Thanks, I’ve requested various quotes for the hire part but am wondering if there’s a consensus, to ensure I don’t get ripped off.

My understanding from previous posts is that aside from van hire, the whole thing is likely to cost about £400, but I’m not sure if that is assuming the tunnel or ferry (we’ll be using tunnel).

What do you think the total cost will be (before being split among us)? 4 bikes so will probably have to be a tranny instead of a combi

If hiring in the UK, most are not too happy about letting you take the van abroad.

You are also dreaming some pretty wild dreams if you think you’ll get it all in for £400. Even if you live in Dover.

Done it every easter for the last 3 years with a minibus and 10 people. All based on from York to Tignes or Les Arcs. Van hire,diesel and euro tunnel works out at £150 to £170 per person for ten, i.e £1500 to £1700 total. 19 to 20 hour drive door to door. Its a good road trip but cheap it is not.

I know this is a snowboarders trip but it gives you an example to work from.

last months mbuk mag has an alps special in and it includes a driving option special to. they did it based on 4 sharing and camping and it came in at £350 each. this was in a van to.

I looked into a hireing a van for a euro road trip and it was very very expensive if you wanted to take the van to the mainland.

Fuel for a car will be at least £350, van a lot more (thats based on driving from S.England). Tolls will be around £70-90 each way.

A little tip for you.

Make sure the brakes are the right way round . These hire vans can be a bit confusing for n*bheads

http://www.viamichelin.com allows you to plot routes, and will give you toll and estimated cost info. We are driving down this summer 2 of us in a car (diesel MPV which averages at least 45mpg), ferry is about 70 quid return dover to dunkirk midweek, tolls roughly same each way, plus fuel costs.

Viamichelin reckons 167Euros (70Eu tolls, 96Eu fuel) for Oxford to Chamonix one way in a car.

edit; superfli what are you driving for your fuel to cost twice michelin’s estimate?!

Fag packet maths using their distance (2000km round trip =1250 miles) and 45mpg (= 28 gallons), at 1.3Eu a litre (= £5 a gallon) =£150 round trip.

£400 is achievable.

it used to cost me around 300 euro each way for fuel & tolls this includes the ferry (used to get singles).

so 600 euro all in crossing, tolls fuel. this is slightly high as i would be pushing it speed wise and was getting <30mpg. oh and thats to les arcs so an extra toll and 1.5-2h over morzine.

mbuk. 🙂

Does it need to be a van?

we hired a Renault traffic mini bus (9 seater) for the 6 of us to go Morzine. It had 3 rows of seats, we took out the back row of seats there was ample room for us and the bikes.

Maybe my estimate was including tolls actually. £350 fuel and tolls from Portsmouth+back. If you had an efficient diesel and bikes inside the car, then it would be a fair bit cheaper.

Not the same, but planning on taking our caravan across to France this summer so looked at as many options as I could. Norfolkline came out the cheapest, Dover-Dunkirque at £29 each way for a car. The tunnel was coming out between 3-6 times that.
Stick a caravan on the back & it triples. 😐

1 Book your van using Tesco Clubcard vouchers if you can – I’ve not paid cash for a booking in years. If you’re paying using real money, assume £170 or so, depending on when you travel. No idea where in the UK you are, but add another £100 for fuel on the UK side. I’ve assumed minibus @ 25mpg.

2 It’s around 550 miles at the French side. Diesel’s a bit cheaper there, especially if you don’t buy on the autoroute. Call it €300 for the fuel on the French side.

3 Tolls are circa €70 each way, €140 in total.

4 Loos on the motorway are dire – take your own toilet paper. Motorway service stations are expensive for food and awful.

5 Van hire won’t be cheap. Best to get a 8/9 seater VW, but it’ll still be £500 for a week, I suspect.

Overall transport cost is therefore looking like a minimum of £1100-1200. Not awful for 4 of you, but not that cheap either.