Cheapest way to Geneva from the UK?

tomstickland

I've been researching various options to get to Geneva.
I'm travelling Sat 8th to Sat 15th March. Sundays and Fridays are cheaper but I don't want to push the chalet company any more since they've given me a very good deal on accomodation and airport transfer.

Rail: (Eurotunnel) is expensive, more expensive than flying. Around £200 per person return.

Road: Cheap crossings on Norfolkline (£10 each way), estimated £210 in fuel (petrol, 35mpg, 90p/L, 800 miles ish), plus wear on car etc. So around £250.

Flying: Cheap flights found from Doncaster/Sheffield airport (Robin Hood Airport), but with taxes turns out at £60. Since I live in the South then transport costs there and maybe parking costs wipe out the savings.

Flights from Exeter and Bournemouth investigated, there were some good offers with Flybe but now gone.

Currently trying the budget airlines via
http://flights.airlinecodes.co.uk/airline/

Have also looked at non direct flights, but savings are minimal (around £15).

EasyJet from Bournemoth at £150 return is my current best option. I can tolerate this, but don't want to book until I know I haven't missed anything else.

Are there any crazy options like fly to middle of nowhere and take the train?

tomstickland

Just for fun I looked into train-ferry-train
£24 (2 singles) from Stroud to Dover.
£30 ferry crossing
£140 return SNCF to Geneva
total £184

Cheap flights are indeed cheap.

Interesting article on train fares: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/oct/12/railtravel.europe?page=all

dmg24

Can you get to LHR?

£150.90 18:10 Depart London (LHR)
Arrive Geneva (GVA) 21:00 Sat 8-Mar
Duration: 1hr 50min Swiss International Air Lines 2635 Direct flight

18:15 Depart Geneva (GVA)
Arrive London (LHR) 21:15 Sat 15-Mar
Duration: 4hr 0min Swiss International Air Lines 2817 / 340Connect in Zurich (ZRH)

Or £120 from LGW with Easyjet?

What airports are most convenient?

tomstickland

£150 is my current best find.
I need to arrive before 5pm on the Sat and leave after midday on the return, so I can't take the cheapest flights.
Unless I sleep on the airport, which I have done before.


Just for fun I looked into train travel.
This is interesting:
http://www.seat61.com/Switzerland.htm#London%20to%20Geneva

If you book ahead then it can be £60ish London-Paris and similar for Paris-Geneva and a lot less hassle than air flight.

For me at the moment it would cost £124 Eurostar and £95 TGV, making £220.

tomstickland

This is a useful flight comparison website:
http://www.skyscanner.net/
It gives a bar chart showing the cheapest prices each day.

dmg24

I quite fancy the idea of train travel.

I'm planning to go Nottingham - Marrakech in September, it will take me two days and cost me more than flying, but it's all part of the fun! x

tomstickland

I much prefer trains to flying. However skiing is an expensive business, so I need to look at the numbers.

I've just asked the chalet people whether I could do a midweek transfer since there are some really cheap prices in the week.

Voyager2002

Don't forget the full-service airlines: Swiss can be very cheap (particularly from London City), as can BA. Oddly enough, Air France have a direct flight from London City that has been very affordable whenever I have looked.

Use Kayak to find cheap flights, and it will also suggest a range of airports that serve Geneva. You could fly into Zurich (cheap at weekends) and take a train or domestic flight, and there are many other options.

Train would be fun. Use split-ticketing to get the cost down: Eurostar to Paris (for which the best price is likely to be 59 pounds return, less possible Quidco cashback). Allow enough time to get across Paris to catch your onward train to Geneva. Book in advance using the voyages-sncf.com web site. Unfortunately you have to do this in French: if you ask for the site in English it now redirects you to a Rail-Europe site that charges much more for the same tickets. However, I have seen single tickets between Paris and Geneva costing as little as 20 euro!

tomstickland

Thanks, some very useful advice there. I did consider flying to a less popular airport and taking the train.

My dates are uncertain at the moment because the ski people put different dates in the confirmation email from the original offer email, so I have to wait to see what they say before I can proceed.

I'm not finding prices to be low enough on the trains. It's looking like 77EUR each way from Paris to Geneva which makes a total of £115. The Eurostar cheap offers are all booked up, so that's going to cost £110. So £225 for the journey.

Certainly worth doing if booking far enough in advance.

I'm going to look at flying + train for fun now.

tomstickland

01:40am and time for bed. I've had trainline.co.uk, Eurostar and sncf.co.uk open and looked at many combinations.
Because my transfer is midday I ideally want to travel overnight. Snow train doesn't go near Geneva. Eurostar and TGV leave me at Geneva airport for midnight. I could sleep there. Price is over £200.

If I could travel overnight on the train then I'd go for that option.

I've done the sums on the various air options and when train travel or car parking is included the true price is £180 minimum. I've worked out that I can drive for about that which then means I can arrive quite early Saturday and leave late on the following Saturday.
Norfolk Line have £15 each way ferry late night.

So it boils down to one type of faff versus the other.
Airport faff (which I hate) versus driving for 9 hours faff (which I'll probably quite enjoy).

Bit of a nutter method, but drive down to ferry Friday night, 1:30am drive for a few hours. Sleep in Aire for a few hours, then get on with it.

One other remaining option is coach travel. National Express £84 return to Geneva. 22 hour journey though!