 Poster: A snowHead
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We are currently in Meribel and are flying from Geneva on Saturday (Christmas Eve) at 4.10 pm.
As we have season passes for the 3 Valleys we'd hoped to squeeze in a few runs before we head off on Saturday in the hire car. The question is, however, how bad is the traffic likely to be on Saturday leaving the resort?
Is there likely to be a queue down the valley to Moutiers (& beyond) with folk heading home for Christmas? What time would experienced travellers recommend we leave for the airport? (We've travelled a lot to France but haven't experienced a Saturday departure for a long time). Should we forget about skiing on Saturday  (much as it may break our hearts...) & instead head for Geneva on Friday night (which is the day we leave our chalet. We had intended to book a hotel in Moutiers and then drive back to Meribel on Saturday morning).
We've had a great time since we arrived last weekend. Conditions have been great overall and it hasn't been too busy. Although there is no natural snow below 2000m or so, they have done a fantastic job here with the artificial stuff and even the runs down to Meribel have remained in a consistently good condition. One or two stones are starting to show around Les Menuires but, overall, we've been really impressed by the conditions. They do need more snow of course, to get more runs open, but there remains an impressive selection of open runs given what little snow has fallen in the last month.
Thanks in advance.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Morning,
Personally, even with the lack of bodies up in the resorts (I'm in Les Menuires), I wouldn't be out Saturday skiing.
You have one flight to catch on Saturday, no alternatives. Miss that and you'll be in the brown and smelly.
As for traffic, I reckon it will be rather light going out and possibly coming in. I'm not leaving til Monday and don't expect any type of hold up going home (driving all the way).
Like you say, the workers have done a fantastic job in getting open and keeping open some/all runs. Into Croisette in LM is getting bad down the blue but apart from that.....brilliant job.
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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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You need to leave Meribel by 11am to be safe assuming no snow on Saturday morning, so you could drive up for 8.30 and ski for an hour and a half. Not that i would risk it personally.
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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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I'd imagine the traffic will be mostly heading up to Meribel rather than down so you should be fine to Moutiers. It's about 2 hours with light traffic from Meribel to Geneva. Assuming you can check in online, you can still ski until about 11:30 get changed and drive off. If you leave at 12:00 that should still leave you plenty of time to make your flight (even if traffic is bad and it takes you 3 hours you'll be in Geneva by 3:00pm which should be enough.)
Don't listen to the naysayers. I'd say do it (I would)
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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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No chance.
Sods law dictates two things.
If you leave Meribel at 10.00 you will have a smooth 2 hour drive and spend longer than you want at the airport.
Option B.
Go skiing, have an accident, lose a ski, lift breaks down etc. Get in car at 12.00 , sit in traffic for 2 hours as road blocked by accident on road down mountain, get on motorway with 8 Million locals travelling for Christmas, sit in traffic, have huge argument , get to Geneva at 3.00, huge queue for fuel at petrol station, you scrape hire car door driving into the car park, get stuck with Mr Bureaucrat who wants you to sign the damage form. Run for flight......
You get the drift.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'm also flying from GVA on Sat 4.35pm. I don't think there'll be much issue with traffic as many holiday companies have moved their transfer day this week. Like [b] davidof [b] suggests, I want to be on the road for 11am.
My only concern would be the security queue at GVA. If you don't have fast track, that could be a holdup.
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Thanks all.
It's good that no one is predicting traffic Armageddon.
We will have a think but may follow Raceplates lead of an 11am ish departure.
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@Bergmeister, personally if it was my one and only ski trip this season I would probably chance a cheeky Saturday morning ski, but as you say you have season passes I am assuming you intend to return at least once or twice more?
if that is the case why don't you get a hotel in Annecy for the evening and spend a leisurely Saturday morning roaming the town before heading to GVA
I must admit I am out in Austria at the moment, and the resorts are threadbare to say the least, but we have just had a fantastic family days skiing in Kaltenbach and are back there Friday (it was always planned as primarily a sightseeing xmas holiday first, only way I could sell it to the OH, with any skiing a bonus)
as @blahblahblah says, sods law will dictate it going pear shape!!!!
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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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@Bergmeister, I think it will be busier with traffic coming into resort than going out, it seems pretty quiet in the resorts at the moment so I wouldn't think you would have too many problems getting down to Moutiers on Saturday.
