what are the pros and cons of driving overnight to the alps? - with children?

A snowHead

As you may have read on another couple of threads I have going, we are planning to take our first family ski holiday this new year. With xmas day being the Friday and having two youngish children, we are trying to work out what our best plan is for driving down. I have read a few other threads about how busy the roads can be on change over days and im guessing that boxing day this year is going to be a bit manic. So, a few people have mentioned driving down in one go overnight. We aee quite tempted by this. We could leave after tea on xmas day with the kids in their pjs, get on the tunnel (about 3 hours away) then drive through the night while the kids sleep and arrive in resort in the morning of boxing day.
We are just not sure about the actual driving through france overnight thing. How easy is it? Is there any safe places to stop for an hour or two to sleep on the way (not a hotel, side of the road or something?)? Will it be far quieter travelling xmas night rather that all day boxing day? Is it worth the pain of no sleep?
Any tips anyone has would be great to hear.
oh I probably should say that both my husband and I would drive.
Thank you x

A snowHead

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French motorways have lots of service areas, some with all facilities and some with just toilets and parking.

If 1 sleeps while the other drives it can work ok but switch drivers about every 2 hours.

If stopping and sleeping in the car make sure you have a warm blanket as cars can get very cold, very quickly once you turn off the ignition. Some people can't sleep in these circumstances (like my partner) and the disturbed sleep pattern takes days to recover!

Is the pain worth it? Big question it works for some and not for others. I assume you would leave home around 6pm to get the tunnel around 10pm arriving in France around midnight local time (depending on actual train time/delays/unloading/any additional checks in France etc.). Depending on where you are going, traffic near the Alps, how long you stop at each driver change and whether you stop for a nap, journey time will be between 8 and 12 hours. You will arrive mid morning and probably be pretty tired. However you might get a half days skiing at the start of the holiday and potentially an extra day at the end. Level of tiredness will depend on the amount of sleep you get the night before, bearing in mind young children and Xmas excitement and how relaxing Xmas day itself is!

I've driven on my own a few times and some journeys have been great while others have been a nightmare with the drive taking up to 15 hours and me very tired.

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You'll have to wake passenger up to pay the tolls too, unless you have a doofer.

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But once you're on the péage from Calais, there's no paying till Reims. And after Reims, not till you're nearly there. It's hardly a big deal.

And I'd never wake a sleeping passenger. The driver can get out and walk around (it's what I have to do when driving alone in Italy) and a bit of fresh air and a leg stretch is good for you.

After all it is free

We drove overnight Friday/Saturday for Feb half term, I won't do it again, I would sooner do the drive in the day and arrive in the evening as we have in the past. I was concerned about Paris Half Term. Even when sharing driving, neither of us was happy to sleep, in order to ensure the other had company while driving. Maybe just me.

I think a lot depends on how your kids travel. If they are bored and fretful after an hour, it's surely best to drive overnight. But if sharing the driving, you do need to be prepared to trust each other and sleep! In the days when I drove with my OH he could never stay awake for long on the motorway, night or day, so I tended to drive till towards the end, whilst he slept, then he did the last 1.5 - 2 hours of winding road up the mountain, which kept him awake. But some people are wrecked if they lose a night's sleep - it's like altitude sickness, it's just the way your body works.

Whenever you're driving, audio books help enormously. I drove overnight once, listening to a book about Shackleton. I figured that if he could do all that, I could drive a comfortable car on superb roads, for just one night, without too much hardship. And I didn't have to get out once to hack ice off the rigging. wink

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@pam w, Only to pay the tolls.

