Would I Recommend Driving From England to Morzine?

Steve and Caroline Warner, treasured Erna Low clients, loaded up the car and set off to Morzine for a summer holiday in their apartment in L’Aiglon de Morzine.

We’re off on our family holiday to Morzine. We have 2 children aged 9 and 6. The main reasons for driving are that we are fed up with airport delays, airport queues, lifting a multitude of bags on and off trolleys and can take more toys for the kids in the boot of the car. This is a log of our journey, from my perspective – the mum and passenger.
Got up at 3.30am at our home in Suffolk so I could prepare food for the journey. Really did wonder if this was a good idea after all.
Car looked liked a NASA station when we set off at 5am with DVD’s, ipods, DS’s etc. Stopped at garage to fill the car and buy 2 cans of redbull for the driver. I’d made 2 travel mugs of decaf – husband not impressed.
45mins into our journey I started to feel chilled, kids were happy watching DVDs and asking for breakfast already. Going to be difficult spacing out a day’s worth of food! Thinking driving actually might just be the right decision after all as I sit here with plenty of leg room, travel mugs and other creature comforts. Just not sure about the Homer Simpson voice over the sat nav.
Arrived at the Eurotunnel Folkestone terminal at 7am – ahead of schedule – and they put us on an earlier train than booked – part of the wonderful Eurotunnel FlexiPlus experience! Managed to delay the kids breakfast until the train. Looking forward to getting to France and listening to my audio book all in one go. How often do you get the chance to do that!
Husband not quite so fortunate but he does like being in control of his travel.
The kids are REALLY excited at this novel concept of driving onto a train. It’s even inspired them to pause the DVD’s.
Arrived in France and disembarked at 9.30am (local time). Sat Nav estimates arrival at destination 5.20pm
Motorway proves to be easy and SO quiet. Husband now very happy and relaxed at the prospect of empty, straight roads with no pot holes or road works.

The end is in sight!

We are all amazed at the frequency of toilet stops – which we take full advantage of at least hourly. Since they are all picnic spots they are quite pleasant places to have a stretch. Unfortunately sight of picnic benches are making the children think of food. Only down side – NO toilet paper in any of them. Take your own!
Had a lazy picnic lunch – sat nav now predicting arrival at 6.30pm since we’ve stopped SO many times. Children sleep for a couple of hours after lunch. I doze on and off and husband drinks the red bull.
After that back to hourly stops.
Finally arrive in Morzine 6.45pm. Ended the journey feeling quite relaxed and refreshed considering how long we have been travelling. We chose to make the journey a relaxing one rather than driving straight and this was most definitely the right one. Despite the time it took to get here my vote is still to drive since it has been stress free, the kids vote to drive and the driver? Well he still votes to drive since it has been really easy.
Door-to-door, it took us around 11 hours, including time on the Eurotunnel.
And the cost? Train 63, tolls 67.70E, diesel 109E

Our end destination! The lovely Aiglon de Morzine

Living the high life in Zermatt…

Summer in the Alps is glorious. Why don’t more Brits come here on holiday to Zermatt?  My flight with Swiss was seamless and then I enjoyed stunning views of Lac Leman as the train hugged the shore line.  In the morning I woke up in the best hotel in Zermatt to spectacular views of the Matterhorn and we were then treated to a helicopter ride circling the iconic mountain. 

our ride is here...

Our heroic helicopter pilot Daniel had recently taken part in the highest known helicopter rescue in Nepal so we knew we were in safe hands as he flew us seemingly within touching distance of the North Face. We were so close we could see the early climbers as they made their back down and we hoped that our intrusion did not hinder their concentration. Upon landing on the glacier we were transported to the highest ice palace in Europe by either piste basher or snow mobile. There were plenty of people enjoying summer skiing. After visiting the palace, we made our way to the viewing platform at 3883m above sea level where the panoroma is simply breathtaking. You can see 9 peaks over 4000m and numerous glaciers all glinting with hidden menace and with their own sadly shrinking story to tell.

With Clare on the sunny glacier!

After a brief refuelling stop we headed down to the mountain restaurant Blatten for a late BBQ lunch. Following a trusty guide we ducked off the visible path and soon it was time for our next treat which was a zip wire crossing over a vast gorge gushing with glacial melt water. It was a great experience to be dangling in a harness over the void that the whole group enjoyed.  We then gorged oursleves on a salad of pfifferlingers (chanterelle mushrooms but i loved the sound of the Swiss German name) before the main course of deliciously rare beef, lamb and chicken arrived. We were just thinking it would be impossible to consume more when the restaurant owner offered seconds. Pudding was strawberries with home-made rhubarb ice cream from rhubarb grown in their back garden. We waddled back to Zermatt to enjoy the spa facilities of our respective hotels, I was staying in the fabulously romantic 5* Hotel Zermatterhof.  Our evening hosts at the Monte Rosa, the oldest hotel in town, had seen our programme and had thankfully decided we would be grateful of some lighter fare for our evening meal. The chef had therefore painstakingly prepared for us a seemingly endless array of little treats ranging from chilled melon soup to mini churros via sliced duck on minted cous cous and tiger prawns.
 

On the wire

During this trip I did manage to visit some of Erna Low’s self-catering accommodation in Zermatt.  I was very impressed with the central location of the newly built or refurbished apartments all of which were close to a ski lift. An apartment in Zermatt would be a very cost effective way for family skiing as the supermarkets are centrally located and you have the flexibility to eat in or out.  Our recommendation would be the apartments in the Zur Matte building as these are apartments with swimming pool and spa facilities, are accessible in the nearby Mont Cervin Hotel.  Please call Erna Low on 0845 863 0525 for further information as I would be happy to recount further details of my trip!