Closest Driveable Resort For a Short Break?

A snowHead

I'm sure this has been asked repeatedly. I'm also aware I should UTFS, but the search function isn't great and I can't surface much. So, drop a link to a relevant thread if you have it...

Thinking of driving somewhere mid Jan with 3 mates for a 3 day fix of snow. We usually ski with families but all would quite like a few days escape if we can manage it and manage it pretty cheaply.

Thinking we'd drive as we all have skis, boards etc. and we're London based. 3 of us are decent enough so want something with a bit of a challenge, 1 is still learning so pretty nervous. We won't spend all day skiing together (well, not with the beginner) and as it's only 3 days i'm thinking we can probably have fun in most resorts but ideally we'd have a decent amount of runs as we tend to cover quite a lot of KM in a day.

Don't care about apres, would obviously like snow but am fully aware most folks crystal balls are glitchy at best. No need for luxuries, just basic accommodation not far from a lift.

Is there an obvious choice? I'm assuming France?

Thanks in advance.

A snowHead

Why not take the train and take all your kit on there? We often drive to the Alps but not for three days! It would also be expensive to buy winter tyres and chains for a three day trip unless you have them on for the car being used already.

If you decide to drive I think Les Carroz is one of the nearest and easiest places to get to and the Grand Massif is an excellent ski area.

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Its probably more expensive that you think driving to the northern alps (PDS, Grand Massif etc). Tolls are EUR150 and then factor in 3 tanks of fuel fro London, winterisation and eutotunnel (to save time). Will be cheaper if you can get some cheap off-peak easyjet flights to GVA and let the cost of transfers decide where you stay (inc train to CH side of PDS).

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I was thinking Grand Massif but perhaps Flaine - not much further and more immediate choice of cheap apartments? If you rent a cheap apartment for a week and travel Mon - Fri that would work, but if you want to span a weekend that will reduce your accommodation choice. But mid-January an excellent time to choose - there'll be something!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

been looking at this very topic myself, albeit for quick break pre xmas....for 2 x father & sons trip

ideally would prefer to head close to Geneva resorts which are shortest drive - GM, La Clusaz, Grand Bornand, Morzine, Avoriaz etc, but the risk of poor snow low down early on is consideration, so we are heading higher and probably Tignes, so will cost another 2 hours or so on the drive, but looking like the below will be our plan

16/12 - Early afternoon shuttle 13.50(cant do earlier) - drive down and stay overnight in Chambery arrive about 11pm, drive on Sunday morning first thing

3 nights in Tignes - giving 4 days skiing - Sun, Mon, Tues. Weds, leave after skiing at 3 ish on Weds and drive back getting 02.20 shuttle

Granted not everyone's cup of tea....but lure of the white stuff overrides the ball ache

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While '4 up' driving's quite likely better for the environment I have to say for a mid Jan short break I'd probably fly. You should be able to get flights at reasonable prices as you're between Christmas/New Year and Half Term school holidays and spend less time driving/more time skiing. Even some of the closest large ski areas are realistically 12hrs driving time, on a good day, and ~€340 in fuel/toll on the French side, plus channel crossing and UK fuel costs. Looking on Skyscanner you can get flights for a £50/£60 base price. You obviously need to add bags but I'd have thought you could combine gear into just 1 or 2 shared ski bags then add transfers, about €110 this year for shared minibus but for 4 a private transfer might be cheaper.

As for your actual question - generally skiing in the western Alps kicks off south and east of Geneva, and if you want lots of miles then the obvious one is the Portes du Soleil. But you're probably better off leaving it till the last minute. Work out if you're going to drive or fly (which would open up Austria/Italy) and maybe book your travel but wait and see where the snow is and pick your resort based on that a couple of weeks out.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

We've often, with similar mates jumped in a car to share, but for a week usually, in January to nearest Alpine ski station.

As noted already, Grand Massif, PdS likely closest to travel there.

