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Driving to the Alps for New Year

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
I'm thinking of driving over for the first time - I have about 10 days free after Xmas.

Can people suggest:

Options for safeish snow resort late December within reasonable driving distance from London (no jokes here please, I avoid travelling North of Watford).

Resort Preferences - not too isolated, large or linked ski area.

Financial considerations - will pay for quality, don't like being ripped off.

Thanks
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Flame is about the closest.
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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?
Landgraff is even closer
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We're off to Samoens for new year takes about 8 hours from calais, near by you've got les carroz, flaine, morzine, avoriaz, les gets , megeve, La clusaz all about the same distance.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Actually when you look at it, most are within an hour or 2 of alot of others.

That is, We go to Tignes because its high. It seems like it furthan than others, but in reality they all seem to take 8 hours from Calais Puzzled
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Yeah there's not much difference you can do the Grand Massif in 7 hours if you only stop for fuel, I always find any of the resorts in the Taranteise Valley always take a tad longer due to that last stretch from Moutiers.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@Philip1972, I would allow 9-10 hours to Tignes from Calais. The best I have ever done from Les Arcs to Calais is just over 9 hours, when we cruised on mainly empty roads at the speed limit and had a single swap to change drivers and refuel. For the record it takes 1 hour to get just from Les Arcs to the motorway toll just outside of Albertville.
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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!
Took me 24 hours last year.
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You might want to consider staying in Bourg St Maurice, as it will likely be cheaper than staying in an actual resort and you'll have easy access to a number of the local resorts.
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blahblahblah........don t remind me...took us 24 hours from Reims...3am - 3am...................very painful
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Lol I stayed in chambery the night before transfer day still took 5 hours to La Rosiere and we left at 6 in the morning.
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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.
francium....yes it was a nightmare day/night...........i think we were lucky in that we had left Reims at 3am and were ahead of a lot of the traffic
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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
Please, never mention last seasons New Year transfer day ever again lol. It took us form 11am ish to the early hours of the next morning just to get from Morzine to La Tania!!! I am still aghast when I think back to the the weather and traffic on that day! So OP try to avoid the usual transfer days!

Having done a week or two around New Year many times; Samoens is the nearest, easiest and quickest run (especially towing a caravan long times past) and it does have access to Flaine if height is required, most of the PdS resorts are very little longer. The Tarentaise resorts, Les Arcs, La Plagne, ValDI etc are noticeably further (an hour or 3 depending on weather etc) but as a percentage of a long journey not by much.

If you do not mind driving, busing or taking ski transport of one kind or another every day, the suggestion to stay in BSM is a good one. If you want ski in ski out, think Flaine, much of Avoriaz, Arc 1950, 2000 (but be careful where) and I`d guess parts of ValDI but we only ever went there for days from BSM. Others on here will know where to advise if you give a bit more info.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Much of Arc 1800 is ski in/out also, dependant upon apartment block.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@Tinwhistle, the week ending Saturday 2 January will be about the most expensive of the year for accommodation and as indicated above, the journeys either end of those weeks can be very busy. But the following week will be one of the cheapest (talking French alps here....)

What days, ideally, do you want to be travelling and what kind of accommodation are you looking for? Apartment, catered chalet, hotel? Much accommodation will already be heavily booked for the New Year week so you might need to stay in two different places.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Thanks everyone for the replies, journey visualisation helped move plans along. I have a busy job and only ten days off at that time so now heading to Portugal and hopefully sunshine over new year. I probably would have ended up in a ditch somewhere screaming about terrible french drivers. Other ski trips booked.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Bear in mind that last year's clusterf*ck was entirely avoidable. The weather was as forecast and we all know summer tyres have no traction in snow.
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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?
Quote:

Bear in mind that last year's clusterf*ck was entirely avoidable

It wasn't avoidable for all. Once the roads had shuddered to a halt (including all the motorways) there was nothing anybody, no matter how well equipped, could do. But yes, the twits who had a leisurely breakfast then motored out of resorts around 10 am on that Saturday morning deserved what was coming to them. I drove up (having done a very early drive down to Albertville, with no problem) past solid, stationary, traffic all the way down the mountain. Was stopped by the gendarmes to put chains on, but was glad of them when there was a good 8 - 10 inches of snow on the road (and, of course, there was no prospect whatsoever of getting any ploughs going, once the road was blocked).

It was exceptional weather - there was loads of snow on the road in Albertville, which isn't that common, and as it was clearly pointless trying to drive to the Tarentaise, where my son had a cooking job, I dropped him there to get a train to Moutiers. Even local taxis couldn't get through at times - he got a taxi up to Courchevel 1850 but his guests, arriving later in 3 separate local taxis, all spent Saturday night on the road and arrived in time for a hearty breakfast on Sunday morning.

It was the heaviest fall of the season and was precisely timed to cause maximum chaos. But New Year is routinely fairly chaotic - talk of resorts being "8 hours from Calais" is folly.
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@pam w, Sorry, I should have been clearer. I think it was entirely avoidable... If everyone had been properly equipped, listened to the forecast, thought about it and acted appropriately, and had the local authorities done the same.

But they didn't, thus, chaos.

Maybe a bit worse than a normal pre New Year Saturday but given we took 7 hours the previous year from Geneva to Val d'Isere... It's never ever going to be swift. (Yes, yes, yes with 4 alpine properties between the 4 of the party why did we choose that day to drive anywhere? idiots we were...)

But in my opinion, the complete chaos could have been avoided.

That said, anyone driving to the Alps in late December without snow tyres should have their head examined to see whether they picked their brain up from the brain bucket at Gatwick on the way home from their last holiday.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@under a new name, I have to disagree about using snow tyres. Snow tyres have a chunky tread to get better grip in snow and mud but are not so good at dispersing water from the road so do not perform as well when the road is not snow covered. Winter tyres would be better and safer.

Oh and I drove down to Les Arcs in late December and back from Tignes 2 weeks later and had no problems with my normal all season tyres at all.
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BBC news tonight. Interview with the leader of the French Maritime Union which organised the Tyre burning blockade on the A26. He's promising more of the same. starting in October.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@johnE, Yes you are right. Now I have thought about it, it does take me 9 hours to Tignes. I only stop for fuel, and do try to keep below 90.

I am going for New Year week, (26th-2nd), but I will be setting off X Mas eve, getting there late X Mas eve. Did the same last year to avoid traffic and the trip was great. no traffic and I could have gone as fast as I liked (apart from the risk of the police). Bloody good job I did too, as a day or so later it was chaos as mentioned above.
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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!
@johnE, umm, maybe my bad but round here we use "winter" and "snow" tyres interchangeably from a language point of view. If you are referring to "M+S" tyres, well, yes, that's an entirely different thing altogether. (Edit: one will often esp. use "winter/snow" interchangeably meaning "winter")

What do you mean by "all season"?

If the road is clear and not icy, summer tyres will be more or less fine. But if it snows, and hey!, it's the Alps, so we usually would rather hope it did, summer tyres could be in a world of trouble.

Must say though that conversations like these suggest we need a much more obvious set of tyre descriptions in common language.


Last edited by After all it is free Go on u know u want to! on Mon 7-09-15 21:25; edited 1 time in total
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@Philip1972, when it's wet, as is quite often the case in the winter, the speed limit on French autoroutes is below 70 mph.
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