 Poster: A snowHead
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In my excitement of having 6 child free days lining to 2 weeks holiday at work I’ve just booked a 5 nighter to Avoriaz. Not realising that it’s a cable car in/out….
Our flights land in Geneva at 8pm and we leave on a 10am flight. Booked transfers, but I’m assuming they will only get us as far as the wee cable car…which I’m now seeing isn’t 24/7….
Can anyone here calm me down and confirm that there are indeed ways to get in and out of our resort late night and early morning. Or conversely, confirm I’ve been hasty and I should do more research before paying for accommodation and flights!!!!
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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Nah you drive up
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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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Transfer minibuses will go up to resort if that is what you booked.
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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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@Ciorsdah, I presume you've booked the accom? As DOTM says, you can drive up so you should establish where your transfer is going to take you?
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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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Thanks everyone. Yes we have accommodation. I’ve dropped an email to the transfer company so hopefully they get back to me - I’m just a very nervous traveller and had a wee moment there that I’d totally messed up
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Ciorsdah, usually with the transfers to Avoriaz, you choose your drop off location as Prodains (for the cable car) or Avoriaz. Assuming you've booked to Avoriaz and not Prodains, you'll be fine. If you've booked to Prodains, you'll be struggling.
See what the transfer company says, but 100% transfers run up to the village.
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As @swskier says, provided you've booked your transfer to some flavor of "Avoriaz"/"Avoriaz Station" and not something like "Prodains"/"Avoriaz (via Prodains gondola)" you'll get driven all the way up the mountin and dropped at the "Accueil Station" (https://www.seeavoriaz.com/files/191).
From there, depending where your accomodation is you have a choice to either just drag your bags/hire a ~€1 bag sled and slide your bags/call a piste basher taxi (not too expensive and if there aren't staff 'out and about' when you arrive there should be people on the reception desk, and failing that the telephone number to call's well advertised from memory).
The other thing to check is your accomodation's arrivals/check-in process/times - though generally if it's not 24/7 and you're arriving 'out of hours' they'll arrange something, like leaving the key at the Accueil Station reception. Obviously easier to know/arrange this in advance.
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Just watch the weather the night before leaving, a dump of snow at 3am means the road from Avoriaz down to Morzine might be impeded at 6-7am, by snow or stuck cars. Small chance but possible.
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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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I'm new to be posting on here - having 'lurked' for a years ... I've also justed booked 2 flights for me and daughter to Geneva on Jan 1st for a 4 night short trip returning on Jan 5th -daughter has to be back at Uni on Mon 8th. We've got accomodation on hold in Avoriaz from Jan 2nd (it was cheaper to fly late on Jan 1st and stay in a hotel close to Geneva airport). I have messaged a couple of taxi / transfer firms but havent heard back... so, am currently looking at driving from Geneva to Avoriaz early on Jan 2nd. Having looked thru lots of posts I can't decide if it's best to (a) rent the car from French side and drive to one of the carparks ... or (b) hold out for a transfer firm to confirm they can take us both. Anyone got any sound advice from experience which is best way to get to Avoriaz? Thank you! Phil
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@malabarman, there are several companies doing reasonably economical shared transfers to Morzine and Avoriaz, I would have thought you shouldn't have problems with a booking. Try Skiidy Gonzales or Alpybus.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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If they're still about, I'd also recommend Skiidy Gonzalez.
Check deals with accommodation too, sometimes they include a free sleigh ride from the drop off point to the digs.
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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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thank you JB and Snoody - I've got a quote from Alpybus online - will try skiidy as well
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I generally use Ski-Lift/Getaway Vans. Return shared minibus transfers from Geneva to Morzine coming in at €110 this year.
If you do decide to drive you might want to live hire car booking till the 'last minute'. French cars are cheaper but might not have winter tyres¹ and you'll need to either drive around Switzerland or pick your route carefully on back roads/buy a Swiss motorway vingette. Swiss cars will have both but cost more - so if lots of snow's in the forecast maybe go Swiss/no snow go French.
¹ The winter tyres thing in France is, well, really French. I think when I was looking last year the department the car hire is in was "winter tyres" but local mayors could opt out. None of the ones surrounding the town with the car hire places had opted out - but the one with them had (assuming various websites were correct/up-to-date). So in theory the car hire placed didn't need to supply winter tyres...but you'd only be able to drive about 3 miles in any direction before needing them. A cynical person would suggest a deliberate move at the behest of the hire firms so they could keep charging extra for winter tyres...
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You know it makes sense.
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@Mjit, we tend to book hire cars when we book the flight, and book direct from one of the main companies (we use Europcar as we get a free 2nd driver and they don’t charge a cross-border fee) then just keep an eye on prices. You can cancel free up to 48hrs before and just rebook if the prices go down (as they have recently then boinged back up again in March).
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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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I'd also disagree with booking hire cars last min, it's always been cheaper in my experience booking earlier rather than later.
@malabarman, hiring from the French side be aware when you drop off you need a plane ticket for that day to be allowed to enter and walk thru to the Swiss side! It's a PITA IMHO, having done it twice I just hire from the Swiss side now.
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Poster: A snowHead
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thanks for your responses. REally useful to hear other people's views. as we're arriving at Geneva after 9pm on New Years Day I've decided to stay close to the airport and then am goign back there at 8am for a shared transfer with SKiidy. They've been really helpful on email this last few days. I'll let you know how it goes... in 26 days!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Watch out for the horse drawn taxis, they creep up on you and you can't hear the bugs coming.
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