anyoneogot any help/advice for driving to the alps?

Two drivers at least if you plan to do it in <24 hours. Take the autoroutes if you want to spend ~£90 in tolls, take the other roads for cheaper but slightly slower travel.

Dont forget you need a high vis jacket, bulb pack and fire extinguisher by law.

if you’re using satnav, take at least a europe road atlas as well – when i took my girlfriend from la plagne to geneva airport over xmas the satnav tried to take us a virtually crow flies route straight over the top of the mountains and down the other side, rather than on the motorways. if we’d gone that way we’d probably still be stranded there now! 😆

we drove down before but that was from the south east, this time its from ther north west. there’s three of us doing it so we’ve got enough people to drive.

just fancied a change to flying

drive on the right

Go late on a Friday via the Channel Tunnel, its usually dead quiet.

Travel with a minimum of one other driver to take a bit of the strain and make sure they are insured for the vehicle you are using and no, third party cover based on a UK fully comp policy doesn’t cut it with the French police.

Remember to check for all the bits and bobs you need in your car to keep the French police happy, which includes a day-glo vest/jacket for each occupant that is to hand in the main compartment of the vehicle, warning triangle, spare bulbs and all the good stuff. Whilst I’m sure you’ll no doubt have many folk tell you that they’ve never carried these would you want to risk the fine?

Depending on where you are going and what you are traveling in from Calais its a safe 9 hour drive (to Les Arcs in this instance) including stops for fuel, coffee and a stop for breakfast after you get near Chambrey. French service station coffee is first class BTW.

Don’t exceed the speed limit after you pass the Pas De Calais department sign on the way back as the French police look out for Brits racing to catch their ferries and quite often Kent Police are to hand to assist their French counterparts with all the paperwork.

When you arrive don’t be tempted to go straight out on your bike, no matter how sunny it is. Get your head down for a few hours and then maybe pop out in the afternoon after the lifts reopen. Better to get some rest than crash on your first day.

Have fun.

this is how we do it:

– 10pm ish ferry – drive until about Reims, then stop in an Aire.
– Sleep in pop-up tents (cheap decathlon 2 second jobs).
– Drive for about an hour then stop for a cuppa and a pain au chocolat in one of the aire restaurants (l’arche etc.).
– Keep on plugging on, stop in the Carrefour at Dijon (not too far off the autoroute) for lunch (pizza’s from their Traiteur are great) and to buy any supplies you want to stock up on (much cheaper than resort town supermarkets).
– Arrive in resort mid afternoon (bit later if you are heading further south – les arcs etc.)

On the way back, leave mid morning for an evening ferry, stopping again at Dijon for lunch. Alternatively, leave mid afternoon, stop at dijon (or chambery) for dinner; kip in an aire up near lille and catch an early ferry.

Two drivers are a bonus, but if we are stopping for a sleep, then I have no problem doing it all myself. When we went down to Les Arcs in Jan, we did it all in one push – caught a 10pm ferry and were in town checking into our apartment at midday the next day.

Route: Calais | Reims | Troyes | …
then either Bourg-en-Bress | Geneva | wherever…
or Lyon | Chambery | wherever…

Unless you are going to italy, don’t follow your satnav through the mont-blanc tunnel. In winter, then col’s to get back over are often shut, and the tunnel costs quite a lot anyway!

Dave

From Calais to Sainte Foy (Les Arcs), tolls are about 60euros each way if you come off the motorway at Annecy. A little more if you go right round by Chambery. The two routes take about the same time (Chambery is longer but has more motorway).

9hrs (as above) is a bit optimistic (maybe to Morzine/Les Gets). Quickest we’ve ever managed is 10hrs and that’s with two drivers, no stops other than fuel and take-away coffee and fairly heavy right foot.

If you have British plates, you’re probably OK with speed cameras. If you have French plates (like us) then stick to the speed limit! (Done for 131kph in a 130kph zone anyone?)

We used to do it on the cheap, usually driving thru the night, which meant you could get the ferry cheap and the A roads are empty. I’ve always found driving on the A roads to be good, not a chore, they’re pretty wide and straight. If your going on the motorways, be aware that the Police might check your times from Payage to payage to work out your average speed.

You also need to take a car insurance green card and your car registration certificate, my mate got fined in Italy a few years ago for not having his reg. cert. He also got fined for obscuring his reg plate with the bike rack.

If you are driving thru Switzerland, don’t enter on the motorway, they try to charge you a large fee at the border for using their motorways. Turn off at the last junction and cross the border on an A road, then get back on the motorway.

Oh Aye, if you’re coming from the north-west, you could consider sailing from Hull to Zeebrugge or Rotterdam. Good sleep on the boat, then fresh for the drive down. The drive on the european side is slightly longer, but not much in it plus fuel is very cheap in Belgium and you can go down through Belgium & Luxembourg to Metz and hence avoid paying most of the motorway tolls.

The story above about police checking your time between payages is an urban myth, doesn’t happen.

