Has anyone driven to the alps in winter?

[Wildboar]

We’re considering driving since the costs of flights and transfers for the family is about £800!

Is there anything in particular that we needs to do? We’ll be buying snow chains and have kit in car for European travel (hi vis jackets etc).

Also how much is the cost and is there anywhere that is good if we need to stop overnight?

Thank you!

Yes drive every year about April to the Alps for skiing. Roads are good, motorways are well maintained, regular fuel stations. Lots of toll booths. Channel tunnel is better than the ferry.
Takes about 10hours nonstop.

We drove to courcheval one year. We did the tunnel and stopped overnight in an F1 motel about 90 mins south of the French end of the tunnel.

We set off the next morning at 8am and did not reach courchevel until 10pm that evening. The traffic jams on the autoroute were quite bad. We went in a Saturday which is meant to be the worst day, was end of March so I'd hoped it wasn't going to be too bad.

Many times. You'll probably need winter tyres so check how much they are for your car

I've done it a few times long ago. We drove overnight, the funniest thing was when we couldn't get out of the car when stopping for breakfast as the doors had frozen solid. If you are skiing make sure you have snow chains.

Sorry you mentioned snow chains.

We drive to the French Alpes every winter for our ski holiday. We much prefer this to flying and door to door does not take that much longer once you factor in check-in, luggage reclaim, hotel transfers etc. We go self-catering and take a lot of our own food which keeps costs down. We use the tunnel and if you book in advance this will be about £60 each way. Don't bother with a flexi-plus ticket as we have always been put on the next available train even if we have arrived early or late for our scheduled departure. We tend to do the drive in one go without an overnight stop sharing the driving between 2 adults. We usually go to Morzine which is 10 hours from Calais. The French motorways are great and the service stations are clean and never very busy. The only time we ever encountered traffic and queues for tolls/fuel was when we travelled on Boxing Day. We have not had any problems with the weather but make sure your car is either front or four wheel drive and snow chains are mandatory as are hi-vis jackets and your own breathalyser kit.

Many many times. I think last time might be the last.
DD spent the whole journey both ways bitching about how it surely would have been cheaper to fly.
We also risked going without snow tires, parking up was scary. 😬
100% worth it, not having to stress about packing, taking food and as mine have left home now enforced company with them is a bonus for me

Not driven but having hired a car with summer tyres on and had a massive faff with snow chains I’d recommend winter tyres!

We also drive through the night. The Sanef toll thingy that you stick to your windscreen means you can go through tolls without stopping to pay, and it bills you for the monthly total, so helpful if you don’t want to wake the non-driver.

The French Government like to play with drivers so breathalysers are no longer required but you must have a spare pair of glasses within reach if you are a glasses wearer. And prescription sunglasses won’t count if driving at night!

You need snow chains AND winter tyres. Not one or the other.

Winter tyres are a must.
Sorry they are expensive.
Snow chains too just in case but we have rarely needed them

And sanef chip thing on the windscreen is fab (though ime the loud beep wakes the sleeping non driver anyway!
If travelling at a peak time we’ve found Euro tunnel flexi plus is worth it in the way back, so you don’t have to arrive at a particular time, can see how it goes, and you can jump queues.

Do you have a roofbox, bongthing? I’ve always been put off the flexi plus as their tall vehicle provision is so limited and I was worried that we might struggle to get on. Or do you get to gazump pre-booked vehicles?

We've been driving down to Courchevel for the last 14 years. We tend to go at Easter but have also been for New Year and February half term.

We have a 4WD and snow chains, no winter tyres and have only needed to use snow chains about 3 times.

We drive down the day before and stay at a Mercure near Lyon and are usually on the slopes by lunchtime of transfer day.

We also have the TAG for the tolls, which works well and saves time.

I don’t know about France but in Austria you are legally required to have winter tyres, which is why we do, and then snow chains on certain types of road.

If you are driving into Switzerland or Austria, you will need to buy a vignette, which is a sticker in your windscreen - it is a form of road tax. Be warned that although Austria has ones for various lengths of stay, Switzerland just charges a flat annual rate of about €40. Which makes it expensive if you’re passing through! Both countries will fine if you’re stopped without one, with no mercy shown to clueless foreigners.

