 Poster: A snowHead
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| Rob_Quads wrote: |
| it took my brother over 5 hours from Grenoble airport |
Oh... thats bad.
I have that journey in 2 weeks time. I'm hoping for a 4 hour trip including a supermarket stop!
Have a fab time - save some snow for me 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Terrible drove down sadly that's both NY and HT driving to Alps at peak weeks is so stressful knowingly driving into traffic. Friday M25 East toward Gatwick horrendous got to Reims 0030 hoped for closer to 2300. Drive on Saturday horrendous, several accidents even before getting to chambery albertville usual jams, the tunels on the way were gridlocked. Got to Val Vanis neat three hours after I'd hoped to. Bound by school hols but I'm drained by the drive maybe have to look into flying.
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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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@James77, I’m sorry about your journeys but you have literally chosen the two worst weeks. When our offspring were school age we went Christmas week and one of the Easter weeks and the journey was generally ok.
There are of course other non flying options such as driving via the Newhaven or Portsmouth ferries or taking the train.
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Why is it so difficult to get toll prices!?
I want to compare my category 2 van vs a car, lots of information for cars, ~€90 each way calais to Val Thorens, but, for the van, some tool calculators say €225!
Via Michelin says it's the same as a car
Sanef only gives prices between specific toll booths which suggest 45% more than a car.
Van = Fiat Ducato, car = Citroen C5 saloon
I'm driving to Val T at Easter for 2w self catering, collecting my daughter from GVA en route but also carrying luggage for myself & 3 people, as well as at least 2 pairs of skis.
Car = nicer to drive & cheaper on fuel, ferry & tolls(if I use toll roads, didn't last year) but struggling for luggage space.
Van = 1 tonne of luggage/food capacity
Driving a Fiat Ducato or a Citroen C5
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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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@tangowaggon, can you email Sanef and ask?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@boredsurfin,
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When my kids were younger we spotted and counted Norbert lorries
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me too, and i started in my mid twenties after spotting one of their depots at calais when returning from my first ever ski trip via the old party train, i have no idea why it peaked my interest, but it was mainly spotting them in the uk in the 90's!!
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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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Thanks, that seemed to give a sensible answer €98 for the car €148 for the van, about £150 cheaper in fuel & tolls if I take the car.
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@snowymum, Thank you. I booked knowing it'll be crazy just spend the year convincing myself it won't be as bad as I think. We may try Easter not as if February HT is fantastic condition mild and no snow predicted 3 years on the trott. Easter often gets a good dump.
We're here now and it's great  love Val cenis and spending time with kids is what really counts.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@tangowaggon, Took me a while to find a sensible one too. It’s accurate as well which helps
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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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@James77, The only way to make it not suck is to leave *much* earlier. We now need to be past Troyes by 7.30 to stand a chance of not getting stuck for hours and arriving well after dark.
We loved Val Cenis/Termingon when kids were small. Used to “race” my boys from the top of the Met lift to the bottom of Essarts. In all fairness they were pretty quick. Last time I raced one I crashed laughing as I simply couldn’t hold edges at anything remotely like the same speeds. What a difference 12-13 years makes!
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@James77, I’m glad you are having a great time now you are there. We went to Val Cenis once at the end of March and enjoyed it. That year we had a two week Easter ski holiday and went on to a different resort for the second week which is another option to consider if you like skiing for two weeks a year but would rather not spend too much time driving.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Inboard wrote: |
@Topgeartom, we did that route Rotterdam-Basel in January. Nice and quiet on Hogmanay, no lorries and few cars, it was a brisk journey.
