Whoosh.
Alps Trip Route Advice
- Thread starter alesupper
- Start date
Whoosh.
Or you could use your motorhome so you can avoid sharing the hotel with 'bikermates' ?
It has been known.
There again, some (many) of them I even enjoy the company of and hopefully, they mine.
It has been known.
There again, some (many) of them I even enjoy the company of and hopefully, they mine.
It’s hard to dislike someone who brings a gas bbq and shares their London Pride.
Everywhere is fairly expensive since the pound reached roughly parity with the Euro, I still find Europe a bit cheaper than the UK, but not like it was in the "good old days", even my worst last minute Hotel en-route mistake in Switzerland was fucking cheap compared to the £205 I have just had to stump up for 1 night in a travel lodge in london for my XMAS do - to put some persepctive on things.
Not been to Andermatt since 2017 and the exhcange rate was @1.3, now it is 1.14, however right now the Euro is the same as it was back in 2017, so Switzerland is probably more expensive than ever, assuming price inflation is the same in Switzerland as the rest of Europe over last 5 years.
Anyway, I would of said Switzerland is maybe 20%-30% more expensive than French Alps for stuff like Hotels / Food / Drink, and petrol was quite a bit cheaper, the quality of food / drink / hotels tends to be good and your unlikely to find a "cheap and cheerful" Hotel in the Swiss Alps.....
....Hotel costs are easy to compare with booking sites, sometime going half-board can save a chunk of money (demi-pension) and as Wapping states for 2-3 days the extra on the cost of a 9 day trip is neglible, and if you carry some water from a supermarket rather than buy a Machiato 3 times a day you can save £15 a day on coffee, fill your face at brekky and slip a croissant into your pocket and you can skip lunch too - and maybe don't buy lunch at the big mountain top tourist traps as they can be double the price of towns and villages lower down.
We stayed here last time on half-board basis:
https://www.astoria-obergoms.ch/de/
Andermatt itself has more choice of pubs and restuarants, but you will probably spend more too!
If it all looks to pricey and you really want the Alps, then maybe a few nights here, good value half-board, part way up the PSB pass so when it is really hot you are a lot cooler than in the valley in Bourg St Mauraice - again BSM would give you a large choice of places to eat and drink.
https://hotel-belvedere.net/en/home-en/
Puts you on the 7-pass loop of Mont blanc and not hard to come up with other routes for another day - or do it again in the other direction, it always feels like a completely different ride when you do a pass the other way.
If you fancy Bourg itself then this place is really nice, edge of town, down long private drive, Garage for all your bikermates who are obsessed about security (we just parked out front) and pool to cool off in, <10 min walk to old town for vast choice of places to eat.
http://www.autantic.fr/bourg-st-maurice/
Not been to Andermatt since 2017 and the exhcange rate was @1.3, now it is 1.14, however right now the Euro is the same as it was back in 2017, so Switzerland is probably more expensive than ever, assuming price inflation is the same in Switzerland as the rest of Europe over last 5 years.
Anyway, I would of said Switzerland is maybe 20%-30% more expensive than French Alps for stuff like Hotels / Food / Drink, and petrol was quite a bit cheaper, the quality of food / drink / hotels tends to be good and your unlikely to find a "cheap and cheerful" Hotel in the Swiss Alps.....
....Hotel costs are easy to compare with booking sites, sometime going half-board can save a chunk of money (demi-pension) and as Wapping states for 2-3 days the extra on the cost of a 9 day trip is neglible, and if you carry some water from a supermarket rather than buy a Machiato 3 times a day you can save £15 a day on coffee, fill your face at brekky and slip a croissant into your pocket and you can skip lunch too - and maybe don't buy lunch at the big mountain top tourist traps as they can be double the price of towns and villages lower down.
We stayed here last time on half-board basis:
https://www.astoria-obergoms.ch/de/
Andermatt itself has more choice of pubs and restuarants, but you will probably spend more too!
If it all looks to pricey and you really want the Alps, then maybe a few nights here, good value half-board, part way up the PSB pass so when it is really hot you are a lot cooler than in the valley in Bourg St Mauraice - again BSM would give you a large choice of places to eat and drink.
https://hotel-belvedere.net/en/home-en/
Puts you on the 7-pass loop of Mont blanc and not hard to come up with other routes for another day - or do it again in the other direction, it always feels like a completely different ride when you do a pass the other way.
If you fancy Bourg itself then this place is really nice, edge of town, down long private drive, Garage for all your bikermates who are obsessed about security (we just parked out front) and pool to cool off in, <10 min walk to old town for vast choice of places to eat.
http://www.autantic.fr/bourg-st-maurice/
Excellent advice from Rasher, as always.