Champèry in Switzerland a good choice for PdS, if you go round the top of Lake Geneva which will make it reasonably close out of all the other villages there. You can leave London area @ 8~9pm to get there before much is open the next morning with pretty easy drive through the night and via Euroutunnel.
Also easy via train from Geneva Airport to same village.

Chatel too, on same lift area but a little more nuanced road trip.

A little further but good combination of skiing, plus ad hoc accommodation, Nendaz for 4V is very good in January. Another relatively easy drive from London overnight, just miss the turning into Champèry Very Happy

plus a few more kms.

After all it is free

Why not fly, London to airport is easy. Late returns from Zurich and Milan-Malpensa allow access to a lot of resorts with 90mins driving so you get to ski on the last day. You can also get late returns from Geneva if you must.
Zurich - Laax/Arosa/Sta Anton/St Gallenkirch ++++, Milan, Milkyway, Monterosa,

flights to all those an be had for £100-150 each, + £75 each will get you a hire car big enough, so for say £200 each you're there.

Nearest ski resorts to London (UK) are in Belgium, Eastern France, Western Germany, and Scotland.

Good suggestion from Pam_W.

1. Flaine
2. La Clusaz
3. Courchevel (La Tania or Le Praz)
4. Chamonix
5. Grindelwald

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For a short trip, of course, renting a car to drive from Geneva becomes cheaper relative to transfers, which cost the same for 3 days as for 3 weeks. Personally, though I've driven to the Alps a lot, for 3 days for a little group I'd fly and rent a car (with winter tyres, from the Swiss side of Gva airport).

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It is easy from London to drive though, especially through the night.

All the kit in the car, one booking for tunnel travel and absolutely no connections to sync. Makes for a relaxed and very flexible trip with not that much downside potential.

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There's a lot of resorts (Verbier, Chamonix, PDS, Grand Massif, Megeve etc...) with a google maps estimates driving time of between 8:30 and 9 hours from Calais so I probably wouldn't base it on which of those was the absolute closest. La Clusaz comes in 08:30 but Champery beats it by a whole minute. Not sure if there is a resort worth driving to from London that's less than that. Have you driven to the Alps before? For a 3 day trip I wouldn't say that it was worth it unless you think that you can tag team through the night both ways so that 1 day off work equals three days skiing over a long weekend. Perhaps not sensible or safe

@rambotion, how does Villars compare to Champery in terms of driving time?

You know it makes sense.

@denfinella, 08:32 (with today's traffic) so at best a distant third place in terms of driving time form the UK

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

Our group have done a few short trips before and with those we try to maximise ski time, so we always fly. Options from London are really good and there’s Usually some really good deals out there for flights. We look to leave super early on the day of departure to try and get that afternoon on the slopes. Looking at doing similar for 2024 too. Three options we are considering:

1) Fly to Turin, 90 minute transfer to Via Lattea (probably Montgenevre for us but Sauze d’Oulx is quickest to get to from Turin and liveliest of the resorts, we’ve been to Sauze plenty before though and fancy something different). Private transfer hikes up the cost a bit, we haven’t really looked into ways to cheapen it as we’ve had good numbers for a minibus before, typically about 400 euros return private minibus.
2) Fly to Geneva, 90 minute transfer to Les Gets / Morzine / Flaine. Did it before with Skiidy Gonzales to Les Gets and could pay individually for a seat on a minibus, albeit not quite as slick as a private transfer it worked well on that occasion.
3) Fly to Salzburg or Innsbruck, then there’s a good number of resorts well within 90 minutes from the airport. Haven’t done Austria for about ten years now so probably needs a bit more research!

We’ve only once looked to hire a car, and that wasn’t to save money, it was more to visit a couple of resorts and have flexibility. And like I say, most times a minibus has worked well for us for the numbers involved. But car hire is another option worth investigating.