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We have always driven overnight from NE England to Andorra non stop (other than channel crossing, fuel and food) the kids sleep most of the way in France.
Before kids we stayed off the peage routes but once kids arrived we paid the price to get there asap.
Cruise control makes a BIG difference, far from putting you to sleep by being more relaxing, it makes the driving less tiring when all you have to do is steer.
We typically collect the kids from school, straight to the tunnel (free on Tesco vouchers but would pay the price over ferry anyway as we had many problems with bad weather), recline the kids seats a bit on the tunnel for sleep then just keep driving through France till we get there

I am quite sensitive to caffeine so I avoid any caffeine for a week before the journey to get the tolerance out of my system, Mrs T struggles with the 2am-6am shift so I drive a shift till ~12pm when I am ready to sleep (Mrs T has normally had a nap by this point) then take over again when Mrs T is tired ~2-3am and drive till I am feeling a bit tired then stop for a double espresso which hits me like a bucket of ice water! and sees me wide awake till dawn.

The co driver getting some rest is more important than keeping the driver company, if the driver needs the company of the co driver to stay awake then you should stop or change over. On this line, waking the co driver to pay tolls or navigate is not the best plan, the last journey we made, we got a sat nav for Europe and a toll doofer and these made a BIG difference to the journey, although we know the route fairly well we occasionally missed junctions and needed to navigate back to our route. unfortunately we got a Garmin sat nav which took us through the minor roads through Paris rather than the motorway that we normally used, with our old tom tom, if you decide to take an alternative route, it would initially tell you to turn around but then quite quickly re-adjust to your chosen route but the Garmin will still be telling you to turn around hours later!.

A portable DVD player for the kids in the back was an absolute godsend in our old Sharan so we ordered a built in one for the S-max

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just a thought, but you may want to think about what facilities you will have access to in arrival. Will you be able at least to deposit you bags at your accommodation? My experience of renting apartments is that you don't get access until late afternoon.
Will you be changing into your ski kit in a car park with slightly disorientated children in tow?

Perhaps you should make sure you all stop and have a proper breakfast at breakfast time to get you ready for action and set you up for the day. It's certainly a great feeling skiing on changeover day as it will be so much quieter than the rest of New year week. Are you going to do the same on the return trip? You can get 8 days skiing in that way, though maybe skiing all day Saturday, not being able to shower and then driving with tired children all the way back may be less fun. Another option for the return trip is to ski on the Friday, then pack up, have supper etc and head off that night.

MY only problem with overnight travel with kids would be that they will be wide awake and happy the following morning, while I will be sleep deprived. I wouldn't be in a fit state to take advantage of the extra days skiing. Do the last day instead, and drive for three or four hours before stopping for the night.
Day time driving, and a stopover somewhere is much safer.

You know it makes sense.

@Hells Bells, This too as the Mrs needs to be fresh when we get home to do the laundry before going back to work. Laughing

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A snowHead

A snowHead

As always, some brilliant points made here and lots to think about. Just to pick up on a couple of things, we would not be aiming to ski the day we arrived. It would purely be to miss the worst of the traffic (im just assuming boxing day would be busy on the roads to the alps?) And to arrive at a reasonable time to get our skis and lift passes so that we dont need to be rushing around the morning before the kids are in lessons. We haven't booked accommodation yet but from what I can see it would not be available until late afternoon. So I guess we would be stuck with having a sleep in the car when we arrived or after getting some lunch?

is it normal for families to stop in these aires and sleep in their cars? Im not sure I would be comfortable doing it in this country. Is it safe?

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Yes it is safe to stop at the aires and have a sleep, there are normally a few people doing so and lots of lorries. You will need to leave your engine running and heating on though, as it gets too cold to sleep very quickly.

I drove back from Morzine this easter. We had accommodation Sat to Sat, so left at about 7:30pm on the Friday night, having skied during the day, then cleaned the chalet and had dinner. Both kids were asleep before we got to the bottom of the mountain and stayed that way until we got to the channel tunnel, except for one toilet stop when they woke whilst I was getting petrol. They woke up for the train crossing which was at 4:30am and then went back to sleep as soon as we started driving again on the other side.
The drive itself couldn't have been easier, despite the fact my audio book didn't work and the whole journey was in either fog or rain. I drove the whole was myself and didn't struggle from tiredness until I was about 10mins from home. Fortunately my brother-in-law was at home when we arrived at 5:30 UK time as he was house sitting the pets, as the kids having slept all night were up and ready to start their day. I got to go to bed for a couple of hours and after that I was OK, just felt jet lagged all day, but after a nights sleep was fine the following day.

