All our winter prices are for accommodation and food, so one thing you will need to organise is your travel in order to enjoy Alpine365’s hospitality.
To try and make this process as painless as possible, this section includes a fair amount of information on the most popular ways to get to the chalet from the UK (although we’re sure our more ingenious guests will find alternatives). But if there’s any information not in here that you’d like to know about, simply email us or give us a call and we’ll try our darnedest to help you out.
Flying is by far the most popular way of getting here, and can often be the cheapest. You will need to get a transfer from the airport to our chalet (which we happily arrange for most of our guests).
You can fly to various airports to reach us, with a wide choice of UK departure points. In terms of the best destination airport, this will depend on a variety of things, not least the cost of the flight, but also, which UK airport you wish to fly from. The other big factor is transfers from the airport to our chalet, the costs of which vary dependent upon how far the airport is from our chalets.
But for the main airports, approximate transfer times on a typical transfer day are as follows:
Chambery – 1.5 hours (115 km / 71 miles)
Lyon / Geneva / Grenoble – 2.5 hours (190km / 118 miles)
(Note these times will increase during busy periods such as New Year and Half Term, and can also be adversely affected by the weather – please contact us if you’d like estimates based on your planned holiday dates)
If you choose to fly to the Alps, you’ll also need a transfer from the airport to the chalet, and we can generally advise and book this for you direct.
Recent legislation has been implemented, which means that chalet firms like us are no longer able to pick up their own guests legally from Swiss airports, including Geneva – only properly-registered transfer and taxi companies can now offer this service.
However, if you fly to a French airport, e.g. Chambery, Lyon or Grenoble, we have an 8-seater minibus and can provide a low-cost transfer service ourselves. As we only have the one minibus, places are limited so please check early to avoid disappointment!
However, if you are flying to Geneva (or we don’t have availability) fear not, we can still organise your transfer! We work with several local transfer firms, all of whom are legally French-registered and insured, and all of whom offer an English-speaking service, and we are able to arrange everything on behalf of our guests. Simply let us know if you are interested in transfers when booking, and we’ll arrange a bespoke quote for you.
Most firms use 8-seater minibuses (but we can also access larger buses for bigger groups) and all transfers are bespoke to your group – as such, they tend to be more cost efficient per person the larger your group size. Costs vary depending upon your exact group size, the time of year, and the airport you fly to. For a tailored quote for your group, please contact us directly.
Please note that although we work with several different firms, we cannot guarantee availability, and transfers do get fully booked during busy periods, so please arrange for an early quote to avoid disappointment.
If you are in a small group, it can sometimes be more cost-effective to use a shared transfer from the airport. These are typically arranged by bus companies and stop at Aime or Bourg St Maurice train stations.
Bens Bus, Snowbus and Altibus all offer shared bus transfers from the major airports.
From the train station, we can usually pick you up for 30€ but if we don’t have if we have availability, it’s typically easy to grab a taxi.
Occasionally, some of our local chalet and transfer companies may have a spare seat and can drop guests off in Les Coches or Montchavin, so it is always worth asking us if you are looking for help.
An alternative solution to transfers is to hire a car from your destination airport – we can provide you with complete driving directions and a local map of each chalet.
There are hundreds of options for car hire, so it is impossible to offer a comprehensive guide here. The key point to note is that for parties of 3-5, depending upon your arrival airport, it can sometimes prove cheaper to hire cars than use a transfer service, especially if a car hire firm is offering special deals.
There are also too many car firms to recommend – however, whenever we have had to hire a car in France from the UK, we have always found autoeurope.co.uk and rentalcars.com to be both efficient and competitively priced.
We have a free local carpark outside Chalet Pisteside in Les Coches, and free underground parking for our Montchavin Chalets. If more spaces are required, we will point you in the direction of extra parking, and we will ensure there is somewhere to park your car for unloading and loading on your arrival and departure days. Should you choose to hire a car, we would advise you check out our driving section (later on this page) for advice and links on driving in France and in the Alps.
Please note, if you do book car hire, make sure you have either snow tyres or book snow chains – from November 2021, it will be compulsory to have them to drive in the Alps.
The train is a great way of getting to the Alps. It’s green, there are fewer luggage limits, it’s mostly stress- free, and it also takes you right to the heart of the Alps – so close in fact, that it’s only a 20-minute transfer to our chalets.
New for 2023 Eurostar Service: London St Pancras – Lille – Landry
New for December 2023 and January 2024, Eurostar are putting on a new ski train. Leaving London St Pancras on a Saturday, it arrives in Lille for a platform change, and then another Eurostar to Landry. The return train leaves on the Sunday. If this sounds interesting, let us know – we might be able to help with a local hotel for the first Saturday night.
London St Pancras to Landry (change in Paris)
You can still travel by train on the Eurostar with a change in Paris (Gare de Nord to Gare de Lyon). From there, you catch the SNCF train to Landry. Landry is only 10 minutes from the chalets so it’s even quicker to arrive. If we can’t pick you up from there, we work with a local Landry taxi company who’s super reliable, or if you get the timings right, there is a bus that goes up to Montchavin and Les Coches.
For complete information, or to book your train, visit the Eurostar website or the Voyages SNCF website
Driving
Depending upon where you’re coming from in the UK, and the size of your party, driving may be a good solution, as it can also work out quite cost effectively if you can fill the car, split the driving, and get down here in a day.
Many of our guests choose to drive to our chalets, either from the UK, or with a hire car from the airport. There is a free local carpark for our Les Coches chalets, and free underground parking for our Montchavin chalets.
If more spaces are required, we will point you in the right direction, and ensure there is somewhere close to park your car for unloading and loading on your arrival and departure days.
Should you choose to drive, we would advise you keep reading our “Driving in the Alps” section, below, for advice and links on driving in France and in the Alps.
Expect the drive from Calais to take at least 10 hours, and the drive from the local airports to be between 1.5 hours (Chambery) and 2.5 hours (other airports) – or more during peak periods.
If you decide to leave the UK on Saturday and stay somewhere en-route, we recommend Troyes as a good stopover destination. If you are travelling with your family, a top tip is to book an Ibis hotel as they have family rooms sleeping 4 (you’ll need to call them to book as the rooms don’t show on their website!)
For full directions to any chalet, please contact us.
Driving in France
We can offer advice on driving in France, but there are far more qualified sources – so we recommend you follows the links below for more info. Some key points to note though:
- drive on the right (fairly obvious that one)
- you must always have your driving licence, registration and insurance documents on you at all times
- you must have one reflective dayglo jacket or similar in your car, as well as a warning triangle
- you are advised to have a spare bulb kit
- you require a breathalyser kit
Driving Links:
www.theaa.com – then look for links to driving and/or driving abroad
www.rac.co.uk – then follow news/advice and driving abroad
Driving in the Alps
Whilst the roads are cleared regularly, snow can come at any time, making the driving conditions treacherous. From November 2021, it will be a legal requirement to have either snow chains or snow tyres on your car when driving around the Alps. Police regularly stop all cars and only allow those that have either snow chains or snow tyres to continue. Most car hire firms will hire you chains, but do check before booking.
Also, if you have chains, practise putting them on before you get to the snow – it’s ten times more difficult when it’s a blizzard outside and you haven’t even once got them out of the bag…
Travelling from outside the UK
Most of our guests tend to come from the UK, although we do of course welcome guests from anywhere, Europe and beyond. Should you be coming from outside the UK, it is probably best to contact us directly and we’ll help to advise as best we can – although please note we are no experts in worldwide travel timetables!