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Can we avoid traffic jams at half term travelling to the Alps by car!

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
French Toll Tags purchase and paid in the UK

Available here


https://www.saneftolling.co.uk
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
if you ve booked with Eurotunnel you can order a Peage doofer on their website link and it saves the £10 admin fee
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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?
stefoy4me wrote:
if you ve booked with Eurotunnel you can order a Peage doofer on their website link and it saves the £10 admin fee


Heres the link
http://www.eurotunnel.com/uk/traveller-info/Sanef-Tolling/
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We use saneftolling, works well. We leave on Friday evening, catching a train across the tunnel around 10pm, and then drive straight through -- end up in Chamrousse (near Grenoble) around 7-8am. Have breakfast, pick up skis, check in to hotel, then the rest of the family goes out to ski while I collapse to sleep a bit Razz
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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That's encouraging thanks. We will go towards Geneva anyway as it's on the way to Chamonix so it looks like barring unforeseen problems I am hoping we will do it in about 12 hrs but if it is better then great
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If you get tired and arrive early, the Ibis budget in Archamps is cheap, new and comfy. Oh yeah, buy the toll doofer. Saves a load of time and aggro
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In a word No.

We’ve got a SANEF doofer and it is great for not having to fiddle around for change or wake up Mrs DJL or clamber across the passenger seat if driving solo. Cost is negligible (E3 for each month it is used in I think).

It also saves time if there is a moderate queue at the peage. A Porsche Cayenne Turbo was clearly really annoyed at having to overtake us three times: before the Reims Sud peage, between the two Reims peages and after the Reims N peage. He was doing a steady 20mph more than us in clear traffic with me at about 75mph. I think he might have had to pass us a fourth time in fact after he made a fuel stop!

If there is a big queue at the peage you only save a bit of time as once it backs up beyond the wide area all traffic, doofer or not, has to queue.

It is worth having a map (yes! that folding paper thing you used to use before you had satnav) listening to 107.7 FM (lame music but provides traffic reports, including in English in hilarious accents) and getting a bit creative with your route planning. If you hear about a queue (bouchon) up ahead it is sometimes possible to come off a junction earlier and take an alternative route. It really annoys me to have to pay to stand still on a motorway.

The week you are travelling is the perfect storm with Brits, Dutch and Belgians and two thirds of France including Paris. Many of those will be coming from Northern France so it will be busy. Particularly busy junctions will be near Arras and Cambrai where the Belgians start to join the A26, just S or Troyes where the Parisians pitch up and then Langres when the rest of those from the NE arrive. Definitely worth taking the A39 to the E of Dijon and then Bourg en Bresse rather than the A6. Nantua to Annemasse can be bad as well.

Relax, go with the flow (or lack of it) and you’ll get there in the end. I’d guess more like 11 hours driving rather than the 7-8 you would normally expect.

Thankfully we don’t have to do it anymore but over around 14 years of half term drives to Chatel only one or two were really grim
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Quote:

A Porsche Cayenne Turbo was clearly really annoyed at having to overtake us three times: before the Reims Sud peage, between the two Reims peages and after the Reims N peage. He was doing a steady 20mph more than us in clear traffic with me at about 75mph. I think he might have had to pass us a fourth time in fact after he made a fuel stop!

yes, that's very satisfying, isn't it? And the fuel you were saving would probably pay for the tolls.

I have just emailed APRR about my doofer, which is now 7 years old, and I'm always waiting for the batteries to run out. The reply said the average life was 5 years and when it got too weak they'd replace the badge free, so I might just fill in the form for them to send me one - too much faff to try to do it at 2 am somewhere on a cold night.