I have done several jaunts, where I have stopped that morning in a town, nipped into the supermarket and bought a roll / filling / a bit of fruit and a large bottle of water, to make a DIY lunch. I have then just stopped at any place that I thought suitable for a picnic. These places have varied between quite nice ‘official’ picnic spots (where the town or village puts up a few tables and chairs) through to just a nice spot in the sun, through to quite a comfortable bus shelter in pouring rain. It is one of my preferred ways of going about lunch. Not only is it quite cheap but you can decide when and where to stop at just about any point in the day.
If there is say five of us, who all know and trust each other well (such as when we go to Le Mans for near enough a week) or even just a long weekend to the Ardennes, we use an excellent app, called Tricount. It is easy and intuitive to use, with each person just entering their expenses accrued on behalf of themselves plus the others in the group. The app then pools the debts together and allocates them accordingly. You can even just allocate the debts to say, one or two out of the five, if everyone didn’t participate in that particular cost. For example, if with the five of us, two didn’t go out that day and one person bought coffees for the three of us, it will split that particular bill between just the three. Likewise, if the two that stayed behind, went out for lunch or beers, which one of them paid for, then the app can cater for them too, all at the same time and within the same application.
It gives you an instant ‘total account’ of who owes what to whom at any one moment. It can cater for multiple currencies and any amounts of spend, large or small. It works really well. We sometimes have a position where one or two people let the others pay for all the lunches and coffees (ie their debts accumulate) but then clear it all just by paying for a big dinner, leaving them in credit.
The debts and credits stay live in the app until they are settled. This is good if say one of the party is a bit skint but can clear their debt come payday on their return. Their four friends can sub their friend until then. When they settle, the debts and credits all go to zero and the account closed until the next holiday or day out. All that matters is that everyone trusts each other to do the honourable thing and settle up in a reasonably timely fashion.
https://www.pilotplans.com/blog/tricount-review
We / I have now used the app several times and it’s worked really well. The free version offers enough functions for everyone. Recommended.
I have done several jaunts, where I have stopped that morning in a town, nipped into the supermarket and bought a roll / filling / a bit of fruit and a large bottle of water, to make a DIY lunch. I have then just stopped at any place that I thought suitable for a picnic. These places have varied between quite nice ‘official’ picnic spots (where the town or village puts up a few tables and chairs) through to just a nice spot in the sun, through to quite a comfortable bus shelter in pouring rain. It is one of my preferred ways of going about lunch. Not only is it quite cheap but you can decide when and where to stop at just about any point in the day.
If there is say five of us, who all know and trust each other well (such as when we go to Le Mans for near enough a week) or even just a long weekend to the Ardennes, we use an excellent app, called Tricount. It is easy and intuitive to use, with each person just entering their expenses accrued on behalf of themselves plus the others in the group. The app then pools the debts together and allocates them accordingly. You can even just allocate the debts to say, one or two out of the five, if everyone didn’t participate in that particular cost. For example, if with the five of us, two didn’t go out that day and one person bought coffees for the three of us, it will split that particular bill between just the three. Likewise, if the two that stayed behind, went out for lunch or beers, which one of them paid for, then the app can cater for them too, all at the same time and within the same application.
It gives you an instant ‘total account’ of who owes what to whom at any one moment. It can cater for multiple currencies and any amounts of spend, large or small. It works really well. We sometimes have a position where one or two people let the others pay for all the lunches and coffees (ie their debts accumulate) but then clear it all just by paying for a big dinner, leaving them in credit.
The debts and credits stay live in the app until they are settled. This is good if say one of the party is a bit skint but can clear their debt come payday on their return. Their four friends can sub their friend until then. When they settle, the debts and credits all go to zero and the account closed until the next holiday or day out. All that matters is that everyone trusts each other to do the honourable thing and settle up in a reasonably timely fashion.
https://www.pilotplans.com/blog/tricount-review
We / I have now used the app several times and it’s worked really well. The free version offers enough functions for everyone. Recommended.
Sometimes you can get good deals out of season in the smaller, less tourist orientated ski resorts but the downside to that may be that the bar and restaurant are closed. We’ve found that if you want a bit of luxury and are willing to walk 20 minutes for your meal you can get a hotel for about 20% of the high season rate.
