To fly or to drive......?

A snowHead

We have nearly always taken a vehicle, and mostly had people carriers both when taking the caravan and when not.

It has mostly worked out cheaper to drive when there are more than 2 people. It has on occasions been necessary for some members of our party to fly because in spite of having a people carrier with a roof box it would have been very crowded to get everyone and all the kit etc in the vehicle.

So consider taking a car and flights for some! If you get it right and a driver doesn`t mind doing an airport pickup after dropping most of the party, or some can take a local transfer you can really keep costs down.

For example, one year we booked accommodation at La Rosiere, there were 7 of us travelling. 5 drove down and met the two of us flying, then train to BSM. At BSM the under 25`s hopped out of the car and onto the cheap local bus up to the resort and the rest of us drove up to the resort after doing a supermarket shop. The car had all the luggage and was a 7/8 seater.

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We had this exact problem after being forced to go away in the half terms because doing it any other time would "harm" our childrens education. The cost of good flights were huge, yes it was possible to do it cheaper but it was really horrible times and previously we have actually lost a day of skiing due to feeling crap on the first night due to late travel so prefer good flights. As a result we switched to driving and have done 3 journeys (2 ICE + 2 EV) and the costs are very much as above. I decided to invest in a 2nd set of wheels as I couldn't get all-seasons due to the alloy sizes so have tyres that should handle all weathers. Did increase the cost but we expect to do many trips so will reduce the pre-trip cost.

Our costs have been between 1000 and 1300 with a overnight stop on both journeys (actually 2 stops on the way out as we stop at Ashford for an early start but its only a £38 room so almost can be ignored) which was a lot less than flights + transfers. If I stayed at the same accommodation with for example Crystal it was going to work out around £1800 more.

We got a blipper for the tolls to make life easy.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Planning ahead is sensible, buy all-season tyres instead of summers, chains, in advance buy secondhand, from snowheads, we always have chains that don't fit new cars. While your overall car running costs might be 20p per mile for depreciation, the marginal cost for the extra miles is vastly less. We have almost always driven, from our first ski trip - we booked Livigno and realised to fly we would have to leave home at 3am on Saturday, and arrive at resort at 11.30pm - I thought, I can drive faster than that! I left home at 7pm Friday, picked JanetS up from work, straight to Dover, she changed out of work uniform in the car, across France, by Switzerland it was light, and at resort before lunch. We had picked up our hire kit (first ever ski trip) and lift passes, had dinner, and relaxed in the bar before anyone else arrived at the hotel.

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No-one mentioned yet the possibility of turning 6 days holiday from work into 8 days skiing. Portes de Soleil, Grand Massif are good for distance.

Take the Friday before off. Leave early on Friday for a 6:00 am ferry/tunnel. Shared driving for a hotel around Cluses on the Friday night arriving around 6:00 pm. Big shop in Carrefour or other. Nice evening meal and hotel for night. Next morning breakfast and leave about 8:00 am up in resort by 9, need to be in resort early as car parks in PDS and GM fill early due to Geneva crowds. Ski until check-in time.

On Saturday leaving check-out ASAP then go skiing for most of the day then leave resort, drive 2-3 hours north for an overnight hotel and complete journey home on the Sunday.

Top tip for saving money on channel crossings look at DFDS multi trip tickets at about £450 for 3 return trips it can even pay to only use 2 and throw one away if your 2 are high demand dates.

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After all it is free

I would love to have the option to drive. Living in the north east really puts me off though. It would be 6 hours of driving straight before I hit the south coast Sad

I also have an EV with poor range and the thought of plugging it in fast chargers all the way down makes me want to weep. It most certainly wouldn’t be cost effective.

@Timc, We always did 8 days skiing in a week (after the first try out trip), also took our own skis without hassle.

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@Origen, 'unnecessary', out of spec for the car.

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One thing for sure is it's not necessarily a cost based decision. For a start if you arrive in the morning and leave in the evening you can get 2 days extra skiing. Not easy to do that with flights, though it is possible.

We like the door to door aspect - pack the car at home and unpack at resort.

Also flying isn't fun these days.

With a large family, having a suitable vehicle and living in the south of England it seems a no brainer to me.

@Rob_Quads, sometimes I end up paying £50 for 100 miles range. It’s time for an upgrade Laughing

You know it makes sense.

