"Rob White" wrote in message
...
I'm likely to be driving from Bristol to Meribel for the last week of
March.
Is it best to have a short ferry crossing from Dover, or should we
overnight
on the ferry from Portsmouth or elsewhere & have a shorter drive? What
makes
the best sense in terms of cost and time? Any tips would be useful.

Portmsouth takes you to places like Cherbourg and Caen... both are well off
the autoroute network and further west. The extra UK miles to Dover are
worth it, trust me.

I went to Val Cenis in january and I drove from Calais. It was a 9 hour
drive in all (plus the 3 hours from Dover to Birmingham, where I live). The
route was something like A16, A26, A5, A6, A43. Meribel and the Three
Vallees is on a different road than the A43, but it's in the rough area.

Avoid the A1... it takes you round Paris which isn't a nice place to be.
Think of the North Circular around London when you've only just passed your
test. But, if you get the ferry from Portsmouth, it will be Paris for you,
matey!

In terms of cost and time - use the autoroutes. It'll cost about £100 in
total for tolls, but you'll be there in 9 hours or so, with little or no
hassle. Even Lyon's ring road at rush hour wasn't a problem. If you stay off
the autoroutes, it'll save you toll money, but it'll take a hell of a lot
longer, use more fuel, longer distances, more stress, more jams... etc.,
etc.

Another tip: vistit Woolworths, or somewhere, and get a coolbox that works
from a cigarette lighter. Fill it up with food before you go. We did that
and even with a 5 year old in the car, we could limit the amount of time we
stopped to the bare minimum. With 2 of us driving (if possible, do that!!),
it was only really toilet and petrol stops that we had to make.

On the way out, we got a 11:15am ferry from Dover. Got onto Calais's roads
about 2:30pm local time (a foreign car got held up at the only Customs
checkpoint that was open... with the whole ferry behind it!!). We wanted to
stop overnight about halfway anyway, and we got the the hotel just south of
Dijon about 8pm. Next day, we had about 200 miles left. Left the hotel about
9:30am, and had a leisurely trip down to the resort. Got there about 1pm,
relaxed, stress free, full of energy and raring to go!!

On the way back, we were driving the whole lot in one hit. Left the resort
about 11am. Got to Calais about 8:30-9pm. Got an earlier ferry (usually
possible on the Dover-Calais runs as are later ferries if you need them). We
were in our own beds by 3am UK time.

All in all, 600 odd miles felt no worse than a trip to work (getting to work
involves M6 and M1 for 40miles distance... give me the trip to the Alps
anyday!!). Gorgeous roads to drive on (Chambery was a little tedious... had
to slow down to 50mph! The cheek of it all!!). And the tolls, I think, were
a small price to pay for being able to do that distance in that short a
time. You couldn't drive from Dover to Edinburgh in that sort of time, could
you?

Have good trip and enjoy the drive,

Schenckster