Priority disembark not available then either - we had to load through the stern ramp (with the freight, and use internal ramps up to car deck); there was a problem with the car linkspan at Hull apparently hence no priority option. |
The bridge to the boat in hull apparently is out of commission which means early boarding/ first off the ship is not avaiable out or return however family friend went out a couple of weeks ago and they got to port early and still off the boat in good time. We are booked out next week but no return yet booked as wasnt 100% sure what our plans would be . As we live north of hull have just done a bit of a price comparison against coming home via tunnel or ferry from dover ..Allowing for an early start we could and have in the past made it from austria or stayed an extra day and left after skiing and overnighted somewhere 3-4 hours drive after skiing via rotterdam , doing the same by dover or tunnel realistically means miss a days skiing or have an extra night in a hotel say northern france or below cambridge . Ive found the difference in price re rotterdam /hull or dover calais with extra night is not in favour by a lump of getting up to rotterdam plus if all goes well could be home into work mid morning, this wasnt the case a couple of years ago when I did the same exercise .
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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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Just to add to the driving times woe, Troyes to Samoëns took us 9 hours on Sat, leaving at 9am!
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Poster: A snowHead
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@jesus, that is a long day in the car.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| @jesus, that is a long day in the car. |
We stopped for a total of an hour, and were Google rerouted onto D roads, a rough average of 30mph, yikes!
It was horrendous, and as others have remarked the time remaining did not go down for most of the journey.
Conclusion: get as far South as poss; leaving Troyes at 9am was an error.
But we are here now, glorious blue skies, great snow. Queues, yes, but it's half term.
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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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@jesus, no longer a half term traveller, but our schools locally are on 1/2 term next week. I was hoping for quiet traffic on my way to work this morning.
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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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@jesus, when we used to drIve at HT we'd stay in an F1 somewhere just to sleep, get away by 6.30, drive for 2 hours or so then have breakfast. That way, you've got further on and used time as efficiently as possible. Another 2 or 3 hours, stop for lunch then on to the resort. Enjoy your week - I like the GM 
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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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I guess it depends on how far North in the UK you start your journey. For us, we were never able to leave until early Friday morning, and even with 2 drivers, by the time we reached Reims we'd been on the road for 10 hours. Add a delay in, and getting much further South is impossible. We're a bit more relaxed about it now, as we do 2 weeks, don't go in school holidays, and prefer a leisurely journey.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Hells Bells, Durham. Or the Deep South, as we call it!
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Thanks to everyone on this chat for the info. Based on what we have learned from all the comments we pursued a ‘kids ill on Friday- the bug that’s going around don’t you know’ approach. Left the midlands at 4am Friday 14th - got on 8:26 tunnel. In Beaune by 5:30 pm for a decent dinner and early night. Left beaune at 05:40 on the Saturday and in Chamonix by 08:50 and skied. Busy the whole way but probably averaged 60 mph. My instinct is that if we left midlands at 6am it would have been a11:26 tunnel at the earliest arriving at Beaune at 9:30 pm and if we left Beaune after breakfast at 8am … who knows? Planning to leave 5am Saturday morning to get ahead of the traffic - and will do it as a ‘one-er’ - we’ll see how that goes. Last half term for me so will be more chilled next time
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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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My kids were due to get the "sickness bug" last Friday morning but my little fella actually got for real onThursday morning, so was off school for that day too! Daughter must of caught it off him on Friday as my wife told her school that!
We got a flight to memmingen and drove (in the snow) 2 hours ish to best western hotel in keiferfelsden. Up early next day for short drive to saalbach. Hired skids skis and was on snow by 9 30 ish am. No traffic even with skiing World Cup, though it was busy going up the valley road to Saalbach. No half term queues- practically straight on all lifts.
Snow was ok up to today, really warm and sunny today with lumpy slopes by lunchtime, though we kept going till 3pm!
We are all having great time and will be sad to leave Saturday evening after skiing.
Staying in Munich Ibis styles Saturday night and flight leaving Sunday afternoon.
Already thinking about where we should go next year!
