Where to hire a car to drive from London to the alps and back? Last minute panic. Usual family car not available for Easter break

[incognitomummy]

The title says it all….. any advice please? Usually DH sorts out cars but we have suddenly separated. However my kids were looking forward to the trip so I’d like to carry on as planned. Without him! I’ve never hired a car before…..

leaving at the end of term for a week ski trip.

thanks for any hints or tips. Especially those who have done something similar.

Incorrect. You have to either have winter tyres OR chains or socks. Of course if you are sensible you have both but it’s not a requirement.

‘Ainsi, chaque conducteur doit s'équiper de pneus hiver ou disposer de chaînes ou chaussettes à neige à bord de son véhicule.’

savoie-route.fr/conseils-aux-usagers

Oh I just realised I posted a link from Savoie but Haute-Savoie has exactly the same rule.

I totally get how stressful it can be last minute – we’ve been in similar situations. If you’re looking to hire a car to drive to the Alps, I'd recommend checking out companies like Europcar or Sixt, both of which have a good range of vehicles and tend to offer international one-way rentals. You can easily book online and they often have options for pick-up and drop-off in London.
Also, don’t forget to check the driving laws in France and any countries you'll pass through, especially if you’re not used to driving abroad. It might be worth looking into a winterisation package too, depending on the conditions you’ll be driving through, as snowy roads can be tricky.

I don’t know about hiring a car in the uk for driving abroad, but I’m sure that you will find something.

But I did just want to pop on here to say that if you are generally a pretty capable person, there is absolutely no reason not to crack on with this holiday.

I’m a single parent and over the years, if I had listened to all of the crap advice about “you can’t do x,y,z on your own” my kids would have missed out on so many experiences.

Of course you can drive to France (I have), of course you can take the kids skiing by yourself (I have) and of course you will cope with putting on snow chains if you need to (pretty unlikely at Easter, but fine if you have to).

I’d book flights & transfer if you want to do this holiday alone

If you hire on the Swiss side of Geneva airport the car tyres will be compliant. I think (but you could check) on the French side you can add chains to the rental contract. Please note that chains differ and not all chain sets fit all tyres or wheel arches. You are obliged to have either compliant tyres and/or chains in 73 and 74 until 31 March. You also need to be able to put them on.

Driving is great as you can take as much luggage as you like etc and if self catering in resort its great to stock up in a big supermarket before you drive up into resort. However, how old are the children? Its a long drive as sole adult/driver, will you stop somewhere overnight? And will one child be able to travel in front of your vehicle? if you have a right hand drive car its trickier paying tolls as the payment/ticket slot is on left. If you have a front seat passenger in right hand drive car its simple, but if not, you as driver have to lean right over. Of course if you have a toll tag this is not an issue.

Enterprise will allow you to rent a car in the UK and drive in the EU. They do charge a hefty fee though. It was around £300 when we did it a couple of years ago.

Fly to France then pick up a hire car, we use Enterprise and they are great.