I'll be doing the same again next Feb half term, as flights are too expensive.

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I do a lot of long-distance trips (day and night) in UK and across Europe - around 24,000 miles last year - and using cruise control is *massively* helpful: stops your speed gently creeping up (and so risking fines) or down (and so taking longer to get there) and avoids dead leg syndrome. Anyone who has never used cruise control really isn't in a position to give an informed opinion.

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I used to drive a truck into the early hours on a weekend, doing theatrical removals and often after playing rugby in the afternoon. I had to use various tactics to keep awake. The most extreme option being a wet flannel to the face and then thrusting a head out of the window into the wintery air. I also got an overnight train once and had NO sleep (but a bit of booze) and felt dreadful on the slopes the next day. There is no way I would drive right through the night now. I think some people are suited to driving overnight.... and some are not. It depnds on which type you are.

I would echo the above sentiments on Cruise Control - Absolutely superb tool BUT - DO NOT USE IT IN ICE, SNOW OR VERY HEAVY RAIN.

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@RobW, pretty useful on a long journey I think. Not so useful on busy motorways in the UK, but great in areas of roadworks with long sections of restricted speeds.

After all it is free

We've done the drive twice now - once with just an 8 year old and a 14 year old, doing the "through the night" drive and just this last week done it with a 6, 9, 12 and 15 year old doing a Friday night stop in Bourg-en-Bresse and a returning Saturday night in Calais.

Both were fine. Our younger kids don't mind travelling in PJs and getting changed in services etc. The second trip with the overnight stop overs was more relaxing as a driver, but only really worked for us as we could leave Good Friday.

When we travelled through the night, I did most of the driving with my wife making sure she tried to sleep for most of the journey so that when I did need her to take over in the early hours of the morning she was well enough rested. Although it's a long haul, we didn't seem to suffer with tiredness affecting the holiday itself - we just headed to bed early on the first night in resort and the excitement of the first morning meant waking up wasn't a problem!

As others have said, the French "aires" are great - whether they are an Aire with food / petrol or just a set of toilets, they are fine places to park up and get a short burst of sleep.

For us, the multiples of having four boys means that driving is massively more economical for us than flying (short of getting the really cheap early offer seats), and I don't think we'd do it any other way now, unless we win the lottery Happy

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[/quote]
I would suggest trying to use the cruise control, it can take some getting used to but it does make driving less tiring, allowing you to be less stressed at the end of the journey, travel longer before a change of driver is needed etc, I would not consider another car without it, I just wished we had taken the adaptive option that automatically slows you down if you come up behind another slower vehicle then speeds back up when the road is clear.[/quote]

We have adaptive cruise control! It is amazing!! We just cant work out why all new cars don't have it. It makes driving so much safer.

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Not much help to the OP but may help others with slightly older kids.

Mrs DJL is a bit of a reluctant driver but I think it is too much to do home to tunnel, cross and then tunnel to Chatel in one go myself. I drive to the tunnel and have a snooze when we are on board then drive the first 3-4 hours from Calais, perhaps with a short stop. We then swap for a couple of hours and I go in the back with one of the others in the front passenger seat to keep her on the right track. I find it much more likely that I will have a proper sleep if I’m in the back and using earplugs, airline sleep mask and a warm coat. Then we swap back for the off motorway bit which is slightly harder work.

I’m a big fan of cruise control on a quiet motorway (but only if you are not tired!)

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As you will have seen on this thread there are some people who just can't handle it, and I don't mean that in an offensive way, or just would rather not. IME for most it's not a big problem. The only way to really find out is to do it once and see. However, it helps obviously if you've done as you've done and asked around beforehand because there are certain things that make a recipe for success. To perhaps summarise:

1) Shared driving. You can do it with one driver. I've a mate who has done it single handedly on 4 or 5 occasions. But it is definitely so much easier with two.

