Transfers from Geneva to Val d'Isere?

[KittyWithStripes]

Skiing at Christmas, and we're flying in to Geneva on Boxing Day. We've only gone to Meribel in the past, but we're branching out this year and skiing with another family, and going to Val, darling (their preference, jazz hands emoji) .... any recommendations please? Usually we'd get a minibus private transfer, which is our preference when we're in a larger group, but we're arriving separately so with just three of us (DH, DD9) I'm open to getting the Altibus or something if it will save lots of money from what promises to be a v expensive holiday 😆

Hahaha - I thought it was only our family that referred to Val d'Isere as Val Darling (sorry, that was really no help was it?). This website is for Tignes but you may find the transfer info applies to Val d'Isere as well: www.tignes.co.uk/travel.htm . FWIW, my parents have done the bus transfer to Geneva from Tignes (and vice versa) many times and found it absolutely fine - takes about 3-3.5 hours, but you could consider a shared transfer/taxi as an alternative.

Are you taking your own skis / boots?

Thanks @stringbean - but I’m afraid they don’t do Val transfers… so still looking for recommendations if anyone has ‘em?

No, just ski clothes. Does that make a difference? Grateful for any suggestions!

www.bensbus.co.uk Is quite a good option although not that cheap.

I'd go through Google asap. In my experience you may struggle booking transfers this late. We really struggled going to Morzine from Geneva in Feb and ended up with a private taxi at €500 😬😬😬

@Skala123 thanks! Yes am slightly worried at leaving it so late… last year had the dodgiest transfer company who arrived 3 hours late and made us miss our plane 😡😡

I definitely recommend cool bus, they were amazing when we had a 6 hour delay getting to Geneva. Plane didn’t get in until 1am and they were one of the only transfer companies still waiting for us! We had a private transfer but they might do shared as well.

For private transfer I’ve booked with Meri taxi and G Taxi before. This year we are booked with Bozetto because the others were unavailable due to a clash with the ski world cup I think in the alps over Feb HT. Haven’t used them before but chalet co reckons they’ll show up and I have no reason to doubt them.
If you’d rather shared then I second Ben’s Buses. Not the quickest as we had to hang around waiting for ages at Geneva, then change bus at Bourg but it’s cheap and reliable.
The one time I tried Altibus they didn’t show up and I ended up persuading a random Swiss bus to let me jump on for free, and that was on xmas eve. Never again!

We often find hiring a car works out cheaper, even though you don't need it apart from the drive to resort and back. You do need to get it in covered parking if you can though. Having to dig it out at the last minute is not fun, trust me.

And if you hire from Geneva airport check prices for pick up from the French zone of the airport. Sometimes they are much cheaper, sometimes about the same. We've had occasional bargains picking up car on the French side (you can just walk into the French zone within the airport, following signage after you come out of the baggage halls)

If you go down the car hire route- the rentals from the French side may be cheaper but as far as I’m aware don’t have the Swiss vignette sticker that you need to drive on Swiss motorways so you need to take a roundabout route out of Geneva, or I’ve heard you can buy them at petrol stations. That may be out of date though, haven’t looked into for years, but make sure you research it throughly.

Also there’s very little parking in Val, it’s got even worse in recent years, since a carpark was closed to build the new Club Med. What little there is is also very expensive. I wouldn’t go there unless you can guarantee parking through your accommodation.

Thank you for some super helpful suggestions! Am off to check out:
Ben's bus
Cool bus
Meri taxi
G taxi
... and will give Altibus a miss! 😆

Thank you for the car hire tips but that's a hard no. Can't think of anything less fun than driving in the Alps. Plus there's no parking at our hotel. Plus (and this is a big one) we wouldn't be able to have a G+T on the plane over and what kind of holiday is that, now? 😁🍸

UPDATE: Well, I’m back and eating humble pie… 😬😬as a PP said might happen, we found it impossible to get transfers that worked for us, even though we were prepared to pay about £500 each way (!) which is the going rate for a private transfer. Fuck me. Have ended up hiring a car for the week at about half the price.

Luckily the hotel does actually have cheap parking.

many thanks for the advice and I’ll be booking earlier next time! 🙏

I'm glad you found a solution @KittyWithStripes . I find it baffling how hard it is to get decent transfer options for ski holidays. For last season and this season I booked through Crystal purely for this reason, although that also comes with it's downsides.

Which car hire company did you use - I was quoted 1,000 euros for a week!!

Do the car hire company provide snow chains? Would be worth checking as you will be required to fit them if the road conditions require. They are pretty quick at clearing the road but we have had to use them in the past driving to Tignes (appreciate V d'I is a little lower).

@ChateauMargaux I’ve done the cheeky “hiring from the French side at Geneva” option. Went with Sixt through booking.com and it’s about 40% cheaper than a Swiss rental! Just have to make sure:

• the car has snow chains
• the car has a Swiss vignette for driving on Swiss roads
• not to get lost finding the French rental

returns 😆😆😆 (I’ve read lots of tips for this)

My booking has guaranteed snow tyres/chains. I’m buying a Swiss motorways vignette through the post, it’s 40 CHF. Fingers crossed…

@stringbean yes, I booked a rental car with snow chains provided… so it wasn’t the cheapest car rental but I filtered for my wish list : made sure to get in-airport pick up and automatic transmission! Anything to make the whole palaver easier…

I’m actually okay with fitting snow chains/snow socks, have had to do it before a few times and it’s one of those “once you’ve done it you kind of understand the process much better” things. Fingers crossed!

the car may well not have the vignette but it only adds about 20 mins onto your journey. if you type casino de st juline en genevois into google maps and choose not to take the autoroute, this will take you to the autoroute on the french side.

@Siezethefish thats really helpful, thanks!

Update - in case this is any help:
In the end it was great having a rental car, being in control of our transfers instead of being at the mercy of increasingly unreliable transfer companies. Our last few have been really shit as well as eye-wateringly expensive.
We got our car from the French side which is a bit of a faff compared to the ease of just getting it from the Swiss side, but it saved several hundred euros. The car already had a 2022 vignette stuck on the windscreen, most rental cars around Geneva whether French or Swiss will have one by December as previous drivers will have had to buy one and once they've done that and stuck it on the windscreen it stays there, if you see what I mean. A 2022 vignette is valid through till Jan 31st of 2023, so we were fine.
The car companies are very helpful in giving directions - with photos and maps already printed - for driving to and from the airport giving options for using/not using Swiss motorways, but it is quite complicated if you haven't done it before and definitely needed a driver with nerves of steel (DH) and a navigator who had researched and route planned what we're doing in advance (moi).

And Val d'Isere was just lovely, we all adored it and rated it our best skiing destination ever😊