Geneva to Garda via Chamonix - Tuesday 31st August 2010

The plan today was to drive from Geneva to Lake Garda via the ski resort of Chamonix. The 331 mile journey should take about 6 hours of driving.

The drive to Chamonix from Geneva is probably one of my favourites. Following the Autoroute Blanche, you drive from the flat and boring plains of France and enter the craggy mountains of the alps with their snow capped peaks and deep valleys.

The most awesome bit of the drive is an elevated flyover along one side of a valley called the Autoroute Des Geants. The views over the Alps from this section of road are outstanding!

Chamonix is one of my favourite places in France. It is only a small town but is home to a great ski resort and there are loads of things to do in the summer as well with a mountain biking route, para gliding and rafting.

We went for a spot of breakfast and to look at going up the cable car to the top of Mont Blanc. Breakfast was sorted very easily. Most of the food in Chamonix seems to be bread containing melted cheese and ham.

The cable car to the top of Mont Blanc was a different matter. We got to the bottom of the lift and it had changed since my last visit. The centre had been updated and there was a large car park. It looked very new and so were the information boards at the entrance. For the two of us to take a return trip to the top, the price was €82, not wanting to blow a weeks worth of food money, we decided that iit was probably a trip for another day, one when we have a grown kid interested in mountains and snow, and one where we actually have money saved up for it. It annoyed me a lot really because last time i came the prices were so much cheaper, only about 20 per person.

Never mind, the time we saved not going up to the top of the mountain we could then spend on taking the scenic route from Chamonix, over the Cul du Forclaz (1527m) into Switzerland, through the town of Martigny then back over the mountains across the Cul du Great St Bernard (2473m) into Italy for the final stretch of the trip.

The winding roads of the mountains soon straightened out as we joined the E64, the main West to East autoroute along the top of Italy. The traffic varied from being standstill to free and open. We passed Milan slowly (due to traffic) and made our way to Lake Garda.

Garda is a town on the East shore of Lake Garda. We arrived close to sunset and got to our hotel with only a little confusion. The Hotel Royal from the outside looked perfectly fine. A little dated in decoration, a bit 60's but no problems, our room however was more of the same, dark wood and a narrow space, our room looked as though in 1960 when the hotel was built, it would have been about 5*, it however had been a little neglected for the last 50 years with only the bathroom being sorted out in the 80's with brilliant white tiles and bright toolbox red accessories.
The room was clean and over the next four days; it really grew on us to being perfect for the money we paid and the breakfast supplied really made up for it. More about that later on!
Once we were sorted we walked into town to find some dinner. We found a nice little restaurant by the lake. We watched go down over pizza and ice cream before heading back for a freshen up and bed.