Megavalanche - fly or drive?

miss notax

Hello

The flights are up for the Megavalanche and Notax and I are trying to decide whether to fly or drive. There are three of us going (in our little gang!), and Easyjet flights come in at about £150 each including baggage, bikes etc. So that's £450 for all 3 of us.

So, the question is, could we drive to Alpe d' Huez for less than £450? Driving would be safer for the bikes, and we could take spares, but three people plus three bikes and luggage (in a Volvo XC90) is going to be a tight squeeze.... Don't want to carry the bikes outside the car, but maybe a roof box for the luggage? And what if we mash ourselves and can't drive (although it is an auto!!) :?

Not sure there are any disadvantages to flying, apart from cost and having to squash bike spares in our luggage which we are pretty used to doing.

Really not sure which way to go and I would welcome any thoughts

nicklouse

drive it.

Euro tunnel is a fixed cost upto 9 people. just done Frankfurt - Rents and back and arround on 5 tanks of 98 Octane.-

easy for you if there is more than one that can drive.

Mates up in Sweden would often drive down to the alps as it was cheaper than the flights with all the kit.

miss notax

Interesting, thanks for your advice! Will look into the costs of the tunnel / ferry.

nicklouse

also note the tunnel do deals for return travel within days. ( 5 and 7 IIRC)

miss notax

Ok, with my rather basic maths it works out at about £400 for the tunnel and diesel both ways. The only extra I guess is toll roads etc - no idea how much that would be!

That makes the costs pretty damn similar actually, so I guess it's just down to which we would prefer. Got to be worth taking the car, right? Loads of spares, bikes guarenteed to arrive in one peice?

hoots

Hmm..interesting one this. I can give you my two penn'orth based on our experience. We've flown with bikes a lot over the years and, apart from a slightly bent disc rotor, never had any problems. Oh, err....come to think about it, the bikes were put on the wrong plane in France once, and trying to get the shoulder shrugging staff to do anything about it was an absolute 'mare...eventual Police intervention yada yada....but apart from that!

If you're entering a proper event like the Mega, the main thing that'd put me off flying is the risk of picking up a virus on the plane. Last time we went to Spain, the Easyjet flight was jam packed with sneezing coughing & spluttering pensioners and we both ended up getting colds and I got a really bad ear infection - really put the dampers on the holiday.

If I were you, I'd drive down there.
HTH

Good luck with the Mega BTW

p.s. Apologies if you've already allowed for it in your travel cost calculation, but don't forget the diesel in France is a fair bit cheaper than in the UK (or it was last Sept) - so don't fill the tank in the UK first!

miss notax

Thanks hoots

I think we have decided to drive down there - the risk of damaging the bikes / them not arriving is too much. With so many bikes travellig out for that week too it seems ultra-risky, plus hiring one out there would be a nightmare....

There are three of us going as a little group, so think Notax and I will take all the bikes, turn it into a little holiday before / after, take a few days either side and drive down taking our time. Our other buddy can jump on a cheapy Easyjet flight (saving money for him), safe in the knowledge that his bike is travelling safely

A cunning plan! Thanks for all the thoughts

bluechair84

We drove and I posted all the my calculations here.
This website calculated our tolls.
Don't drive with the AC on as the 14hr driving gave me a cold (couldn't figure out how to turn it off as it was hidden in a sub sub bloody menu).
Another advantage to driving is you can take a full tool kit.
I followed your post last year on the Notax incident! Best of luck this time round We're doing the same holiday we did last year - can't ruddy wait.

bluechair84

Another thing, ferries are cheaper to Dunkirk than Calais, but we're taking the chunnel to Paris next time to cut out some of the driving.

miss notax

Thanks for that, the costings are very helpful

Fingers crossed this holiday is exciting for all the RIGHT reasons!! Enjoy your hols 8)

MountainMonster

One other small thing to remember is that when you are in the area, you don't have to worry about having transport if you bring the car. You can always say "hey, I want to go to the store", or go see somewhere you havn't seen, without having to take taxis or something.

miss notax

Very true

bluechair84

Or taking Notax a croque monsieur because... you know... hospital food is crap.

miss notax

Nope - this years Alps trip is going to be injury free.... Third time lucky and all that!

kathg

Hi there..

Good to hear the hol plans are progressing! We drove out there last year and it was great having the car. It meant we could drive down to Allemond (where the race finishes) the day before, leave the car, then get the lifts back up to Alpe D'Huez. The queue (scrum actually) and wait for the transport back up on race day was HORRENDOUS!! You can imagine... you're the most knackered, hot, sweaty and just generally wasted you've ever been and it took most of the rest of the day to get back up to Alpe D'Huez. I wouldn't recommend anyone willingly puts themselves through that if there is an alternative! Of course, there's a risk of having car stuck down there if you DNF :? and you may not be racing all on the same day... but then the Sunday racers can come down to collect Saturday folk and vice versa... I'm sure you get the picture anyway!!

How's the training going?

miss notax

Hi Kath

Ummm, training is going in the right direction (I think!)! Am forcing myself to do more uplift days and getting used to the Minxy, I have my Madonna-esqe body armour and have a date to ride Snowdon in the diary!

I'm still not entirely sure that i'm up to the job though, and to be honest I am starting to feel sick every time I think about it too much :oops:

What the hell possessed me to enter???!!!!!!!

kathg

C'mon.. positive mental attitude is needed!!
It sounds like you are doing all the right stuff and you'll find it's no-where near as bad as you are building it up to be!! Remember, there's actually no pressure if you are aiming to just get down it in a nice smooth fashion, at your own speed etc. Sure, there's pressure if you arrive there with a big ego, thinking you're in with a chance of actually seeing more than a quick glimpse of Anne- Carro et al!!
It's just a loong bike ride down a mountain with some (quite a few actually) other people and a fab atmosphere!!

I'm sitting at home with my foot all plastered up having had foot surgery last week.. no riding, walking or driving for 6 long weeks There you are... hope I've cheered you up!!

Kath

miss notax

kathg wrote:

I'm sitting at home with my foot all plastered up having had foot surgery last week.. no riding, walking or driving for 6 long weeks There you are... hope I've cheered you up!!

Oh my goodness I'm guessing that you won't want to join us for an uplift day at Cwmcarn next Sunday then?! :?

Am definitely hoping to just ride it (and stay in one peice!) rather than any grand ideas of getting a good place! Have also been doing a local xc race series as part of my 'get used to loads of people riding around you' therapy.... Glad you think it's all going in the right direction

Anonymous

Flying, you may have to put your life in the hands of crazy French taxi drivers, and from experience that can be somewhat scary on the zig-zag climb to Alpe D'Huez !!

miss notax

deadkenny wrote:

Flying, you may have to put your life in the hands of crazy French taxi drivers, and from experience that can be somewhat scary on the zig-zag climb to Alpe D'Huez !!

Ah, but driving I put my life in the hands of my crazy rally-driving other half!!!

We are set on driving over there now, at least we can be certain the bikes will get there in one peice that way!

nicklouse

one thing i do like about driving in Europe is that generally under the signe that says fuel in 500m there is another giving the Kms to the next.

managed to pull in with 2 Liters left in the 90L tank.

got another 2500km round trip comming up in a few weekends.