Viewing 21 posts - 1 through 21 (of 21 total)
  • Proof of Concept – Alps for the weekend
  • Cowman
    Full Member

    Hi

    Has anyone else got any experience of the following, any suggestions or alternatives that work.

    My plan is to catch a £60 quid jet 2 plane from Leeds Bradford to Geneva. Then a connection on to an Alpine Village, my plan is to be in said village for about 1300 Sat, ready to walk / enjoy a weekend activity. Going off todays flight times.

    I would look to stay in a hostel for the one night, then fly back to the UK on the Sunday for work on the Monday.

    By my reckoning this would be the same journey time as Scotland for me, and the same price as a similar trip to the Lakes / Lowlands of Scotland. The down being the amount of time I have. But I would be willing to try and experiment with departure and arrival Airports.

    Has anyone done this? Does the amount of day light time make an activity based weekend a Summer months trip only.

    Are there any suggestions for transfers, hostels etc?

    Thanks

    njee20
    Free Member

    Is a Friday evening flight doable? I used to do an annual skiing weekend like that, gives you that bit more time.

    Cowman
    Full Member

    No I dont think so, not from Leeds. Think its a Sat Sun Out In.

    Might be pie in the sky thinking, but would love to give it a go.

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    StuMcGroo
    Free Member

    Back in the day I twice had day trips to Chamonix. Early flight from Luton to Geneva, Easycar, arrive Chamonix 1000, 5-6 hours snowboarding, slap up meal in town, back to airport for late departure. You’re on the go for 24 hours but it was better than the Snowdome.

    hainey
    Free Member

    Back in the early 2000’s I used to do this almost once a month, but out on friday night and back on a sunday night. used to be able to get two full days mountain biking in for less than £200 for the weekend.

    peterfile
    Free Member

    I do weekend Alps trips fairly regularly.

    Two things: potential acclimatisation issues if you’re planning on mountaineering and general lack of usable time (late start on the Saturday and early finish on the Sunday means no full days).

    I now book the Friday off and catch the 0630 on Friday morning, coming back at 1600 on the Sunday. That’s two half days and a full day in between, which is much, much more useful IMO. I haven’t done a Saturday/Sunday in a while – it’s fun, but it’s harder to actually get something done.

    Cowman
    Full Member

    The friday night flights are non starters, they wait in Heathrow over night and cost 300 quid more than the Jet 2 flights.

    Still if others can sort this it gives me hope!

    nickjb
    Free Member

    Maybe look at some other flights as Friday would make more sense. Innsbruck airport is right in the mountains. The two budget Milans (Malpensa and Bergamo) are a fairly short drive to some good mountains too.

    Done weekends to both but we usually take an extra day or two off to make the most of it. Even had 2p flights before

    Cowman
    Full Member

    Nick, thats useful information thanks.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    Not the most useful use of time.
    Innsbruck certainly is a 20min bus ride from airport to main station, dump stuff there (there’s at least one hotel right in the station / bus station complex), then it’s a choice of bus/tram right there to somewhere up a mountain, or a walk across town for funicular+cablecar right up a mountain. Plus other options too – tram from right outside the station hotel up another mountain valley (Stubaital).

    Not sure if flights are either reasonable price, or reasonable times though.

    I do that for skiing, but arrive friday midnight, leave direct from ski slopes at 4pm Sunday. But I have a car, and it’s 6 hour drive.

    Ecky-Thump
    Free Member

    We do Manchester to Munich for a long weekend skiing.
    Out Thursday night; back Sunday night; three full days in the mountains 🙂

    [edit]
    Thursday 29th Jan (Manchester to Munich), ~ 17:30 from Manchester
    Sun 1st Feb (Munich to Manchester) ~ 21:30 from Munich
    [/edit]

    david47
    Free Member

    Once took an early morning light to Zurich, then a train to somewhere like sargans or altdorf to do a two day reckie for the alpine pass route.
    Back on a sunday night flight. Easy. Trains are very easy to plan…

    http://www.sbb.ch/en/home.html

    And the alpine pass route when I did eventually walk it is great 🙂
    And we didn’t a night accommodation on any of the trips, there was always space at the inn… 🙂 And, yes, I did eat loads of Rosti… but that’s another thread…

    jambalaya
    Free Member

    I’ve done plenty of ski weekends Fri evening to Sunday evening but to be honest a 3 day weekend Thur evening to Sun is much better. Being able to fly out of Heathrow means many more flight options. Also biking means the road transfer will be much less crowded (summer vs winter). We usually rent a car or get a resort pickup, when time is tight you are paying for speed/convenience. IME a 3 days weekend costs 75% of a full week.

    mugsys_m8
    Full Member

    Peterfile has it in my opinion.Done several alpine climbing trips like that.
    Alternatives would include Grenoble (Easyjet) or Chambery (Jet2) depending on where you are in UK and flight timings. Lyon is also doable.