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| Hells Bells wrote: |
| I guess it depends on how far North in the UK you start your journey. For us, we were never able to leave until early Friday morning, and even with 2 drivers, by the time we reached Reims we'd been on the road for 10 hours. Add a delay in, and getting much further South is impossible. We're a bit more relaxed about it now, as we do 2 weeks, don't go in school holidays, and prefer a leisurely journey. |
Now just a few days before we set off on our way to austria wednesday 26th night on hull rotterdam as we live north north yorks less than a couple of hours to hull ferry we will be taking it leisurely as mrs ski for fun likes to visit a different place to see the sights and as we are free to do more or less as we please for a couple of weeks we will overnight thursday and friday before aiming to get to hotel saturday 1st march before 11 am so as we can have a half day on the saturday . With this in mind cant decide wether to go frankfurt - nuremburg route and overnight with time to spare in wurzburg or go stuttgart - munich way and aim for augsburg and then on to overnight in kufstein from both on the friday before the final bit to hotel . Any one stayed in either place and which would you go back to/choose ? Long gone are the days of setting off from here on a friday after work down to dover drive through the night to get to a pierre d vacance shoe box or god forbid a mixed chalet in france with kids in the back ho ho.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We usually take the Stuttgart, Munich route although we have tried the Wurzburg option occasionally and there doesn't seem to be much in it from a time and traffic view.
Do you have any interest in either wine or cars? There are two really interesting museums in Stuttgart - Porsche and Mercedes and this year we stayed at a very nice hotel in Ludwigshafen near Stuttgart called the Schlosshotel Monrepos.
If you like wine, you could drive down the Weinstrasse and visit various wine producers or try the Bernkastle, Niersteiner area which is beautiful and Trier is worth a visit
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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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| daveqpr wrote: |
My kids were due to get the "sickness bug" last Friday morning but my little fella actually got for real onThursday morning, so was off school for that day too! Daughter must of caught it off him on Friday as my wife told her school that!
We got a flight to memmingen and drove (in the snow) 2 hours ish to best western hotel in keiferfelsden. Up early next day for short drive to saalbach. Hired skids skis and was on snow by 9 30 ish am. No traffic even with skiing World Cup, though it was busy going up the valley road to Saalbach. No half term queues- practically straight on all lifts.
Snow was ok up to today, really warm and sunny today with lumpy slopes by lunchtime, though we kept going till 3pm!
We are all having great time and will be sad to leave Saturday evening after skiing.
Staying in Munich Ibis styles Saturday night and flight leaving Sunday afternoon.
Already thinking about where we should go next year! |
Hi. Was there an additional car rental cost in going open-jaw by collecting in Memmingen, dropping off in Munch? Assuming that’s what you did.
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| Illetas wrote: |
We usually take the Stuttgart, Munich route although we have tried the Wurzburg option occasionally and there doesn't seem to be much in it from a time and traffic view.
Do you have any interest in either wine or cars? There are two really interesting museums in Stuttgart - Porsche and Mercedes and this year we stayed at a very nice hotel in Ludwigshafen near Stuttgart called the Schlosshotel Monrepos.
If you like wine, you could drive down the Weinstrasse and visit various wine producers or try the Bernkastle, Niersteiner area which is beautiful and Trier is worth a visit |
Thanks for the info thinking ludwigshafen maybe isnt far enough on way out but worth considering on way back . Think im going to try for augsburg if using stuttgart if decide not to go wurzburg and overnight there (never been before) though plan b is to get to kufstein either way but that will depend on conditions and traffic ,generally we dont book overnight stop until within an hour or so cheers ps like wine but cars to me are just a way of getting from a-b cheers
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You know it makes sense.
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Arrived in saalbach late this morning I made a bad call in driving down as far as stuttgart from rotterdam before heading for munich as the traffic and roadworks near and past stuttgart cost a lot of time usually we go frankfurt/ nuremburg and overnight on the austrian border which we did last night just took longer. Averaged a lower than usual 54 miles/hr driving time not including a stop for food and arrived here with just over 60 miles of english diesel left from a full tank in hull so happy with that nearly 50mpg .
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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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@ski for fun, Saturdays are always bad around stuttgart/munich. We will be doing that tomorrow
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Poster: A snowHead
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Grenoble airport to Alpe D'huez yesterday afternoon - 2 hours 50 mins....
