Hi,

Five if us are planning a trip to chatel this summer. Am I right in assuming that it would be cheaper to hire a minibus and drive rather than all of us buy bike bags and fly?

Can anyone recommend a vehicle we can hire that can fit 5 people + 5 bikes + luggage, that will clssify as a large car and be cheaper on the ferry and tolls?

Cheers.

I think that i you can find £40-50 flights, it may be cheaper to fly, maybe instead of buying bike bags, hassle your LBS for old bike boxes, make sure you pad them out well and gaffer tape to re-inforce.

If you do drive, something like a LWB VW Caddymax? I drive a Citreon Berlingo van and they seemed to classify that as a car at the tolls in France as it has a car derivative.

Found it more convenient and not much more expensive to fly.

http://www.holygrailmtb.com/

did us a deal with transfers, guiding when we needed it and great food.

+1 for Holygrail. Can’t fault Mick & Lisa.

I think that i you can find £40-50 flights,

good luck with that.

especially if you want to fly on a saturday…

i’d expect £150ish for the flights, and i wouldn’t be surprised if i had to pay extra (£50?) for my bike, and i’d allow £40ish each end for ‘transfers’.

(you may well find cheaper flights, but you’ll be very lucky)

getting a vehicle to the alps and back to sheffield costs me about £450…

no, we would be leaving mid-week.

is your price to sheffield and back including hiring the vehicle? i’m 40 minutes from dover, so it would be even cheaper! 🙂

it’s just the fuel+ferry+tolls.

4 of us flew to Geneva and hired a Merc Vito. It would have need pretty cramped putting 5 people in a smaller van than that. Doable for sure, but cramped.

id expect more on the flights now of £160-£190
prefer driving nowadays.

5 of us went to cham last year in my mates 5 series bmw inc bikes etc… 😀