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Apologies if this has been covered before.
going to Morzine in august and now driving following steep increases in airfare costs.
just wanted to know if any body has any advice on toll roads ie how much it costs to get there from Calias in terms of tolls costs?
is it worth the cost to do this or go the non toll roads I can see there is a big time difference but distance is quite simular?
are there any toll roads that aren't worth it / are worth going on etc
TIA
Matt
It takes ages longer off the toll roads. Not worth the saving unless you have huge amounts of time to spare. You can get off slightly earlier at Annemasse, might save a few quid but not much. About the same time and a nicer drive. You can get the cost by putting the route into VIA Michelin
Take all the toll roads. The extra time and faff isn’t worth it against the incredibly easy drive of the direct route. However, and this is a biggy, get yourself a tag for the car before going. Then you just skip straight through all the automatic barriers whilst it just charged to your credit card
I use https://www.sanef.com/en/my-journey/price-of-my-journey to see how much peage costs will be.
Going off-toll can be fun, but not when the primary goal is the destination.
It's not worth getting the tag for a one off imo. Pushes the costs up quite a lot for a minor time saving unless you travel at peak times. Some benefit if you are alone and sat on the right.
ViaMichelin will give you toll and non-toll route options.
Toll roads and cruise control are your friends.
Make sure you go around that little hooky bit of Switzerland, to the north of Morzine. You could get stung for a vignette, cost - CHF40.
Unless of course, you're planning to travel around Switzerland
Just use the autoroutes, cost me about £100-120 all in for return tolls back in 2016. Was split between 4 of us in the car. The roads are full as ditchwater but very efficient.
Edit to add - I just paid on my CC, didn’t bother with a tag as said above, doesn’t pay back for a single journey. I seem to think that some of the toll booths were double sided too so I didn’t even have to give my card to the passenger.
Great thanks everyone!
Toll roads all the way, they're amazing. Not sure what the cost adds up to but it's a damn sight cheaper than flying and miles faster than pootling around tiny villages in local traffic.
Just give Geneva a wide berth so you don't get stung for a vignette as mentioned above.
I wouldn't bother with a tag but get a credit card that doesn't charge you for non-sterling transactions. Whack all the tolls and fuel on it then settle up when you get back. Nothing worse than fumbling around for change at a toll booth.
I got a Halifax CC that's free to use abroad after I added up all the small percentages from every time I withdrew cash or used contactless.
We went last year, from the ferry at Rotterdam.
Got a tag, took the €10 Hit for the pleasure but it was well worth it to go through the fast track toll booths and have zero faffage.
In the grand scheme of fuel etc, it was worth it.
Great toll roads too, and as mentioned, cruise control is blissful.
Done it a few times winter and summer. Toll tag is good. Also charged a month in arrears if that’s of benefit to spread holiday costs. Don’t get it from the expensive uk concession. Atmb and others in France will ship tag to uk.
It's around £60 each way. I've avoided them before, you can go through belguum/Luxembourg, get a cheap tank of fuel en route, it takes an hour or 2 longer.
If you do take the tolls you can make it cheaper by coming off and jumping straight back on at some junctions. Theres a website where you can calculate the best places to do it here https://www.autoroute-eco.fr/autoroute.html
If your car can make it between Ashford supermarket petrol station and the mountains (beyond the motorway) on one tank of fuel, you will save quite a bit of money at the current prices.
Went Saturday to Saturday, never had more than two cars queuing at the tolls ahaead of me. Even on the autoroute d'anglaise where half the traffic is English I cant picture any right hand drive toll booths or signage thereof; if they exist they must be well hidden.
Check your satnav in calais, make sure you're avoiding Paris, and Switzerland.
LOL i know that one "why are we 10km from Paris" i asked the wife one time on the way back...
It was our wedding anniversary so i still claim i took her to Paris as we went round the pererphique.
If you're doing the Rotterdam ferry route, avoid Antwerp. The ring road is the absolute pits! Or it has been every time I have been around it.
Make sure you go around that little hooky bit of Switzerland, to the north of Morzine. You could get stung for a vignette, cost – CHF40.
Unless of course, you’re planning to travel around Switzerland
A colleague bought a used vignette on Ebay, I've been looking but could not find any listed, either they have stopped it or as people have not been travelling there are none to be listed.
Anyone bought a used one?
Don't underestimate the distance or how featureless and crushingly boring northern France autoroutes are. Hopefully you have a big wafty cruise controlled car
Anyone know if the Hull Zeebrugee Ferry is likely to restart. It’s by far my preferred option vs driving from Glasgow to Dover or Folkestone.
Re: avoiding Paris. Whatever happens, make sure that you do. It is not at all difficult to avoid Paris on the way down but is distinctly possible on the return trip. Despite having done the trip countless times I have messed up a couple of times on the return trip. The first time we ended up in a place called Breuillet when the motorway was shut. Not the nicest of places, but maybe we missed the nice bits. Ironically, as we sat in a huge traffic jam we saw that it is 'Jumlee avec Ammanford, Pay de Galles'. No prizes for guessing where I live.
Once bitten, twice shy eh? Returning from a Lads trip for the Passporte's I was so distracted by the banter that I missed the junction and ended up in Paris. I have a sat-nav now, thank you!
To avoid the tolls, go a slightly longer route, and far more scenic, through Belgium, Luxemburg, a bit of France , Germany into Switzerland.
No tolls that way, apart from the Swiss motorway ticket,which is around £35.
We go that way to Italy, and wont change, it's a far nicer route than straight down and across France.
I've just checked, its 82 miles more going that way than going A26 through France with tolls. For us 837 miles vs 755 miles.
Done this 3 or 4 times over the couple of years.
It’s pretty easy and way more comfortable than Geneva Airport on a busy Saturday.
It does make a difference which services you stop at though. Some are worse than minging.
My preferred ‘Aires’ are:
Aire Saint Quentin Urvillers (has a Paul’s concession) 179km from Calais
Then it’s about 2 hours to
Aire de Troyes le Plessis (good place for lunch, it’s new, clean, space to sit outside)
Then it’s about 2.5 hours to
Aire le poulet de Bresse (also has a Paul’s and is fairly big)
Then it’s about 2 hours to Morzine / other places in the alps
If you fancy splitting the journey then Troyes is alright, not amazing but good range of hotels and places to eat plus not far off the toll road