Start & End Points

Hotel Cotes Sud Leman, 6 Rue de Pamphiot, 74200 Thonon Les Bains. France. Tel: 0033 (0)4 50 70 36 70
Hotel Italia, Via Geppa, 15-34132 Trieste, Italy. Tel: 0034 (0)4 0369900

Airport Transfers

We offer included airport transfers from Geneva airport at the start and back to Venice airport at the end of the Raid and there are a wide range of flights available to and from UK regional airports – see the trip Essential Information pdf for all the details.

 

Long Haul: arriving a day early, leaving a day late

If you are not able to make a flight that ties in directly with one of our transfers, you may want to Overnight in Geneva at the start or Trieste or Venice at the end of the Trip: A visit to any one of these 3  cities would make an excellent addition to you holiday.  Renowned as one of Europe’s most beautiful cities, it is never going to be a hardship to visit Geneva and if you have the annual leave available, exploring the city on the shores of Lake Geneva is a great way to extend your holiday at the start.
Sandwiched between the border with Slovenia and the Adriatic sea, Trieste is a city well worth a visit for its unique ambiance and neo-classical architecture.  Often overlooked by visitors to Italy, it is also a good base to explore into Slovenia.
Venice is a floating Italian city that needs little introduction!  Architecture, sight seeing, Art, history, culture and cuisine – each is, in itself, a reason to visit Venice!  If you have used up your quota of brownie points by coming on this holiday, why not arrange to meet your partner in Venice fora a weekend after the trip, to stock back up again!  We will be able to drop you at Venice airport with the standard group transfer, and from there you can catch a bus to Venice (details below)

 

Getting from Geneva Airport to the Start Hotel (Thonon Les Bains) Independently

By Train:
There are regular trains each day from Geneva airport station to Geneva mainline station, Cornavin, (trains take about 6 mins and run very regularly).

Cornavin is the first stop on all the destinations for trains from the airport.  Change here to a bus for Geneve Eaux Vives station (takes about 15 minutes and run regularly) – for details use www.rail.ch

Check out www.sncf.fr for train times from Geneve Eaux Vives to Thonon Les Bains.  Most trains are direct or via Annemasse, and the journey takes approx three quarters of an hour and costs about 8€.  There are trains running both morning and afternoon.

There is a free public transport scheme operating in Geneva whereby you can pick up a free public ticket from the machine in your baggage collection area at Arrivals.  This gives you 80mins of free public transport within Geneva so will certainly get you into Geneva town centre, and on to Eaux Vives, but you will need to buy a ticket from there to Thonon.

On arrival in Thonon Les Bains train station, you will need to get a taxi to the start hotel above.

By Taxi:
If there are a group of you, it may be cost effective to use a taxi.
We have used the following English speaking company in the past: AlpineCab ( [email protected]), SARL Alpinecab, Chalet Les Iris, La Beunaz, ST Paul en Chablais, 74500 FRANCE, TEL 0033450731938
2014 prices from Geneva to Thonon were as follows:19 seater minibus: €320,   9 seater minibus: €185,   5 seater €150
You would need to contact them to explain how many bikes you have etc so as to get an accurate and up to date quote.

 

Getting Independently to Trieste Airport from the End Hotel

We offer transfers to Venice Airport at the End of the trip, however, if you prefer to fly out of Trieste, you can make your way to Trieste Airport independently.

Our hotel in Trieste is located a convenient 300m walk from Trieste Bus station. From here there are direct busses to Trieste airport which take 1 hr and run every 30 mins costing just 4 Euros. An up-to-date timetable is available by following the links from this website, look details for route E51.  From Trieste Airport you can fly direct to the following destinations: London, Milan, Brussels, Munich, Naples, Rome and Genoa, amongst others.  Airlines serviced by this airport are Alitalia, Olympic Air and Ryan Air.

Visiting Venice

If you wish to travel into Venice itself, then there is a bus service provided by ATVO (direct shuttle from Venice Airport to Venice town centre) which runs regularly throughout the day (line 35).   Tickets can be purchased from machines outside the airport terminal, or from the ATVO ticket office in the arrivals hall.  If you’re travelling independantly back to Venice Marco Polo Airport after your visit, you can get the train to Venice City Centre then catch the airport shuttle. The shuttle bus leaves from the ATVO ticket office in Piazzale Roma and a one way ticket costs approx. €6 . The bus runs every 30 mins and the journey time is approx. 20 mins.  Please see their website for timetable information

Travel by Train

If you decide to travel to Geneva by train then the above information on independent travel to Thonon should assist you. At the end of the Raid your best bet would be to use Trieste Train Station which is conveniently located about 300m walk from our hotel. It is a 2 hour direct train journey to Venice, or there are Eurostar links from Trieste station to Milan and Rome. 

We recommend that you look at The Man in Seat Sixty-One, which is full of advice and links about rail travel. Rail Europe have produced an excellent interactive map of all the Rail links in Europe, but it is currently not easy to find timetables on their website. For timetable information we suggest DB Rail website (German Rail network in English) – it is currently not possible to purchase tickets from their website, but you can give them a ring once you have worked out which train you want to travel on! Alternatively, tickets can be purchased by ringing Rail Europe on 08708 371 371 (UK number)

NB: – Timetables and ticket purchases are only available 3 months before travel- If you buy your tickets exactly 3 months before travel you can get some good deals so it is worth being organised.

On the train with a bike

The French rail network (SNCF) are trying to promote travel with a bike and have put together an excellent website – VeloSNCF ( external site in French but still useful!. Basically if your bike is in a bag or box it is fine to take on a train. If it is simply as a bike, then you normally need to book it a place and pay a nominal charge – have a look at the links on the VeloSNCF. If you are traveling from the UK with a bike, try to change trains in Lille as opposed to Paris (in Lille you only need to change platforms, in Paris you normally need to take a short underground journey).