 Poster: A snowHead
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I realise this has probably come up before but just out of interest I was wondering what was the quickest and closest French resort to the UK and how long it takes to get there? I live in the herts/North London area. Its just that I was told the other day that you could get to a ski resort in only a few hours from the Kent area (leave after work and be in a bar for closing time) and I am only a few hours away from there.
Thanks
Nathan
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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nathanm, If you're flying to somewhere like Chambery then there is plenty to choose from. Even if you fly to Lyon its only a couple of hours to the main resorts.
Heck you can drive from Calais to 3V in 8hours
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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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nathanm - we regularly get a 19:00 flight from London City and get into our apartment in Morzine before midnight (including the time difference).
Not quite the few hours quoted, but I'm inclined to believe that it's possible...
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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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If you're happy to look outside of France, go for Innsbruck. You can literally be in resort (say, Igls) in 15mins of leaving the airport. (BA and Lauda fly direct from Gatwick) They have bars there too you know 
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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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1hr flight from Gatwick to Strasbourg, 45 minute drive to the various hils in Vosgues. (but not much skiing there)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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If I was in a hurry to get back on French snow I'd do this: London City Airport->Geneva->Chamonix
LCA is a very short check-in, and you could even get a daytime helicopter from Geneva if you were desperate (and loaded).
Bigfoot could sort you out.
Consider Stansted options too.
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HI
hadn't considered that thanks. What would be the best time to go there, and how late in the season could you go?
Thanks
Nathan
Bode Swiller,
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Sorry last message was meant to say hadn't considered Igls (Austria) and was for Bode Swiller
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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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| crosbie wrote: |
| LCA is a very short check-in, and you could even get a daytime helicopter from Geneva if you were desperate (and loaded). |
crosbie - my "record" last season was arriving at the front door of LCA at 19:08 for a 19:20 flight - and still getting on. Now that's a short check-in.
It took me until the next morning to recover though 
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nathanm, Igls would be reliable from Christmas to end of March. Later than that you should opt for Stubai Glacier which is maybe 45 mins from Innsbruck. There you're OK into June.
Innsbruck itself isn't a bad place to stay. Being a fairly big city there are tons of bars and a fair few night clubs to go at. If the weather is bad it is a better place to be than a mountain resort. Skiing is all around you and the bus system can take you to loads of different resorts you've never heard of - all under 30 mins away. Compared to France you won't beat the VFM when it comes to eating, drinking, hotels etc.
One other thing I learnt... During the week Innsbruck's hotels cater for business people. At week-ends they are looking to fill empty rooms, unlike resort hotels that are trying to fill mid-week. If you book flight and hotel for the week-end via Expedia (or one of the other dynamic packagers) you'll probably get a good deal on a top hotel. I stayed at the Penz (a brand new business hotel slap bang in the centre) and flew BA for not a lot (can't actually remember the price but it felt like value). Being business hotels they are equipped to help, direct you to the best transport etc.
I doubt there's any ski destination on the planet that you can get to door-to-door faster from London & SE than Gatwick - Innsbruck - Igls. If you do your BA check-in online and print the boarding card you need only use the fast bag drop, so allow an hour before take off max, allow 2 hrs for flight and baggage claim, 20 mins in a taxi and you're there. Beat that - Supping the far superior Austrian beer hours before the poorer relations heading for France.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Wow nathanm, that's finer even than some ferries I've managed to squeeze onto...
I have three trips to the Alps planned this season already. What with 3 hour flight check-ins these days, ALL of them are self-drive trips. Two by tunnel, one by ferry. For some strange reason it seems better to spend 12 hours moving on the motorway (9pm-9am) than 9 hours plodding by plane (6am-3pm).
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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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I meant PhillipStanton, not nathanm.
Bad clicking on my part. 
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nathanm, in yur original post, were you asking about the nearest resort for driving? I see that we have been answering about flying, but was not sure from reading your OP that this is what you meant.
If it was driving, people on here regularly seem to achieve 12 hour door to door if based in the south of the UK.
