Alps driving recommendations

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@Timc, +1 for Chatel.
Central & good for snowboarding as plenty of access to parks and free-ride.
Morzine - central, good après, can get busy.
LG, out of the way, but MT Chery is great with fresh snow.
Avoriaz - car free, ski in / ski out, good for boarding, but busier than the other resorts.
St Jean - disconnected, but small, friendly with a nice circuit to the Roc d'Enfer.
Abondance - disconnected, v small, low, cheap, nice abbey in the village and great cheese.
La Chapelle (hidden gem) - like Les Gets its on one end of the circuit, but easy access to Switzerland and Chatel, lifts are a little dated, but it has 2 fabulous restaurants and a really good microbrewery which does good food.
On the Swiss side, Morgins is nice.

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I’m a bit biased but have skied the PDS for over 30 years and visited all the villages lots of times.

I still reckon Chatel has the best overall access but would put Les Crosets out there as an option. One fast chair and you are over to Lindarets which is really the central point of the PDS or two chairs and you are above Avoriaz.

You could make a case for Ardent as the best access point.

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@James77, you make a fine case for Les Gets not being the right place if you don’t want to ski the whole PDS. If the snow is decent it would make a good base for the Morzine/Les Gets/Mont Chery areas.

If we ever decide on skiing that area we tend to drive over and start from the car park under the Pleney to avoid last lift anxiety on the way home.

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After all it is free

I've done it all all sorts of ways: Dover/Calais, Tunnel, Hull/Zeebrugge, Hull/Rotterdam, French motorway, French normal roads, via Germany, drive overnight, with an overnight stop.

Absolutely get winter tyres and chains (or rent them) and practice putting the chains on before you go. Surprise, surprise, it isn't as easy as the pristine supermodel in her Gucci gear makes it look.

If you're renting a place you need to factor in that you will (probably) need to be in resort before the key pickup place closes. Personally I would go for the French motorways every time and get the tag/doofer that allows you to fly through them. French tlls costs me approx. £100 heading to/from Switzerland (and there's a standing annual charge for the doofer of around £7). Swiss toll is a flat 40CHF. My car (Audi A6) is surprisingly good on fuel so it's around 3 and a bit fill ups total. Which I think is pretty good cost wise, certainly compared to fly/rent car. I only drive if it's 2 weeks plus though, for a week I'll do good old Easyjet and rent a car.

If you live in the South and will share the driving equally, I'd say do the overnight run with the intention of getting to resort around 2pm. Plenty of time to find key pick up place, park plus get to appartment, rent gear, get lift pass. Jeez the overnight run really is a pain but you'll have time to relax, grab a meal, have a beer etc. in the evening when you get there.

If you live a good distance from Dover or up North, then it's more debateable. Personally I do Hull/Zeebrugge and French motorways but I'm going to my own place and arriving late evening (4 vallees) isn't a problem. I also stock up in the last French supermarket before CH (google ATAC, Jougne, France) which may be an option for you if you're heading to PdS and self-catering. It's quite a bit cheaper (plus for me resort places will be closed by time I get there).

btw Be careful with SatNav in the mountains. It can, literally, take you down all sorts of strange paths.

As someone already pointed out, if you're driving that far, another 30 mins here or there is nothing. I pass the signs for Verbier, Chamonix, PdS on my way but haven't skied the latter two so can't recommend a base. Nendaz is an option, if you fancy some challenging runs (once you get over to Siviez/Verbier). Lot's of accomm. choice. Verbier would also be a (more expensive) option. Ideally get a place with parking included. That can be a real pain/irritating additional cost.

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Obersdorf, in Germany, is the nearest and cheapest major Alpine ski resort to the UK by car.

There are closer and cheaper resorts in the UK (England, Scotland), France (Vosges), and Belgium (Val de Wanne), but they are tiny.

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I had to google Oberstdorf. Closer than Garmisch in Germany and well connected by road, but only 130 Km skiing which is one reason it never previously made it to my radar (below my criterion for "major").

In terms of road travel time, it would be as quick to get to the A40 in the Arve Valley for the northern French Alps, but fair enough it might take very slightly longer to head off it to any of the resorts.

Courmayeur? We had a v successful drive Trip to the aosta valley in feb And this town would give you bars and restaurants, Italian Style, local slopes as well as The La Thuile / La Rosiere area.

You know it makes sense.

Don't rule out Austria: Kitbuhel and Saalbach are just a days drive from Calais or Dunkirk via Belgian and German motorways. No tolls, just a vignette for Austria.
Cross the channel early, arrive in France 8am ish, 10 hours will get the job done, preferably on a Sunday (outward).
Alternatively, as @Markymark29, suggests North Sea ferry from Hull if in Northern England, but an early morning drive from the north is easy and fast- 4 hours, maybe less.
Swiss Engelberg is doable also. Vignette needed for Swiss mway.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

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[quote="tatmanstours"]

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@johnE, he gets the whole season, so the journey down doesn't have to be a mad dash. This year, he got the season and then a nice long spring break which has turned into still being in a low-infection country well into the summer Happy

Our preferred route for half-term is Calais-Lille-Mons-Namur-Luxembourg-Stuttgart-Munich-Rosenheim-StJohann-Lofer-Saalbach - avoids any French tolls, avoids the Brussels ring road, and also avoids the need for an Austrian vignette (the €10 for a 10 day vignette is neither here nor there, but the stop and queue to buy one is painful - though now you can do it online in advance).

