: |
| RobW, In Austria you are expected to buy them from petrol stations as soon as you've crossed the border. In Switzerland you can buy them on the border. Last time I came in to Switzerland (not on motorway) there was someone in uniform standing just past passport control selling them - it didn't look like he had a credit card machine with him, but I think I was given the choice of paying in Euros or SF. If I'd been on one of the motorway crossings (where they sell them from toll booths), I guess it's more likely you can pay by credit card |
In Austria you can actually buy them from petrol stations on the other side of the borders. As you can approaching Switzerland in fact. The guys stood at the road are taking cash for the vignettes, the major crossings will take cards in the office I think, and the guy will also take euros. Petrol stations and post offices otherwise sell them.
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Thanks all.
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FAQ
There's a regular check on the outskirts of Neuchatel in fact. As there are in the Valais.
