How to have a no-contact drive to your summer holiday

My husband driving over a viaduct near Nantua. Driving back for the first time from Morgex to London

How to have a no-contact drive to your summer holiday

Summer is coming up now. It seems that finally the Foreign Office will allow British citizens travel. They were going to announce it yesterday. We are still waiting. If that is the case, then lots of people will take it to the road and cross to the Continent. People are a bit reticent to travel by plane yet. Some of them will go ahead and do it as are more daredevil. I am not in that category. I am like those others that will tempt going outside in their own cars. Two days ago it was the busiest day for Eurotunnel sales year on year. So how to have a no-contact drive to your summer holiday?

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Splugenpass in Switzerland. Driving to the Mountains. How to have a no-contact drive to your summer holiday. Photo: Daniele Levis Pelusi. Unsplash.

Where to Start Planning No Contact-Drive Summer Holiday

Starting with going to Eurotunnel. You don’t need to get off your car for the crossing that takes 35′. The terminals have not opened. If you need to go to the toilets, the only toilets opened are by the lay area before embarking. But what if you want to avoid them? And also if you want to avoid going to the Aires (resting places or petrol stations/restaurants) on route? How you should equip for this trip if you want to avoid people? This goes also for people in North America or anywhere in the world.

Here are some things that might help you. At least, this is what I am doing to protect my family while travelling in mainland Europe this summer.

A road to the mountains. Photoo: Anurag Gaggar. Unsplash. How to have a no-contact drive to your summer holiday.

How to avoid going to public toilets: No-Contact Drive Summer Holiday

There have been lots of stories in the media of how going to a public toilet can expose you to lots of germs. There are those small droplets ejected by the flushing of the toilet. These posts suggest you to wear a mask to come to the toilet. In this way you avoid contact with these floating droplets that can stay suspended. Then you clean well the hands and avoid the dryers that can disperse droplets all over. I find all this a bit too much to relax. There has to be something better.

Road trip to the mountains. Atlas Mountains. Photo: Dil. Unsplash. How to have a no-contact drive to your summer holiday.

The boys can wee al fresco. How about women? If there are trees where to hide, I would do the same. But if there are not? The stops in France don’t tend to have a thick tree-base. I have seen this solution ages ago and never considered it. Now I’ve got some for the gloves compartment in the car.

Travel Jane

What is it? A resealable disposable urinal. You can keep on using it until full. It keeps 800 ml of liquid. You can reseal the bag and you don’t mess anything up. The pouch has some crystals that solidify your wee as it gets in! Marvellous idea! The Travel Jane is pink and for women.

Buy your Travel Jane here.

June 17, 2020June 17, 2020

Preparing your summer holidays in Covid-19 times

Looking to go away from home now that restrictions are starting to relax? I have been pretty ok and cannot complain as it was not hard for us as a family. I cannot imagine what this was like for those living alone, and for those loosing loved ones. What if you fancy going away for a summer holiday in these times? Well, you need to start preparing your summer holidays in Covid-19 times. Part of it is to get ready for life in the outdoors.

This article may contain affiliate/compensated links. For full information, please see our disclaimer here.

Walking towards the base of the Dolonne lift in Courmayeur Mont Blanc. Photo: The-Ski-Guru. All the trouble to go on holidays is worth it if you have this at the end of the tunnel! Preparing your summer holidays in Covid-19 times.

I am looking forward to return to my home in the Italian Alps, near the Monte Bianco. Right now my home has guests until before we arrive. We have booked our crossing on the Eurotunnel, which is perfect as you don’t need to come out of the car for the crossing. I would try to go to the toilet before going on the train, as toilets there usually are horrible.

I heard on the radio a lady taxi driver saying that she got used to drive with a bucket now that toilets are closed. It is something I will have to consider for our trip. Toilets in open aires in France are not the nicest. Motorway stops have not opened yet its toilets. I guess this might change in July, but a good bucket and wipes can help! Plus bags to dispose any used wipes or any number twos… It is as if we are all dogs now. We always carry bags as we have a pooch travelling with us! We had one trip that we’ve forgot to bring bags. I only have a pair on the lead, but I was desperate going to shops for dogs poo bags…

Going in our ride from GVA to Courmayeur. Photo: The-Ski-Guru. Preparing your summer holidays in Covid-19 times.

We have to take advantage that we can still travel with our pooch without having to do lots of bureaucracy. After December 31st, coming Brexit a reality, all will be more complicated. That is something I will have to start getting worried in September. But who knows? We could be all back in lockdown, so no need to plan so much ahead…I hope this is not the case!

