Evening all,

So i’ve got some time off coming up and had some plans made which have since fallen through due to my non-bike mates being useless. 🙄

Rather than do nothing I am planning on a (hideously unorganised) road trip to the alps with a mate for about a week but I could do with it being as cheap as possible, so where would be best to go? Will ride anything, but chairlifts = good in my book.

Cheers!

Chairlifts = closed in most resorts now or at least in the next week they’ll be closing

As above, most lifts closed or about to close. Lots of places will be cheap as its low season. You might find some lifts open at the weekends.

we had the last week in chatel and our host said that 99% of the operators will have shut/gone to the south till the ski season starts.

Reckon you’ve missed the french boat, maybe somewhere else could work though?

Hmm that’s a shame, I thought we may catch the tail end of the season. Will have to look into other places. Cheers for the heads up guys!

If your driving fuel and peage will cost you a small fortune.

I thought I read that you could hook up with riviera bikes uplift service in finale Liguria . Check their site.

The Austrian resorts are open till the end of September I think

Zermatt has operating funiculars & lifts well in to October.

There are also some places in germany open for a bit yet, check out winterberg, bad wildbad, todtnau and lac blanc as did all of these on a may road trip last year.

cheap flight and a week here good riding
http://www.sierracycling.com/

We just got back from 3 weeks in the Alps including 10 days in Davos. Switzerland may not be the cheapest place but if you stay anywhere in Davos or Klosters you are entitled to a FREE lift pass! You only have to pay to carry your bike on the lifts. This is usually 5CHF a time or 10CHF for a day pass! There are some superb tours you can follow but i would recommend buying the Davos/Klosters Singletrail map for 25CHF and get it from Ivans Velo Sport. The map indicates the best trails in the area according to difficulty.

The majority of stuff we found was really flowy contour type stuff, Most of the trails make superb use of the elevation.

The best bit is that the lfts are open until 23rd October!

Email in profile should you like more info.

Just back from Les Gets/Morzine this afternoon. The lifts closed today, and won’t open again until it snows.

you could go to leogang/saalbach. i think they are still open – you’ll have to check it yourself though.

you can camp for free on the carpark in leogang or find a campsite nearby.

you could easily spend a week there; mixture of lift-assisted and natural trails/big day out hike a bike. a lift card costs €31/day but gives you access to leogang, saalbach and hinterglemm.

or spend a few days there and stop off at wild bad/winterberg (germany) on your way there or on return leg.

re. todtnau… unless you’ve got a big bike you won’t find it all that enjoyable. the DH course there is “full on”.

Cheap flights to spain? Could be worth finding a guide company that does van lift. (Try White Room Chalet – Sante Foy near Les Arcs if they have any last minute spaces)

Pretty much all of Switzerland is open until mid October. The Alps extend a lot further than France!

Or go a bit further South to Garda perhaps.

A bit warmer, only a short section of Autostrada to pay tolls on, much cheaper accomodation/food/drink, better food, better beer (proximity to Munich)… need I go on?!
There are a number of guys doing uplift services as there’s no real lift infrastructure. I can thoroughly recommend Luca’s Bike Shuttle (Torbole). 🙂

garda is good. lots of very tricky riding, but gets very expensive if you are being shuttled up the hills.

if you go you can camp there direct on the lake in Torbole.

Paulaner seems to be served most of the time and as any Münchener will tell you, Paulaner is crap…. 😀