A snowHead

With three drivers, driving overnight seems perfectly feasible and sensible to me. I've done it on my own. Stick to strict "watches" so nobody just drives on, on autopilot. Stop every two hours for the "coming on watch" driver to have a coffee and everyone to have a pee break and walk around in the fresh air. Four stints of two hours from Calais will see you nearly there. If you're on a tight budget, plan carefully for stuff to take with you for , eating in your apartment with minimal local shopping. Beer and wine, as well as fresh bread, frozen pizzas etc will be easily available in any resort shop. If you're slightly short of vitamins for 3 days, you'll survive.

A snowHead

Well, that was a fast and comprehensive reply thread.

We've driven before so I know the costs. Usually to Les Menuires. That's basically 400 plus the tunnel which at that time is 200 so it would be 150 each return. Wasn't going to do a night drive. Was thinking an early start, like the 7AM train, we're SE London so it's about an hour away, then 8 hrs or so from Calais to wherever, so hopefully get there about 6 in the eve. Shared driving. Other plus is we can load up at a supermarket before resort so food and drink is easy.

Had been assuming a flight would be a lot more in cost and not that much more in terms of time. Even Gatwick is over an hour to the airport, 2 hour wait, 2 hour flight, 1 hour exit then probably a 2 hour drive so 8hrs plus. Granted we could just read magazines the whole way though. I'll def check flights, it was mainly the cost by the time we park or get train at this end, plus sports baggage, plus hire or transfer. TBH, the issue is there's so many variables depending on resort. Which made me think some kind of spreadsheet to make it a bit easier to decide would be super useful. Which made me think I'd ask ChatGPT and it gave me this:

Can you tell me the ski resort that has the best mixture of ski run variation, value for money and shortest drive from London? We'll take the euro tunnel with the car. We will be going mid january.

As of my last knowledge update in January 2023, I don't have real-time data on specific ski resort conditions or promotions. However, I can offer some general guidance on popular ski destinations accessible from London.

One option to consider is the French Alps. They are easily accessible from the Eurotunnel, and there are several ski resorts with a variety of runs, good value for money, and a relatively short drive from London.

1. Chamonix, France:
Variation: Chamonix is known for its diverse terrain, catering to skiers of all levels. It has challenging runs for advanced skiers and plenty of options for beginners.
Value for Money: While Chamonix can be on the higher end in terms of cost, it often offers good value, especially if you plan and book in advance. There are various accommodation options and dining choices to fit different budgets.
Distance from London: The drive from London to Chamonix takes around 9-10 hours.

2, Morzine-Avoriaz, France:
Variation: Part of the Portes du Soleil ski area, Morzine and Avoriaz provide a wide range of ski runs suitable for all skill levels.
Value for Money: Morzine-Avoriaz is often considered more budget-friendly compared to some other high-profile resorts in the Alps.
Distance from London: The drive from London to Morzine-Avoriaz takes around 8-9 hours.

So even the silicone overlords think Portes du Soleil is a good call. Once it gets a plug-in for booking.com and google flights it'll be much more useful but was interesting to see what it distilled from all the data.

The accommodation, at first glance, is surprisingly affordable, like 150 PP. So depending on transport it would be a 300 odd quid break plus ski-pass. All I'd need to do is not spend more than that on pointless new skis and it's almost a cheap break.

Sounds like Grand massive or Flaine might be a good call. I'll check flight prices as well as all the add ons. I'll also try and reply when I've got all the costs so other folks have an idea of the costs either way.

Thanks again.

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With your own car you can stay somewhere cheap down in the valley and drive straight to a lift each morning.

I've stayed in Sallanches and skied the Grand Massif. There's a big car park in Samoens, and also Combe de Vernant. You could also stay in Martigny and drive to Le Chable gondola (for Verbier) in 20 mins.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@pam w, driving tired is comparable to driving while at the drink drive limit so 'sensible' is pretty debateable. French motorways are pretty easy, especially at night, but that can make it even harder to maintain concentration. A lot depends on how well the people resting manage to sleep

https://theconversation.com/driving-on-less-than-5-hours-of-sleep-is-just-as-dangerous-as-drunk-driving-study-finds-202514#:~:text=Not%20only%20this%2C%20but%20a,likely%20to%20have%20a%20crash.

