Quickest route Geneva airport to Val D'Isere

Can anyone recommend the quickest route from Geneva airport to Val D'Isere?

thanks alot

greg

"Greg Hilton" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend the quickest route from Geneva airport to Val
D'Isere?

thanks alot

greg

in the absense of a first hand response try:
www.mappy.fr

hugh

"Greg Hilton" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend the quickest route from Geneva airport to Val
D'Isere?

thanks alot

Try www.map24.co.uk. Any route I've ever done in Europe I've found on there.

Are you going to the French side of Geneva airport, or the Swiss?
International flights arrive and depart on the Swiss side. Only internal
French flights use the French side. Runways are all in one place, but it's
the terminals that are different.

I only ask cos last year I made the mistake of going to the French side on
the way out. Took us 45 minutes to find the French side with absolutely
bugger all help from the authorities. On the way back, finding the French
side from France was difficult enough. But getting from the French side to
the Swiss side where the check-in desks were was even worse! At one point,
Swiss Customs officials, who spoke flawless English so knew exactly what we
were asking them, directed us to the departure lounge... you know the place
with the Duty Free and people sitting there with boarding cards and no
luggage? Slight problem was, we hadn't checked in so we still HAD our
luggage!! The looks of fear we got as we wandered through with big
rucksacks, skis and boot bags was a little worrying!

If you're hiring a car, get it from the Swiss side, not the French. It'll
save you untold hassle, believe me. Geneva airport is off any plans I have
that do not involve Switzerland! LOL

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 20:50:01 GMT, Greg Hilton wrote:

Can anyone recommend the quickest route from Geneva airport to Val D'Isere?

I always go via Annecy, but you must be careful not to make the
mistake of following signs to it, which divert you 40 km round the
Autoroute.

So, roughly speaking, this is my route:

Take the Autoroute South from the airport. Pass through customs and
continue for about 2km to where it joins the A40.

At this point, take the non-Autoroute, signed ( I think) St. Julien,
then follow signs for N201 southbound, which is the Annecy road. I
think Annecy is signed once you're off the motorway.

Once you get to Annecy, go straight through the middle. If you follow
signs (e.g. to Albertville) it'll take you miles round the outside and
dump you in a wilderness with no further signing. You _will_ get lost.

So, going through the middle, following signs for 'Vielle Ville' or
similar, then (only once you're at the lake) following 'Annecy le
lac'.

This is the N508 which takes you round the bottom of the lake to
Ugine, where you turn right at a roundabout onto a dual-carriageway
all the way into Albertville, at which point you join the autoroute to
Moûtiers, thence Bourge and Val.

HTH

--
Ace (bruce dot rogers at roche dot com)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

Schneck wrote:
"Greg Hilton" wrote in message
...

Can anyone recommend the quickest route from Geneva airport to Val

D'Isere?

thanks alot


Try www.map24.co.uk. Any route I've ever done in Europe I've found on there.

Are you going to the French side of Geneva airport, or the Swiss?
International flights arrive and depart on the Swiss side. Only internal
French flights use the French side. Runways are all in one place, but it's
the terminals that are different.
True, but you can check-in to some international flights from the French
side (I have done so for Easyjet to London), you then walk through to
Switzerland and board from the main terminal. It is signposted going
from the French side to the Swiss side, and the whole check in area is
so small you can't get lost (well, clearly you can, but I didn't and I'm
not particularly skilled in navigation of airports)

To get to the French side from the Swiss side is less obvious and is not
well signed. The gate to France is on the departure level for a start.
It is a complete farce to be honest, when we got there at 11:10pm there
was a sign saying that the border was closed and a number to call - we
called and a guard came to open up the gate. He was pretty prompt though
and all apologies for not being there in the first place.


I only ask cos last year I made the mistake of going to the French side on
the way out. Took us 45 minutes to find the French side with absolutely
bugger all help from the authorities.
You found it by mistake but it took you 45 minutes?? Do you mean you
went to the Swiss side and took 45 minutes to find the French side? I
could understand that, it is not obvious.

