General location

chalet emma is at Les Collons in the Val d’Hérens in Valais, Switzerland. This is a valley rising at the cantonal capital Sion from the Rhône which sweeps through southern Switzerland from the east end of Lake Geneva.

By plane

Our nearest major airport is Geneva which is the destination for a number of budget airlines including Easyjet , Flybe, Jet2 and bmibaby (all having web addresses www.....com) flying from across the UK – book as soon as you can to get the best deal !

The airport is very user-friendly. The usual luggage conveyor for flights from UK is through customs to the far-right although larger ski bags come to a separate short conveyor almost immediately to the right.

As our changeover is on Sunday, you will avoid most of the ski traffic on Saturdays when you can enjoy a day’s skiing to yourselves with the locals.

Other airports provide destinations with good access to the Valais – Chambery in France takes a number of carriers including Air Southwest from Plymouth. Please contact us – we will give as much advice as we can.

From Geneva to chalet emma

By car – book a car with any of the main hire companies from the airport. Availability on the day may be an issue so book ahead to be sure.  www.travelsupermarket.com has a good search engine for the best deals.

(Beware - always ensure that the car is a Swiss car not French, booked in Swiss Francs or £. The Swiss/French border bisects the airport itself but you will arrive naturally in the Swiss half of the airport from UK. Finding the separate hire desks and garages in the French half of the airport for French cars is possible but inadvisable! A car advertised and priced in euros is probably French).

Car hire desks at the airport are through the exit from the luggage area on the left. Their garages are underground – exit the main building at its centre, cross the road to the lifts immediately beyond and go to level -2.

You will need snow chains for the car – these are available with the car rental. Although the roads are well cleared by the Swiss and the car is likely to have winter tyres, chains are a legal requirement in the mountains.

The route to chalet emma from the airport is straightforward – exit the garage building and keep left to Lausanne – you are almost immediately on the dual carriageway which brings you continuously around the north side of Lake Geneva and follows the Rhône to Sion. Full road directions are available here. Enjoy the magnificent views across Lake Geneva towards the mountains beyond!

By rail – the efficient Swiss operator SBB has regular trains from Geneva airport to Sion taking less than 2 hours. They depart regularly from a terminal within the airport, again well sign-posted and close-by in easy walking distance. Return tickets cost c. CHF 94 (say £40) per person and they can be bought at the terminal.

Mski can arrange transfers from chalet emma to the station in Sion – please contact Pip or Steve in UK or Chris and Selena in Switzerland.

There is the option of travel by train all the way from UK to Sion, via Paris using Eurostar and SNCF to Geneva and SBB to Sion.

Self-Drive
This is a popular option if you want to take in the beautiful scenery of France. The distance from Calais to Sion is approximately 530 miles. The best border crossing from UK direction through France into Switzerland is via the E23. A full route is available from the following website:

www.theaa.com/travelwatch/inc/planner_main_redirect.jsp