Swiss motorways are tolls? Or is it some kind of import tax for foreigners?

stevo is right, but that myth comes from the fact that they often hide just before (few km) the payages and get you, then send a second unit to pick you up AT the payages.

There is an annual charge to use Swiss motorways, it’s 30euros.

9hrs (as above) is a bit optimistic

Well thats about what the trip computer in the car said (actually 9.21 hours) and that included half hour stop at the last services on the Autoroute before turning off the Autoroute (Cháteauneuf?) for breakfast.

Admittedly we weren’t strictly abiding by the speed limits.

(As an aside most online route planners have Calais – BSM down as a sub 9 hour drive, sticking to the speed limit but not taking into account breaks).

To drive on swiss motorways you need a vignette which costs €40-50 for a year but there are then no further charges.

Hull ferries are ok from the north but very expensive normally and a 12 hour crossing. I’ve done Sheffield to Les Gets in 14 door to door. I work on 8 hours from calais to les gets, but have done it in 6.5.

The non motorway routes are a lot lot longer/slower than the autoroutes so the tolls are well worth it. Also stories of massively cheaper fuel off the motorway are a bit optimistic, it’s a bit cheaper but in many stations you pay automatically by card and they don’t take english ones.

It’s definitely a good way to get there. Best I’ve done was leave after work on a friday, midnight ferry so we didn’t get too much traffic in the UK and then parked at Mont Chery lift just as it started. Straight out on the bikes all day and slept very well that night.

molgrips – Member

Swiss motorways are tolls? Or is it some kind of import tax for foreigners?

That happened to us about 7 years ago, we refused to pay and turned the car round and did as I’ve suggested.

When me and ‘er indoors drve to Alpe d’Huez last year, we did it in two stages with a stop-over, which worked out pretty well. We didn’t really plan anything, just peeled off the motorway when we were bored of driving and there was a campsite marked on the map. We used the motorways in the North where it’s grim, then took the quieter roads in the South, where it’s purty.

dont look down

Driven to Verbier for the last 5 years, well Kevin has, we set of at midnight from South Yorkshire and get the first train through the tunnel, for the first 3 years we did it in one go but for the last 2 we have stopped off in the French Alps overnight, Never paid for the motorway yet as we told the guard at the border we wernt going on them, high vis jackets are required and acording to Kevin must be worn at all times if under 14

Got half way through France before the girls realised it was a set up

Tracey

Tracey – class! 🙂

We got the Rosyth – Zeebrugge ferry last year and battered down the Autoroutes straight to Morzine. Off the boat at 1200 on a Sunday, and were sinking a cheeky beer in L’Etale at 2101 having checked in with Endlessride and unpacked. As others have said the motorway rest stops are pretty good in France and it’s easy to maintain a decent rate of progress on the autoroute without driving like a ****. That said, took 2mpg off the total fuel consumption between Cluses and Les Gets – it’s a big hill and the road was clear, what do you do?

We did about 2000km and kept it at around 90mph (or 145km/h) and were very much moving with the traffic. I reckon traffic is moving more slowly since I was last there 10 years ago – back then doing 90 you’d be pretty much passed by everything. Stopped just south of Reims and somewhere near Bourg-en-Bresse for food and coffee on the way down.

On the way back (from Bourg St Maurice), we did things in a much more civilised way. Left BSM on Saturday, up as far as Burgandy so had lunch in Pouilly-Fuisse, an overnight in Puligny-Montrachet, a morning in Beaune, late lunch and afternoon/ evening wine tasting in Chablis, then back up to Zeebrugge on Monday. Dreadfully civilised, even Captain Flashheart would approve!

This year, we’re breaking the journey both ways. Excellent.

if you’re using satnav, take at least a europe road atlas as well – when i took my girlfriend from la plagne to geneva airport over xmas the satnav tried to take us a virtually crow flies route straight over the top of the mountains and down the other side, rather than on the motorways. if we’d gone that way we’d probably still be stranded there now! [:lol:]

If you do take a satnav – at least set it up right 😉

Just over 8 hrs for us Chamonix – Calais

When we drove down to Les Arcs last year the chap who’s car we drove in had an in-built Sat Nav that apparently had comprehensive European mapping.

It ran out of ideas just as we passed Chambrey, luckily I remembered the rest of the route from previous trips.

I had BirdNav which worked surprisingly well (as the bird isn’t so good at reading in a car without being sick).