For flying, it is unlikely that anyone would be able to beat Bode Swillers recommendations in terms of time, but without costing it up, i would imagine that scheduled BA flights are not cheap unless booked way in advance.
A (probably) cheaper + still fairly quick route would be Ryanair to Salzburg, there you are spoiled for choices of top resorts at about an hour, including the glacier at Kaprun.
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You know it makes sense.
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Ray Zorro, had a quick look on Travelocity. Looked at Innsbruck third week-end in january... direct BA flights, 4 star city centre hotel, thursday - sunday, 3 nights... £235 each b&b. I suspect that February & March dates would be no different if booked early.nathanm appears to be looking for speed but this is what I call VFM and it is literally 10 mins from airport to hotel by taxi.
I reckon that price can be bettered by booking BA flights seperately (they go as low as £80) and accommodation and passes via http://www.ski-innsbruck.at/?language=en
It'll cost you the same for half a cold pizza and a luke warm lager in most French resorts.
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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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| Ray Zorro wrote: |
nathanm, in yur original post, were you asking about the nearest resort for driving? I see that we have been answering about flying, but was not sure from reading your OP that this is what you meant.
If it was driving, people on here regularly seem to achieve 12 hour door to door if based in the south of the UK.
For flying, it is unlikely that anyone would be able to beat Bode Swillers recommendations in terms of time, but without costing it up, i would imagine that scheduled BA flights are not cheap unless booked way in advance.
A (probably) cheaper + still fairly quick route would be Ryanair to Salzburg, there you are spoiled for choices of top resorts at about an hour, including the glacier at Kaprun. |
BA scheduled flights are expensive. Get yourself an airmiles a/c. book cheap scheduled flights through airmiles. you don't need airmiles as you can buy flights and earn miles. Depending when you book you could pick up flights heathrow/london for less than £100 return in march. Even now I can get flights for that cost gatwick/genena albeit with a very early return on the last day  and that's earning miles rather than needing thousands of miles to buy the flights
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Poster: A snowHead
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| dan100 wrote: |
| BA scheduled flights are expensive. |
I don't agree with that dan100 - out of our 14 London-Geneva return journeys last year:
- 2 were on EasyJet (who are consistently the cheapest in autumn)
- 2 were on Swiss (specific promotions)
- 10 were on BA (only 1 booked via airmiles).
I'd agree that, generally, you have to be organised and book BA well in advance, but at least 3 of the BA flights were shortish notice.
As an example, if you were to book today for out 16 March back 19 March London-Geneva you'd pay:
- £85.10 on BA
- £76.98 on EasyJet - but that excludes ski carriage.
The way to ensure that you get the best deals is to always check a variety of booking routes for a specific flight - including directly with the airline.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Is the closest English resort to Paris Meribel or Chamonix ? 
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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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Has anyone in the London area been toying with the idea of going via Southampton (FlyBe) in order to get to Chambery?
Transferring from London to Southampton and then Chambery->Val d'Isere might be better than London->Gatwick and then Lyon->Val d'Isere perhaps?
Especially if Southampton has a shorter check-in...
Anyone tried it?
I have a friend trying it this March (he is staying overnight with a friend there before getting a morning flight).
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| crosbie wrote: |
Has anyone in the London area been toying with the idea of going via Southampton (FlyBe) in order to get to Chambery?
Transferring from London to Southampton and then Chambery->Val d'Isere might be better than London->Gatwick and then Lyon->Val d'Isere perhaps?
Especially if Southampton has a shorter check-in...
Anyone tried it?
I have a friend trying it this March (he is staying overnight with a friend there before getting a morning flight). |
Each time I've booked a flight I've compared with FlyBe because I like the idea of flying to Chambery. It's never worked out for me though, for the following reasons:
1. FlyBe were always more expensive than BA when I compared prices.
2. FlyBe don't operate that route every day of the years as far as I could tell.
3. The car hire desks at Chambery don't seem to open on a Sunday.
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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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No car hire on Sunday??? Yikes! My friend is flying out Sunday morning expecting to rent a car.
Maybe he should have got a 6:55am LGW->LYS jobbie...