We always stop in our way in France (in our favourite Ibis Styles in Chaumont Centre Gare) to break the trip in two. We will have to see if quarantine is still imposed in France. I have read that if driving through France to go to Italy or Switzerland, then you don’t have to quarantine. I have also read that France will not impose the quarantine so much as Britain. But I don’t have clear if we drive through France and stay overnight, if that changes the equation. If not, we’ll have to turn off in Metz towards Karlsrühe in Germany and sleep there for the night… I will wait and see on that one!

Blossoms - next to the Sennhütte above St. Anton am Arlberg tourists in the summer months marvel at the largest edelweiss in the Alps Photo credit: TVB St. Anton am Arlberg Preparing your summer holidays in Covid-19 times. — Blossoms – next to the Sennhütte above St. Anton am Arlberg tourists in the summer months marvel at the largest edelweiss in the Alps Photo credit: TVB St. Anton am Arlberg Preparing your summer holidays in Covid-19 times.Photo credit: TVB St. Anton am Arlberg

If this is the case, then we would go through Switzerland. Remember that you need the vignette to drive through Switzerland motorways. If stopped without one police could fine you. You can buy it online before your trip here.

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May 9, 2020May 10, 2020

Comparing the Maps of the Alps.

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Now that the weather is nicer, maybe it is time to plan your next mountain adventure. You can sit in your garden, enjoying the sunny days we are having (at least in Britain) during this Covid19 epidemic and start taking your time, as a hobby, of thinking where your next road trip will be.

For me, it will always be to a mountain, and it will mostly be by car. Unless I travel to America (both North and South), I prefer, if possible, to take the car as driving to the mountains, is part of the trip.

Comparing the Maps of the Alps. Photo by Daniel Gonzalez. Unsplash.

So, I always like opening some maps and guides and see what I want to do. I just measure with my fingers the driving we’ll do as a family on one day- actually, the driving my husband will do, as for me it is too traumatising to change sides of the road again. I did it once from Argentina to the UK and I still have to think each time I drive, which side of the road I have to get in, and what side of the car I have to mount to! But I am a great co-pilot, and enjoy the planning of the trip, as much as the guiding.

Here is a selection of maps, many of which I have already bought- (you cannot ever have enough maps, right?) I might not spend too much in shoes, but I do like my maps, and some travel guides as well!

Continue reading “Comparing the Maps of the Alps.”

April 10, 2020

Our half term ski-safari holiday based in the Valdigne of Aosta Valley- Courmayeur, Pila and La Thuile.

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This past February, as it is usual now, for our eight year in the row, we left home very early, this time with our pooch, and drove to the Eurotunnel, one hour- and a bit now due to the diversion in the M2/M20, and us trying to find an open petrol station to fill up our car.

Driving off Calais to the mountains. Our half term ski-safari holiday based in the Valdigne of Aosta Valley- Courmayeur, Pila and La Thuile.

We arrived with time to only go to the toilet and we boarded on our way to France. Thirty-five minutes later, we were rolling down the A16 and then A 26, all the way to Reims, and then around Reims and down to Troyes, and changed to A5 towards Chaumont. Just on exit 24 you get off the motorway and, after paying the hefty toll fee, and get into the route nationale 10 to get through a lovely wooded and windy road to Chaumont.

Following our road in the map. Our half term ski-safari holiday based in the Valdigne of Aosta Valley- Courmayeur, Pila and La Thuile.

We made it in fantastic time to Chaumont, we got in our room at the Ibis Styles Chaumont Centre Gare and after trying to have a nap – an impossible task with the boys wired and running in the room, I went out with my eldest into town…

Arriving into Chaumont through the Route Nationale 10. Our half term ski-safari holiday based in the Valdigne of Aosta Valley- Courmayeur, Pila and La Thuile.

Just a nice walk around town, we’ve visited an old chocolate store with long showcase cabinets, which is a pleasure in itself. We got some chocolates, then we went to a fashion shop. My eldest is into fashion now…. getting to be a tweeny! He wanted a brand t-shirt. I don’t know why kids are so much into brands now. I negotiated with him that I was giving the money in exchange of one Amazon voucher he was given as a gift in Christmas and he could buy it.

Around Chaumont with my eldest and Ozzy. Our half term ski-safari holiday based in the Valdigne of Aosta Valley- Courmayeur, Pila and La Thuile.

