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

The Long Way Round – My unplanned tour of Scandinavia

John, our IT Manager here at Erna Low, recounts his epic journey home to the UK from Norway after the ash from the Icelandic Volcano closes all air space in Northern Europe…

Day 1 – Thursday 15th April
I have spent the last couple of days on an educational trip to the Norwegian resort of Trysil, a lovely family resort located a couple of hours from Oslo and am due to fly home today.  Little did I know that this was also the first day of what was to become a team challenge that would make Sir Alan Sugar proud.  It started when I joined my group for breakfast.  I was travelling with representatives from TUI, Ski Dream and Pinnacle Travel, together with our hosts Jenny from SAS Airlines and Robert from Rezidor.  Robert mentioned that he had seen something about a volcano erupting in Iceland and from what he could gather there were no flights operating out of Northern Scandinavian airports.  Luckily (or so we thought) Oslo was still open, so we departed for our dog sledding trip as planned, only to return and find that Oslo had also been closed.  Flights were due to depart on Friday morning, so Robert used the first of many favours to secure us some accommodation for the night in Oslo and we took the 2 hour coach journey back to town.

Fourth train of the day

Day 2 – Friday 16th April
Wake up in Oslo to find that the closure of airspace now affects the whole of the UK as well and appears to be getting worse.  Oslo is pretty much full for a huge Expo, so an hour spent on the internet reveals that all trains and car hire out of Oslo are fully booked.  The news suggests that airspace may open later that evening, so call in favour number two and blag city tour passes.  Trysil educational turns into Trysil/Oslo educational.  Spend the day checking out the many museums and places of interest around Oslo, together with a site tour of the Radisson Blu Hotel, which has hosted guests ranging from Annie Lennox to Bill Clinton.  Favour number three sees us being hosted for an evening meal by the lovely people at the Hard Rock Cafe, followed by two stressful hours in the hotel lobby looking at travel options home, without much success.

Day 3 – Saturday 17th April
Meet for breakfast and check the news, which is becoming more and more pessimistic.  Looks like the chances of getting off the ground in the next few days are becoming very slim, so we bite the bullet and decide to get out of Norway by any means necessary.  Conor, one of the group members has heard of a cruise ship departing from Hamburg for Southampton on Sunday night, so a few frantic calls are made and probably the biggest favour so far finds us with six places on the ship, provided that we can get to Hamburg in time.  With all trains, buses and rental cars booked out, we manage to find space on a ferry leaving from Larvik for the north coast of Denmark, so we grab a taxi and make the two hour journey from Oslo to the port.  A four hour ferry journey and an hour’s taxi ride later, we find ourselves in the town of Aalborg and grab a hotel for the night.

Day 4 – Sunday 18th April
Having managed to book a series of four trains with worryingly little time between each departure, we put our faith in the Danish rail system, which thankfully seems to be far superior to our UK system.  Make it to the German border on time and board the third train, which promptly grinds to a halt before even making it out of the station.  Wait around for the train to be fixed, whilst wondering what happened to the famed German efficiency.  Finally get on our way half an hour late and, with only a twelve minute window before the next train, we can see our escape route rapidly disappearing.  Thankfully the German efficiency proves not to be a myth, the train makes up the half hour delay and we make our connection to Hamburg.  Relax in the station with a cold beer before making our way to the port.
We board the brand new Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship, it’s my first time on a cruise liner and I am blown away by the sheer size of this 15 storey, 22,000 tonne monster.  Realise we were very lucky to have found a route home (especially as 800 of the 950 passengers booked to travel were unable to make it for the cruise) and relax for our two day luxury cruise home.

Our lift home

Day 6 – Tuesday 19th April
Finally make port in Southampton, six days later than planned and having used pretty much every means of transport at our disposal.  Having seen the travel chaos first hand, I head home feeling thankful that I work for a company specialising in self drive ski holidays and planning my next trip – a luxury cruise!

Welcome home John!