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@B., Driving's clearly doable, but I wouldn't!

We used to do lots of weekends out of London, iirc our best winter was something like 56 days skiing for 10 days annual leave. But you have to optimise for minimum journey times.

Mid Jan - easiest are PdS, G Massif, Chamonix: in terms of infrastructure and likely accommodation. Snow? Who knows? (No-one).

But I'd fly. Our typical route was:

Leave office ~17:00 (earlier if poss)
LGW-GVA ~19:30 (arr ~22:15)
Pick up hire car (priority access)
In Bar for a couple of sneaky ones.
Ski three days with proper sleeps
GVA-LGW ~19:00 (arr ~20:00) (Actually for ~6 months I commuted to Geneva at weekends - flight at ~06:30 still easily got me desk about 09:00)
Home early enough to sleep properly for whatever day is next in office.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@rambotion, Three of the people will also be driving a car they are not familiar with and would need to be insured to drive it.

After all it is free

It depends on individuals. One of the key red flags in driving, especially on French motorways which seem "easy" is time behind the wheel. Driving for more than two hours without a break has been found to increase risks substantially, whether in the day or night. Driving whilst tired is certainly a risk but that can happen in day time too - setting off after school breaks up and a hectic week's work, last minute packing and driving down through peak hours traffic to a ferry or eurotunnel and sprinting a couple of hours to have a crappy night's sleep on plastic pillows in a cheap hotel isn't good either.

I would always pull off a motorway in fog. And have done. Some people drive on, though fog is probably the biggest risk on fast roads.

People need to know their strengths and weaknesses, be aware of risks, and act accordingly.

If it goes well, fly-drive, fly-train and self-drive can all be relatively streamlined and stress-free. If it goes badly, they can all be nightmares in their own way. So some of the decision is just down to circumstances and luck at the time. Plus the profile of the people you're travelling with. Each has it's pros and cons, even if thing go smoothly.

Just one point about choosing somewhere accessible by train from GVA is that if you're in a group and people are travelling separately, then the train/télépherique/bus gives you the option to press on if someone is delayed. And for the person/people delayed, there's no pressure if they can just hop on a train and follow on later.

If you do car rental and it turns out that Hertz is a reasonable option, then it's free to join their Gold Club and you get a priority lane, a free second driver and often an upgrade if possible. The Gold Club has proved useful occassionally when a load of flights all exit arrivals together and it's busy at the rental desks.

My left-field suggestion is to fly to GVA then take the train to Le Chable and stay at the Mt.Fort Swiss Lodge which is in the same building as the rilway station and the gondola up to central Verbier. Single rooms with private bathroom start at CHF 60 including buffet breakfast. The Verbier gondola runs 05:15 to 23:50 so you can spend an evening in Verbier if you want, without Verbier accommodation costs. But obviously, this is basic and you may be looking for something a bit more comfortable. An 60-day advance SBB Saver Day Pass is CHF 52 (£47), valid anywhere and any time on the day of travel. The train from inside GVA to Le Chable takes 2h 7m - 2h 14m. So that's £94/person return GVA<>Le Chable-Verbier

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As I'm avoiding work I just checked flights. So a return to geneva from Gatwick is 150 (thurs 18 Jan to the Mon) but with a shared hold bag between 2 and skis it takes it up to 260 each. Car hire from Geneva is 200 for a compact but what do we do with the skis? So I guess we get an estate and hope they have a through port in the back seats? That's 250. So that would leave us at about 325 each. A lot more than the 200 PP to drive but it is quicker. Though probably not by as much as you might think.

