 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi,
Just looking for a weekend break fly out Fri and come back Mon in Feb near Geneva Airport, anyone done this and any recommendations on close / easy to get to resorts.
Intermediate Standard Skiers
Thanks,
Buzz
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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buzz55,
If it is anything other than the first weekend you may have to take what you can get as a lot of places will want longer bookings in high season. I would try Switzerland rather than France, when I was looking last year for midweek- midweek I got quite a few offers from Crans Montana which is meant to be pretty pleasant but ended up in Verbier.
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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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France and PDS - Morzine or Les gets
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We're doing the same in March - but going to Champery. There's a train link via Aigle, and some really nice looking hotels in a pretty village
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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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chrisb, if it's Feb and Vacances Scolaires, you will be very, very, lucky(?) to find anywhere in the French PDS doing weekends, unless you pay for 2 full weeks of course. And, yes, I have done this really quite often...
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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buzz55, Hi done this a few times, but always late season. Chamonix is great if the weather is good, we've had a couple of whiteout days. Flaine was good, easy to get to and plenty of accommodation.
Deciding where to go in March next year 
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We did a Chamonix long weekend last year. (and drove actually which wasn't too bad). We did Friday to Monday and had two days skiing. If you're flying and you get the flights right you could easily get in a 1/2 day on the Monday and Friday as well (Chamonix is only an hour's drive from Geneva.) We stayed in the Hotel Vallee Blanche which is right opposite the Casino in Cham and about a 10 minute walk to the Brevant lift.
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Megeve is excellent for beginners and less than 90 mins drive
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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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Flaine area is very close, about an hour from GVA, Les Carroz probably the closest village in the area. It looked pretty good for intermediates to me (depending on exactly what you mean by intermediate)
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| Quote: |
Megeve is excellent for beginners and less than 90 mins drive
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yes it is, but you have no chance of weekend accommodation other than the first weekend of February (and even that is unlikely). In the vacances scolaire it's difficult even to find a car parking space, let alone a bed. The French school holidays run from the 10 Feb weekend to the 10 March weekend; unless you have absolutely no choice aim for a weekend outside that period. Mid March should be great, though I have found it difficult to find weekend accommodation in-resort even in low season (and even when I know perfectly well that that the hotels in question are not full). You might take a look at Le Grand Bornand. Closer than Megeve.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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hmmm, food for thought. so if I drived all the way from S Devon, which is the nearest ski resort (any) to get to from south uk? and has anyone done this, approx time it took to get there?
Buzz.
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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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buzz55, probably around 8hrs once you cross the channel. I guess you would cross from Poole or Portsmouth?
I've not done this route but have done, Dover-Calais.
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buzz55, An alternative from South Devon would be fly to Toulouse and then drive to the Pyrennees, only a sub 2 hour drive to Baqueria. 
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
probably around 8hrs once you cross the channel.
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Depends where, and when, you go. If you went from Portsmouth the drive the other side is shorter, but means traversing Paris, which is generally slow. Calais is further but quicker. No Paris, and fewer HGVs than on the A6 to Lyon. It is 8 hours fairly solid driving from Calais to the Alps, further to some parts. You need to allow for some stops and the last climb up into the resort is as long as a piece of string. Depends on weather (let's hope it will be so snowy that the drive will be a problem - at present driving to any of the resorts is a piece of cake, rather than a piece of string). For a weekend a cheap flight and car hire would generally be much cheaper for 2, and marginal for 4.
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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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Took us 15 hours to get to Cham from London and 10 hours to get back. Might have something to do with us getting lost in the Jura's on the way out (some stupid RAC route planner thought that going through a mountain range rather than on a nice clear moterway would be quicker.) 
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Poster: A snowHead
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| buzz55 wrote: |
hmmm, food for thought. so if I drived all the way from S Devon, which is the nearest ski resort (any) to get to from south uk? and has anyone done this, approx time it took to get there?
Buzz. |
I live in Jersey and am going to Les Carroz for Christmas
You could condor ferries from Weymouth to St Malo, France (stops off at Jersey on route) travel time 4.5 hrs
From St Malo its 8.5hrs to Grand Massif, PDS, Chamonix etc etc nice drive actually
Plenty of hotels on route Mercure, Novotel £50-£60 per room to break the journey up
Approx £30 in road tolls in france
Hope it helps
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
From St Malo its 8.5hrs to Grand Massif, PDS, Chamonix etc etc nice drive actually
Plenty of hotels on route Mercure, Novotel £50-£60 per room to break the journey up
Approx £30 in road tolls in france
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It's 8.5 hours of solid driving, plus stops, and if it's at all snowy the road between the A40 and the top of Flaine, for example, could easily take an hour. The tolls one way, according to viamichelin.fr, are about £47, depending on the euro exchange rate. Less if you stay off the motorways, obviously, but then the journey would take longer.
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| pam w wrote: |
| Quote: |
From St Malo its 8.5hrs to Grand Massif, PDS, Chamonix etc etc nice drive actually
Plenty of hotels on route Mercure, Novotel £50-£60 per room to break the journey up
Approx £30 in road tolls in france
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It's 8.5 hours of solid driving, plus stops, and if it's at all snowy the road between the A40 and the top of Flaine, for example, could easily take an hour. The tolls one way, according to viamichelin.fr, are about £47, depending on the euro exchange rate. Less if you stay off the motorways, obviously, but then the journey would take longer. |
Sorry miss i will do my homework better next time!!!!! Ouch at least i go the hotels right 
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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've done a couple of weekend trips out of Geneva.. best to hire a car at the airport, although there are lots of airport transfer companies advertising on the net who d runs out to most of the larger resorts. Car hire is cheap (about £15 a day or so for a small car).. make sure to book your car on the French side and not the Swiss side of the airport.. There are loads of resorts within an hours drive, such as Flaine, Morzine, Avoriaz, Les Gets, Samoens.. and of course Chamonix - about an hour and a half. Cham is always better if you have a car as the areas are scattered about along both sides of the long valley.