Western Austria is good for this particular game and we’ve used it to reward ourselves if we’ve suffered the misery of Lake Constance but you only get the big savings if you aim high and pay in excess of £150 for one night. We struck gold when we crossed into Austria mid afternoon then rode towards St Anton before stopping for a beer and a look at hotels, decided Lech looked at bit quieter than St Anton so booked one in Lech. It turned out that the hotel we chose (swung by the promise of a decent seating area in the room plus a balcony) and paid about £120 for was over a grand a night if you had it over a weekend in high season
Western Austria is good for this particular game and we’ve used it to reward ourselves if we’ve suffered the misery of Lake Constance but you only get the big savings if you aim high and pay in excess of £150 for one night. We struck gold when we crossed into Austria mid afternoon then rode towards St Anton before stopping for a beer and a look at hotels, decided Lech looked at bit quieter than St Anton so booked one in Lech. It turned out that the hotel we chose (swung by the promise of a decent seating area in the room plus a balcony) and paid about £120 for was over a grand a night if you had it over a weekend in high season
Good points from Andy.
You can pull the same trick by staying a bit away from the centre - or even in a smaller town on the outskirts - and using public transport (or even a taxi) to get into the middle. Not least it’s a bit of fun buying a ticket and catching a bus, tram or train. Public transport is cheap as a rule. Use it.
You can pull the same trick by staying a bit away from the centre - or even in a smaller town on the outskirts - and using public transport (or even a taxi) to get into the middle. Not least it’s a bit of fun buying a ticket and catching a bus, tram or train. Public transport is cheap as a rule. Use it.
We have had some best bargains (and rarely get stung) by winging it, very easy with small group, a couple of times we were asked if we would like a premium room - and said no, and ended up in a huge room, obviously it was all they had and would rather have it full than empty and tried to get us to pay a bit more for it.
Because many places now charge about £10 for a basic brekky we often go to the local bakery on our way out in the morning, 3 euros will get yu a fantastic brekky picnic, we then head up the first pass of the day and find a nice spot on the mountainside.
Because many places now charge about £10 for a basic brekky we often go to the local bakery on our way out in the morning, 3 euros will get yu a fantastic brekky picnic, we then head up the first pass of the day and find a nice spot on the mountainside.
If I’m away in Europe I always take a couple of zip lock bags for my take away at breakfast time 
alesupper
Registered user
I agree that the cost difference between Switzerland and say Austria for 3 days might not be that much in the grand scheme of things, but I am not a fan of feeling ripped off. Pay £8-10 for a beer just feels like a massive rip-off to me.
Switzerland, in common with other countries, can be very expensive. Factor in your beer intake and anything else; then decide if you are better off (financially and spiritually) going somewhere else for the three days or however long it is. It’s that simple.
I’ve never really considered Switzerland to be so expensive that I’d be looking to detour around it unless it was going to be a motorway blast to cut off a corner and then I’d be bitching about the vignette
The big cities and what I’d classify as tourist biased towns are a bit heady but compared to Scandinavia even they’re not bad and are the rest that much dearer than northern Italy or Austria
My biggest complaint as a motorbike rider is the way the majority of Swiss drivers seem to want to be part time cops and will move out to stop you overtaking and filtering is considered to be worse than child molesting
I guess like many places, it depends on:
A. The location…. Pay more in cities or in places with views. It is a basic rule that the higher up you go in London restaurants, the more the bill increases.
B. Bods’ general expectations as to what constitutes ‘value’….. A pint of lager (if anyone must drink it) is well over £6 a pint in London, with honest London Pride, hovering at around a fiver. That’s what it is. Switzerland may well be more. I’d pay it, if it suited me, on holiday.
Having spent the past 30 or more years going to the Nordic countries, anything looks ‘cheap’…… and indeed Sweden was for a bit, when the Swedish Krown tanked.
A. The location…. Pay more in cities or in places with views. It is a basic rule that the higher up you go in London restaurants, the more the bill increases.
B. Bods’ general expectations as to what constitutes ‘value’….. A pint of lager (if anyone must drink it) is well over £6 a pint in London, with honest London Pride, hovering at around a fiver. That’s what it is. Switzerland may well be more. I’d pay it, if it suited me, on holiday.
Having spent the past 30 or more years going to the Nordic countries, anything looks ‘cheap’…… and indeed Sweden was for a bit, when the Swedish Krown tanked.
In Akaslompolo, northern Finland, where I have a cabin a pint of local beer is €7 or €5.50 to me with "local" discount. Not bad for the Arctic.
It’s a bit of a long way to go though.
I anticipate a queue of adventure bikers at the ferry, en route to sample it
Quattroformaggio
Registered user
and filtering is considered to be worse than child molesting
To fair to them, it is illegal there.
I'm referring to filtering, by the way.
So too is keeping your engine running at railway level crossings.
One irate chap walked half a dozen car lengths to animatedly inform me of that one....how I laughed when the barrier raised mid rant and I rode away leaving him stepping back from the first lot of cars as they moved off after me.
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