On the way back, finding the French
side from France was difficult enough. But getting from the French side to
the Swiss side where the check-in desks were was even worse! At one point,
Swiss Customs officials, who spoke flawless English so knew exactly what we
were asking them, directed us to the departure lounge... you know the place
with the Duty Free and people sitting there with boarding cards and no
luggage? Slight problem was, we hadn't checked in so we still HAD our
luggage!! The looks of fear we got as we wandered through with big
rucksacks, skis and boot bags was a little worrying!
Yep, navigating back to the French side is not obvious, but when you get
close to the airport from the Swiss side there are road signs to the
"Cote Francaise". If I managed it it can't be that hard:-) It is
probably best to head for the town which is by the border (sorry can't
remember the name) and then head for the airport, ignoring all signs to
the airport.

As I said above, getting to the Swiss side once we had checked in was
very easy - are you sure you couldn't have checked your luggage at a
desk on the French side?


If you're hiring a car, get it from the Swiss side, not the French. It'll
save you untold hassle, believe me. Geneva airport is off any plans I have
that do not involve Switzerland! LOL
Well, you can do this and it may save you some hassle but it also costs
more (e.g. it was about £40 more for a 3 day hire on the Swiss side for
the same class of car with Avis). Not sure if there is a difference in
the deal though - maybe the Swiss give you snow chains??? Worth
checking. Swiss cars will come with a Swiss motorway vignette, the
French hire cars won't unless a previous user has had to buy one.

Getting way back to the original question, go via Annecy! There was a
long thread on this last year, worth searching Google.

Steve Haigh wrote:

If you're hiring a car, get it from the Swiss side, not the French. It'll
save you untold hassle, believe me. Geneva airport is off any plans I have
that do not involve Switzerland! LOL
Well, you can do this and it may save you some hassle but it also costs
more (e.g. it was about £40 more for a 3 day hire on the Swiss side for
the same class of car with Avis). Not sure if there is a difference in
the deal though - maybe the Swiss give you snow chains??? Worth
checking. Swiss cars will come with a Swiss motorway vignette, the
French hire cars won't unless a previous user has had to buy one.

I didn't think there was much difference in the Hertz prices either way,
but I think I only checked once. I also recall that the Hertz car we
hired from French side in Geneva DID have a Swiss vignette.

The reasone we hired on the French side was that we were dropping the
car off at anoter location in France. If we'd hired on the Swiss side
there would have been a huge drop-off charge (over £100 iirc).

"Greg Hilton" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend the quickest route from Geneva airport to Val
D'Isere?

The general route suggested by Bruce is good, but I would avoid the centre
of Annecy, particularly on a Saturday or in the evening rush hour (BTW
Bruce, the one way system in Annecy has changed a lot recently, it's no
longer too obvious how to go straight through the centre if you just follow
your nose).

Directions from the Swiss (i.e. main) exit of the airport
================================================== =======

Take the motorway - green signposts direction France (i.e. opposite
direction to Lausanne). Just after the French customs, stay in the right
lane and turn the motorway (signposted St.Julien and Annecy in *GREEN* -
route nationale in France..).

Take the RN201 direction Annecy. About 5 km after Cruseilles (where you may
get stuck for 10-15 minutes in the evening rush hour) take the motorway
south (direction Chambery) until Annecy Sud (second exit, also signposted
Albertville in green). Follow signs to Albertville through Annecy (it's a
little tricky, often busy, but well signposted by French standards) - once
you have hit the lake, turn right, and then you can't go wrong:
Faverges-Ugine-Albertville-Moutiers-BSM-Val.

Journey with no traffic takes 2h30-3h00, count an additional 30 minutes to
cross Cruseilles and Annecy at busy times, and any number of hours you like
after Albertville if you are travelling on a February Saturday and/or heavy
rain/snow.


Additional directions from French side of the airport
================================================== ===
Others have already explained the difficulties with the French sector of the
airport. It is *not* obvious, but nothing that some good directions from the
transfer or information desks cannot solve. If you hire your car on the
French side, at the end of the access road turn right through the Swiss
customs, then first right after the tunnel under the runway, and onto the
motorway as above.

