As many people on here drive down to the alps in the summer I wanted to see if anyone could offer and advice.

I'd like to know how much the tolls will be from Calais to Bourg St Maurice and also does anyone know anything about the cost of parking in and around the les arcs ski resort.

use mappy
HTH
Juan

mappy.com will work it all out for you

I think it cost us about 55 quid in tolls, one way, but we did motorway the whole way. On the return we did A roads in fractionally longer but for free.

Assuming you're paying for accom at les arcs you will, almost undoubtedly, get free car parking. We certainly did.

Our toll charges to and from Morzine came to about £120.

And if you drive to Les Arcs through the night and get there at 10:30 am, feeling smug be careful when you go into the multi-storey car park because while the main lanes through it are tall enough for a roofrack with snowboards on, some of the smaller ones have less clearance and could rip the rack off. Apparently.

Agree with coffeking, about 55 euro's when we did it in August 😐 Oh, and about 20 hours door to door 😯

Went further south, around £70 in tolls each way, so ballpark figures are close.

😀 took 27 hours from Glasgow, with a couple of food stops 🙂

I'm driving to Bourg from N.Germany (Bielefeld area) next August, 10 hours according to google maps. Sounds a bit optimistic to me…

I can't believe how cheap you can get accomodation for if you dig around a bit. I'll be loading the car up with wine and food though in anticipation of getting ripped off in resort.

in anticipation of getting ripped off in resort.

Its about £3 for a half and £5 for a pint in the resorts. We just bought in beer at the local supermarket, I dont mind paying a premium but that's taking the mickle.

10 hours sounds to be on the money to me – I suppose it depends on how often & for how long you like to stop en-route

27hrs coffeking, jeez 😯

Does anyone make a family holiday from the alp's or is this just a guy's holiday usually??

We do it as a family holiday sometimes. It's a great option, plenty to do.

We drove down there last winter, to Sainte Foy, just off the road to Tignes. Was about 60 euros each way in tolls. We stayed near Bourg on the way down and did a day in Les Arcs (parking down at the funicular station) before heading to our chalet.

It was a pretty good way of doing things really. Even with the cost of roofbox hire, ferry, tolls, diesel, extra breakdown cover and putting two friends on my insurance (to share the driving) it was still cheaper than flying or snowtrain and not really any longer time-wise than either for a door-to-door time.

Excellent snowslave cheer's, what area do you normally stay in with the family, Morzine??

We have done it as a family for the last five years with Bike Verbier, going back next year for some more fun

This years pics

http://kevinlawton6103.fotopic.net/c1742548.html

Tracey

We did Zermatt to Bristol in 15 hours, £59 tolls & only stopping for food/loo/driver swaps 3 times in France.

took 27 hours from Glasgow, with a couple of food stops

😯

Alps in summer is one of the best family holiday destinations I've been too – loads for kids of all ages to do, weather generally better than UK, plus biking! Drove down for the Mega this year and then wife and kids flew into Geneva airport. Then had 10 days near Chamonix, was ace.

If I get my way we'll be doing it each summer for years! 🙂

£60 each way tolls is about right…

We went Leeds – Morzine, set off Friday night arrived Saturday tea time with a crossing from dover/dunkirk. All in all about 17 – 18hrs. Was a good week but i was ready for killing my co-pilot when we got back to Leeds, but thats a different story.

For summer with the family, we've used self catering chalets we find on the Morzine website. Typically we've split the chalet between 2 families. Prices are reasonable if you source from France direct rather than go through Brit intermediaries, but n.b. this is for a general family holiday, not biking. I'd defo use guides if biking to make the most of the place.

We tend to fly, take a flight from Friday to Friday which is much cheaper, stay the 1st night in a logis de france place on Lac Montriond, and leave the chalet a day earlier – saves a lot of money.

The chalets are generally good spec. But pay for them to be cleaned when you finish, this is normally an optional extra. These Europeans have v high standards and expect it to be in prestine shiny condition when you finish, not something to scrimp on.

There is tons of stuff to do. If you just hang out in Morzine there is an insane version of Go Ape, horse riding, the swimming pool complex is fantastic and free for kids under 6, the Pleney lift has a luge run under it, etc etc. Each resort has something nice to do, and they're not far apart.

Everyone has answered the toll bit already but I didn't see anything on parking. It'll be free in the summer in resorts.

If you're going over riding for a while then 2 things spring to mind, one is that you really need a guide to get the best of the place (I've been with trailaddiction.com before and had a great time), the great trails are all footpaths and not the marked bike routes and if you insist on doing it solo/self organising then consider staying in bourg saint maurice at the bottom of the valley. It's a proper town with decent shops and a bit of life, the funicular takes you to the trails and many of them finish at the valley bottom anyway.

We took a couple of days each way, with a stop at a formula 1 hotel half way. That allowed us to have a look around at some interesting places en route (and meant I could bring lots of wine back…). For me, that approach was better because I felt like I'd had 2 separate holidays, and wasn't exhausted when I got there or when I got home again.