But if we're going to fly I can fly Stanstead to Malpensa for 175 inc skis and a big bag and we can rent an estate for 100 quid. So that's actually the same price as driving with a 2.5 hr drive to Courmayeur. Now I'm super confused...

Thanks. I think.

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@B., if the STN-MXP flights work time-wise, e.g. Champoluc is about 90 minutes drive. You just need to be careful that hyour hire car is properly winterised. Monterosa would probably work for your group as long as your "beginner" friend doesn't insist on meeting for lunch (although that's not insurmountable).

You know it makes sense.

@B., have you tried looking at the cost of going by train to Bourg St Maurice and staying in arc 1600 which you could get to on the funicular which is included in the ski pass?

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

Many years ago (25-ish). Pals and I drove to Chamonix for a long weekend. Left Liverpool about 8pm on Thursday night. Dover, tunnel and motorway arriving in Cham at about 10am the following day. 3 drivers alternating every 2 hours.
Skied Friday pm, Saturday and Sunday then drove back Sunday night arriving home early hours of Tuesday morning. Very tired but happy bunnies. We did this twice iirc but then progressed to being allowed a week away.

So, it can be done but it is tiring.

A snowHead

You can do it on BA from LGW for under £500 return for 3 people, including bags. Some judicious packing (3 pairs skis in one bag, all the boots and clothes in 2 more) and you won't need any excess baggage.

Turin is also a similar price from LGW, and car hire might be cheaper. Gets you into the Milky way resorts within 90 mins.

A snowHead

London Gatwick to Innsbruck with Easyjet

12/01/24
Dep 07.15
Arr 10.10

You could reasonably hire a car and be parked up in somewhere like Axamer Lizum ready to get on a lift by 11.30. Alternatively you could be jumping on the lift anywhere in the Zillertal by 12.

Ski Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday, and until 2/3 o'clock on Monday then drive back to the airport for the:

Dep 18.10
Arr 19.10 back to Gatwick

Flight cost is £83.47 per person, and then £57 per 23kg bag, and £74 per ski bag.

So in total:

£83.47 x 4 = £333.88
£57 x 2 = £114
£74 x 2 = £148

So total flight costs are £148.97 each.

Vauxhall Mokka hire car coming in at £103. So around £175 all in. 2 days annual leave and you'll get 3-3.5 days skiing.

Various accommodation options along the Zillertal at various price points and a number of different ski areas that you'll absolutely not be able to cover in 3.5 days.

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Thanks, I'll check some of those options tomorrow. This seems to have become a much more complicated decision than I was expecting...

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@B., i've always gone for France and Morzine as a short break location, because from Bristol airport Geneva is the most convenient and offers the most options.

But being in London with the airport/flight choices there, you'll not fly anywhere with a shorter transfer than in to Innsbruck. At the shortest option, you could drive to Hungerburg and up Nordkette in a 15 minute drive from the airport (per google maps) and in 17 minutes you could be in Igls.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

By road it's often stated that Morzine is closest, but Nendaz for 4V ski area is 12 kms closer to Calais by comparison.

No not much in grand scheme of things, but shoots a hole through the PdS "assumption" of being the closest. I've driven both many times.

Nendaz is a good cost location for some fantastic ski domain of Verbier etc, many vacancies usually in January, Migros supermarket of significant size right in the village, a very good mix of attributes for distance and budget. Reachable by train and direct bus from Geneva too.

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@ski3, and the best cookie I've ever eaten in baguette magique opposite the Tracouet Gondola in town. Laughing

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

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@Ozboy, yes, I like that route through Jura toward Pontarlier, Vallorbe border into CH.

It's nice to drive different overall route from an interest point of view, missing traffic que is high on my priority, happy with that if possible and don't mind rain, snow etc. Really peaceful at night, and still beautiful in something like a hoar frost night drive. Driving toward the moring is nice too.

Quite impressive timing Geneva to Hammersmith on the train there.

Help!!

Closest Driveable Resort For a Short Break?

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