Hi all

Me and a mate are considering the PPDS in June and as there are only two of us we were looking at alternatives to hiring a car.

Are there any?

We will be arriving at Geveva quite late on the Friday so a lot of car rental places are closed … approx. arrival is 10.00pm

Returning on Sunday about 8pm

All ideas welcome (apart from putting the bikes back together and riding 8O)

Getting to Morzine, without a hire car, at the end of June could be difficult.

Very few of the winter transfer companies run transfers at this time of year. The local bus service is a bit sparse in summer. On saying that PPdS is a very popular event.

These guys might have something running:
http://www.morzineshuttle.com
http://www.morznet.com/buses

Good luck with the PPdS

Used Skiidy: https://www.skiidygonzales.com/

Very good, waiting in the arrivals hall to collect me.

I did PPdS in 2012 and looked into this. I couldn’t find any cost-effective transfers and we ended up hiring a car.

All worked very smoothly apart from getting slightly lost in Geneva on the way from and back to the hire place. Very, very nearly missed the plane home – I’ll allow more time for Enduro2 next summer…

There are quite a few companies on Facebook. Go to Morznet or similar and post the question. You’ll no doubt get a few replys.

Another vote for skidaygonzales here, we used them in the summer and they were spot on.

Lookup ski blue ridge in Les Gets, they have a transfer business too. Have used them a few times in the summer when biking inc for PPdS (€30 euro one way I recall no bike though) stayed with them also. Brit run.

One suggestion is to take an extra day to do more riding, makes if a better weekend all round imho as the event is more about a fun day out in company than singletrack / bike park trails

+1 for skiidy gonzales. Used them twice and it all went super smoothly.

Another for skiidy, easy going yet professional. If you do fly may be consider BA? I usually drive but went with easyjet this year, their check in queues were huge compared to BA’s.

Used skiidy this summer – our flight was about 40 mins late getting into Geneva – no sign of them – they’d gone. Luckily we managed to squeeze 2 x people and 2 x bikes into the next one that arrived – thankfully it wasn’t full. It wasn’t their fault at all TBH but bloody annoying all the same – me and my mate had 2 beers each while waiting for them – we were happy enough with that 8)
The return was fine – I’d use them again.

Thanks everyone … Will look into skiidy gonzalez then …. Looks like it could be an option … But if the car hire is about £120 then that’s about the same as 2 X 60 run though it is £ not euro!!

Thanks again all

Unfortunately can’t do an extra day … Work won’t allow it

Action Transfers have taken us last few years. Can’t fault em

I’ve just tried skiidy for a quote … Private is 400euros … Ouch!!!
Shared is probably much cheaper but hire car is looking most likely …

Loads of airport transfers about, but more tricky with ones that will take a load of bikes during the summer. Try asking some of the chalet places in Morzine who they use. Bigger ones may run their own.

I’ve used these before a long time ago which worked out okay, but that was for skiing – http://www.a-t-s.net/

Just a general site that hook up with airport transfer companies I think.

Have you booked flights yet? If not and you’re looking at car hire now, maybe consider just driving the whole way. Door to door it’s not that much more time and with enough sharing the journey it’s a similar price to a flight even considering fuel, tunnel/ferry and tolls. And you can take whatever you want and make it a road trip.

Door to door it’s not that much more time

got to disagree there.

It’s HUGE difference in time and emotional energy.
It’s 9hrs from Calais to Morzine. That’s flat out, no stops.
Every coffee & piss break adds 20mins. And you need at least 2 if not 3 IMO.
Not mentioning how long it gets to Dover (add an hour) from wherever you are in the uK

It’s going to take you c.12hrs by car and £250 in fuel, ferry and tolls (unless you go via Slovenia), and it’s draining. Yes there’s younguns that fill a car with four lads, and rock up to ride the first morning, but it’s not comfortable.

A £50 return flight, £50 parking @ UK airport, no more than a few hours of airport and flight, grab a hire car, really easy drive from GVA to Morz in 1:20, €30 a day. And you’ve got transport for shopping/exploring/ad hoc uplifts.

I only drive in the summer with the camper van, and take 3 (yes 3!) days doing it so its an enjoyable road trip adventure for the boys. We’ve done the blat down in one go and all hated it. Winter seasons and short trips, fly&drive EVERY time.

no more than a few hours of airport and flight

lol

For me, up to an hour to get to the airport given traffic, faffing with parking and transfer from parking, or equivalent time faffing with taxi. Have to be there two hours before. 1.5 hour flight. Another hour allowed for collecting luggage from the oversize, couple of hours drive or taxi to Morzine.

