How to drive to the Alps?

[Lambeth Cali]

We have driven to Les Arcs about ten times now, first in a car later in the Cali, family of four. We drive from the north west so a bit further than you I think. We use the channel tunnel and we head for Reims stay the night in a hotel and then drive Reims to Bourg St Maurice in about seven hours. We go either Lyon, Chambery, Albertville or come off near Dijon onto the A39 and go Bourg-en-Bresse, Annecy, Chambery, Albertville. They are both similar journey times but the scenery is better on the Annecy route. Yesterday due to farmers demonstrations we had a terrible journey home but it was a one off.

Easter is not particularly busy in French ski resorts, from my experience the French don't head to the mountains much after February. The weather will be warm and the pistes should still be in good condition and spring like.

Snow socks or chains will be fine, this late in the season you'll most likely not need them but if you do it'll most likely be for the last few Km's up the mountain, we have winter tyres but from looking at other peoples tyres in the car parks (strange past time I know) most don't and use chains/socks if required. The road is kept as clear as possible and there are plenty of places to pull in and put chains on.

Arc 2000 underground car park is 1.83m there is an outside car park that you can use. If you want to park undercover drop your stuff off in 2000 then drive the short distance down to Arc 1950, their car park it is over 2m and easily fits the Cali. You can book a spot in here in advance. You then use the Cabriolet lift to get up to Arc 2000.

We always do a shop in BSM Super U and fill up with diesel here too just to make sure we have no problems with freezing and diesel.

Hope this is useful. Any other questions just ask.

That’s all very useful thank you. I’ll look at the route. We are overnighting in Dijon and managed to book a car park in 2000 called Mont Blanc which should be ok.

Hopefully this will be the first trip of many so we can finesse the route. I feel we are doing the ‘wrong’ thing by driving for hours and hours in daylight. Everyone else seems to drive at night or v early morning. But I find it difficult driving for a very long time in the dark without dozing off.

 

[bigmac77]

That’s all very useful thank you. I’ll look at the route. We are overnighting in Dijon and managed to book a car park in 2000 called Mont Blanc which should be ok.
View attachment 118584
Hopefully this will be the first trip of many so we can finesse the route. I feel we are doing the ‘wrong’ thing by driving for hours and hours in daylight. Everyone else seems to drive at night or v early morning. But I find it difficult driving for a very long time in the dark without dozing off.

Yes sorry forgot about Mont Blanc, it’s Lac des Combes parking that’s 1.8m.

Because there are so many resorts up the Tarenteise valley traffic can be hell. We have done loads of different times but the key is to get there early, I’d leave Dijon as early as possible because it’s still 5 hours from there not including a break. The best way we have done the trip is to get to BSM late on the Friday and then stay overnight in the Cali at the Huttopia site then drive up the Les Arcs on the Saturday and have 3/4 of a day on the slopes whilst it’s really quiet because everyone else has left and new arrivals are still in transit. Then on the last Saturday check out of your apartment put your stuff in the Cali and ski all day again and leave at 5:30pm when everyone else has already left. The effort of driving can get you get nearly 8 days on the slopes rather than 6 for those who fly.

 

[Winston Rumfoord]

How did the feb half term trips go?

 

[s2bear]

We have driven to Les Arcs about ten times now, first in a car later in the Cali, family of four. We drive from the north west so a bit further than you I think. We use the channel tunnel and we head for Reims stay the night in a hotel and then drive Reims to Bourg St Maurice in about seven hours. We go either Lyon, Chambery, Albertville or come off near Dijon onto the A39 and go Bourg-en-Bresse, Annecy, Chambery, Albertville. They are both similar journey times but the scenery is better on the Annecy route. Yesterday due to farmers demonstrations we had a terrible journey home but it was a one off.

Easter is not particularly busy in French ski resorts, from my experience the French don't head to the mountains much after February. The weather will be warm and the pistes should still be in good condition and spring like.