@v1cky24, ferry from N Shields or Hull to Netherlands is good option, then an easy days drive through Germany to various areas (Chamonix/ Portes du Soleil; Switzerland; Western Austria).

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

Good shout @Inboard, I think if I get a new car I will have a think about it.

A snowHead

I’ve driven across Iberia several times. Good but the teens do complain that it’s boring (we had some films on screens, they were a bit better then) and we can find that it’s a slog when done all in one day rather than overnighting with friends in Madrid. Wife is now increasingly complaining of neck pain so those trips will be fewer in future.
We have some friends who can drive for 14h in a day and same the next. That’s not us!

A snowHead

I’ve even priced up flying or driving from Scotland to the BB in Arabba.

Two people
7am fri get to airport and be at hotel 6pm
Airport parking/taxi £90
Flights £500
Two nights in Venice (one each way) £220
Fri eve and following sat
Transfers £180

Roughly £1000-1100

Drive:leave home at 10am Thurs
5pm ferry
Ferry £400
Hotels £300
Electric Power £450 (or get hotel with destination charger to save £100)
Tolls? £200?
If for 2 people it is not worth it but does add a bit of fun and allows freedom to add on more days.

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@GlasgowCyclops, If you were getting a ferry to the Netherlands then there would be hardly any tolls to Arabba.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@rjs, good to know. I’d go via Eching near Munich

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@GlasgowCyclops, no tolls until Austria if you’re driving IJmuiden-Munich only through NL & D; you’d only have Autobahn vignette in A, additional toll for Brenner pass, tolls in Italy. Will be less than £100 return

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After all it is free

My ski trips have always been solo, so I normally buy a package, including flights. If I drove, and then picked up an injury that made it difficult to drive, I'd be stuffed.It would be nice tio have the extra flexibility while out there, but that would be the only benefit for me really.

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Good luck to anyone driving around Paris today. Heavy snow (for here) been falling all morning so far....

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Since we started taking our children we've only ever driven, I never really fancied the thought of hauling two kids and all our luggage through airports, transfers etc. plus obv there is a tangible cost saving involved.

We always self-cater which means further money saved by being able to take a bunch of food with us (plus a stop at at a super U on the way), then only really needing small top up shops and breakfast stuff once in resort.

It's a long journey but (usually!) an easy one - the French highways are a dream compared to the UK and being able to set your own pace, take whatever you want, park outside your digs in resort to unload/load up the car easily outweighs the time it takes for us.

We stop over on the way (usually in Troyes) then leave early on the return Saturday and get a late tunnel crossing and do the home leg in one hit (mostly to keep costs down tbh). With four in a car it's easy, although we did seven (5 adults and 2 children!) in our S Max last Easter and whilst I wouldn't be in a hurry to do that again we made it work.

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Not much to add to the above. We live 1hr 20 mins from the tunnel and have experimented with a number of options for departure times over the years., including once leaving after 2pm and driving through the night (arrived around 4am French time), this was during the latter stages of the pandemic years and meant I could work from home on the morning of departure day and then the following day in France.
Despite the quiet roads night driving is hard going-not least because the only vehicles coming in the opposite direction are freight lorries and the constant glare of headlights is very wearing.

We sometimes do midway stop at the Hotel Val Moret (a SH's favourite) just after Troyes. Not the cheapest but does have an excellent restaurant-nicer to do on the journey home.

We now have an EV, which does make the journey a bit longer. Our standard shuttle booking tends to be about 6.20am, so there are far fewer queues. You may want to bear this in mind once they finally launch the EES at the terminal-getting ahead of the crowds on a busy day makes for a much less stressful drive. We left home this time on Boxing day at 4.15am and it all went fine until mid morning where queues for EV chargers build in delays that we would have avoided in the old diesel Discovery.

Audiobooks help keep us going (spy novels by the likes of Len Deighton are great)

Tolls from IJmuiden-Arabba should be about €50 total. Maybe a smidge over that now. I've not checked this yrs prices.

Not sure I'd want to drive all that way though. I live almost exactly half way between IJmuiden and Innsbruck and driving to either of those (usually after work on Friday) is when I hit the "are we nearly there yet" limit. Which is why more often than not on shBB arrival day, I cba to race to get on the piste for half a day (at a full day price).

Maybe if I was going for a month then I probably would.

You know it makes sense.

