Geneva to Tignes, suggested stop off resort please?

Hi - we are off to Tignes on 26th feb. Original plan was morzine so flying into Geneva which isn't ideal. We arrive around 11am then have hire car so idea is to drive up to 1.5 hours then get on the slopes for the afternoon, before completinmg the drive later. Any recommendations welcome.

all resorts got their features but not driving for miles out of the way would be a bonus i guess, however if its somewhere simply must visit then let us know. no snowparks required but natural features and somewhere good for intermediate plus skill levels, trees (as we don't know the weather)

It's a good idea in concept. I would suggest instead, that you set off for Tignes, stop off for a decent lunch in Albertville, and enjoy a steady drive up to resort in daylight. Some of the traffic jams around Moutiers at this time of the year, can be jaw dropping, and if you are not familiar with the drive up the Tarentaise valley, you will likely feel pretty exhausted by the time you arrive in the dark.

If you still want to follow your plan, stop off in Bourg St Maurice, park at the Funicular and go and ski Les Arcs 1600 for the afternoon perhaps?

looking at a place called La Tania now. apparently popular with c-list french celebs(!) and ticks the trees, features box. sounds nice. anyone know it or have any other suggestions?

thanks bandit. good suggestions.
take on board what you say about traffic jams. maybe best thing would be to nominate a driver and sample first day apres ski before driving as late as possible to our apartment.
first snow trip to france

Benny,
It sounds a bit too ambitious to me, especially if you haven't driven in France in the snow before. I would say you'd be better off doing your shopping somewhere like Bourg St Maurice on the way up to the apartment and spending your spare time working out where everything is in the resort, so you can get going on the slopes early in the morning.

As Bandit says, the traffic jams can be awful. We got stuck in a terrible one (due to heavy snow) going down from Val Thorens to Moutiers and what should have taken about half an hour took 3 hours and we missed our train.

Also, there often seem to be unexpected holdups, like the plane is delayed, there's a problem with the car hire, you get lost, you have to put snow chains on and you don't know how to do it, you can't find the car park, the apartment reception shuts early, etc. etc.

I hope none of these things happen to you, but they have all happened to me (although not on the same holiday!).

Best of luck :D

Ally

Do it, if you are following satnav and end up in Italy you are definitely going the wrong way. The mountain pass you need to take to get back to France is closed in the winter. The long way round would take you a while.

In saying that, I'd be for getting to Tignes and settling, if it all goes the wrong way up you might ruin the next day too.

hmm, driven abroad plenty and loads of practice in snow and with chains. we're staying at the highest resort in tignes and can see the lift from the window so shouldn't be too hard i hope. the only problem seems to be these jams - not been anywhere as touristy as tignes before so it seems fair to expect it to be a lot busier than anywhere else.

the only french airports i know well are paris and biarritz, they're always fast, never a problem so far, but GVA (swiss) i have never experienced.

would you (lot) say these jams are for everyday or mostly around the weekend change over day for tour operators? We're going weds to weds for precisely these reasons but....?

bandit wrote:It's a good idea in concept. I would suggest instead, that you set off for Tignes, stop off for a decent lunch in Albertville, and enjoy a steady drive up to resort in daylight. Some of the traffic jams around Moutiers at this time of the year, can be jaw dropping, and if you are not familiar with the drive up the Tarentaise valley, you will likely feel pretty exhausted by the time you arrive in the dark.

If you still want to follow your plan, stop off in Bourg St Maurice, park at the Funicular and go and ski Les Arcs 1600 for the afternoon perhaps?

I think I would generally agree with Bandit about just getting to the resort but if I have read your post correctly, you are travelling on the Friday which means that the traffic may not be too bad. I wonder whether it is worth stopping off at Bourg St Maurice - without traffic that is only about 30 minutes drive from Tignes.

Looking at the map, I wonder whether somewhere like La Clusez might be a better option. Don't forget, you are only going to be skiing for a few hours so even a very small resort will do you. However, I have no idea what the drive from there to Tignes might be like - Google Maps only gets you so far!