More specifically, where to break the journey. Driving in the afternoon and planning to stop for sleep rather than do it in one hit and knackering myself out for 3 days.

Any advice on where and how much?

Chhers

Where are you starting from?

When we drive down (in winter to La Clusaz but similar) from Manchester we’ll drive down, cross the channel, stop near Reims and then crack on to the Alps the next day. We tend to stop further up (Lille?) on the way back.

This is family driving though with kids in the car. Road trip driving I’d happily steam through straight to the Alps sharing driving and sleeping.

If driving from scotland – go newcastle to amsterdam on the ferry and do the drive in a oner the next day.

Usually do it in a oner from London via the Chunnel.

This year more leisurely though and stopping at a gite my mate has organised.

There are lots of ‘F1’ hotels across france that are well priced and easy to find one, so I’d just drive untill you want to stop, then hope you find one in the next 30 miles, which is pritty likely on the main roads. I normally just park up and sleep in the car, but its usually just me.

Last time I drove through the mountains north of Geneva and slept in a layby and woke up to this view:

I’ve always done it in one generally friday night/sat am late ferry after driving to dover after work. It takes about 8 hours at 80ish but I’ve done 6.5 to the les gets lift at best. I’ve done it over night and never been tired despite doing all the driving.

The Formula 1 website is great cos you can type in your route and it will offer up suggestions of where to stop on the way. Otherwise, google the route from where you live to Morzine – this gives you distance and timings along the route, then look for somewhere to stop at a suitable point depending on how much driving per day you fancy doing. It’s dead easy.

We’re driving down from Manchester for the PPDS, stopping at the Formula 1 in Bourg En Bresse on the way down. It’s as easy to go all the way to Morzine to be honest, but the formula 1 hotels are daft cheap, so it saves a bit of dosh and cos it’s only a couple of hours to get to Morzine from there, an easy last bit of journey and we get a good amount of play time….

We’re actually driving down in 3 cars from the Reading area…Lunch time ferry.

will look at the formula 1 site….thanks

Formula 1 is great. You may need to book at weekends.

Lunchtime ferry and you’ll be there by midnight ish. If you don’t have a hotel in Morzine that night i’d try and get close then get to Morzine in time for a full day. We usually stay around Troyes from a late afternoon ferry.

It’s not that bad a drive TBH, reckon about 9 hours without being mad about it. I’ve done it a couple of times and never really felt shagged the next day

Done it twice, Sheffield to Morzine.

It’s about 10 hrs from Calais to Morzine and it is doable in one hit. Last time we had a ferry at about 1am, got to morzine about 10am after a good run then went out for a days riding and slept very well that night. That was sharing the driving and kipping in the car while the others drove.

Not a very nice drive but it gets it over with.

Did Glasgow to Les Arcs last summer in one go, was a bit early for the ferry so had a half hour sleep there, then continued on the whole way, took about 15 hours all in IIRC. Much prefer doing it in one day, one long sleep and youre back to normal, rather than wasting an extra day.

some interesting points as three of us are going to les gets from preston in july. what have people done on the way back? because on the way there your full of beans and raring to go aren’t you, on the way back things aren’t the same? is it just a case of swapping drivers as much as you can etc?

Similar distance ish to Manchester. If you set off from Morzine early, on a good run you’ll hit Calais in 8.5 hours. You’d easily be there by 6.30pm. At that point in time, you’ll miss the heavy traffic in England which is usually far worse than anything you might hit in France anyway. And it’s about another 4-5 hours to get home, so you might as well finish it off in a day. You’d be back home by midnight latest. I’ve done it loads of times where I’ve done all the driving, but swapping drivers is better.

It’s a bit rubbish turning up for an active trip after that sort of journey on the way out there, but coming home, who cares if you’re a bit zapped?

i’m not bothered about being tired on the way there, just want to get there and get out! i think its going to be alright, drove down from london last time which was a doddle, and i guess this is just a few hours more?

The challenge of driving from oop north is slightly different though cos if you set off early, you can hit the Manchester rush hour and maybe the Birmingham rush hour, and if really unlucky, the M25 car park too. Once you’re clear of England it’s fine. Whereas when you’re coming home, you miss the busiest time on English roads. It’s doable, going out, but just more hassle, and by taking in a cheap stop off at a Formula 1 gaff it’s less stressful and you get to the destination early and fresh. Horses for courses etc etc

yeah i think we may do the F1 thing on the way home, how much are they? roughly?

Costing us £42 for a room for 3 including breakfast. That’s for a Friday, might be different depending what night you need

thats good isn’t it, i’ll have a talk to the lads and see what they say, at the end of the day we can play it by ear and see what we think on the weekend we leave, that would certainly make the last day a bit less stressful and would give us a bit more time on the final day in morzine.

Yup, great value – £14 each! Down side of course is it takes another day’s leave from work, if that’s an issue.

thats no issue, work flexi-time so easily made up, plus i was going to take a couple of extra days off just to get over it (or repair my bike ha ha)

From Manchester its much better to get ferry from Hull to Zebrugge, 7pm ferry gets in 8am then its 7-8 hr drive you be there in the afternoon whilst the lifts are still open,

and no hassle with traffic during day, if you can get past leeds on the 62 OK you can probably leave after work and make ferry on a friday.

How much does the Hull ferry cost?

yeah how much is the ferry?

we’ve done it in one go from huddersfield to la plage, it’s not that bad. shared driving, it takes a while but you get there in the end. preferable to stopping, we concluded.

edit, and we took the train rather than the ferry to speed things up significantly.

Couple of years ago it was about £80. Prices have probably skyrocketed since then. Factor in maybe £60 for tolls, couple of tank-fulls of fuel, and the worlds supply of Haribo…

am i doing something wrong because i’ve just been on P&O website and its told me £500 return?! whats going on there then?