After going to the local supermarket to have some little something in the room as it was still early, we came back to the hotel room.

At the chocolate shop in Chaumont. Our half term ski-safari holiday based in the Valdigne of Aosta Valley- Courmayeur, Pila and La Thuile.

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January 30, 2020

Brexit: UK travellers to EU face end of free roaming and pet travel from 2021

From the Independent. By Simon Calder

New government advice confirms extra red tape and expense for British travellers to Europe

One day before the UK leaves the European Union, the government has revealed that British holidaymakers and business travellers to the EU face onerous changes when the transition agreement expires on 31 December.

Many aspects of travel were previously uncertain, but it appears that the government has already made up its mind that, for visitors to the remaining 27 European Union countries, it will be a hard Brexit.

For the remainder of 2020, no rules on travel will change. But once the transition ends, visitors to Europe will face much more red tape and expense than the travel industry had previously hoped.

The new online advice says the guarantee of free mobile phone roaming throughout the EU will end.

Motorists will need a “green card” – a certificate extending their travel insurance to Europe.

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September 18, 2019October 8, 2022

So, you want to take your family skiing, but you do not know where to start?

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The summer holidays are finished, kids starting school again, and you got the holiday blues. The best thing to do to combat this feeling is getting ready for your next holiday.

I don’t know if you are like me, but I always need to have a holiday to look forward to. How about if you want to initiate your family into skiing but have never done so? And what happens if yourself are not that experienced at it? You might have gone when young with your school but did not think any more of it.

And maybe the mountains caught your attention, but you did not have the money when young and the world was a big place to discover and were not thinking in this kind of holiday.

The boys waiting for their ski race- Photo: Patrick Hinchy. So, you want to take your family skiing, but you do not know where to start?

Now you are tied down with kids, and holidays are completely different. But you’ve heard of friends going skiing already, and of how much fun they had, and how good it is for your kids to start the sport when they are young, as they are not afraid about falling.

You could maybe master a couple of blue or red slopes, but you are not an expert, or, you have never skied.

The problem with skiing, is that it seems daunting: with the travelling, lodging, transfers to the mountains if not lodged ski in – ski out; the equipment, the weight of it all, the clothing you need, the ski or snowboard school for getting all started….you are tired of it before you even begin organising yourself!

But do not despair – I know that all seems awful before starting, but if you like to master tasks and break them into little bits and bops to tackle one at a time, you can definitely be organising the first of an annual holiday that you’ll cherish for ever. Or, if you could not be bothered with the fuss, but still want to introduce your family to a holiday in the snow, then you can always contact a tour operator or travel concierge!

Kids Waiting for the Funicular in Courmayeur Mont Blanc- Soft Pastels by Martina Diez-Routh. In the shop for sale here.

The big picture

Just imagine the rewards, paradisaic landscapes in pristine snow and blue skies, or snow tip-tapping in your face, the silence you can feel when it is snowing, cuddling up under a fluffy blanket by the fire with a nice cup of hot chocolate or wine, the interminable strings of stories of hilarious things that happen to you when you are in the mountain which are great to share with friends. All these things make these kinds of holidays really worth it. For me, it is the holidays I like the best, I think all year of them, I crave my time in the mountains like crazy when I am in the lowlands.

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July 14, 2019July 14, 2019

Our summer in the mountains – one week in Courmayeur.

Since I first went to Courmayeur, having stopped there for breakfast, on our way home from our annual ski week in Pila, driving through the scenic SS26, I fall in love with the place. When we were coming up, just after coming out the Mont Blanc tunnel, you see the gondolas and the tram on top of the route, plus the town with all its buildings very prettily aligned around the route and I knew I wanted to check it out! Being working in the ski biz for almost all my life, before moving to the UK (in the US/Canada and Argentina/Chile), I knew about Courmayeur as a name, but I have not visited many ski areas outside America.

Of all places in our first family ski holiday in Europe, we’ve finished in Ollomont – a small ski ‘field’ – I would say, in the end of the road where mountaineers go to ice climb – but I will write more of this in another post.

But back now to Courmayeur. Since our first breakfast there, we had a second one on the following trip with my friend Claudine from the Tourist Office of Courmayeur and her baby – and then again we’ve been up the Skyway coming back from Lago di Como, and finally we’ve stayed for some nights in winter for two years now – and managed to ski the mountain! First time only one day and the last time, for two (even though my knee was not up for skiing!).