2) Sleep when not driving. Anything you can do to make it comfortable for you and others to sleep when not driving is a big plus. We dress our kids in things like tracksuit bottoms and cosy jumpers. Plenty of cushions and blankets. Plenty of water and food for the journey. On the last trip our son sat in the front and the wife in the back with our daughter. She was even more comfortable and slept really well.

3) When driving: what works for you. But I have caffeine drinks (red bull equiv.) which I don't normally drink but it really helps me on the overnight run and loud music. Audio books or podcasts are a good idea I think though I haven't done that. My wife doesn't like cruise control but I do. Means I can fidget and stretch the legs - and so last longer on the drive.

4) A doofer - not critical but definitely a plus IMO and so why not.

5) Electronic devices/books etc for before and after the kids sleep.

Once the light of the morning starts it's easy.

For some reason I find the drive back less of a problem. Usual routine is to ski until late afternoon, get changed "somewhere", drive out of the mountains, eat. It's probably because I am destressed and happy after a weeks skiing. Also, because you are physically tired you can sleep when not driving easier. Also you don't have the Friday evening British driving to begin with, which is always stressful and tiring.

Stopping at the Aires is fine though we rarely have. Once when I was with a mate a long time ago we pulled over into a country lane somewhere near Annency and were awoken by a rabid dog jumping up at the window. Mate shot us out of there like a heist getaway driver. Still makes me laugh that one.

We stop at a big supermarket on the way to get supplies so often end up arriving late morning/early afternoon. We usually manage to get access to the apartment and then just chill for the afternoon. In my younger days I would go skiing.

I think it is something you definitely have to try once to see if works for you because if it does, it does confer a number of pro's.

You know it makes sense.

[quote="pam w"]

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A snowHead

One final thought from me...this Easter I drove down with my sister and family. They had the telepeage doobry which meant we sailed through all of the peages without having to wake your passenger, open the window, fumble for coins or credit card. Think it costs €5 euro to subscribe and then you get a bill after the event.

A snowHead

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@Perty, yes doofers rock! Even on quiet journeys in good weather they help enormously. I had a great drive back last weekend and I didn't have to poke sleeping teen once Toofy Grin

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I have had to drive overnight to avoid the masses of traffic that accumulate around the Stuttgart - Munich - Austria area in February half-term. I would far prefer to do it in a two day trip, but it doubled the driving time doing it in two days (last year)! So I do the overnight drive to Austria as the sole driver. It went remarkably well this year on the way down, the trip back was rubbish because of roadworks, volume of traffic and crashes - all in Austria and Germany, no problems once in France. The driving in France on the autoroutes has always been virtually stress free for me. I have been driving through France every year for the past 30 years and think their roads are superb. My son who is five watched DVDs then slept very well in the car. He was well rested and my wife was not too tired either. We grabbed some food sorted the skis for my son and wife, then checked in at lunch time. I slept for four hours and awoke feeling amazingly good. Lots of red bull, rave anthems, double espressos, and Northern Soul saw me through the night! I would break it down two shorter days with a nice hotel stop - if I could.

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In terms of doing the drive solo please consider that bus and truck drivers are only allowed to drive a maximum of 9 hours in a day and have to take a 45 minute break after no more than 4.5 hours. To be clear, these rules do to apply to drivers of private cars but I think they are still worth thinking about. On the one hand, clearly the consequence for society of you having an accident is probably smaller than (say) 40 tonnes of truck crashing - understandable why stiffer rules apply to commercial vehicles. On the other, the vast majority of us driving to the alps will be less experienced, hardened and professional than HGV drivers. And they still need breaks.

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After all it is free

Personally I hate driving at night...I just hate it.

I would rather travel down to the Alps in the day and stay in a hotel overnight. I've got a car with three kids and Mrs H in it so I would rather drive in the day. I'm a shift worker so, whilst I am used to working unusual hours, I am also aware of the hazards of driving when tired (be it in the day or at night).

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Help!!

what are the pros and cons of driving overnight to the alps? - with children?

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