Baboo-lific! Travel in style to Geneva…

Jane Bolton, MD at Erna Low Ski Holidays, shares her Baboo experience on her way to Morzine…

I now know what it must be what it is like to be a film star. We were in a private lounge at London Oxford airport having parked right outside the building (with parking permit number 2) and had our luggage carried for us to check in.  Even the regular car park was only a stone’s throw from the Terminal building.  It took us just over an hour to get there from West London and we only needed to be there an hour before departure – what a joy when compared to the 1hr 45 we  have to leave to get to Gatwick by running the M25 gauntlet and the 2 hours check-in you have to leave before being entering the scrummage of the security queues.
We were welcomed by smiling staff and check-in and security was fabulously quick, I can only imagine this was what it was like to travel in the golden age when you were made to feel special when boarding a flight. 
The flight itself, the new for this season Oxford-Geneva route on Baboo, was smooth with some delicious canapés, the plane is relatively small so we were not able to get to a bridge and there was a bus at the Geneva end but with usual Swiss efficiency our luggage was on the carousel as we came through passport control.
The return was equally smooth.  For anyone not used to Geneva airport on a Saturday during the winter, it is extremely busy.  The Baboo check-in was however very quick and efficient and the flight left perfectly on time.  Our arrival back to London Oxford cannot be compared to any other international arrival I have ever experienced.  You can see your baggage being lifted off the plane and put on the one and only roller carousel and then it is straight out the door through passport control and in to the car park. 
Overall my experience of London Oxford airport and the Baboo flight was exceptional and I would hugely recommend it.  I am delighted that Baboo have announced their flights are on sale now for next season so I would urge you to book early to get the best prices.  Remember that there is no charge for skis or snowboards and the baggage allowance is 20kgs + equipment.  It really is the way forward for me and we had a fantastic ski trip.

Party your way to the slopes… as Oxford airport flies to the Alps this winter!

Any new way of getting to the Alps is alright by us and that is why we are all very excited about the new ‘full frills’ service operated by Baboo Airlines. Starting on the 19th of December, Baboo will fly every Saturday between Geneva and Oxford Airport with seat prices from just £89 one way, including taxes, luggage…and even ski/board carriage! the perfect way to start your ski holiday!

Check out www.flybaboo.com for more details and reservations.

Why not join us as we celebrate the launch of this new service?
We have teamed up with Baboo and prolific ski website www.welove2ski.com to welcome guests at the VIP lounge at Oxford Airport for drinks, canapés and masses of prizes to be won including 2 return flights OXF-GVA, a week’s accommodation in the Alps, a pair of specially fitted Daleboots, a custom fitting ski boot fitting (both courtesy of Outdoor Traders, Abingdon) and plenty of goodies from our friends at www.welove2ski.com. All monies raised from the event will be donated to the British Ski Cross Team, who are in final preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Taking place on Thursday 26th November from 6.30pm at Oxford Airport, the event is completely FREE and open to EVERYONE… so do pass it on to family and friends in the area who may want to join us.

Just RSVP to Alex (alex.yellowlees@ernalow.co.uk) so we can keep an eye on numbers.

Baboo takes off from Oxford this winter

Looking forward to seeing you there!
Sappho x

Getting to the Alps by train…at a glance!

Victoria, our admin manager, looks into the benefits (and the all important price tag!) of travelling to the Alps by train this winter.

I read an article in ‘In The Snow’ yesterday about a company called www.snowcarbon.co.uk who are dedicated to getting to the Alps by train and it got me to think about it all a bit more.

So I’ve read up a bit on what the trains are like and what routes they do.  The TGV only has seats and is therefore good for day trains, but a cheap option for night trains too, while the Corail Lunea doesn’t run as many trains but has a nice reclining seat or couchettes.

Am I leaving a carbon footprint?

Just to give you an idea of an indirect train price check this out for the 19th Feb return 27th Feb 2010 currently available… it certainly seems really easy and a great idea for the eco friendly travellers among us.

Outbound: London St Pancras 17:55, arrives in Paris Nord 21:17 > change to Paris Austerlitz departs 22:34, arrives next morning into Bourg St Maurice at 06:39.
For standard class seat on Eurostar and reclining seat on a Corail Lunea train from £90
For standard class seat on Eurostar and bed in a six berth couchette on a Corail Lunea train from £215

Inbound: Bourg St Maurice 21:30, arrives Paris Austerlitz 06:21 > change to Paris Nord departs 08:07, arrives London 09:36
For standard class seat on Eurostar and reclining seat on a Corail Lunea train from £65.50
For standard class seat on Eurostar and bed in a six berth couchette on a Corail Lunea train from £76.50

Personally I’d be quite happy with a reclining chair!

I’m going to be heading on my ski holiday to Arc 1950 by this type of train in March so I’ll be an expert at train travel when I return, sales aren’t yet open for me but I hope I can bag a bargain like this when they do!

If you want to book or simply find out more, talk to Victoria directly on  0845 863 0525 or check out www.ernalow.co.uk