I usually search the net for hotels in the resorts (hotel listing sites or tourist info sites) and email them in French - they always take pity on my appalling use of their language and email back in English. I usually pay aboy £30-£35 a night and don't often have trouble finding a room, providing it's not UK school holidays.
Hope this helps.
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buzz55,
I would say much the same as the others Le grand massif (Flaine, les carroz, morillion, samoens), Portes du solieil (chatel, morzine, avoriaz, les gets), Mont Blanc area (chamonix, argentiere, les houches, st gervais, megeve, etc) ----- But no one has mentioned La Clusaz or Le grand Bornand!
They are both in the Aravis ski area - both little known buy the brits (a favourite with the french and swiss) and only an hour from Geneva. Both resorts are full of character - real chocolate box stuff - unlike flaine and avoriaz and the lift prices, bars and restaurants are much cheaper than in the big resorts like morzine or chamonix. Plus you don't need to queue for the lifts or fight for a seat at lunch time in the mountain cafes.
Both resorts have good snow, as the slopes are mainly north and west facing - usually getting huge dumps before everyone else. There are a mixture of runs for all levels and some fab off-piste areas.
Candide Thovex - France's highest paid free-style skier comes from La Clusaz, so the snowpark is excellent and each year he organises a big freestyle exhibition with all his world renowned freestyle board and ski mates who come and ski La Clusaz for the weekend. This is usually at the beginning of April - so it goes to show that it good snow right to the end of the season. they usually hang around for a while too - which is awesome to watch.
Ther are about 6 of english/aussie/kiwi run catered chalets in the area and loads of english owned and managed self catered chalets and apartments. Plus oads of frenchie hotels and B&B's.
Take a look at the la clusaz website http://www.laclusaz.com/index.jsp?SDP_CHANGE_USERLANG=en for more info.
http://www.gravite.co.uk/
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book your car on the French side and not the Swiss side of the airport..
why is french side cheaper?
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buzz55, why is anywhere cheaper than anyone else? It is a bit cheaper, but I think that the Swiss side is more convenient for getting to and fro by car and you'll have a Swiss motorway vignette thrown in. If time is of the essence, I'd go with the Swiss side. The Swiss side seems to have more choice of car sizes (in my experience), so if you have a largeish party, you may need to go there anyway.
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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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buzz55,
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book your car on the French side and not the Swiss side of the airport..
why is french side cheaper?
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No, the French side is a PITA. I'd do Swiss side coz then it includes the Vignette and is more convenient.
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graviteski, thanks for the info - La Clusaz looks very promising.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Going back to the Geneva question, the train (station at the airport) will get you to Verbier or Zermatt in a couple of hours.
If you take a late evening flight back( eg Easyjet to Luton) you can ski almost a full day before returning. (similarly an early morning flight out will give you most of a day or half a day, depending where you go.)
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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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snowball, it's 4 hours GVA to Zermatt and 3+ hours GVA to Verbier; Swiss trains are pretty reliable, but they ain't quick. Maybe a bit long for a weekender, depending on flight and train times.
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Norfolk lines Dover to Dunkirque. 5 1/2 hours to Geneva from Offloading the ferry then time to resort. Do make sure you know where the French speed camera's are/! 
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Doesn't include fuel/pee stops
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and assumes average speed of over 140 kmh; above the limit the whole way? Let me know when you're going and I'll choose another day, TimDog. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It wasn't Norfolk line then, tho, what were they called?
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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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To answer your question, pam w, December 28th. And assuming the ferry arrives on time I depart Dunkirque at 5am. I intend to be in St. Gervais by 5pm. And I have a co-driving mate.
And, like a good cheese, I have matured somewhat since I did the speed run..............
...........Not stopped enjoying speed tho 
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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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But unfortunately not on the slopes. Rampant artritis has stiffened everything and every turn is painful but I still like to cruize easy reds and blues. Moguls hurt big time. And if/when I fall at least one joint keeps reminding me for months afterwards.
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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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Who remembers the sketch I refer to above?
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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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TimDog, you should try http://www.suppleworx.co.uk/
Martin Jefferies is brilliant - if you can get up to London for a couple of sessions before you go he'll ease up those joints and muscles. He's helped several very stiff members of our family. I'm driving down on 30 December, so you'll be long gone! Let's hope it's so cold and snowy that it takes us extra time to get up there.
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| pam w wrote: |
TimDog, you should try http://www.suppleworx.co.uk/
Martin Jefferies is brilliant - if you can get up to London for a couple of sessions before you go he'll ease up those joints and muscles. He's helped several very stiff members of our family. I'm driving down on 30 December, so you'll be long gone! Let's hope it's so cold and snowy that it takes us extra time to get up there. |
Thanks, I'll try him if I get time (flying out to Boston on 16th, back on 21st, family Christmas between then and 28th) but I will try and get to him.
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FAQ
