Driving to the Alps

A snowHead

We are considering an extra ski trip to the Alps and are wondering on the feesability.

We live in the South West - so would need to cross either Plymouth Roscoff or Southampton - Cherbourg.

Any comments on hints, tips, good ferry deals, motorway routes and prices would be very welcome. I lived in France in my gap year but that was a loooooooooong time ago so feel a bit out of touch - especially as we've skied Scandianvia the last 3 years, and Austria before that.

Thanks.

A snowHead

flipperthesnowholedigger, Hi,, I live in france,, and Im swedish,, the peage (roadtax) are expensive here, paris-Lyon 32 euro one way,, If u come with ferry to Cherbourg, the cheapest way to ski is to go to pyrenees,, its a little cheaper in the resorts , and also the roadtax are cheaper, even if the distance is a little longer,, maximum 100-150km, and for a family the skiing in pyrenees are good as in the alps,,, Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I mean 100-150km extra than to the alps

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flipperthesnowholedigger, those long western channel crossings are very expensive, especially if you have to start factoring in cabins. I live very near Portsmouth but always drive across to Dover for the ferry or tunnel (latter being quickest). If you take one of the western channel crossings (we used to do Portsmouth - Le Havre before P & O gave it up) a further complication is getting round/through Paris then using the A6 towards Lyon, the busiest stretch of motorway in the country. From Calais it's much more straightforward.

The viamichelin.com website is good - it will give you mileage, time (assuming no stops) and costs. You tell it what kind of car you drive.

Frankly, for just a week, I'd suggest an easyJet flight from Bristol or Flybe from Exeter to Geneva might be cheaper, unless there are at least 4 of you in the car (the latter just goes on Saturdays, but that's when the normal chageover day is for accommodation).

If you do a search on this forum there is a vast amount of discussion about this. use a series of search terms, check "search for all" and make sure you check to look in the body of posts, not just headings.

By the time you read them all you could have driven to the Alps.

wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

pam w, Hi ,, I don´t now about to fly cheap from england,, but to fly with Ryanair from sweden use to be a bad deal, if U want to have your own skiing equipe with you, U as to pay more for your skis than for your own ticket

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+1 forpam w, we travel from Wiltsire via Dover, travel Fri and stay over at Macon/Bourg en Bresse then just a shortish early drive to Grand Massif and maybe even first lift.

After all it is free

We have driven from Devon for a few years and have always gone via Dover. As pam w says, the route via Paris is unattractive and it's much much cheaper using the tunnel (especially with Tesco vouchers) than BF. My brother lives near Folkestone so that is handy for us. We drove because we had to start skiing at half term and flight costs then are very high. 4 in a car means travel costs are relatively low which offsets the high price of accommodation at half term.

flipperthesnowholedigger, Much quicker and cheaper to drive up to dover than sail another route. I do it at least once a year from South Wales. I've thought about and priced other routes and just not worth it.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Thanks for all your comments - much appreciated.

We don't fly on principle due to the whole carbon / climate change thing - just our choice. So interested in all your replies about ferry options.

Next year DD1 will be in secondary school so we'll probably be into the half term thing too. (Have taken them out til now) so good point AW.

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Last year we did Okehampton - Chambery in 1 day (2 adults, shared driving although OH did most as I'd not driven on the "wrong" side before). Started about 5am on Friday, A303, M3, M25, M20 etc to Dover, then drove from Calais. Arrived Chambery about 10.30, would have been earlier if I'd printed the location map for the F1 Embarassed

. You have to go east to get to the alps anyway, and the crossways roads in France go through/round Paris, which isn't fun. Different story if going to the pyrenees though - then I would be tempted by the longer ferry options.

More pleasant might be drive to Dover night before and get early Ferry, if you're worried about the A303 falling over.

Even if you did fly, Exeter airport has always looked expensive, and parking charges are fairly painful at Bristol and especially Bournmouth... Last year we drove as OH had had an ear infection relatively recently and we didn't want to risk his ears flying. Was rather more pleasant than either of our flying experiences had been (Chambery and GVA).

if theres two driving then drive through via dover. Last year friends managed to drive back from serre che to bristol before we arrived home flying..but thats more to do with Grenoble being crap

You know it makes sense.

Its 5hrs to the tunnel for us which is free on Tesco vouchers, we pick the kids up from school early, get a late evening train and motor to the resort (usually Andorra) overnight when there's nothing on the roads and the cruise control stays at 85mph for about 75% of the journey, we're usually in the resort for lunchtime and the really keen can get an afternoons skiing in

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

flipperthesnowholedigger, just a thought but have a look at LD lines - we found a v cheap crossing with them in the summer from Portsmouth to Le Havre, which shaved a bit off Calais and wasn't as tedious as arriving in Cherbourg and driving down the peninsula.

tor

A snowHead

For info drove from St Malo to La Mongie over xmas to visit family who live near the resort, 6 hours 30 minutes with 2 stops. The new A65 south of Bordeuax helped, also not having the girlfriend in the car improved my average speed considerably Smile

I had previously driven from Calais to St Malo to visit other family memebers, why did none of them have the decency to settle in the Alps??? As mentioned previously Calais to the Pyrennes direct is a proper trek.

A snowHead

If you sail to Le Havre you have to time it right - to avoid the rush hours round - or through if you're brave - Paris. I don't sail from Portsmouth if going to the Alps, even though I live there.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The Periphique is under going major road works at the moment. Stay well away from the centre of Paris.

If coming from the west, join the A10 south of Chartres and head east towards Lyon. This road is pretty good now and I did Chateauroux to Tignes (420 miles) in 6 hours, a couple of weeks ago.

If going down from Calais, take the A26 rather than the A1 to Paris. But then you knew that Smile

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Driving to the Alps

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