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Snow&skifan wrote: |
| daveqpr wrote: |
My kids were due to get the "sickness bug" last Friday morning but my little fella actually got for real onThursday morning, so was off school for that day too! Daughter must of caught it off him on Friday as my wife told her school that!
We got a flight to memmingen and drove (in the snow) 2 hours ish to best western hotel in keiferfelsden. Up early next day for short drive to saalbach. Hired skids skis and was on snow by 9 30 ish am. No traffic even with skiing World Cup, though it was busy going up the valley road to Saalbach. No half term queues- practically straight on all lifts.
Snow was ok up to today, really warm and sunny today with lumpy slopes by lunchtime, though we kept going till 3pm!
We are all having great time and will be sad to leave Saturday evening after skiing.
Staying in Munich Ibis styles Saturday night and flight leaving Sunday afternoon.
Already thinking about where we should go next year! |
Hi. Was there an additional car rental cost in going open-jaw by collecting in Memmingen, dropping off in Munch? Assuming that’s what you did. |
Hi - no extra cost, we went from the hotel in Munich straight to Memmingen airport the next day (Sunday) it took a little over an hour to get there and a very easy journey.
In fact we quite liked the airport due to its small compact size, meaning going from the hire car drop off point to bag drop desk, to security (not one person in front of us) and to departure gate in only a few mins walk.
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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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How is the road situation at the moment? Anything major to be aware of?
We're travelling Friday, 5am start from Rugby for a 9:30 tunnel crossing, aiming to be in Dole for about 7pm, maybe a bit later depending on stops en-route. Going via Riems, Troyes.
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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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@Specialman, Only Operation Brock on M20 between Maidstone and Ashford. 50mph limit between J8 & 9.
Not usually an issue, but any breakdown, crash will cause delays as its contraflow both ways. If satnav says delays, use the M2 instead. See below re A20.
Remember to stay in the right hand lanes at J8 so not to get caught in the lorry holding area.
If you need to use the services at J8, you can't get back onto the coast bound M20 from there. Tip is to go back to J7 and u turn there. A20 had roadworks earlier this week and a mile queue heading into Harrietsham coast bound.
KK
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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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Left Rugby at 5:02am, checked in and through passport control by 8:20am and on a train an hour earlier than planned at no extra cost.
Roads were decent, on the way down. M20 no issues. Very busy at passport control but all lanes being used to get people through quickly
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Just breezed through the tunnel 1 hr ago heading to France.
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Update fro yesterday; Landed in France about 10:20am then just headed down on the A26.
Stopped for an Hour in St Quinten and had an awesome bit of food at The Golden Pub in the town, possibly the best croque Madame and sweeet potato fries for €15.
Back on the road for 1:15pm and just convoyed with our friends all the way to Dole, getting there at 5pm. Something like 880km done in total, 54mpg and absolutely glorious weather (25 degrees) with the only bit of traffic around Riems where it gets lumpy and the trucks slow things down.
Can highly recommend the F1Hotel at Dole; €77 for two cabrio rooms with private showers. Burger King next door, shame that the steakhouse place (Oncle Scott’s) is shut for some reason. Boulanger just a short walk away for brekkie and Intermarche for shopping. There’s also a Decathlon for any last minute sporty purchases (although the ski section has been retired for beachwear I think)
Heading to L2A shortly, may take the ‘scenic’ route via Aix le Bains and have a lunch somewhere and do a big shop, hoping to get to resort early afternoon. Weather in the Jura is glorious, waiting to see how moist it’s going to be in the Alps
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Heading North on Le Shuttle. Arrived at 1006 for the 1124. Moved to the 1036. Still 10 mins from passport booths at 1030. I’m sure there’s a system! Qs building rapidly behind me.
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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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Heading North on Le Shuttle. Arrived at 1006 for the 1124. Moved to the 1036. Still 10 mins from passport booths at 1030. I’m sure there’s a system! Qs building rapidly behind me.
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50 mins from check in to train. Moving on the 1104. Train half empty. Great success for border forces!
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FAQ
