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Driving To The Alps. The Cost?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Mostly likely will look to drive next year and am wondering if anyonbody would agree/disagree with the costs. I am being conservative? (I Hope)

South Wales to Les Arcs (return) 2000 miles @ 20p per mile = £400
Tunnel £160 but use clubcard vouchers =£40
Overnight stop each direction (2 adults and 3 kids 2 rooms £100) = £200
Meal for overnight stop and other food £150 each way =£300
Tolls £70 each way = £140

Total £1,080

Am I way off?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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See if you can get family duplex room - ok so normally 2+2 but I would imagine extra bed could be put up very easily (and have seen extra bed in room, think this was at Holiday Inn express outside Troyes). Tunnel could be brought down to £100 less clubcard vouchers Very Happy if book early and prepared to choose less sociable times (appreciate has to fit in with stopovers etc). We now opt for driving direct though we are only 2 hours from tunnel. snowHead
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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?
Lou, It is really difficult to get rooms for 5 in major hotel chains as fire regs limit them to 4. It is 4 hours for us to the tunnel so with a 9,7 and 6 year old in the back I see a straight drive being too much.

Thanks for ideas. snowHead
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Pick which one you like least and leave him/her behind. Shocked Hey presto, one room will suffice...
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skisimon, Sadly I need to bring the wife.................... Embarassed Laughing
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No, that wouldn't go down well... Skullie Laughing
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skisimon, Me Skullie when mrsfatcontroller next logs on Shocked
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
thefatcontroller, The Novotel in Beaune just off the motorway has rooms for five but they have to be booked direct by telephone as the on-line system can't do it! (My Bruv in law has 3 kids so we know the problems)
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boredsurfin, Cheers. Noted Cool
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thefatcontroller, it's a couple of years ago and I don't think they are still Holiday Inn but worth a call - (33) 0325438080 or commercial.holi25@holidayinn-troyes.com
At Rouilly Sacey, Piney, Troyes in Forest of the Orient
It's about 20 mins off autoroute in a lovely country setting, you almost forget you are there purely to 'stopover' Smile Kids disappointed now that we drive past. Was very reasonable, maybe £75 for all of us, breakie for kids included and adults only a few euros.
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thefatcontroller, 2000 miles seems a bit much? From Cardiff to those big white hilly things usually 1650 (Switzerland)-1850 (France) miles return I find. And is your 20p a mile based on fuel costs only? Time to get a more efficient car......
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Yoda, and he's looking at a Disco rolling eyes wink
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Yoda, I did say I was being conservative wink However I did check on autoroute and it did give 1850 miles return but we would be staying up in Arc 2000 and if we decided to go back down to Bourg once ot twice that is 40 miles return. so quite possible to hit 2,000. Getting new car, likely to be 4 x 4, with Nissan X Trail in lead over Disco 3, so 15p mile is more likely as a min.

The overall cost might come down from £1,080 ot £900+ but it was just in my mind if looking at flight costs comparing them to the 'real' cost of driving.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
thefatcontroller, wink . I think you could probably cut the food price down too. £300 seems a bit steep. I did a thread comparing flights with driving last winter, fuel has gone up since, but all costs listed are our actual ones, not estimated.
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Helen Beaumont, 2 x dinners out for 5 + lunch + other crap, all adds up. Again I was being conservative wink Laughing
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
thefatcontroller, if I can find the bleeding thread I will post the link rolling eyes
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Helen Beaumont, if he can afford a Disco 3 why he is worrying about a few bob spent on driving it? Laughing
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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?
Yoda, I think his employer is forking out for it rolling eyes , so even more so.
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Yoda, Helen Beaumont, Go easy please, the decision on Disco is not made and while the employer will pay for it if I do go for a cheaper car I pocket the difference hence the Nissan is appearing attractive.

I wasn't complaining about the cost of driving just wanting to make sure I have my budgets set right. Though it does surprisingly add up Shocked
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thefatcontroller wrote:
Helen Beaumont, 2 x dinners out for 5 + lunch + other crap, all adds up. Again I was being conservative wink Laughing


Won't your place have a kitchen? Self-catering can be so much cheaper, especially when your apartment is ski in/out. The more money I spend on someone else doing the catering the less money I have available for skiing...
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Helen Beaumont wrote:
thefatcontroller, if I can find the bleeding thread I will post the link rolling eyes


Would be interested if you can...queue 3 hours in the search facility...sorry Laughing
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rob@rar, Read the thread...cost of food on stopovers and way down to resort wink
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
thefatcontroller, can't you take sandwiches?
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rob@rar, I think he meant for the journey. But even our most slap up dinner for four adults on the way down didn't cost us that much. Breakfast and lunch is packed in the cool box.

thefatcontroller,book a Logis hotel with dinner included in the room price. Kids usually get to share your room for nothing, and 5 people shouldn't be a problem for most of them. www.logis-de-france.fr . My chalet blog http://chamoissiere.wordpress.com/getting-there/ has some suggested places to stay too. Soulless hotels next to the motorway are not my scene. Nor are expensive ones.


Just jesting on the car thing by the way, I love driving there, or rather hubby does. We also need to add the cost of kennelling our dog into the flying price, whereas driving with her costs us £30 admin charge at tunnel, and £35 at vets.
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rob@rar, Stopovers? Toofy Grin He'll learn soon enough Cool
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skisimon wrote:
Pick which one you like least and leave him/her behind. Shocked Hey presto, one room will suffice...


