Mont Blanc Tunnel - Eur 55 Each Way !

Went through this yesterday. It is about 11km long and was all very smooth.

But at Eur 55 each way it seemed ridiculously expensive.

Does anyone know of a cheaper alternative route over the mountain passes ? How long does it take ? Are there any decent campsites on the pass ?

We will be travelling from Italy to Lyon in SW France in a couple of weeks.

Thank you .

gatvol said:

Does anyone know of a cheaper alternative route over the mountain passes ? How long does it take ? Are there any decent campsites on the pass ?

We will be travelling from Italy to Lyon in SW France in a couple of weeks.

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Col de la Madeleine. Very nice route.


Nice camping on the french side: Camping Les Marmottes.

Then on via Gap and Grenoble, if you have time visit the Vercors on your way, or the Cirque de Combe Laval:

Frejus is an alternative.

bvddobb said:

Col de la Madeleine. Very nice route.

Nice camping on the french side: Camping Les Marmottes.

Then on via Gap and Grenoble, if you have time visit the Vercors on your way, or the Cirque de Combe Laval:

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Agree Mormottes is great site, nice walk or cycle into centre of Chamonix by river. Also amazing views of glacier from campsite.

sbmcd said:

Agree Mormottes is great site, nice walk or cycle into centre of Chamonix by river.

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I think you mean another campsite... Chamonix is a 300 km / 5h drive from this campsite!
There will me more than one 'Les Marmottes' in this area! (they live here).

Frejus tunnel is outrageously expensive.

On the way back we came via the Mont Cenis pass. This route is free and offers awesome views and decent amenities at the top - cafes, museum. .. We travelled on a weekday and the pass was very quiet, we experienced no delays. The road is perfectly safe and is a proper route that articulated lorries could manage. It is very close to the Frejus tunnel and almost meets it at both ends. Taking the free and scenic route might add 1 1/4 h to your journey but when the pass is open this is a no brainer imho.

At the French end there is a little ski resort called Val Cenis. Well over half of the shops, bars, restaurants were open in June. Perfectly nice campsite next to the river. Very nice alpine walks are clearly marked.

Drove through the tunnel on Friday - 44 euros.

We drove from Sarona to Gap accross the Col de la Madeliene recently and I can thoroughly recommend it. Very picturesque and hardly any traffic. I didn 't want to pay for road tolls etc either so chose a route that avoided them. In the end our 2600 mile trip to Italy through six countries only cost us about forty Euros in total but only then because we used the péage for the last 150 kms in France because my wife wanted to get home to watch the Royal Wedding on the box! Otherwise the total cost would only have been around 16 euros.

And if you have the time to take les routes nationales in France then you will benefit from a relaxed and scenic drive through superb scenary.

En route we discovered this helpful website that gives you estimated journey times, fuel costs and toll charges.

https://www.viamichelin.co.uk/web/Routes