We've driven to Switzerland in either December, January or February about 7 or 8 times now. Even up the mountain at the end, we've never had to use chains. Before kids, we never bothered with them, now we do have them as a just in case.

PIL live there for several months a year and say it's very rare to actually need them. The Swiss are very good at keeping their roads clear. Read up on how to drive in cold or icy conditions and take note. We do have a get out though, if the conditions got bad, we could park the car at the bottom of the mountain and get the train up.

We tend to drive to Folkstone the night before, stay in a guest house then get on the 6.20am Eurotunnel. Then it's about 10 hours drive at the others side which we split. We don't really stop except for fuel and toilets. Eat in the car just to get there.

PIL like to cross the channel and overnight near Calais. Other times we have stopped in various places in France. We have friends who don't stop, they leave straight from school on the Friday, late night channel tunnel then drive through the night. Arrive at lunchtime and can ski on the Saturday afternoon. I don't think we'd cope with the night driving though.

We also got a sanef tag that blips at tolls as you drive through at 30 so you don't have to stop.

We also have to pay for parking at destination so take that off if you don't!

There are 5 of us so it's way cheaper than flying.

Flights for 5 = £2000-2500 plus £120 train fare to destination.

Driving for 5 = £800
Overnight in Folkstone £100
Channel tunnel £ 170 (Tesco vouchers!)
French motorway tolls £110
Swiss motor tax £32
Fuel £300
Parking £75

We drive about 1300 miles round trip. A 10 yr old petrol 7 seater with 330 miles to a tank so you could probably reduce the fuel costs if your car is smaller or more fuel efficient, or you do less distance.

Just seen you can get flights for £800. I'm guessing you are a family of 3 not travelling in UK school holidays!

Tbh even if we could get flights for the same price as driving, I'd still choose to drive. As door to door its only about an hour faster to fly, to where we go, as it's 3 trains once we get to Zurich or Geneva. Driving there is no baggage allowance, you can take whatever you like, stop when you want, take your own food and we actually quite like talking to each other!

We have been with a roof box a few times and these days go with a caravelle which is 2.0m or so and have not had a problem getting on with flexi plus.

We have driven many many times to graubunden area and actually this time flew on air miles which was absolute bliss in comparison! That’s mainly down to the youngest who was 3 this year and 2 last year when the journey was absolutely horrendous (about 10 hrs from Calais not including stops), I would actually fly if it’s ‘only’ £800 and you don’t need a car there. Unfortunately we do need a car where we go otherwise we’d always fly to Zurich and do the 3 hr train.

Moraine is beautiful
Had a week in the alps in summer at avoriaz
I would not like to drive up that mountain in winter.
Summer was bad enough and the road to Les linderlais was 😱

I’m surprised it costs that much to drive, but understandable once I’ve seen it broken down. We can get easyJet return flights for 5 and 3 bags for £550 and 350 for transfers so actually £900 to take that option. I was thinking driving might give us an extra day too which would be nice.

We’d like to stop over on the Friday night too, I’m thinking it’d be difficult with 5 of us! Is Lyon the best place to stay?

Morzine...😡
Bet it looks beautiful in winter too...but haven’t got the balls for it I’m afraid.

That's why we tend to go for Airbnb or guest houses. Better chance of getting s room for 5. Also book as far in advance as you can if it's in school holidays. I booked our room in Folkstone for next Feb half term as soon as we got back this February

We do every year, Geveva and then round the lake and up at Evian. It's beautiful and a really easy drive. We always overnight in Troyes, which is a gorgeous little town. The drive is a highlight of the holiday for me. That and the supermarket trips ( I'm very sad).

You will need snow chains by law if you are driving on mountain roads. We have snow tyres fitted. There are often signs up saying something like ' snow tyres only past this point'. We are fine driving up the very steep driveway at FIL's , with the help of a bucket of grit, although last year DH overshot, drove into a 4 ft snow pile and we had to dig the car out!