Snow socks or chains will be fine, this late in the season you'll most likely not need them but if you do it'll most likely be for the last few Km's up the mountain, we have winter tyres but from looking at other peoples tyres in the car parks (strange past time I know) most don't and use chains/socks if required. The road is kept as clear as possible and there are plenty of places to pull in and put chains on.

Arc 2000 underground car park is 1.83m there is an outside car park that you can use. If you want to park undercover drop your stuff off in 2000 then drive the short distance down to Arc 1950, their car park it is over 2m and easily fits the Cali. You can book a spot in here in advance. You then use the Cabriolet lift to get up to Arc 2000.

We always do a shop in BSM Super U and fill up with diesel here too just to make sure we have no problems with freezing and diesel.

Buy your ski pass their, there is no benefit to buying in advance, they have Classic, Essential and Premium. If you are going to stay in Les Arcs the classic will be fine and is the cheapest. If you want to use the que jump and ski in La Plagne get the Essential. To get to La Plagne you have to ski over to Peisey and get the Vanoise Express over then take the lifts up to the Roche De Mio, this is a long way from Arc 2000 in distance and time and you have to get back at the end of the day so maybe not worth it.

If you are renting equipment, we use Precission Ski, register with them and they send you discount codes, should get ski’s and boots for a family of four for less than €200 for the week.

Hope this is useful. Any other questions just ask.

OMG - I knew it couldn’t only be me that checks out everyone’s tyres! Unfortunately I just think that makes you not normal as well as me not normal, as opposed to both of us behaving normally.

 

[s2bear]

How did the feb half term trips go?

I drove through the night but needed a nap by Lyon 6-7 ish. Mrs S2bear woke me up as the volume of traffic was escalating. I knew I’d messed up as soon as I saw it. Took about 5.5 hours from Lyon (instead of 2.5 ish) but from what I heard - it got much busier. Lovely week though. Once you’re there you forget about the journey.

 

[matt-k918]

How did the feb half term trips go?

Journey wise was great. Eurotunnel was a LOT quieter on the way out than last year… I think maybe our half term was a week later than many (feb 16-25) so we sailed on without queuing at all at 8:45pm which was lucky since we’d been delayed on the M1. Borrowed a tag for the tolls again from a friend which means you can just sail through the booths and also means passengers aren’t disturbed by stopping, electric window etc. Total toll cost was £160.
I drove until c.3am then my wife took over. This is the first time she’s driven on the ski journey. Not because she wasn’t willing to, but she has always been so concerned about checking in on me that she hasn’t slept, so there seemed no point in changing!
We stopped in Bonneville, planning to get breakfast at the McD we’ve used a couple of times on our way out of the alps and having missed the promised McD on Friday night due to the traffic, but found it wasn’t open/didn’t do breakfast . Fresh croissants, pain au chocolats and a rustic baguette were a more than adequate alternative!! 20 min wait for a supermarket to open and we were in the resort by 10 ish. Sorted the kids skis, had a walk and a little cry at the state of the snow (!) and then we managed to get in our apartment 4 hrs early!
Skiing wise we actually had a good week too. The snow low down was horrendous and made the final run to the resort each day a bit of a trial, but up high was still pretty good. The Thursday was the first time we’ve ever lost a full day to the weather but it threw it down with heavy rain, even very high, all day and further decimated the slopes. They shut quite a lot of them, primarily I think to try and protect them. However, turned to snow that evening and also snowed Friday night so we had Friday and Saturday with blue skies and fresh powder!!
We used the Skillico pass for the lift pass. There is an annual fee but I think it is pretty equivalent to getting a 7 day pass, however you make a saving if you don’t ski the full area one day (where we were there were the 4 villages area or the full area that include Flaines) and you don’t pay for any days you don’t ski, so the day we lost to weather = c.200 euro saving!!
Journey back was completely uneventful, left the resort at about 5:30pm Saturday, grabbed a bite in Bonneville just before jumping onto the motorway and we were on the Eurotunnel just before 3am, in our own beds by about 6am!!!
The Cali is just great for trips like this ….