Laughing Laughing Laughing
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
thefatcontroller, £1,000 will MORE than cover it, though how you manage to eat your way through £300 of food defeats me. Agree with Helen Beaumont, chuck some breakfast/lunch stuff in the cool box and you'll halve that - and COMPARATIVELY great though French motorway service are they're not that great an experience!
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Annie, except the Bourg en Bresse one, with the Poulet de Bresse. Evening meal on day one and lunch on day two will be our only expenditure that is not covered by either the contents of the coolbox (plugs in too) or the hotel bill. I think I worked out our expenditure as being around 650 quid, but I still can't find the thread.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
thefatcontroller, Why stop? If you time it right, it isn't that bad to do in a day. We do Samoens in a day with 1 driver (me) Admitedly it's closer, but if we leave the Midlands at 6am - we can be in resort at 8pm (local time) including stops for lunch, tunnel and toilets. Tolls were 70 Euros (might be £70 by next year Skullie ). Filled up once en route so petrol bill was maybe £100 each way. No overnight costs, sandwiches and flask for 2 meals, one "proper" stop for lunch (which is always gonna be a ham and cheese baguette in France Laughing ) I actually prefer to drive than fly - it only adds approx 5 hours to the day when you take into account all the waiting around.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
stevo_the_saddler,I wouldn't want to do that from Wales or North-East though, just a bit too far with kids. Too far for us when we are sharing the driving.
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Poster: A snowHead
Helen Beaumont, Ah yes, forgot about that one- though actually purposefully avoid stopping there in order to force consumption of odd combination of pic-nic items left by then ( read - the healthy options!) Agree on the budget too - we normally call it around £500 but only live a hop and a skip from Dover, are quite prepared to slum it in a certain well known economy chain and there are only 3 of us which is generay easier to 'work' on the extra bed (space on the floor!)
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thefatcontroller, hard to fault the calculation. If you're keen to, you could save a few bob by staying in a Formule 1; I'm not necessarily recommending it, but if you're planning to arrive late and leave early, it's a possibility. You could of course save a bit by more or less picknicking for every meal, as has been said, but it's pretty depressing to be doing that when you're probably within half an hour or less of a delicious meal somewhere.

For me, driving throught France ought to be a scenic and gastronomic pleasure, but circumstances seem to conspire aganst that happening as often as one would wish, in which case one might as well slum it and save a few quid. Actually, m'way services in France can be as good and almost as cheap as a modest proper restaurant, but you're unlikely to hit the gatronomic heights in one.
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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?
thefatcontroller, Tend to agree with stevo_the_saddler. From Leicester I reckon the costs are around £600 to drive (without an overnight stop), in my 32mpg Grand Voyager, and the travel time is around 14 hours door to door vs 11 hours (with no delays) if we fly.

Basically if there are less than four of us going we fly, more than four we drive. four we probably fly if we can get a cheap deal snowHead (But as the cheap airlines keep adding charges for carrying anything more than a pocket handkerchief, and 'security' delays keep adding to the time, the 'break-even' point in terms of cost AND ENJOYMENT swings in favour of driving. One point. if your ARE going to drive, sign up for telepeage - you wont regret it wink snowHead Laughing
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Annie, our last attempt at a room share with my kids ended up with me on the campbed,as it wasn't really designed to hold a 6ft 2" teenager.
rolling eyes
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thefatcontroller, I agree with the comments above about food. If you want to eat loads of expensive food, fine, but that's one area where you can make big savings, easily. Most of the French motorway restaurants have good value salad bars - and a plug-in coolbox with sandwiches, cartons of orange juice, fruit, chocolate etc would save you a fortune. If your family expects to eat expensively on the journey, however much do they cost you on the slopes?

Your fuel budget seems quite high - what mpg is that based on?

With two drivers, a straight-through run is no big hardship for adult, but can be a bit hard on kids. Maybe drug them? With one driver, it's a mission to drive straight through even without the extra mileage from South Wales.
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pam w, No need for drugs, personal DVD players achieve the same effect wink Laughing
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thefatcontroller, if it fits with your itinerary, you could do worse than this for an overnight. Not exactly Michelin star but pretty good and cheap and cheerful.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
All

Great ideas and thanks for comments. Some I will respond to in detail tomorrow but am knackered as spent last night in London in a hotel with 3 kids in an adjacent room and got feck all sleep. Hot hotel room and a gut full of curry and a kid waking at 1am and then 3 kids wanting to play at 6am is not a good nights sleep. Mad Laughing

Re the driving straight there I do genuinley see that as impossible with what will be next Janaury a 10, 8 and 7 year olds. They would go stir crazy and arriving in resort at 11pm or later really doesn't gain us time, much easier and saner? to stop on way and relax. It is supposed to be a holiday
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pam w wrote:
Maybe drug them?


Now you're talking. Some sense at last on this thread Toofy Grin Laughing
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thefatcontroller, I take your point, and 3 kids will be much more difficult than my 2. We set off early and dont allow nintendos until Tunnell, then DVD's come out after lunch stop, if all else fails "I spy thereafter", by tea time it is getting too dark for any more "I Spy" Laughing If doing the whole thing in one day - timing is everything, and goo dweather helps.
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