One the way there we stay overnight on Thursday near the Channel Tunnel, cross about 6am, drive to Rosenheim in 10-12 hours during Friday and stay overnight, and then drive to Saalbach to be on the slopes by 11 on Saturday. On the way back, we leave at 6am on Saturday and drive all the way home, arriving around 10pm. Total of 15-16 hours, two drivers, 2 tanks of diesel each way (one in Luxembourg in each direction), and a total cost of about £250 (tunnel crossing paid for entirely in Tesco vouchers) in fuel plus €120 for an overnight hotel and meals, compared to flights for 4 at £350 each.

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Lille ring road can be pretty ghastly in rush hour - anything is preferable to Brussels ring road as the Belgians are dreadful drivers. I normally cross late in evening and arrive at a cheapo prebooked automatic key pick-up motel in Calais very early morning. Means one can be on the road again reasonable sharpish but avoiding Lille rush hour. 'fraid I am a skinflint and wont pay ridiculous price for Le Shuttle.

After all it is free

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As others have said, there isn't that much of a difference driving to PdS/Chamonix and Tarentaise resorts - around 12-14 hours for us door to door from SW London. We hop onto shuttle around 3AM Saturday and arrive in resort just in time to pick up keys from agency around 19:00 - 20:00, with 2 long stops for breakfast and lunch, countless short coffee/snack/wee wee stops and a final shopping/fuel stop right before last push up the mountain

And I have to agree about PdS - it's vast but too spread out and poorly connected. Not to mention potentially poor snow conditions early in the season, may be with exception of Avoriaz.
We stayed in Chatel and even though the school was technically in Super Chatel, we were told to take a bus to PLJ every day and there was no end to kids moaning and asking why are we here and not in 3V.

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I was comparing to le shuttle flexiplus, £130 more one way than their standard fare on a January 2021 crossing, as le shuttle's t&cs are very strict on missed crossings whereas DFDS allow greater flexibility, and there is for me the M25 to negotiate.

You know it makes sense.

@Layne, £120 return for the ferry is very good. I must re-examine their prices. When I last looked (for March this year) the price difference was about £20. I've just had a look for a trip to the Dolomites in August and yes the ferry is a lot cheeper than the tunnel - £160 as opposed to £200. However with a nigh on 1000 mile drive back from the Dolomites and the very real risk of disruption on the German motorways I think I'll choose the tunnel with its 4 hour window of crossing time

Not sure about appreciating the ferry break more. On the shuttle I usually have a snooze in my car seat, something that cannot be done on the ferry. Now the shuttle has become more reliable we use it more or less all the time. At one point you never knew if you were to have a 1 or 4 hour delay before boarding. For the last half dozen trips it has actually left on time.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Anyone know when P&O are releasing Hull/ Rotterdam ferry timetable/ bookings? Tempted to take an early punt on a crossing once released.

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@johnE, the ferry break was useful when the kids were younger. We used to drive down Friday afternoon/evening. There would be the excitement of the boarding, then they would have a play in the soft play area, would be fed and watered. And then they'd pretty much sleep the whole way driving through the night! Return journey was less useful.

As I say I can imagine if someone was driving 5+ hours to get there a longer break might help.

But as with yourself these days we usually tunnel it (and indeed have a car nap if required!)

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@Layne, The ferry was more of a hassle when our son was younger. He would have to be woken up, carried up the stairs. He would be grummpy and half asleep on the ferry then the procedure would be reversed. He would then sleep all the way to Albertville. On the shuttle he would mumble "are we there yet" at the end of our street then fall alseep all the way to Albertville. It was by far the easiest way to take him skiing. Now 20 years later it is more or less the same except now he wakes up to feed the toll machines Very Happy

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@johnE, would have thought you'd have a doofer!

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Anybody got a discount code for DFDS? Thanks.

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After all it is free

@Timc, I did the Eurotunnel FT scheme one year. It's sh*te. The validity is 12 months from purchase but as there are limited allocation of slots you have to book a good while in advance which then massively shortens your 12 month window. It's a good price for sure but it didn't work well for me for the aforementioned reasons. The ability to share with one other person is a good thing though.

@Layne, Our daughter uses one of our DFDS ferry trips for her family's summer school holidays trip and doesn't normally book until a couple of months before and hasn't had any problems with availability. The DFDS scheme isn't limited to just one other person, I had one year where I passed 3 trips on to different friends and family.

I normally buy mine in November and December to cover my planned journeys in Jan, Mar, Jul and August, January and March, low season, July and August definitely high season.

For me not only is the ferry cheaper it is also much less stressful, so a much better start and finish to the holiday.

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"If you check-in within 2 hours either side of your reserved time, within the validity of your ticket you may be offered a space on the next departure with availability without charge.

If you check-in more than 2 hours but no more than 24 hours before or after your reserved time, your booking may be exchanged, subject to availability and payment of the difference between the price you paid and the price applicable to the departure for which your booking is exchanged.

If you arrive more than 24 hours after your booked departure time, your booking will be invalid and cannot be exchanged."

Note the happy use of the word "may" - something I was always taught was a "weasel" word.

whereas dfds for £20 each way allow me a flexi booking with a 72 hour window. Never bother with P&O.

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Alps driving recommendations

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