I'd like one for Italian motorways too - all those thruppeny tolls round Torino are especially irritating if you are driving alone. I don't have an Italian bank account, which you need, but my son does - might get him to sign up for me.
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There seems to be loads of road works at the moment, has any one driven down recently?
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pam w, I had the same worry about my Doofer from Sanef, I simply popped into the SANEF office in Reims and they swapped it for a shiny new mini size one, no problems at all, they didn't even mind the passengers popping in to use the loo's Very Happy Presumably APRR have offices on/near the motorway where you could do the same?
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+1 for getting a Sanef toll device to mitigate the queues as I'm sure the telepass queues will be shorter

https://www.saneftolling.co.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.
@archers,
We arrived at Folkestone about 8pm last Feb half term and it was very quiet. No queuing and were put on an earlier train. Hoping for the same this year!
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@DJL, thanks for the detailed report I will definitely get a Sanef doofer. I think I will just have to assume we will take at least 12 hours. We do know what travelling in France is like as we have done many years of driving there in holidays so queues at Leaves are well known!
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@archers, get yourself an automatic libere -t for the tolls this will help a lot.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
As they said, head to Geneva from Dijon...in fact we tend to go this way to the Tarantaise...but just hope there are no accidents or roadworks in the tunnels.

Best advice, for sanity, is to cross over, take a leisurely drive down, off the motorways, stay in or around Dijon/beaune, then get up early on the Sunday and arrive at the resort by 10. You will still get skiing in on first day, but no traffic, and no overnight driving.

Heading back, well leave as early as you can to get ahead of the Tarantaise rush!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I can recommend the SANEF 'liberT' tag. Eurotunnel usually gives you the option to get one if you book through them, or go to

https://www.saneftolling.co.uk

They are removable and transferrable - so you can share them with family and friends. Extra windscreen attachment clips are pretty cheap. You set up a direct debit with a UK bank account and are just charged directly. You also have an annual charge that is levied the first time you use it that year.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
We used to use this plan for 1/2 term and now use it for every trip apart from number 1.
Outbound trip - be ahead of the traffic
1.Kids are sick on the Friday.
2.Early crossing Friday morning 6:00 am latest.
3.Book hotel for Friday evening in Sallanches or Cluses
4.Early breakfast and aim to get to resort by 9:00 am., watch all the homeward bound traffic queueing down the mountain.
5.Park, collect prebooked skis and lift passes, go skiing.
6.About 4:00 leave the mountain and check into your accomodation.

While the traffic will be busy it is nowhere near as busy as the Saturday, in recent years (not 1/2 term) our only busy place has been around Annemasse at rush hour.

Return Trip
1.Pack everything in the car and check out of your accomodation.
2.Go skiing.
3.Come off the mountain about 3:00 p.m.
4.Return hired kit.
5.Set off for prebooked hotel around Bourg or Macon.
6.Drive home Sunday.

Advantages include
8 days skiing, 2 of which are Saturdays which can be quieter because they are changeover days.
Much quieter driving.

The Sanef Liber-T is brilliant especially the 30kph drivethrough lanes. Also fun to watch the French drivers behind hesitating to get behind you as they think you don't know what your doing and will get stuck.
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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?
If you can leave early Friday and are well enough organised to "ski from the car" on the two Saturdays, that is a top plan. snowHead
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Great plan for sick kids - may even try it myself
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Does anyone have any ideal what the roads up to/down from Val Cenis will be like at half term week. We are travelling Friday and overnighting just north of Lyon so will be on the road early on the Saturday. We have long journey back on the following Saturday so just wanting to know if we are likely to queue for hours on the valley floor and if an earlier start is necessary. We were originally planning on leaving 7.30/8am?

Thanks in advance.
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@Timc, quite amazing that you can plan your kids sickness in advance! Wish I could do the same wink

(In all fairness if my wife wasn't a governor at the school our youngest attend we might well have done the same)
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
We're driving down for half term too to Vallandry. I've elected to take the kids out of school on the Friday (thankfully our schools aren't fining as yet) so we can either set off Thursday night or early Friday morning. Got a hotel booked in Chambery for the Friday so minimal driving on the Saturday. get up early and hopefully be ahead of the traffic. Would rather get there before we can get into accomodation and be sipping coffee in a bar than stressed on a motorway.
Ditto on the peage doofer, we've done two trips through France using it and it has been brilliant, no faffing with cards or waking passengers up.