 

[Lee.Van.Cleef]

Just booked the summer (with a stint in Jungfrau) - useful thread - thanks all!

We're going July/August. Be aware the Hull - Zeebrugge ferry is already filling up :-/

 

[calibusje]

Just booked the summer (with a stint in Jungfrau) - useful thread - thanks all!

We're going July/August. Be aware the Hull - Zeebrugge ferry is already filling up :-/

Zeebrugge? Bizarre because that ferry line has not been there since the end of 2020 or will it return this summer?
There was talk that it might return, but it is not known when.

 

[soulstyledevon]

A lot of people took the night drive decision. Sounds exhausting…

 

[Lee.Van.Cleef]

Zeebrugge? Bizarre because that ferry line has not been there since the end of 2020 or will it return this summer?
There was talk that it might return, but it is not known when.

That would explain the lack of tickets. :-/
The Rotterdam route is also filling up...
Some of the cheaper cabin options already booked up.

 

[Lambeth Cali]

Our 1400 miles drive to Les Arcs was a mixed bag. And we broke down.

The first day to Dijon was marred by tunnel delays and ended up driving at night in a rain storm on country lanes arriving at 11pm. The next day to Les Arcs was good arriving in good weather nice and early. We picked up our rental skis before the masses arrived and were playing in the snow and sledging by 5pm.

A great holiday.

On the way back we had a great lunch stop by Lake Annecy and then overnight in Dijon. The next day we were making great progress using cruise control on quiet motorways at 80mph for 2 hours but then disaster struck.

The turbo air pipe came off causing a loss of power but I managed to limp to a giant service station. My free Safeguard European Breakdown cover worked. The AA told us that it was illegal to repair a vehicle on a French motorway and that services counted as motorway. They made us call 112 which they said was a police recovery number. Eventually 112 did send a mechanic in less than half an hour who re-attached the pipe. We got back on the motorway but after 5 minutes it came back off again. We limped to Challons en Champagne to get far away from the motorway. This time a recovery truck arrived from the AA, again quickly (we had 2 children with us). The mechanic reattached the pipe again and told me to drive up to the roundabout and back. I got 100 metres before it came off again. We then had to quickly grab a bag and handover/abandon the van as we were 200 miles from Calais. The station was 5 minutes walk away and had a direct train to Paris where we got Eurostar home, arriving probably an hour later than we would have in the Cali.

On Friday I made the trip to pick up the van. I was very worried about this as the bill was 120 Euro which I thought was suspiciously cheap. My wife runs an international translation company so we got a colleague to call the Peugeot garage. They said they hadn't replaced the pipe but had replaced the clips and road tested it. They assured us the pipe wouldn't come off ten minutes after I set off, but you can see why I was worried. I set off from south London at 4am and got back at 10pm. All good but I religiously kept it below 2,100 rpm the whole time.

A bit of a saga but I was glad that my AA coverage which comes with Safeguard did seem to work. We are supposedly covered to £1,200 for onward journey so we shouldn't be horrifically out of pocket despite the only Eurostar tickets home available for the 4 of us being business class costing just over £1,200. The AA bought my Eurostar ticket back on Friday.

We were very fortunate not to have been broken down by the side of the motorway. I would have hated that. Also in reference to how we drove down over 2 days, with the benefit of hindsight, I am also very glad that this didn't happen at night and I don't think I would like to try and do the journey in one day. Sunday was bad enough.

Edit: AA paid our £1308 claim with no questions.

 

[Azteccamper]

A memorable holiday all round! Hopefully the turbo pipe is sorted and you live to tell the tell over a glass of wine. And I hope your trip was worth it - can’t beat a winter break. We have had something go wrong with ours - 2012 SE - in Portugal (‘22) and Italy (‘23), but we’ve always got it repaired by a local garage at a great price. Hoping to be trouble free in Spain this summer.