 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all,
Happy New Year!
I'm going to be travelling to Champéry in Switzerland this month and I'm flying in to Geneva before jumping on the train out to the resort, but when I return a week later (train again) I'm not flying home but instead meeting another group of friends that are landing at Geneva and then going on to Megève in France.
I've done a lot of research, well as much as I can having moved flights about and having a short time to do it, and I'm pretty sure I can meet them in arrivals at Geneva once they've collected their luggage and done with customs and then walk up to the French sector to transfer out to Megève...but as its getting closer to actually testing out my plan I'm getting nervous. So I'm looking for someone in the know to reassure me that my plan will go through flawlessly or tell me I'm an idiot and explain how I get from the Swiss side to French side quickly and with the least amount of fuss or expense. 
Thanks!
Sty
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Sym0n, How are your friends getting to Megeve?
Usually people arrive at GVA and the take some form of road vehicle to Megeve in France via the autoroute and aboutn5miles from the airport go through the Douanes and into France.
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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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Sym0n, Just follow the signs to French Sector (or a big F)! As they come out of arrivals turn left (theirs not yours) go up the nearest escalator to the check in area upstairs and walk along to the end of the airport, there's a glass corridor through to the French side. Easy....you shouldn't have any trouble at all.
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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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They're flying in from Gatwick and, unless Google and other sites have lied to me - which is a possibility, they will be coming in to the Swiss side of Geneva. From there to Geneva it's a private transfer (Minibus) out to Megève, which I'm assuming will be from the French side. Actually I'll find out which company are doing the transfer as I suppose it could be picking us up from the Swiss side and then I wouldn't need to worry...maybe?
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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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Sym0n, 99% if not all transfers are from the Swiss side so I think yu can relax
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I owe each of you a pint, I'm finally calming down again and looking forward to the trip .
Thanks!!!
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| homphomp wrote: |
| Sym0n, Just follow the signs to French Sector (or a big F)! As they come out of arrivals turn left (theirs not yours) go up the nearest escalator to the check in area upstairs and walk along to the end of the airport, there's a glass corridor through to the French side. Easy....you shouldn't have any trouble at all. |
Yeah.
I've found it a little tricky to locate this on the few occasions when I've done it, as it's a little on the discreet side, but you can just walk from one sector to the other.
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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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Sym0n, I'd check with the transfer company, just to be on the safe side though I'd agree with those who've said transfers are generally on the International side (logically enough, as that's where nearly everybody arrives - only domestic flights go into the French side, I think. The parking area outside the terminal is always full of transfer vehicles.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I have yet to work out what the french bit is actually there for, apart from because the french probably just <gallic_shrug>
Sym0n, in my experience, everyone gets off the plane in Swizerland, goes through swiss passport bit to swiss baggage claim and into the airport arrivals hall.
Snowheads then usually meet at the 'Jazz Cafe' - which is the bar on the right as people exit baggage reclaim 'nothing to declare' bit...
you will see this when you arrive...you will then turn around and head left to the far end of the airport, through doors into the train concorse. Trains themselves are below the concorse down escalators/stairs.
It is quite a simple layout. Everyone seems to speak English.
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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 have yet to work out what the french bit is actually there for
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for French domestic flights; people do fly around France, oddly enough. Also essential for anyone wanting to holiday in France who doesn't have the right to enter Switzerland. I have had two lots of family visitors who answered that description.
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Some time ago, when I used a tour op, the arrivals/departure was a cattle shed further along the airport complex.
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You know it makes sense.
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pam w, thats logical.
Sym0n, forgot to say, like others hav said...transfers usually go from outside the swiss arrivals hall and cross into france a few miles away...usually without stopping for passport checks.
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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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Sym0n, Are you also aware of the 'swiss transfer ticket' ?
It is available only to non-swiss people, to use almost any train/ferry/funicular to get from a border or airport to resort, and back. It is about £95 so may or may not be cheaper than just booking normal tickets as Champéry is half as far.
I found it cheeper when going to Wengen, Zermatt...even when entering from Austria and exiting to GVA airport.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Sym0n wrote: |
| They're flying in from Gatwick and, unless Google and other sites have lied to me - which is a possibility, they will be coming in to the Swiss side of Geneva. From there to Geneva it's a private transfer (Minibus) out to Megève, which I'm assuming will be from the French side. Actually I'll find out which company are doing the transfer as I suppose it could be picking us up from the Swiss side and then I wouldn't need to worry...maybe? |
Given you're talking about a private transfer then they're probably flying scheduled to GVA rather than charter. That's handy as the charter flight terminal is a little distance away from the commercial terminal..
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Also essential for anyone wanting to holiday in France who doesn't have the right to enter Switzerland
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usually without stopping for passport checks
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Switzerland is in Schengen area now, like most of EU, so no border controls between CH and F, except in exceptional circumstances.
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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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Geneva must be the most fascinating airport in the world: - try describing how to drop a French hire car off and then get to the Easyjet checkin (and no the one on the Frech side will not accept you. That is only for internal French flights). I think you could write book about navigating around Geneva airport, possibly with a whole chapeter on buying swiss army kniifes after being security scanned. The reason for all this is, I beleive, so French and Swiss people can travel to destinations within their respecive countries without having a passport.
John
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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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johnE,
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try describing how to drop a French hire car off and then get to the Easyjet checkin
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It really is quite easy, follow the signs for International departures. I can't understand how people think it is so difficult.