Like @BornAgainSkier, we first drove when our twin boys were just over 1-yr old, no way we fancied flying with them. Have done it ever since as it's part of the holiday now and, for us, is easier to take all our kit and to stock up for self-catering.

We live 150-miles from Shuttle, we allow 3-hours for drive. Have settled on 6:20am Friday departure, yes it's an early start however it's generally clear at Le Shuttle as a result. Over the years our overnight stop has crept further south as the kids tolerance has increased as they have aged. For last 5 years we have stopped in Macon. This means we can be in resort by lunchtime and get an afternoon ski in and/or have a leisurely move into apartment.

While we used to stop on way back (Val Moret obvs) - we now do the journey in one hit, taking between 12-14 hours. Prefer this as a normal Sunday helps before the return to work!

2 drivers is essential for this however.

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

@Boris, we live about 190 miles from Folkestone (just over 3 hours at best) and the best we’ve ever done it in from les acs is 14 1/2 hours and that was with a very lucky and fast tunnel crossing. It normally takes 10 hours just to get to the tunnel.

A snowHead

@johnE, yes I always allow 10-hours for resort to tunnel, our record is 12.5 hours, was just a very smooth drive and straight onto a train. We make 2-stops on way, one just north of Lyon and another somewhere north of Reims. Both are fuel and pee stops, grab a coffee and back in car. roughly 3*3-hr stints

A snowHead

I'm contemplating driving to the EoSB. Probably depart on the Monday before, stay in Les Men and get 4-5 days extra skiing in the area before it closes. I know there is a Bootleg Bash in Les Arcs that week, but I really want to ski Meribel, Courcheval & La Masse before it closes.

Looks like the costs of driving will be roughly....
Chunnel £175-200 (there are some sub £100 each way options at the moment)
Petrol £200
Tolls £150
Parking in resort - Free (in Les Men, and I might be able to leave the car there for most of the EoSB week too)
So perhaps £525-550 all in. I could also bail out of the EoSB on Friday afternoon/evening to get home in time for the last home game of the season on Saturday 25th, although that would require extra cost for a hotel on the way home so I could get a Sat morning chunnel.

Flying and Lardy Bus (not getting the extra 4/5 days before the whole area closes, and missing the last home game)
Flights from LHR->GVA £200 ish
Car Park at LHR £135 ish
Lardy Bus £80 ish
Petrol 250 miles Somerset->LHR->Somerset £30 ish.
So £450 ish.

There is a GVA->BRS flight that would get me home in time on Sat for the game, but can't use the Lardy bus for that, and a hire car would add £300. And Bristol are on my black list after they 'improved' (AKA messed up) all the car parking.

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if you live within easy striking distance of the tunnel it makes life alot easier.

The flexibility it gives vs flying is a no brainer, plus costs saving especially if you have your own skis and are self catering.

make it part of the holiday, we always overnight in chambery and albertville and enjoy a nice meal, to be as close as possible to avoid traffic, especially if its a peak week for travel

Albertville has cracking Indian restaurant.

way back in one hit..........

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@Boris, That's pretty much what we do, basically 4 stints of 3 hours (3 in France one in UK - the UK is the unpopular shift) each but crossing the channel usually takes a couple hours. The skoda has a phenominal range and can do the whole journey from Les Arcs to Folkstone on one tank. but we need to pee and swap drivers and as one of the stops is to grab some lunch we fill up then and don't stop in the UK.

It was the 150 miles in the UK I thought was amazing.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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

£400 per person on flights is about 4 times what I spend but I suppose it depends when and where you fly.

Flying to Turin or Milan Malpensa outside of school holidays and renting a car is way cheaper than driving but I suppose there are benefits to driving and other factors to consider.

After all it is free

@snowdave, We used to drive through the night on Friday then back on Saturday night. 7 days skiing for 5 days of work. The Avios thing only works if you live near London. I take the view that if I have to drive to Gatwick I've broken the back of the drive to the Alpes and may as well just keep going.

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+1 on Avios - I have British Airways American Express card which we do most of our spending on. Each year the accumulated Avios points gets a family of four to Geneva in the winter and somewhere in the med in the summer. Alpybus do a bus transfer to Prodains (for Avoriaz) for 20euro per person which goes direct from Geneva airport. Parking at the airport is often the most expensive bit of the travel arrangements.

Help!!

To fly or to drive......?

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