Getting to Val d’Isère
02. Airport Transfers
Once you arrive at the airport, clear passport control and collect your luggage the next step is to get to Val and there are a number of ways to do it.
Airport Busses
From mid-December onwards there are usually several direct bus services each day from Geneva Airport to Val d'Isère, with a more limited timetable at the beginning and end of the season. Tickets can be booked online in advance and, if space is available, can also be purchased at the transfer desk in the arrivals hall. If you're travelling back to the airport, however, it's important to book your return journey in advance.
There are also direct buses from Lyon and Chambéry during the main winter season, together with a smaller number of departures from Grenoble. Private English-speaking operator Ben's Bus also operates scheduled services from Geneva, Lyon and Grenoble at weekends.
Prices vary depending on demand, the operator and how far in advance you book but this is generally quite an inxpensive way to travel.
The only real disadvantage comes at the Val d'Isère end of the journey as these busses stop at the Gare Routière in La Daille, about a mile from the village centre. Unless you're staying in La Daille itself, you'll need to transfer onto the free resort shuttle bus for the final few minutes to your accommodation.
That's not normally a problem, but it can be a little awkward if you're travelling with several suitcases, ski bags, young children or arriving during particularly busy periods.
Remember to allow time to get to La Daille on the way back for your return journey too.
Train from the Airport
Getting to Val d'Isère by train from the airport tends to be a bit more of a mission than taking an airport bus, private or shared transfer or even hiring a car. However, it's not expensive and the trains are frequent, so it can be a good option if you're travelling on a tighter budget, arriving when there's no convenient bus or transfer available and, ideally, don't have too much luggage.
The nearest railway station to Val d'Isère is Bourg-Saint-Maurice, just 30 km down the valley and easily less than an hour away by bus, taxi or private transfer.
Both Geneva and Lyon airports have railway stations directly beneath or beside the terminal buildings but there are no direct trains from Geneva to Bourg and only a handful of direct winter Saturday services from Lyon so normally you have to get a local train to the city centre first. You may have to change on the way as well, at Albertville, Chambery or Aix les Bains.
Neither Chambéry nor Grenoble airports has a railway station, so if you realy want to take a train you’ll need to get a bus to the city centre first.
Our advice? Unless you're travelling on a tight budget or the timings happen to work particularly well, getting the train from the airport is usually more hassle than it's worth. In most cases, an airport bus, private or shared transfer, or even a hire car is a lot easier and often little, if any, more expensive.
Airport Car Hire
There are plenty of options for hiring a car at any of the local airports, but you do need to think about it quite carefully.
The free bus service in Val d'Isère is so efficient and everything in town is so close and convenient that you probably won't need a car once you get here.
Hiring a car can work out pretty expensive if you're not going to use it all week and it simply sits in a car park. There's no free public parking in Val d'Isère so, unless you're lucky enough to have private parking with your accommodation (very rare), you'll also need to budget around €100–180 for parking during the week.
If you hire a car on the Swiss side of Geneva Airport, taking it into France is normally perfectly straightforward, however make sure the hire company knows youre going into France. Also make sure they know you’re going to a ski resort and need winter tyres, snowchains or socks as these are requireed by law in our area in the winter months.
It’s sometimes a little cheaper to hire on French side at Geneva (it’s a cross-border airport) but there’s less choice, the French hire desks are in a different part of the terminal and it’s harder to find your way through Geneva to and from the French end.
Minibus Transfers.
These days, a private or shared transfer is probably the most popular way of getting from the airport to Val d'Isère. It's certainly one of the quickest, easiest and most comfortable ways to travel from any of the local airports up to the resort.
You can either book a private minibus, usually for up to eight people, or reserve a seat on a shared transfer with other passengers arriving at a similar time and travelling to Val d'Isère or one of the nearby resorts. Shared transfers are now very frequent from Geneva, although they're less common from the other local airports, and that may influence your choice of airport.
A private or shared transfer doesn’t necessarily work out that much more expensive than anything else and other advantages include plenty of room for luggage, comfortable vehicles and a genuine door-to-door service.
We particularly recommend Snowdrone, which we use ourselves for both business and private travel.. Other companies worth considering include Cool Bus and White Rides.
We strongly recommend booking directly with a transport company based in the Alps. There are also agencies and operators—some apparently based a very long way from the mountains—that can be considerably less reliable. Over the years we've heard far too many stories of transfers being cancelled at the last minute, leaving passengers stranded at the airport or in resort and sometimes even missing their flight home.
One final tip: if you're considering a private or shared transfer, check availability and departure times before booking your flight. That late-evening flight that looks like such a bargain won't seem nearly as cheap if you can't get a transfer and end up having to spend the night in an airport hotel.
Helicopter Transfers
Getting a helicopter from Geneva to Val d'Isère is certainly the quickest and easiest way to get here. No matter how much traffic there is on the roads, you simply fly straight over it all and the journey from the local airports takes only around 30 to 45 minutes. Plus, you get to feel like a rock star as well!
It's expensive, but not totally out of the question. Prices vary quite a lot but can be more affordable than many people expect, particularly if the cost is shared between a group.
As with all helicopter flights in the Alps, services are weather dependent and may occasionally be delayed or cancelled if conditions are unsuitable for flying.