    From both you have easy access to locations that make far more sense for a quick hit than the more usual big resorts. Also, for example Grenoble, you can stay in a budget hotel in the city. And 40 minutes drive and you are at the resort. Spending money on car hire will always mean you can adjust limited time to suit weather. It’s clagged out or bullet hard: Go explore rather than being in prison. Sept Laux form Grenoble would be an obvious destination, or Villard-de-Lans in the Vercors.

    Of course I’m slightly biased. I live 5km from Grenoble airport. Only problem I can see is Saturday is changeover day, and that means auto routes Lyon to Chambery and beyond and slightly lesser Lyon to Grenoble are clogged.

    mugsys_m8
    Full Member

    delete double post.

    Ambrose
    Full Member

    Loads of good ideas here for me to remember, thanks guys.

    batfink
    Free Member

    We used to go on the Eurostar for a day’s skiing to Les Arc.

    8pm train on Friday from St Pancras, arrives Bourg st Maurice at 6am sat. Funicular from BSM to Les arc at 7am.

    Whole day of skiing, back to BSM for the 10.30 PM train home – gets into St Pancras 7.30 am Sunday.

    The saving is obviously that your train ticket “includes” 2 nights accommodation – however, it’s just sleeping in a train seat 🙁

    However, I think in recent years the cost of the Eurostar has gone up, so this isn’t really worth doing anymore. And we have got old – so we are less inclined to sleep on a train to save a few quid 🙂

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    my plan is to be in said village for about 1300 Sat, ready to walk / enjoy a weekend activity. Going off todays flight times.

    So an afternoon bimble, quick morning stroll then transfer to GVA at lunchtime for a flight home? Sounds like a very long way to get very little done.
    Maybe look at Manchester or Liverpool for Friday evening GVA flights and the last flight home on Sunday (if you are more flexible with airports then you might get longer)
    The main issue with flying is the dead time – minimum 1hr early adds up quickly, getting out the airport takes 30mins if it’s smooth, a 1hr flight delay means you end up having an expensive few beers and then coming home.
    For me it’s a no brainer with a car to head to the Lakes from Leeds/Bradford area you will be there before you can collect your bags in GVA and leave when you want to.

    Done a couple of 4 day ski trips which involve last flight possible on a Thurs after work, mental late night transfer, do stuff Fri/Sat/half day sun, mental drive back, dump hire car get pissed fly home. Cost about the same as a week.

    Cowman
    Full Member

    Thanks so much for the honest views. There are some really good suggestions here.

    Against somewhere judgement im going to give it a try in the new year, just to say I have.

    Work is annoying, taking a day off friday on monday isn’t possible.

    Thanks for the effort.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    plenty of other potential options too, but really depends on what you wan to do when there, and how well you know the area or plan stuff.
    Ljubljana (Easyjet go there from LGW, not sure about other UK departures) and rental car and you can be in Julian Alps within the hour.
    Klagenfurt (o’Leary air iirc) and same as Ljubljana, but Austrian or Slovenia, or both.
    Salzburg?
    Friedrichshafen, Memmingen, same again, but Austrian/Swiss/Liechtenstein/German alps, but may be a bit more than an hour.
    I dare say there’s more than GVA at the other end, where you can be up a mountain within 2 hours of getting off plane.

    Either way, I’d be wanting Friday night flight if at all possible.

    Cowman
    Full Member

    Andy

    I dont know the area, my first trip or two (to any of the suggested areas) would be to sort out and plan en situ.

    Yeah, Friday night flights are the best option, but a little like hens teeth. Thanks for the reasoned help though, it really does help.

    Mike and Peter you raise some good points too, thanks.

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