 Poster: A snowHead
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just went on a package tour with Thomas Cook
took 13 hours door to door each way to Tignes
takes 10 - 11 hours if we drive and we can take as much gear as we like 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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takes 10 - 11 hours if we drive
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Very unlikely. viamichelin.com, which assumes you drive fast and nonstop, says 9hours 20 mins from Calais. So add essential stops - fuel, food, change drivers, plus your crossing/waiting/queuing time, plus however long it takes you to get to Dover in the UK. That's your minimum time. On most Saturdays in the season you'll not be able to drive up to the speed limit the whole way. 13 hours would be quite good time, actually. Obviously you can have unforeseen delays either flying or driving, but on average you will probably take longer driving, though as you point out there are advantages such as being able to take everything you want.
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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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drive over night and put our foot down.
take packed food and take in turns to drive/sleep.
leave at 9pm from home and in tignes by 8am.
(btw - no kids)
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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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drive over night and put our foot down.
take packed food and take in turns to drive/sleep.
leave at 9pm from home and in tignes by 8am.
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So if that's 9pm uk time then the whole journey is 8 hours. You must be well above the speed limits.
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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'd go with 10-12 hours from Calais - including stops etc - and I have kids!
Depends where youlive in SE for travel in the Uk - we allow 3 hours from home to Chunnel
We drive not for the time saving, but for the flexibility and freedom
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Exactly 9.5 hours from Calais to Les Arcs, traveling on the Sunday before Christmas. We stopped once for fuel and another two or three brief stops for the loo. We took a packed lunch which we ate as I drove, stuck the cruise control on 130kph and listened to the BBC Radio adaption of Lord of the Rings. Most stress-free journey I've had in a long time.
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Let's agree on an average 11 hours from Calais, including stops and the slow stuff from Moutiers. 10 hours when everything is green for go - 12 if there's any weather, including rain(which reduces the speed limit to below 70mph). 1.5 hours queuing/crossing (it'll often be a bit longer) and a speedy 30 minutes from Maidstone. 13 hours. Leave home at 9pm, arrive Tignes 11 am local time. Many people who do the journey regularly (including me) generally do an overnight stop on route to avoid just the kind of unsocial timing that many TO transfers involve. And for people with only a week's holiday, why spend the first 24 hours feeling jet-lagged?
Flexibility and freedom - that's why I drive. Plus I go for too long to consider hiring a car. But it's quite costly - around 140 euros in tolls alone.
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I don't know how long it took me to get from Calais to Tignes on the way over in Dec, besides I was stopping perhaps more reguarly to check the map and make sure I was going the right way since it was the first time I drove it, and I stayed overnight. However, on the way back home I set off at 09.50 from Tignes Le Lac and rocked up in Calais at about 21.15 as drove that leg in one hit. So that was say 11.5 hours door to door, I did lose 1 hour in Dijon though where I wasn't concentrating and ended up going through Dijon instead of around the outside of it. I stopped only for fuel and a quick sarnie here and there and to send a text. So allowing for that hour in Dijon that would make it 10.5 hours door to door.
That would tally with Rob's 9.5 hours to Les Arcs because it might take another hour say to get up to Tignes from there-don't think it took me that long though, can't remember now.
innerspaceservices, thing is, that is naff having to set off at that time to catch your flight, but I've travelled every time so far with TO's (because it's just me it often works out a huge amount cheaper whenever I've costed up the independent option so that's why I do it instead of the independent route-hiring a car for one person for example would cost me a lot compared to having the transfer all in with the TO). Anyway, I haven't ever had to set off at an unreasonable time to get a flight nor waited an unreasonable amount of time for another flight to land. I've probably just been lucky though.
I was chatting to someone at Inghams the other day and they told me on the phone that the longest they expect their customers to wait for an incoming flight is 30 minutes. I've yet to have had to put that to the test mind you.
I dread to think how much my drive to and from Tignes cost-it was far, far more expensive than taking the TO flight and transfer deal for £110 return-bargain-it cost me more than that alone in petrol never mind the tolls but I knew that from the start and wanted to drive anyway and am glad I tried it. It was nice to be able to stop when you want, take as much stuff as you want, set off when you want etc etc. You are 100% in control.
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We generally have a Friday night stop on the way there, neat Lyon. Means a nice rest and meal, and can be past Lyon and in resort well before crowds build up.
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It used to take us approx 12 hrs door-to-door, leaving from Christchurch (approx 2.5 hrs from Dover) and driving to Thollon (1hr from Geneva) . I'd rather fly.
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