Church Mice

For those of you who prefer to stash away the savings outlined in the previous posting (rather than blow them on NetJets flights) and who prefer not to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road, you should be aware that we have not one, not two, but three companies who are ready and waiting to transport you from your chosen airport to Chalet Kiana. Two of them (ChamVan and ATS) are linked on our website (under the Travel tab). The third (Ski-Lifts) is new to us this year, so we are testing them out before adding a link to our site.

Ski-Lifts offer two options; if you're travelling alone or in a small group, selecting the 'Shared Transfer" option makes good sense if you don't mind waiting up to an hour for the van to fill up with other 'punters'. The more of you there are in your group, the less time you're likely to have to wait. As you approach the magic number of 8, it begins to make sense to opt for 'Private Transfer' which means there's no one else in the van with you and, as soon as you're all through 'baggage claim' you can get going.

For the real church mice, there's the SAT bus system, which runs from Geneva airport to the centre of Les Contamines (& back!), with a short stop in Le Fayet. You should alight at the Office du Tourisme rather than Le Lay. The service runs until the end of the season (almost) and is reliable (i.e they don't let snow slow them down!). As you will see from the timetable below, the timings are reasonable, but inevitably you're going to have to wait for the bus when you arrive at GVA, as they're not on the hour every hour. At €64 return, they're also cheaper than the van option (if there are fewer than five in your group).

Don't forget, church mice, to reserve your place on the bus leaving Les Contamines at least 24 hours before your intended departure date; if you don't, you'll have to pay a taxi to drive you 20 minutes down the valley to Le Fayet. For that price, you could have flown NetJets after all.