 Poster: A snowHead
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I am flying into Geneva at the end of the month and driving to Tignes.
I have booked a car from the French side, but still have free cancellation and have been reading regarding Winter Tyres / Chains and Vignette.
Is it going to be easier to cancel the hire and rebook from the Swiss side? (it's around £20 more expensive)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Definitely easier and cheaper to hire from the Swiss side if it's only a £20 difference. If you get it from the French side you can avoid the Swiss motorways and not require a vignette, but you'll need to either rent or buy snow chains which will cost more than £20.
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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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@downinja, Swiss side is much easier all round imho For +£20 its a no brainer
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For £20 I probably would - the difference is normally more than that.
Swiss you will get winter tyres and a Swiss motorway vignette (40CHF/£37 though you can take a route that avoids the Swiss motorways).
France you might get winter tyres - was confusing last year with the department the French hire car places are in having the "winter tyres required" rule, but with individual subprefectures able to opt out...which the French hire car one did, despite being 'land locked' by places that were opted in meaning they didn't HAVE to give you winter tyres - but you'd only be able to drive about 5 miles in any direction!
Anyone hire a car from the French side last year and know what the reality was on the ground?
One bit of advice on hiring on the Swiss side though - use someone like SkyScanner so you can see who's actually providing the car, then try to avoid the cheapest one. Normally there's 1 desk with a huge queue/almost nobody at the others, and who that is changes week to week depending who had a promotion on that week so was cheapest so every man and his dog booked with!
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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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| boredsurfin wrote: |
| @downinja, Swiss side is much easier all round imho For +£20 its a no brainer |
I was pretty much coming to that conclusion but thought I would check.
Booking switched 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
Swiss side is much easier all round imho For +£20 its a no brainer
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I must be the only one then who always gets lost trying to find the motorway when leaving the Swiss side and gets carved up by everyone else on the roads returning. Never mind having to get the shuttle bus. Ignoring the vignette issue (that is going to become much more difficult with the electonic vignettes coming in shortly) it's usually easier to hire from the French side, but then again the Swiss side is sometimes cheeper. I always check both.
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| Mjit wrote: |
For £20 I probably would - the difference is normally more than that.
Swiss you will get winter tyres and a Swiss motorway vignette (40CHF/£37 though you can take a route that avoids the Swiss motorways).
France you might get winter tyres - was confusing last year with the department the French hire car places are in having the "winter tyres required" rule, but with individual subprefectures able to opt out...which the French hire car one did, despite being 'land locked' by places that were opted in meaning they didn't HAVE to give you winter tyres - but you'd only be able to drive about 5 miles in any direction!
Anyone hire a car from the French side last year and know what the reality was on the ground?
One bit of advice on hiring on the Swiss side though - use someone like SkyScanner so you can see who's actually providing the car, then try to avoid the cheapest one. Normally there's 1 desk with a huge queue/almost nobody at the others, and who that is changes week to week depending who had a promotion on that week so was cheapest so every man and his dog booked with! |
Booked with EuropCar, got the app to do online check in and avoid all the form filling and have separate excess cover to prevent being scalped with the "all inclusive option" (annual).
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Isn't the swiss vignette included in the cars hired from the swiss side? I've never bought it separately before and haven't paid attention to what routes navi was taking.
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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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| snowyc wrote: |
| Isn't the swiss vignette included in the cars hired from the swiss side? I've never bought it separately before and haven't paid attention to what routes navi was taking. |
That’s my understanding.
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So, I would only add that swiss parking for car hires is walking distance from terminal so no need to wait for the bus.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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This is the walking route from the rental desks to P.51 rental car pickup/return:
Note the location of the small petrol station half way along, which is your station of last resort if you haven’t managed to fill-up before you get here when returning the car.
When walking past the middle building you go through two waist-high pavement swing gates. Don’t let this put you off - there are no restrictions on using this route.
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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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Jan/Feb check your vignette is for 2024 as rental cars sometimes turn over so rapidly they can forget to replace the vignette. It’s valid through Jan the following year so the 2023 one is OK Jan 2024 but not from 1.2.24
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You can follow the route in @LaForet’s post but the one marked just follows the edge of the airport to a pedestrian crossing opposite P51. Cross road, take lift down to the hire car pickups.
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You know it makes sense.
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@DJL, yours is the the route I use- only one road crossing, which has traffic lights, and you can take a trolley as there are no curbs or steps.
Worth noting that this year, Avis on the Swiss side is charging about £10/day cross border charge to take the car out of Switzerland. This is only obvious in the later stages of the booking when, buried amongst the various offers for child seats and ski racks, is the cross border option.
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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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@snowdave, per DAY!  30CHF or whatever for the entire trip is bad enough, but a daily charge is daylight robbery!
Some companies still appear to allow you to cross the border for free thankfully.
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Poster: A snowHead
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There's a lot of confusion about the French rules. They do NOT require winter tyres, but if you don't have them, you must have chains or snow socks in the boot. Same as in Italy. I suspect that only a minority of French skiers driving down from Paris to the ski resorts will have winter tyres.
It is easier, in summer, to rent from the French side but in winter Swiss side wins. Getting to and from the airport without the Swiss motorway is more complicated and you need to use a map, or have good directions, not rely on satnavs (which will with maddening determination take you to the international (Swiss) side).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Post trip report back.
Car hire was straight forward on the Swiss side. Winter tyres included, no charge for going out of the country (Europcar). Already had a valid vinette.
Bus transfer to parking garage (it was about to set off), pretty much straight in the car (pretty new Golf Alltrack R).
Drive to Tignes was easy, no snow until got in the village. Drive back also easy despite warnings of French farmers blocking the road (they did a slightly half arsed job in the other direction). Petrol station was about a mile from the airport (Tamoil).
Only drama was EasyJet in Geneva not allowing a separate boot bag (that Manchester had allowed on the same booking), but that's a different story 
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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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| snowyc wrote: |
| So, I would only add that swiss parking for car hires is walking distance from terminal so no need to wait for the bus. |
depending on how much luggage you have! We were in a rush once so thought it would save time to do a quick walk, which it really didn't!
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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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| downinja wrote: |
Only drama was EasyJet in Geneva not allowing a separate boot bag (that Manchester had allowed on the same booking), but that's a different story |
Do tell!
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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on a side note I hired a car in Zurich airport through Hertz, when I left the car back they said there was a small chip in the windscreen and charged me 400CHF extra for the damage. They gave me very blurry photo evidence of a miniscule chip which was almost certainly done before I got the car and would never have been noticed. Be careful renting from Hertz they are nothing more than thieves
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@downinja, with EJ if you book skis as your sports item its “skis and boots” then you get a boot bag on top of a ski bag, if you book Snowboard the its just a snowboard bag, no boot bag. Odd, yes, clear on website , so so.
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Update on the cross-border charge. On return, I asked Hertz about what it was for, i.e. why I had to pay it.
The explanation was "breakdown recovery in a foreign country". It was c. £30 for the week.
Now I'm off to check if my RAC cover would actually suffice and I'll try rejecting next time...
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