Normally at Christmas the vast majority of people arrive on or after 26th December and it is very quiet out here this year. We went up to Courchevel on Tuesday and were surprised at how little traffic there was.
If there is likely to be traffic it will be around the major shopping centres such as Albertville, Annecy or Chambery with people going last minute Christmas shopping.
If we were going to Geneva airport I'd be leaving resort around 11am for a 4pm flight, should give you plenty of time to get the hire car back
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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Have just got through Geneva airport and it was rammed and they reckon worse tomorrow. Easyjet checking in took over an hour as they had six desks closed. Massive queue for security, which we jumped. It took longer to get through the airport than it took to get to it from tignes.
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You know it makes sense.
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No worries. It was just easy jet who were rammed-queuing back to main doors-because they had empty desks on one of the busiest days of the year. Other desks were pretty quiet! Apparently it was the airports decision not easy jets to close them-the bloke I spoke to said they only opened the extra desks on Saturday and Sunday when they were busiest...👿 not the best forward planning from a country who are meant to be clinically efficient...
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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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We've skied many a short morning session (as little as an hour one powder day in Dorfgastein) before driving to Salzburg, Geneva, Munich, Chambery and Calgary airports.
It's great - the skiing always feels so worth it! We usually allow an extra hour on top of the normal travel time and have never had a problem....until last Feb in Canada, when we were stuck on a chairlift:
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=2852847&highlight=chairlift#2852847
^^^Ignore orange text in this link!...I searched on the word 'chairlift' and that's the result...
Believe it or not, that hasn't put us off.... :lol:If your hire car broke down en-route to the airport would you go by train the next time  ?
Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Fri 23-12-16 20:22; edited 1 time in total
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Poster: A snowHead
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snowhound,
Hmmmm. We are flying with Easyjet tomorrow!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well - we are back home, safe and sound! 
All went well today, including 90 minutes on the slopes! We spent last night in Moutiers, then drove to St Martin this morning where me made it onto the gondola at 9.10. We managed 3500 m of descent, so it felt like a very meaningful ski - in lovely sunshine on deserted pistes.
(For those who are interested, we took St Martin 1 & 2 lifts, Pas du Lac 1, Plattieres, Plattieres 3 & Granges).
We drove away from St M at 11, stopped to refuel the car, and for a cuppa at Annecy McDonalds, & made it to Geneva Airport for 1.35 pm - just over 2.5 hours before our flight. The (ski) bag drop queue took 15 minutes but the queue for security was terrible - a 20 minute queue (the full length of the upstairs bit) before we reached the usual queuing point!
It eventually took us 50 minutes to clear security & reach our gate. The girl on the bag drop did say however that yesterday was chaos, with 2 hour queues and some folk missing flights as a result...
All in all, a great week with surprisingly good snow conditions.
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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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@Bergmeister glad it worked. We had a friend going through at 9 am this morning at Geneva who said it was rammed again then so must have died down later. Yesterday It took us over 1.5 hours to go through baggage check in, on what must have been one of the busiest days of the year-end of working week so people flying out for Xmas combined with holiday makers returning, and EasyJet had 6 out of 17 desks closed. By any stretch of the imagination, that is really c@@p. The security queue for us went back to the escalators but we had to jump it, with a pregnant woman, a group of like-minded passengers on the same flight and (my) crying daughter who thought she wasn't going to make it back for Xmas. Other people in the Q were really accommodating which is nice to see in such situations. The Geneva airport 'helper' was next to useless so we just ignored him and went ahead. I cant see the point of calling passengers through quickly for check in, only to hit another massive queue for security-no coordination between the two and if we hadn't jumped security, we would have missed our flight time regardless of what happened at check in. Geneva really could do with more X rays scanners for times like this; Gatwick have 10 whereas they have only 6, I think. In the end, our flight left 40 mins late but we didn't know that at the time....What was really annoying is that it was just an EasyJet issue, all other check in desks were pretty quiet.
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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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| Quote: |
| What was really annoying is that it was just an EasyJet issue, all other check in desks were pretty quiet. |
Get them told! According to page 1 of the easyjet in-flight magazine, the Chief Exec welcomes passenger comments - & even provides her email address.
At least that was the case the last time I looked....
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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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As a counterpoint got to Geneva at 11:30 on the 24th, no busy than normal for Geneva probably took an hour from check in drop off to terminal. This was EasyJet. Just leave enough time folks.
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