But last summer, I’ve convinced my husband to go at least one week during our summer holidays. I would love to uproot my family there, (to the answers of my husband of what will I do, I don’t speak the language – and me telling him to just learn it!) I wanted to stay in the summer, to see how it is life in Courma in the summer. I’ve been in the fall, seeing at all the hotels – for my Must-Read Guide to Courmayeur. Even many hotels were closed, they’ve opened them to me, and I could see them while many of the maintenance and upgrades were taking place.

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June 3, 2019

The Gran San Bernardo pass has reopened

From AostaSera

Today the Gran San Bernardo Pass has reopened to the public. The pass, at 2,450 meters links Valais in Switzerland to the Aosta Valley in Italy. Lots of people came to the open ceremony. The opening works started by Anas personnel in April. Snow has accumulated on the sides of State Road 27 up to 12 meters of height.

Anas personnel started opening a gap in the snow reaching a stretch about 4 km from the state border. As the road was cleaned, the side barriers and vertical signs were also restored, removed before closing and stored to avoid damage due to possible avalanches.

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May 17, 2019

A drive through the Nufenenpass (Passo della Novena) and Grimsel Pass in Switzerland

A drive through the Nufenenpass (Passo della Novena) and Grimsel Pass in Switzerland.

I like having our summer holidays, whenever possible, near the mountains. And each trip, we need to try a new mountain pass. That is part of the adventure!

A couple of years ago, the idea was to stop by at Interlaken, on our way back from Lago di Como. Looking online, the best way to go was via the Nufenenpass (Passo della Novena) and the Grimsel Pass. The Grimsel Pass is very well known by everyone I’ve asked about, but the Nufenenpass, not so much. Some friends of us that have a house in Moltrasio, and whom their father lives in Lago di Como and knows ‘all the mountain passes’, have not heard of the Nufenenpass, but we’ve checked it out online and he suggested me that it should be fine as it was paved.

The view towards Valais from the top rifugio of the Nufenenpass. Photo: The-Ski-Guru. A drive through the Nufenenpass (Passo della Novena) and Grimsel Pass in Switzerland.

Looking in Google Maps, the pass seemed pretty wide enough for two cars – which was what I wanted to see, but I did not see too much of a guardrail on the side. Another option was to go towards Airolo and then Andermatt and take either the St Gotthard Tunnel, or the St Gothard pass. The St Gothard Tunnel was not an option, as this was a Saturday, where you can be stuck for hours. On our way from Engelberg to Lago di Como, we did the St Gothard Pass, which was very nice. It is very busy too, but at least the traffic goes through.

Panorama of Nufenenpass on a nice day. Photo: Alexander Hoernigk. A drive through the Nufenenpass (Passo della Novena) and Grimsel Pass in Switzerland.

Going back this way, we should have taken afterwards the Furkapass, which is a very renown way to go – mostly for bikers and cyclists alike!

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May 12, 2019

Our Route des Grandes Alpes to cross from France into Italy

Our Route des Grandes Alpes to cross from France into Italy

This past summer we went to have a holiday in the mountains. From Chamonix we were off onto Courmayeur. But it was a Saturday – what is considered here in the mountains as a Samedi Noir or Sabato Nero, meaning very long queues to cross the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

This past summer was ridiculously hot – even in the mountains – with the temperature being 31 C in Chamonix in the morning – imagine staying a couple of hours in line to cross the Mont Blanc Tunnel did not seem too much fun at the time.

How adventures start - with a good map. The IGN Route des Grandes Alpes. Our Route des Grandes Alpes to cross from France into Italy. — How adventures start – with a good map. The IGN Route des Grandes Alpes. Our Route des Grandes Alpes to cross from France into Italy.

I’ve asked the evening before some friends I have in Chamonix on how other way we could go – and how about taking the Petit St Bernard Pass. Arnaud Jamson, the deputy director of the Chamonix Tourism Office suggested me to go all around and stop in Megève for lunch, then go to the Lac du Roselend and from there go up to La Rosière to cross into La Thuile through the Petit St Bernard. This is a typical road for motorcyclists and bikers alike – many of these roads have been used by the Tour de France!

As I have a memory of a mosquito, I’ve asked at the hotel’s reception where I could get a good map, and I was told to go into the main street in Chamonix. There is a wonderful books and magazine store – that I could stayed for hours just looking around, where I bought the IGN Map of Route des Grandes Alpes. I love maps and this one was a great addition to my collection.

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Category: Driving to the Mountains