Hull ferry is expensive, we’ve looked before and discounted it for cost.

the worst part of the journey is getting to Dover though, it’s taken us 13 hours from Leeds before! the france part is a doddle.

More specifically, where to break the journey. Driving in the afternoon and planning to stop for sleep rather than do it in one hit and knackering myself out for 3 days.

Knackering yourself out for 3 days!!! Puff!

We left Leeds at 5pm, arrived in Chamonix the next morning for breakfast and were on the trails for 10am!

i’m not bothered about being tired on the way there, just want to get there and get out! i think its going to be alright, drove down from london last time which was a doddle, and i guess this is just a few hours more

drove to Les Gets 2 years ago dont do what we did.. to try and do it in one go, ended up bolloxed in a carpark in a god forsaken service station at 4am… got to Les Gets and were both totally wrecked!

we got the chunnel at about 11pm….

if i were to drive again (which i wouldnt) i would plan it better and stay overnight halfway down.

anyway each to their own i guess, just my 5p worth.

I’ve looked at the Hull option loads of times too, but always found it was more expensive. Thought you might have an option I’d not seen?

It also doesn’t help in the time taken debate. I could get across to Hull easy peasy, on say the Fri afternoon, but would arrive in Zeebrugge the Sat morning, and then I’d need to get to the Alps – 9 hrs or so. So I’d lose the whole of Sat from a riding angle. To get the whole of Sat in resort, I’d need to take the Thurs night ferry, and a night in France on Friday.

Whereas if I go via Folkestone, set off Fri morning I’ll be near Morzine by the end of the day and hit the place early the following morning, fresh as a happy rabbit.

Or I could take the matcho option and drive through Fri night, get to the resort Sat morning having tried to sleep in the car, and ermm, save myself a day’s leave and £14. £14 is a lot of money in yorkshire mebe? 😉

Always used the tunnel when we go to Verbier. Set of at midnight Thursday and get the 6.00am train, Drive into the French Alps and stop in a village called Malbuisson at Hotel Le Lac, then finish the second leg Saturday morning. On the way back we stop at the Holiday Inn at Ashford.
Both hotels kid stay and eat free.
Used to do it all in one go but its a long drive for one driver.

Tracey

Bloody hell! there’s some lightweights on here, MTFU and just do it in one go!

The last few years I’ve been driving from Gothenburg, Sweden, to the Alps and back, solo! That’s a 24 hour, 1200 miles trip each way!

Admittedly, I have to break the journey overnight courtesy of the fantastic German motorway service station car parks!

Loads of places do hull ferry on the cheap when buying the accommodation with them, its not the cheapest but is the easiest option and gives you the most relaxing time. But if you’re only going for 3 days then its unlikely you’ll get much of a saving

Just booked a weeks holiday to germany and got hull ferry, family outside cabin for £180, fuel to dover and back is going to be £60-80 so your half way there and sitting in bar beats trying to get around M25, past birmingham etc… ferry would have been £50 via Dover Calais, but I’m an Hour past Manchester and couldn’t be @rsed with the drive south.

have a look on P&0 for gites, chalets and see if you can get a deal on the ferry.

Zeebrugge to Alps is only 8 hrs, you leave the ferry at approx 8am makes this 4pm a couple of runs before the lifts shut and straight out for some beer.

Only other way you’d beat this, would be to drive down for 11pm-1am ferrries from dover to france and then its still 7 or 8 hours and 3am drive to alps would be fun and quiet I’d want another person to do some of the driving as you’d be 13-15 hours straight with only 1-2 hour rest on ferry.

You can say its manly but I regularly do south coast and back in a day and its a mugs game. Manchester to Alps straight we only give you very little savings and a high probability of b@llsing it up as tied and on wrong side of road = hospital, but airlift home is quicker though.

Just get in and drive, it really isnt that hard even for one person to do the whole drive on their own, with a couple of short lunch/rest/coffee stops.

That said I normally get no more than 4 hours sleep a night anyway 😀

I found any of the ferries *massively* expensive and I even set the missus on the task (ex travel agent), so driving it was for us. We set off at rush hour (actually caught the tail end of it, no real problem) and got the 2am ferry, landed in france at ~330 and were there by 6pm due to 2 **** huge traffic jams in the alps, one due to an accident and one due to rush hour traffic in annecy (going to les arcs), otherwise we would have been there by late lunch at the most.

Did it last year Top gear style racing mates who were flying, left N Wales after work drove to Dover Kipped in layby (loads for lorries)got the 6am Speedferry (RIP :() then drove down through france, beat the lads flying by about 3 hrs (They tried a B road to Briancon but avalanche had blocked it)we were less knackered than them all weekend…three car race would be even more fun!

My wife drove the family bus about 4 years ago from South Lakes,stopped in an F1 (that was cheap for a reason), and then around 9 hrs the day after and we’re in Morzine.She quite enjoyed it.
However, were I to go again (hopefully for a long weekend for my 40th), I may be tempted to fly to Geneva, transfer and hire bikes there, just to save two days out and two days back…………..

Time the journey so you avoid rush hour, ideally outside working hours. It is a lot more efficient covering distance at 80mph on quiet roads than getting ratty at 50 in traffic.

6pm leave Bristol, drive to Dover for the 10pm ferry to Dunkirk then drove about 100 miles to a service station for 5 hours kip, then at 8am drove through France & crossed into Switzerland mid afternoon, arrived in Zermatt 5.30ish
On the return we left Zermatt at 6am & caught the 5pm ferry (after missing the 4pm one by minutes) & got back to Bristol before 9pm