Just been looking at flight prices for Geneva from Manc in June and I can get there and back (out on a Thursday, back on a Monday) for £60!

Whats the nearest decent lift-assisted riding area to Geneva? Verbier? Toying with flying out, hiring a car for a few days, staying in a B&B/camping and getting a weekend of alpine riding in!

Anyone done anything like this?

If you fly out camping goes out the window really, better to get cheap B&B or self catering somewhere. The nearest places to Geneva for riding are Morzine/les gets and chamonix both are about an hours drive with many shuttle companies offering transfers (around €100 round trip) to save you renting a car.

Then only thing you need to check will be lift opening dates. Les gets/morzine will open on the 5th june (from past history) with the whole pds options opening about the 26th. It's well worth waiting for the end of the month to get the full area open.

I've done a few long weekends in the alps with a friend who lives in switzerland. We've ridden around les arcs mainly shuttling/hitching to get around. This only works if you know an area well though.

Think Verbier is about an hour too and spent a week there this summer so can remember where most of the trails are. Good point about camping – hadn't thought about that.

Dates I'd looked at were last weekend in June but will check the lifts are open first!

4th july to 23rd aug this year so your probably out of luck. Mappy reckons 2 hours geneva to verbier.

try Cham-Van.com as they do transfers to cham and other areas
if you book before 31.12.09 they will do transfers for 50euros both ways (after that its 50euros each way)which would be cheaper than hiring a car
we stay in cham and use chalet whyemper (Bigfoot travel) at about £40 per night inc breakfast, ensuite etc

if you decide to go to cham we are there from 22 June to 28 June and can show you some routes

Dave, done it loads of time skiing. The challenge you'll have is finding accommodation that runs over a weekend – eg if you need a Sat & Sunday night – always a challenge for self catering cos you're effectively hogging 2 weeks, so they clobber you for it. B&B gets round this.

Look at logis de france for b&b type options. There's logis places in Morzine and also nearby. We've used one on the shores of Lac Montriond which is kinda round the corner from Morzine, and very scenic. We used La Renardiere in Morzine when we did the ppds, and shared a room with 4 of us which was cheap.

The Morzine website is also good for accommodation….

Chamonix Dave, Morzine is limited at that time of year and perhaps be a little muddy and wet, but it could be great.Chamonix has more rocks so a little less mud.

Cheers all. Will have to start looking seriously into it as it could potentially work out about the same as weekend in Scotland!

Chamonix/Les Gets very similar travelling time as it is a straight run to both of them, Verbier is definitely further as you need to go up the switchback mountain road but I have been on ski weekend to all of them without getting annoyed by the journey.

There is a also good train service from the airport to Martigny which is in the valley below Verbier.