Where to Ski And Snowboard -

Drive to the Alps

20th December 2011, by Chris Gill

Take a road trip

By Chris Allan

Because the Channel gets in the way, because many of us take package holidays and because the British Isles are the centre of the low-cost airline business, we’re inclined to travel to the Alps by air. The French, the Germans and the Dutch, in contrast, mainly go by car. And for Brits, too, driving has various advantages.

Even for those going on a pretty standard week in the Alps, many people find driving is less hassle than taking charter flights. For families (especially those going self-catering), it simplifies the job of moving half the contents of your house to the Alps. If there are four or five people in your party, the cost can be low. If you fancy something a bit more adventurous than a standard week in one resort, taking a car opens up the exciting possibility of touring around several resorts in one trip, and even making up your plans as you go, so that you go where the snow looks best.

The experience of driving out can be a pleasant one. Cross-Channel ferries are faster and more comfortable than ever, with the possibility of a seriously good lunch on short crossings as an alternative to the quicker shuttle-trains through the tunnel. And the motorway networks in north-eastern France and on the approaches to the Alps have improved immensely in recent years. You can now get to most resorts easily in a day from south-east England, in some cases using motorways virtually all the way from departure to arrival.

Another plus point is that you can easily extend the standard six-day holiday. You can spend a full day on the slopes on the final Saturday (a blissfully quiet day on the slopes of most resorts) and then drive for a few hours before stopping for the night; this means you won’t find Sunday’s journey too demanding, and you may even have time for a traditional French Sunday lunch before making for the Channel port.

AS YOU LIKE IT

If you fancy visiting several resorts, you can do it in three ways: use one resort as a base and make day trips to others; use a valley town as a base, and make resort visits from there; or go on a tour, moving
on every day or two. There are some notable regional lift passes that might form the basis of a trip, in Austria especially. Using one of these means that you don’t pay a premium for skiing multiple resorts, and don’t even have to waste any time acquiring lift passes each morning. Check out the Ski Amadé pass in our Austria introduction, for example.

AROUND THE ALPS IN SEVEN DAYS

The most rewarding – although the least relaxing – approach to exploring the Alps is to go touring, moving every day or two to a different resort and enjoying the complete freedom of going where you want, when you want. Out of high season there’s no need to book accommodation in advance. And a touring holiday doesn’t mean you’ll be spending more time on the road than on the piste – provided you plan your route carefully. An hour’s drive after the lifts have shut is all it need take. It does eat into your après-ski time, of course. The major thing that you have to watch out for with a touring holiday is the cost of accommodation. Checking into a resort hotel for a night or two doesn’t come cheap, and can be a bit of a rip-off. But valley hotels often offer very good value.

Austria offers lots of possibilities. In the west, you could take in the best skiing the country has to offer, by combining the Arlberg resorts with Ischgl, and maybe Sölden. Further east, there are scores of resorts you could visit. It is easy to combine Hintertux and Mayrhofen with the SkiWelt resorts and Kitzbühel. And the Ski Amadé lift pass makes it great value to combine the Gastein valley with Hochkönig and Schladming.

In Italy you can stay in the beautiful old city of Aosta and visit a different resort in the Aosta valley (such as Courmayeur, Cervinia and the Monterosa resorts) each day – read our Aosta valley chapter. Elsewhere in Italy, many resorts are far more suitable for tourers than day trippers, provided you’re prepared to put up with some slow drives on winding passes.

Switzerland also offers lots of possibilities. In the west, you could combine Verbier with Val d’Anniviers, Anzère and Crans-Montana – either moving between resorts or basing yourself in Sierre or Sion. Further east, you could start in Davos/Klosters, take in Lenzerheide and Arosa and end up in Flims. You could even include St Moritz.

There’s no need to confine yourself to one country. You could imitate the famous Haute-Route by starting in Argentière in France – up the valley from Chamonix – and ending up in Switzerland’s Saas-Fee, via Verbier and Zermatt.

WINTER TYRES AND CHAINS

Winter tyres make a big difference to a car’s grip on ice, snow and slush. These tyres are compulsory in Austria for the whole winter period, whether there is snow on the roads or not. In other Alpine countries, we understand that they are not; but many ‘experts’ warn that if you go without them and have an accident – or if you block a road because you have ground to a halt – you could be in trouble.

Having winter tyres doesn’t do away with the need for chains, which may be needed in really deep snow. But with winter tyres you can keep going in surprisingly difficult conditions if your car also has traction control, to stop the wheels spinning. This usually forms part of the electronic stability systems that are now fitted to many new cars.

Cars hired in Austria and Switzerland should always be equipped with winter tyres. Cars hired elsewhere may not be. Be careful when hiring cars from airports in Germany to drive to Austrian resorts; there are rip-offs in operation.

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