Les Deux alps

Heading out next year and would like to take my own bike. Live in the highlands of Scotland. How have others got out there?
Flew out to Geneva for Morzine last year and bike hire was costly. Transfers to and from L2A is looking like €600. Doing it as a family holiday and 20 hours in a car is not something to relish.

Any advice/experiences welcome.

You drive the car and pick the family up at Geneva? People are cheaper and easier to air freight than bikes…

Fly to Grenoble?

Oh it would be more than 20hrs in the car 😉

Drive to Hull/Newcastle and overnight ferry to Europe to break up the journey?

Edinburgh to Geneva and then minibus to les deux alp.

Pack your bike in a bike box.

Get a boat from the north like legend said, having transport and your own bikes is well worth it. Break up the journey somewhere if you don’t fancy doing the French leg in a oner.

Iv done Worcester to Deux Alps in one go
This was JUST doable setting off V early and arriving V late
A stop over will be required from Scotland though unless your surname is Clarkson and you drive a bugatti veyron.

Deux Alps is good – but not on a par with Morzine or the other top bike destinations in terms of number and variety of runs. A lot quieter though. One of the best things is riding down the snow next to the skiers! You can get up really high in Deux Alps and there is year round skiing on the glacier!

If you going to fly, Grenoble (as has been mentioned) is a much closer airport. Takes around 90 minutes from there to L2A. In Winter you can catch a public bus from Grenoble, not sure if it runs in Summer though.

When we’ve been, there weren’t a lot of companies (if any) that fly to Grenoble in the summer. But that may just have been cos we were looking at North West airports.

Deux Alps is good – but not on a par with Morzine or the other top bike destinations in terms of number and variety of runs.

With transport, the alpe d’huez park is within spitting distance and the area is then pretty attractive in relation to other areas for quantity and variety of trails. Also, much better weather than the PdS.

In Winter you can catch a public bus from Grenoble

Summer as well but that would not be a pleasant option for a family with bikes.

Me and my brother took the train to l’Alpe d’Huez this year and it was very pleasant, as we drove last time. You can take your bike in a bag on all trains OK, so go from scotland to King’s X, then eurostar to paris, then TGV to Grenoble (3hrs direct from Paris Gare de Lyon). Bus transfer from Grenoble less than an hour. If you book early the prices are very reasonable, and it is a very pleasing way to travel. I left from London at 730am, and arrived in Grenable about 1530, so adding in scotland journey and it should be same day, or perhaps get the sleeper the night before (my brother did this from Glasgow)..

FWIW Lyon St Exupery is about 30 minutes further on from Grenoble airport. You may get more of a variety of flight options there in the summer.

I’d still drive, but I’m closer than you 😉

A car would be beneficial, as Ianv said, there’s a lot of good biking in the vicinity.

Can anyone comment on the quality/variety/gnarliness of the DH trails in deux alps?

I’ll be driving through on the way up to Morzine so couple of days or something new would be nice.

I’ve heard L2A trails can be pretty full-on so certainly worth checking out if that’s your thing. Read a few good things in various mags but don’t have any links I can supply unfortunately.

Alpe D’Huez is just over the valley if you wanted to take in there as well.

Its very loose and rocky up high (near the glacie) at Les Deux Alps . Trails have a bit more flow lower down. Some of the trails are mere narrow ribbons of worn dirt across the slope – very narrow, very steep.

Enough for a couple of days and enough variety to cater for those on DH bikes or trail bikes. Alp d’Huez is only about half hour or so away by car. So overall there is plenty for a couple of days riding.

There is nothing too gnarly, except the wc style track satan, and even that has b lines to miss the big gaps. The top trails are loose and rocky but generally not that steep. The bottom trails are steeper and on dirt. The tracks are more about speed and air than technical difficulty.

Quality is pretty good and ther is a fair amount of choice. I like Deux alpes a lot more than the pds.

Hmmm. The train sounds attractive but the SNCF website refuses to give me prices or times. Will have to phone them.

There were no trails there when i went several times in the mid 90s. I’ve seen youtube clips of runs off the end of the valley down to the village of Venosc. Was a singletrack walkers path bitd and awesome fun.

I once got a return coach from Victoria in August-never again!

Flights options to Grenoble are’nt great. Lyon more so.