6 to 7 hours door to door.

Plus you’ve then got an hour or more faffing putting your bike together again. Sure it’s a 10 minute job really but much faffing will be involved and then something isn’t working, something breaks or you’ve forgotten something.

Sure, driving all the way is around 10, but it’s more relaxing I find, bike isn’t at risk of being smashed up or on the wrong flight (has happened to me with skis and is my biggest worry flying as it can write off an entire trip), and can take loads of stuff.

Better if you’re sharing the driving though.

£50 return flight that will let you take bikes? Doubt it. I’m usually looking at £100ish each way with luggage and bike. Then there’s parking and transfers. £250+ round trip.

I lived in morzine for 3 years and know most of them personally.

getawayvans.com
cabninetransfers.com
mountainbuscompany.com
powdercab.com
skiidygonzales.com

All really nice guys – English run and care more than it’s worth for them to make sure you have a hassle free transfer. The margins are really tight on transfers so I’d be amazed if hiring a car was cheaper considering where you’d have to park it, tolls, and swiss tax if you dont drive a hire car out the french side… all in all I’d never hire a car… the only other thing I’d consider is driving out but not for that short amount of time.

In summer you’ll be harder pushed as it’s basically off season for them all so even skiidy who run lots of vans (50+) in winter will be down to handfuls tops.

I’ve never ever heard of skiidy leaving anyone so I’m not sure that’s the full story rascal? Basically chamexpress and morzexpress have terrible reputations for running a timed shuttle service that waits for no man.. where all the others wait for you and take you to your destination as agreed.. if your flight is 2 hours late or an hour late they can shuffle drivers around for flights that come in early but chances are in summer you wont be dealing with any of that… Since june is PDS time you’ll find a lot more transfers on for those 2 weeks.

Hope that helps!

Cheers guys
For such a short weekend I’m pretty sure driving from home Swindon, is out. I’ve done it a few times on ski holidays to Chamonix and it’s a pretty long trip and don’t think I’d like to get on the bike and do ppds straight away on arrival …. Even with the uplifts.
We flew from Heathrow last time … Landed about 22.30 and hired a car … Just not many left open at that time

I rode out from Portsmouth – caught the morning ferry, rode for 3 days, got to Morzine, changed tyres and seatpost, did the Passport thingy event. Came home.

Awesome way to see France!

Have you had a look at ski-lifts.com?
I have booked with them several times, reliable and good prices.
https://www.ski-lifts.com/airports/Geneva-Airport-Transfers.aspx

OP, yes driving for 2 day weekend makes no sense. If you book in advance a car rental should be quite cheap, I’ve paid £100 for a week before. Companies like Europcar and SIXT are open late I recall.

Two other thoughts if you are only riding 1.5 days it might be easier to rent bikes (needs to ne done well in advance and ask them to switch brakes around) also beg for an extra day off, I don’t mean to be negative but its a long way to go for 1.5 days riding.

I’ve never ever heard of skiidy leaving anyone so I’m not sure that’s the full story rascal?

Well I can promise you I didn’t make it up. Can’t remember exact timings, but due to some muppet at Luton deciding they weren’t going to fly at the last minute and therefore their bag having to be retrieved from the hold, our plane was about 40 mins late leaving Luton, meaning we arrived about 30 mins late in Geneva (pilot made up some time – well that’s what he said on the tannoy). We cleared customs/baggage and got our bikes and emerged into arrivals looking for someone in a Fez – no one.
Lots of searching in and out – nothing. A call to them revealed they had gone but we had to do all the chasing – no one called us to let me know. We were told another pick up should have some room for us – which they did. There was enough time to have 2 beers each at the airport while waiting…some of the bods due on this transfer were late in too.
I guess there might have been some disgruntled bikers sat in the original minibus wanting to get to Morzine which is fair enough.

It might have been a complete one-off but that is exactly what happened.

Having said all that the journey was fine with a chatty Kiwi, and the return was fine.

yep … we thought about renting bikes but British Airways from Heathrow were one of the cheapest options and allow up to 32kg hold luggage … that’s how we transported the bikes last time.

As for begging more time off … wish I could but being a teacher … we already get way too much time off (thought I’d get that one in before everyone else does)… so getting an extra day is a definite no no … honestly … these kids turn up to your lesson and expect to be taught … it’s so bloody inconvenient 😉