She got a bit confused near Lille due to mad numbering of roads and Flemish/ French place names but we headed for the placename we didn’t recognise as I knew the others were in the wrong direction and that panned out just fine, haven’t seen the cheeky lane changes on “Police! Camera! Action!” yet anyway…

Neil

We better get sorted, theres a lot to get done, high vis jackets, wots that all about??, sounds like we need to take everything but the kitchen sink

Si

i know, men at work on tour ha ha like i said, we need have a few beers and get stuff sorted

If you do take a satnav – at least set it up right

it’s setup as spefically as it can be in terms of which roads and routes it selects, sadly! i double checked when i got there and tried changing it to the alternative and it tried to take me the same way in reverse on the way back!

anyway, the lesson learnt is always have a map as backup just in case…

I will see you at whinlatter, so we can sort something out than or something, If the wife wasn’t coming on the sunday I could have stayed at yours on the saturday to talk about it, but she’s going to see wot the weathers like first to see if she still wants to watch me kick ass on the sunday

Si

Have you considered taking the train? I’ve just got back from Les Arcs (the snow is fantastic BTW)- we took the Eurostar to Paris and then changed to the sleeper to Bourg St Mourice. There’s a furnicular train from BSM to Les Arcs 1600. Having taken a late afternoon Eurostar, I was on the slopes by 10 am Sat. morning. Taking the sleeper both ways meant I got 8 days’ skiing instead of the usual 6 if you fly.

Doesn’t taking the train mean a hike across Paris?
It was a nightmare last time I did it [for work] 2 or 3 years ago carrying all my kit, I wouldn’t have fancied a bike as well

No, there’s a direct metro link between the stations you have to swap between in Paris, so the change isn’t too difficult.

i looked but its expensive!

Train ticket prices vary enormously. To get a good deal, you have to book them the day they become available, which is 4 months before your return date. My Eurostar & TGV sleeper tickets cost less than £100 return.

The metro transfer in Paris worked fine – we put our gear in left-luggae and went for a meal.

and check the eurostar policy re bikes…last time I looked they make you check the bike in cargo and it may or may not take the same train as you

Leave extra time for the ferry. On return, don’t check in to Calais too early as there is nothing there…if you look hard enough there is a manky overpriced restaurant with a grumpy chef, and its possible to walk out the wrong way, leaving you outside the port with your passports in the car, on the inside 🙂

If you follow directions taking off Google et al, just aim for the cities, rather than navigate by the turn by turn instructions. Very confusing and we ended up leaving the motorway and practising driving on the right round a big one way system with no obvious way back to the motorway!

German services have much nicer food in their service stations and clever bogs that spin the toilet seat to clean it after flushing 🙂

Take lots of CD’s. Don’t be tempted to take too many bike spares/tyres, just stuff that is specific like mech hangers.

If, like us, the boot is meticulously packed with four bikes and everything else tucked into the gaps, take an aerosol can of tyre sealant. Gives you a chance of repairing a flat and getting off the autobahn without unpacking the boot onto the hard shoulder to get the spare wheel out! Thankfully no flats and it is still in the car, but it’d be at least an hours job to unpack and repack everything!

And next time, we’d probably ignore the ‘fun’ ferry and plump for the boring but fast Eurotunnel. Wasted 2-3 hours each way as we missed one ferry by a few minutes and were early on our way back.

Make sure u got plenty of euros on you… Got pulled for speeding in france last year… 140kph in a 130! ooops. The french traffic cops are notoriously difficult if you dont have cash to pay on the spot fines…I guess it just goes straight to their beer fund, but if you dont have thr reddies on you they can make you leave your car on the motorway, drive you to the nearest town/cashpoint, make you get the cash out to pay the mysteriously inflated fine then leave you there, wondering how the hell you get back to ya car! The guard chap on the Eurostar told us all sorts of horror stories like this! Oh and a speeding fine is 30 or 50 euros on the spot, and the 130kph speed limit is lower if it’s raining! 110 i think. Bon Voyage!!

just be careful did it with a couple of mates and our haste , including ‘a shortcut thru paris’ among other things to get to our ferry on time, 9hrs after finishing the megavalanche nearly ended in a fist fight in the car at high speed
and 2 of teh guys have never spoken again!

Chunnel is the way to go. 20 minute crossing. I’ve done M20-> Autoroute in under 40 mins before.

10-12 hours (overnight) is about the norm for Calais to Morzine/Cham etc. I have done Chamonix to London in 10hours but it’s not to be recomended. This year will be the first time I’ve had another driver with me -I’ve always done it straight on my own before – a couple of 20 minute breaks and I’m OK, plus a good copilot who feeds me, talks to me and generally keeps me alert. Autoroutes are a LOT less stressful than UK M-ways. I take a shortcut over the Juras that makes for a couple of hours of mountain road driving which is a nice change after 7+ hours of autoroute. Wakes me up nicely.

Usually shagged by the time we get there, but 4 hours kip, more food and I’m OK to ride 🙂

I would recommend a night stop over on the way, stop at a cheap (but clean) formule1 motel and arrive fresh-ish the 2nd afternoon.
What the point in rushing there and being too tired to actually ride?

We looked at the train option, but whilst the run an ace winter/ski train service, it dries up during the summer. It may have changed though.

ps. remeber you go the wrong way around islands, as well as drive on the wrong side of the road. Had an intersting experience with one of our drivers, after coming off the motorway and onto a roundabout 😀