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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 border controls between CH and F
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it might be different now, but when my people came in, a few years ago, they wouldn't have been allowed into Switzerland at the International passport check (which was 100%). I picked them up in the French sector then drove immediately into Switzerland and along the motorway to Bardonnex without any problem - but I had a fall back of driving through France, if we'd been checked and turned back.
It was a major faff at the airport, too. One couple, she with a British passport, he with a Zimbabwean passport, were in the French sector, minus baggage, when I met up with them. He was NOT allowed to go and get the bags - and she was reluctant, as they had a lot, but had no choice. The alternative seemed to be for us all to sit there for ages till the baggage handling service went and sought it out - and it sounded as though they might charge extra for that, too.
One of Geneva airport's little tricks is to change the rules and layouts for all this every now and then, so just when you thought you had it sussed, they catch you out. We once dropped 4 rented cars in the French sector - very late for our flight - and somehow, rather than get through that nice straightforward walk through, ended up in the arrivals hall. Then we had to queue up for immigration and had to explain what was going on when they asked where we had flown in from. AND the Swiss immigration people made a big fuss because my brother was with his 8 year old son and his girlfriend (who was not the child's mother). They caused quite a hold up, demanding to know where the mother was and whether she had given permission for the son to travel.
I was frantic that 16 of us would miss our easyJet flight so decided to skip immigration, bolt through doors which I was clearly forbidden to bolt through, and run all the way to easyJet check in and promise the (extremely nice and helpful) check in clerk that the rest of the party, which included an 80 year old disabled woman with a walking aid, would be there in no time at all.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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pam w, It is different now, it has been easy for the last couple of years to walk from both the Swiss to the French side and vice versa without having to show your passport. I tend to rent car hire from the French side but always fly in and out of the Swiss (International) side and have been able to walk through without being checked for the last couple of years at least.
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| Sym0n wrote: |
| They're flying in from Gatwick and, unless Google and other sites have lied to me - which is a possibility, they will be coming in to the Swiss side of Geneva. From there to Geneva it's a private transfer (Minibus) out to Megève, which I'm assuming will be from the French side. Actually I'll find out which company are doing the transfer as I suppose it could be picking us up from the Swiss side and then I wouldn't need to worry...maybe? |
Symon, the transfer is probably going to be out of the swiss side - its the best/quickest route out to the highway and over the border, the minibus will have a swiss motorway permit and this is by far the easiest way on to your resort.
You can get through to the French sector - bit of a faf - and can avoid needing a motorway permit, but it is very much around the houses in downtown Geneva. Pretty, but you'll be wanting to get off and ski. 
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It is different now, it has been easy for the last couple of years to walk from both the Swiss to the French side and vice versa without having to show your passport.
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It used to be very easy to do that 9albeit you did have to show a passport). I remember the first time I flew into Geneva, on my own, heading for an early season few days in the 3V, I walked through to the French side and asked about the buses. They offered to look after my bags for me, all v helpful. then I got on the bus which promptly drove round to the Swiss side, where I could have stayed all along.
Then, for a time, it all became more difficult - and the easy walk through I remembered seemed to have disappeared - hence ending up in the baggage hall.
Now it's easier again. But be careful - once we are all feeling confident that it's easy, they'll think up some new buggeration. 
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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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It really is quite easy, follow the signs for International departures. I can't understand how people think it is so difficult.
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Yes, as you drive along ignore all signs for the airport, turnoff and head for Ferney- Voltaire. Exit a roundabout on what appears to be an entry road. Go under the runway. Go through French customs and immigration and do what amounts to a 'U' turn onto what apears to be a service track. At the very end of this is the car hire return.
The bit once inside the airport was OK in October when I went through, once I had noted the sharp 'U' turn and down the stairs to baggage reclaim. Earlier in the year they were doing some building work and somehow I ended up at the departure gates without seeing the checkin desks or the swiss side.
I think it is geat fun.
John
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Sym0n, You will arrive by train, walk up the escalator or steps, along the concourse, through the revolving doors and along into arrivals, arrange to meet at THE HUB cafe bar in arrivals.
Your mates will come into arrivals from baggage reclaim/customs and turn left and there you will be waiting with a cold frothy one.
Contact your transfer company to ask them to meet you at THE HUB and job is done.
STOP PANICKING it's simple. NO changes from French sector to Swiss needed.
If your transfer company will not come to you (miseries) send one member to find them while you carry on drinking
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| lampbus wrote: |
| Some time ago, when I used a tour op, the arrivals/departure was a cattle shed further along the airport complex. |
It is technically known as Terminal 2. I arrived there last week but rather confusingly the departure was from T1 which we only found out after the tour bus had dropped us at T2. That made for an interesting walk too - past the police station, through the bin stores, up an escalator and you recognise where you are again.
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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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http://www.genevaairport.net/French-Sector/French-Sector-Sign.php
Good (unofficial) website all about Geneva airport.
Above link shows you pictures of what the French sector entrance looks like.
As other posters have said, at arrivals, go left and up the escalater to departures. This brings you out opposite some check -in desks and to your right you'll see the fabled French entrance.
Go through the automatic doors, there's never any staff there and into the French sector. You can come back out of these doors, back into the Swiss (departures) side again if you want. It all looks a bit imposing/passport control like but it's really just a door/corridor to the French part of the airport.
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FAQ
A few years back I surprised the wife by being at the baggage carousel when she flew out midweek to meet me. All I was trying to do was navigate from the French side to the arrivals in the Swiss side. I was stood there wondering who's bags/skis I should help myself to when she turned up 
