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General Advice On Traveling to The Alps And TignesWith the advent of cheap air travel from the likes of Ryan Air and Easyjet, this is now the 'default' method of travel to ski and snowboard resorts for many people. Transfers to skiing resorts are well catered for via companies like Altibus and the French Railways from both Geneva and Lyon. Always contact our ski hotel in Tignes before organising a transfer as we can often arrange a private minibus transfer more cheaply than the established skiing and snowboarding resort transfer companies. Snowjet are again offering a service into Chambery Airport in 2011. Click on the banner below to see their range of flights 
If, as sometimes happens in busy periods, air fares become very expensive, it may well be worth considering other options. Rail travel from London is a good alternative once the price of a plane ticket rises much above £200. It is just, or nearly, as quick door to door and is not subject to the Saturday road delays often experienced on the bus transfer from the airport. An interesting new website called Snowcarbon.co.uk provides very comprehensive information on getting to tignes from the UK which can be quicker and cheaper than more traditional air routes. A direct link to the Tignes page is here. Coach travel is a similarly good method of travel for the budget minded. Ski Bus UK are offering a service from London to Tignes at very competitive rates and the website is good and easy to use. Finally, car travel is still a good option if you have several people to split the driving, fuel and tolls. Normally the roads are gritted and cleared all the way to our ski hotel in Tignes and if you are unlucky and arrive during a snowfall (or lucky depending on how you view it!), chains can be purchased at the large supermarkets in the valley very cheaply. The following travel and price information may be helpful in planning a journey to the French Alps for a ski and snowboard holiday. VERY IMPORTANT - The col from Albertville running over to Bourg St Maurice via Beaufort and the col from La Thuile in Italy running over via La Rossiere are both shut from late October to at least June. DO NOT TRY TO COME THROUGH THE MONT BLANC TUNNEL to get to Tignes. DO NOT RELY ON SATELLITE NAVIGATION systems in the winter. They often indicate you should drive over a high pass which will be closed. The systems do not yet update whether a high pass is open or not. You have been warned! Air Transfers Train Driving Coach Hitching  Travelling by AirFlying to the French Alps has become much more popular in the last few years with the advent of cheap carriers such as Easyjet and Ryan Air. Les Brevieres ski resort is about a two and a half-hour drive from either Geneva or Lyon airports, or a three-hour bus transfer. The airlines listed below all fly from the airports indicated. The links will take you to their online booking pages. Prices start from about £50 return with Easyjet or Ryanair. Remember that these cheap carriers always get more expensive the later you leave your holiday booking.
The Skyscanner website is extremely useful for finding cheap flights in one place from all the major budget carriers. back to top Transfer from the AirportIf you need a private airport transfer we may be able to arrange this, especially if you have a group. Please see the 'Transfers' page. Either include the request with your email booking or phone Nicky to arrange. We normally can only arrange this service for our own clients. The other two most common methods of getting to our Tignes hotel for your skiing and snowboarding holiday from the airport are car hire or transfer buses / trains. Transfers by Buses/TrainsAltiBus operate a bus service from Geneva airport which brings you all the way to
our Tignes hotel and Les Brevieres ski resort, dropping you off 150 metres from the hotel. Be sure to say that you are coming to Les Brevieres skiing resort when buying a ticket at the airport to ensure that the driver does not take you up to Tignes instead. Tickets can be purchased at the arrivals terminal and cost about 90 Euros for a return last season. They can be used anytime within two months and do not normally require reserving. The return can also be sold on if not needed as they are transferable. Bear in mind that the last bus is around 19:00 when you book flights. Altibus transfer bus from Geneva to Tignes
We have had little luck in using trains from Geneva in the past. The booking system is complex and you need to change trains, sometimes several times. It is, however, very cheap and new internet based timetables are easier to use than in the past. Now and again, the whole thing does seem to line up and you can get a good, fast and cheap transfer Timetables and bookings for trains from Geneva Airport to Ski and Snowboard Holiday Resorts From Lyon airport, you used to have to get the shuttle bus to Lyon part deux (the central station), and then get on a train to Bourg St. Maurice. Recently, the train terminal at the station has been completed and it is now often possible to get on a train directly to Bourg from the Airport. Alternatively, Satobus operate direct transfers from the airport to all the major skiing and snowboarding holiday resorts. Be sure to check out their timetable before booking a flight. Reservation is not normally required outside of holiday periods. Bus timetable from Lyon Airport to Tignes Ski and Snowboard Resort Flights have recently started to Chambery and Grenoble. These are both on the main rail line to Bourg St Maurice so transfers will be easy. There is now a bus service operation from Grenoble daily leaving at 13.20 everyday and at 14.05 & 19.45 on Saturdays. This goes to Bourg St Maurice where a bus leaves directly to Les Brevieres. This is a far easier way of getting from Grenoble than the trains. A new bus service from Chambery is being operated by UK company Snowbus and is timed to tie in with budget flights to this airport. They will also drop off in Les Brevieres on their way up the hill. Scheduled transfers from Chambery Airport to Tignes Skiing and Snowboarding Resort Bus timetable from Grenoble Airport to Tignes Ski and Snowboard Resort Car HireDO NOT just jump in your hire car and enter Tignes into the Sat-Nav or it will try to take you over high mountain passes which will be shut in winter. See the warnings at the top of this page! Often the best option, especially if you have 3 or 4 people to fill the car and share the costs. Booking in advance via any of the links below is generally recommended. Don't forget to specify snow chains and roof racks if you want them. Roads are generally free of permanent ice from February onwards, but don't forget that you still have to drive up the hill if it is snowing when you first arrive. Snow chains can be bought cheaply in Bourg St Maurice if you need them. Searching the internet for bargain car hire companies (often located in the USA) who book for you will often result in sizeable savings over reserving through the hire companies own websites.