If for some reason you want to avoid Switzerland (e.g. the car does not have
a Swiss motorway sticker and you don't want to pay the 40CHF), turn left out
of the access road, then left at the roundabout. Follow signs to St.Genis,
Bellegarde, Lyon. A dual carriageway starts after St.Genis. About 1km after
the end of the dual carriageway, in Collonges, turn left (signposted
Annecy). This road goes downhill to the bridge over the Rhone, and up the
other side. On the other side, follow the main road through the villages of
Vulbens, Valleiry and Viry to St.Julien, then same directions as above. This
route adds 30-40 minutes to the route through Switzerland. (If you have a
good map, there is a good shortcut between Valleiry and Cruseilles - but
beware that it's a narrow country road that can be icy in cold or foggy
weather).


To find the French sector again when returning to the airport, just remember
that the access road is just next to the Ferney-Voltaire customs post on the
RN5 main road between Geneva and Paris...

"Schneck" wrote in message
...

Try www.map24.co.uk. Any route I've ever done in Europe I've found on
there.

Are you going to the French side of Geneva airport, or the Swiss?
International flights arrive and depart on the Swiss side. Only internal
French flights use the French side. Runways are all in one place, but it's
the terminals that are different.

I only ask cos last year I made the mistake of going to the French side
on
the way out. Took us 45 minutes to find the French side with absolutely
bugger all help from the authorities. On the way back, finding the French
side from France was difficult enough. But getting from the French side to
the Swiss side where the check-in desks were was even worse! At one point,
Swiss Customs officials, who spoke flawless English so knew exactly what
we
were asking them, directed us to the departure lounge... you know the
place
with the Duty Free and people sitting there with boarding cards and no
luggage? Slight problem was, we hadn't checked in so we still HAD our
luggage!! The looks of fear we got as we wandered through with big
rucksacks, skis and boot bags was a little worrying!

If you're hiring a car, get it from the Swiss side, not the French. It'll
save you untold hassle, believe me. Geneva airport is off any plans I have
that do not involve Switzerland! LOL

I lived right by the French side of GVA for a number of years and flew on a
regular basis both internally and internationally.

It used to be possible to check in and get a boarding pass on the French
side of GVA for international flights. Has this changed since I moved back
to the UK?

The rest of your experience does ring true, often the door from the French
to the Swiss side was unmanned and closed - there was a bell that you had to
ring to get attention.

Getting back from CH to F was easy if you only had hand luggage and a
nightmare if you had to collect hold baggage. We used to collect visiting
friends from the CH side - much easier for all of us.

Clive

"Steve Haigh" wrote in message
...
:
"Cote Francaise". If I managed it it can't be that hard:-) It is
probably best to head for the town which is by the border (sorry can't
remember the name) and then head for the airport, ignoring all signs to
the airport.


Town on the border is Ferney-Voltaire

Clive

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 14:18:12 +0100, "Marco Cattaneo"
wrote:


"Greg Hilton" wrote in message
...
Can anyone recommend the quickest route from Geneva airport to Val
D'Isere?

The general route suggested by Bruce is good, but I would avoid the centre
of Annecy, particularly on a Saturday or in the evening rush hour (BTW
Bruce, the one way system in Annecy has changed a lot recently, it's no
longer too obvious how to go straight through the centre if you just follow
your nose).

Since last year? Last time I did it was just before christmas. It's
not always obvious, but if you keep going as straight as possible
until you get to the lake it's hard to go too wrong.

Using the motorway for the last bit may be marginally quicker,
particularly in rush hour, but I've only once managed to do it without
taking a wrong turn somewhere, and I'm generally _good_[1] at finding
my way through strange cities. Plus I've done it quite a few times now
- at least twice each season for the last few years, I'd say, and I
still get lost.

Going North is even worse.

Follow signs to Albertville through Annecy (it's a
little tricky, often busy, but well signposted by French standards)

Bwaahaahaa! That's like saying London is clean, by British standards.


[1] Like, on arrival at JFK last week, no idea where I was going, to
find no GPS in the car, and getting to Nutley, NJ with just the
state-wide map in the car. In under an hour. At night. No problem.

--
Ace (bruce dot rogers at roche dot com)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.