Watch my master plan fail somewhere around Lyon rolling eyes
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@Szymon, if you read your LEA's code of conduct for issuing the Penalty Notices you will probably find that taking the kids out for one day before the half term penalties will not give rise to any dire punishments at all. I hate the idea of telling kids to lie and cheat but would have no hesitation telling the school the kids would be absent for a day because of the drive down. I always took mine out of school and I, in turn, was always taken on holiday in June by my parents as dad was allergic to school holiday crowds.
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Great thread this! Ok, so I have the same question, but for first week of Easter, ie, travel to tunnel on Fri evening 27th March, get as far as Reims for o/night stop. Destination La Plagne. Do I have some breathing space assuming other EU countries don't break up the same period/only Brits head to the Alps around Easter? In fact, the 27th is the week before Easter...
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@jesus, you'll be fine at Easter for that plan, it can get busy but nowhere near halfterm madness. Get an early start from Reims and you'll be fine
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pam w wrote:
@Szymon, if you read your LEA's code of conduct for issuing the Penalty Notices you will probably find that taking the kids out for one day before the half term penalties will not give rise to any dire punishments at all. I hate the idea of telling kids to lie and cheat but would have no hesitation telling the school the kids would be absent for a day because of the drive down. I always took mine out of school and I, in turn, was always taken on holiday in June by my parents as dad was allergic to school holiday crowds.


Actually you're right, a notice would not be issued. However word would "get around" that "one of the governors is getting away with it", and this would encourage other parents to do more. "Oh, so and so did it so it's OK for me to take the kids for a week in the middle of a term" -- it doesn't matter that we only went for half a day just before half term to beat the rush.

Oh well, only 8 more years until all the kids are off in university and we can ski by ourselves wink
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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.
When we drove at the half term we would leave resort around 6 or 7pm on the Friday drive for say 3 hours, overnight and then to Calais Sat am. Easy and no stress .
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
@jesus - we did the first week of the easter hols last year. 19.00 ish tunnel Fri night, overnight stop at Reims, 06.30 start and in the Super U car park in B St M for around 14.00 and not hurrying overly, mind you the weather was good all the way down. We've had a couple of bad queues at the tolls on the new Lyon bypass, so we go left at Dijon past Bourg en Bresse rather than straight down the Rhone valley and that usually seems a bit quieter.

Same plan this year but I've just booked the tunnel an hour earlier and we'll stop a bit further down, maybe Chalons
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I'll be doing halfterm with my boy this year, and will be leaving straight from school at 3pm.. it's going to be hell.. I can tell, but it's the only option... My folks are joining us and they will be crossing into France much earlier in the day and sorting out some overnight accom, so we can drive through the late evening and meet them wherever that is. Then we're hoping that an early start means we can stay ahead of the worst of it...

well.. we can dream Smile
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
We take kids out Friday. Early morning Tunnel Friday morning stay in Lyon Friday night and early start Saturday. Usually in La Plagne by 11am Saturday morning. Last year was a breeze as no Belgium holidays but year before busy.
Oh and I'm a school Governor too but have done a letter to the school explaining why we do this and have done since the kids started school 6 years ago (before the next crazy rule). I did ask if they let me know which DVD they would be watching that day I was quite happy to ensure they watched in on the journey!!!
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Worth mentioning here that a couple of years ago all the convenient and sensibly priced hotels just off the motorway in France and in Ashford were fully booked for the Half term Friday night by early January! Book early!
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Thanks for that. I have booked a hotel for Folkestone for Friday night to get across early the next day. I may change my tunnel crossing for the Friday night instead of early Saturday morning but am not sure. I have assumed it will take about 12 hrs and from all the posts above I know it will be busy and am used to travelling on french roads. It is always down to sheer weight of traffic and accidents on the way. Am not going as far as many people as we are staying at St Gervais, near Chamonix. Our main thing now is to look at where to stay on the return journey as we are booked on the tunnel for the Sunday so have a reasonable time for the return journey. Possibly Reims
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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?
archers wrote:
Thanks for that. I have booked a hotel for Folkestone for Friday night to get across early the next day.



We did this once - never again. No real advantage - vowed that next time we would cross at night and stay in/around Calais.
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Novotel or Ibis Reims Tiniquex are litterally next to motorway and really good. Have stayed in both. between 2 & 2.5 hours from tunnel. If you have accorhotels membership the rooms are 40% off at the minute.
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