Am I mad? Thinking of driving to Chamonix with DC 5, 3 year old and 4 months

[Reesie]

Going for a fortnight in March which will be lovely. Grandparents also coming part of the holiday to do some childcare for us so DH and I can even go skiing together on our own (if I get over my worry about falling over and breaking my arm like last year....).

Anyway, flights are getting more expensive but the cost if hiring a car that will accomodate us with our new addition is absolutely crazy. I have considered using buses to take us from the airport to our apartment and then daily to the slopes but that would be loads of work with 3 children and all their ski gear, sledge, food etc.

We have a 6 seater crew van and dh and I are usually up for a challange but not sure this would be a challenge too far.... The holiday would be half to a third the price if we drove. That's including tolls, ferry, french tax, insurance etc and even an overnight stay somewhere cheap half way. If I drove I could even do a lidl shop to take out and save myself some of the vast amount of money we spend on food out there.

Anybody done such a long drive with such young children? Any tips or advice?

I suppose it depends where your starting point is, but we did Austria in one day last year (8 hrs there, approx. 10 back) with a 6 month old. He was a doddle... Can you chuck a DVD player at the older ones? Have you got winter tyres or can you rent them?

Tbh it was wonderful, we ended up leaving 2 days early because he wasn't sleeping and having the luxury of our own car meant we were able to just throw everything in the car and come home. :)

Of course we didn't get stung for ski carriage either.

Have you been to Cham before? Where are you staying?

You can prob avoid buses in resort (for the kids anyway) if you stay in Cham itself to ski as the nursery slopes are In town (Brevent). Adults will need to bus as you'll get bored of Brevent for 2 wks.

We have done both buses and rental car and I have to say I wouldn't want to just be on the bus if I was taking kids to Grand Montets each day - but they would have go be good skiers for that anyway.

I have no experience of driving there but I think it might be a good option if your children are ok travellers.

Have fun!!

My sister often drives her three dcs to verbier without much hassle. The children are older but I think if you kit yours out with DVD players etc it could work well for you too. It takes about eight hours from london area and she always takes car full of aldi/lidl pasta/veg/sausages/washing powder/beers etc. Motorway all the way.

Cham itself is a very spread out resort and car wd be very useful. I found getting buses in Cham a right pain with all the gear...petrol bit more expensive here in France and mway tolls v v irritating. Snow chains are a must! You could think about getting a telepeage transponder to get you through the toll stations as queues there can add an hour at peak times. If u google search there are mway operators that accept uk credit cards. The device sticks to your windscreen.

Oh and I wouldn't bother to stop overnight. Just adds to packing pressure as you try to put together a separate overnight bag for the dcs so as not to have to lug all your luggage out of the car. Only for your DH to panic about someone breaking into the car so getting up in middle of night to get everything out after all . Hefting it all into squashed room and waking dcs up. Waste of time and money IMHO.

There are loads more rest areas on autoroutes. We religiously share the driving one hour on, one hour off and you never get to point of feeling tired. Good for loo breaks and nappy changes/baby feeding etc.

My parents did this the whole time with us when we were little, too and fro across the continent. We (the children) loved it. We'd snuggle down in the back and listen to our Walkmans and suck endless boiled sweets to prevent car sickness. Good luck!

How good are your kids in the car? We've done several long drives with ours at various ages and it's always been fine and driving on the continent is a doddle. Plus, it's lovely to have your own car, your own car seats that you know are safe (hire ones are rarely any good IME), and if you do the car train it's great. French roads are fab too - yes they're toll roads and they add up a bit over a long drive - but they're so quick and the rest stops are so much nicer than anything in this country. Beg, borrow or buy in the sales a portable DVD player, take stories on CD, puzzle books, etc.

Thanks for the positive replies. I'm happy to do the drive - its just doing the drive with 3 children is the concern! They are good passengers normally but we usually only travel an hour to my parents or 2 - 3 hrs on a couple of occassions when we have gone on hol in this country.

We know Chamonix really well - been going there for about 7 years and always to the same apartment in the middle of the town.

I drive a vauxhall vivaro crew van so loads of space and pretty good on diesel. There are 3 seats in the front so I thought I could put the 2 older girls in the front so they have a good view and I would spread out in the back with the baby.

My parents are flying out and have just offered to take the girls back on the plane with them if the journey out is too much of a nightmare!

We've just done 8 hours coming back from that area with the DSs - 7 & 4 - we have been doing it since they were little - PIL live there. I would say in March (if you are outside half-terms) you should be fine, but we broke the journey on the way down in a b&b - drove straight home today though.

Our DS are car-sick so we have big stocks of new story cds (you can download some for free on storynory.com) to keep them busy.

Have you checked how long the journey is? I would agree to taking turns with the driving, we do 2 hours each.

Previously we stopped every 2 hours to give the boys a break and a run around at an "aire" but this time we just did 2 toilet stops of 10 mins and ate our sandwiches in the car - we were worried about traffic around Paris building up if we got there later.

Erm can you put a 5 year old in the front - I thought it was illegal - it is in France anyway? They are much safer in the back (and I am not a car seat/safety fanatic!)

Ok in the uk. Have to rethink if illegal in france!

It's illegal under 10 unless all the other seats are taken by younger children or unless they are in a rear-facing seat.

We always drive. It is a long journey, but the fact that you can take your provisions with you compensates. We usually go to Flaine, which is not quite so far, and stop off to buy nice fresh food en route.
Do Eurotunnel though; ferries are often hit by strikes and other delays.

We've driven to the Alps with our 4 for the last 3 years. The first year they were 1, 3, 5 and 7. We didn't even have a DVD player that year and it was fine. We did get one the next year and it was even better!
We always use Eurotunnel and go on the toll roads.

Have been driving for years with the DC - used to stop overnight, but this year on the return journey just drive straight through. Definitely agree less hassle than tthe pacling of the overnigh t bag, strange hotel etc.Am intrigued by your car with three seats in the front - have always wnated on of those

We are driving on saturday,did last year too. Cham is easy to drive too. We are taking loads of ready meals.Plus you can do a big shop at the bottom of.the mountain. We have started driving after taking the plane/bus to cham 2 years ago with dc. Was a nightmare !

We always drive and we go to the southern alps - which is a couple of hours further than Cham. We have 2 kids, now 7 and 5, and they travel really well. We either get the ferry from Newhaven and then drive in one day (you get in at 3.30am which is a killer), or we stop somewhere north of Lyon and stay overnight. Suggest you aim for a stop if you are nervous - takes the pressure off.

We have always driven but it is our first time with DS (nearly 4) so we have decided to put in an overnight stay - we actually prefer to drive down on the Fri, stay at the base of the mountains and then arrive in resort on the Sat am before the traffic gets bad (in childless days this meant an extra days skiing, sigh). I think I will try and borrow a DVD though, good idea there...

We're just going to make it one big adventure :)