back to top Travelling by RailEurostar operate a service from London Waterloo or Ashford International to the French Alps every Saturday. Several travel options are available from the high-speed direct link to an overnight service with couchettes. The train arrives at Bourg St. Maurice and from there it is a 20-minute taxi or bus ride to the skiing resort. Prices are around £199 return. Bear in mind when comparing prices with airfares, you will not have to pay for a transfer from the airport to Tignes and back
back to top Travelling by Car
VERY IMPORTANT - The col from Albertville running over to Bourg St Maurice via Beaufort and the col from La Thuile in Italy running over via La Rossiere are both shut from late October to at least June. DO NOT COME THROUGH THE MONT BLANC TUNNEL to try to come to Tignes. See the warnings at the top of the page. It is generally unwise to rely on Satellite Navigation in the mountains as (so far) these units do not include information on which roads are closed during the winter. New motorway links have made driving to the French Alps quite an attractive proposition over the last few years. The journey takes 8 to 12 hours from Calais depending on how observant of the auto route speed limits you are. (tip - the Gendarmes are much more active north of Paris - stick below 90 mph here.) As of the last couple of years, there has been an unfortunate push towards speed restriction based road safety systems that British drivers will be familiar with from the UK. As is often the case, the cameras have been sited for maximum revenue production on fast straight stretches of roads rather than outside schools and hospitals where they would actually save lives. This has meant quite a few speed cameras on some motorways, and particularly around towns and ring roads. The new road safety culture has also led to an unfortunate increase in aggressiveness and self importance from the French Motorway police should you get stopped. Whilst the situation is nowhere near as bad as on UK roads, we would advise drivers to be aware that things may be changing - largely for the worse as France is a big country and the probable effect of sitting for 12 hours at an interminable 80mph on deserted roads is a huge increase in the risk of falling asleep at the wheel. Having said this, unless you are really pushing it, we have had no reports of overly excessive policing apart from around big cities like Paris and Lyon. The Speed Cameras are preceded in France by a big sign saying 'Pour votre securité controles automatiques' and a picture of a radar. Amusingly, many of the poorly sited cameras seem to have attracted the attention of the hunting community and have been used for target practice. The fine system doesn't seem to tie up with the UK one at present though this could change in the future. Be VERY careful on the road into Moutiers. It goes from a fast two lane road to a slightly twistier fast two lane road and the police are there nearly every Friday and Saturday with a speed gun and a book of 90 euro fines. The limit here is 90kph. You should go slower from 5km BEFORE Moutiers on the RN90 from Albertville, just after you go past the turn for 'Grand-Coeur'. On the way out of Moutiers the big tunnel has a speed camera right in the middle of it and the limit is now a ridiculous 70kph on what is essentially a motorway. Lots of cars realise the camera is there at the last moment and slam their brakes on right in the middle of the tunnel creating obvious hazards. Be careful. Apart from the cost of the ferry or tunnel, you should allow about £60-£80 in petrol and £40 in tolls each way to/from Calais. Cross-channel links:
back to top Travelling by CoachA new coach service operating from London to Tignes has begun recently and has a good website and attractive prices or around £70 one way and £130 return. The service is operated by Ski Bus UK and seems to offer excellent value for money and quite competitive journey times if you allow for the lengthy process of securtiy checking now common on airlines plus the time taken to transfer to the airport at each end. It is almost certainly cheaper than a combined flight/airport transfer. Ski Bus UK coach transfers from the UK to Tignes Alternatively, contact us at our Tignes hotel for details of tour operator coaches that may be travelling to Les Brevieres ski resort every week. Leaving Friday afternoons and arriving in the skiing resort Saturday morning, they leave the ski resort the following Saturday evening to arrive back in the UK Sunday morning. Depending on availability, this normally costs around £120 return. back to top HitchingIf all else fails and you really are looking for a cheap stay, France is a wonderful place to hitch hike. Whilst you are unlikely to get all the way to the French Alps with any great reliability, hitching from Bourg St. Maurice or Albertville after a train or coach journey is generally extremely easy as this is the normal mode of travel for people without cars in the French Alps where local bus services are few and far between. Make sure you have a pack of cigarettes to offer your driver (even if you don't smoke), and prepare for some comedy 'Franglais' conversations. Two people hitching together is the reliable limit and you won't normally wait more than half an hour to get a lift except, of course, if the weather is really bad and then Murphy's Law will intervene! Finding Chalet Chardons HotelWhen you get into the village, walk along the main road till you get to a big ski shop on your right, opposite the supermarket. The door to Chalet Chardons Hotel is on the right of this shop, or go round the back to find the main entrance. See the Tignes page for a village map of Les Brevières skiing and snowboarding resort. back to top |