Which reminds me. If you have to check-in at 3:55 for a 6:55 flight and it takes you 2 hours to get from North London to LGW. And it takes you 55 mins to get dressed and ready. I work out that the alarm clock has to be set for 1am. So you might as well set off at 9pm, drive all the way, and get there well before the transfer coaches. No-one's going to get any sleep anyway.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| crosbie wrote: |
| No car hire on Sunday??? Yikes! My friend is flying out Sunday morning expecting to rent a car. |
Taht seemed to be the case last season, although this is secondhand info so best to check.
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| rob@rar wrote: |
| crosbie wrote: |
| No car hire on Sunday??? Yikes! My friend is flying out Sunday morning expecting to rent a car. |
Taht seemed to be the case last season, although this is secondhand info so best to check. |
I've found that the downside with using brokers is that they often think car rental desks are closed on Sunday when they're not. HolidayAutos swore blind that we couldn't hire a car on a Sunday in Gothemburg, yet two minutes I managed to book one online with Hertz.
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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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If you book in advance, and go direct to the company, they can normally arrange collection from a nearby hotel (particularly if you're talking about a small airport)
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| PhillipStanton wrote: |
| rob@rar wrote: |
| crosbie wrote: |
| No car hire on Sunday??? Yikes! My friend is flying out Sunday morning expecting to rent a car. |
Taht seemed to be the case last season, although this is secondhand info so best to check. |
I've found that the downside with using brokers is that they often think car rental desks are closed on Sunday when they're not. HolidayAutos swore blind that we couldn't hire a car on a Sunday in Gothemburg, yet two minutes I managed to book one online with Hertz. |
That's a good tip. Just checked with the Hertz.co.uk website and got some confusing info: the opening hours for their desk at Chambery are
| Quote: |
| Mo-Fr 0800-1200 1400-1800, Sa 0830-1200 1430-1800, Su closed |
but when I tried to place a hypothetical booking for Sunday-Sunday in the first week of February they quoted me a price 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Here's a whacky route that's just become available via http://www.skysouth.co.uk/ :
TRAIN: London->Brighton
PLANE: Shoreham-> Le Touquet/Caen/Le Havre
TRAIN: ->Paris
PLANE: Paris->Chambery
BUS/TAXI: Chambery->(resort)
£109 for Shoreham to Paris (oine-way), so this ain't cheap and you'd probably have to rent your skis given the plane probably isn't big enough to carry them.
Somehow, I don't think this route is quicker, but at least the check-in time is very short...
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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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If driving from London, Grand Massif (Not including little molehills before it)
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| nathanm wrote: |
I realise this has probably come up before but just out of interest I was wondering what was the quickest and closest French resort to the UK and how long it takes to get there? I live in the herts/North London area. Its just that I was told the other day that you could get to a ski resort in only a few hours from the Kent area (leave after work and be in a bar for closing time) and I am only a few hours away from there.
Thanks
Nathan |
Hop on the Eurostar.
Leave Herts at 530pm. Get on the 713pm at Waterloo. Change in Paris. Have a snooz. Arrive in Bourg St Maurice at 715am. Catch the 800am Altibus to Les Arcs 1800. Arrive at 835am. Hit the piste between 9 and 10. Job done.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Whitegold wrote: |
| Leave Herts at 530pm. ... Arrive at 835am. Hit the piste between 9 and 10. Job done. |
15 hours isn't exactly "quick"!
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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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Not quick, but travel whilst asleep can represent the least waste of time.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
Has anyone in the London area been toying with the idea of going via Southampton (FlyBe) in order to get to Chambery?
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I've used Southampton airport quite a bit (although not for Chambery) and it is very convenient especially if you get train from London. Waterloo to Soton Airport Parkway and then it is literally a snowballs throw from the platform to the check in. Definitely preferable to LHR or LGW in my book.
Landing at Southampton and getting out of the airport is quick and easy too as the terminal is small and most of the flights on smaller aircraft so less messing about is required.
Also the customs and excise there seem to be pretty 'relaxed' compared with bigger airports. 
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