Grenoble is the nearest airport to Alpe d'Huez. The resort is roughly 106 km away and the drive takes about an hour and forty minutes in good conditions, finishing on the 21 hairpins above Bourg-d'Oisans. Montivo drives it as a private, door-to-door transfer for your group alone, and the price is fixed per vehicle when you book, not per passenger.
Your driver at Grenoble arrivals
Grenoble Alpes Isere is a small airport at Saint-Etienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, about 40 km north-west of the city, and in winter most of its traffic is weekend flights, many of them from the UK. On a Saturday several can land within a short spell, and the arrivals hall fills up quickly. Your flight is monitored, the pick-up follows the time it actually lands, and the driver meets you inside the terminal and walks you out to the vehicle. All we need is the flight number at booking.
From the airport to Bourg-d'Oisans
After a few kilometres of country road from the airport, the first part is motorway: the A48 south-east to Grenoble, then round the city and out to Vizille. From Vizille the road follows the Romanche upstream through a narrow, steep-sided valley lined with hydroelectric plants, until it opens out onto the flat valley floor at Bourg-d'Oisans. Bourg-d'Oisans is the last town of any size on the way, and the place where the drive stops being a valley road.
Twenty-one hairpins
Just outside Bourg-d'Oisans the resort road starts to climb, and it keeps climbing: 21 numbered bends, counted down from 21 at the bottom to 1 near the top, each carrying the names of Tour de France stage winners. The road passes through the village of Huez on the way and gains more than a thousand metres before it reaches the resort at about 1,860 m.
In summer it is full of cyclists. In winter it is simply the way up, taken at whatever pace the snow allows, by drivers who know this road in winter.
Saturday in the Oisans
The Romanche valley road is the single way in for both Alpe d'Huez and Les Deux Alpes, so on changeover day it carries the arrivals and departures of two large resorts at once, with Grenoble airport having its own busiest day at the other end. Expect the journey to run over the good-conditions time. The Saturday rate is there because the vehicle and driver are committed for longer.
Transfer to Alpe d'Huezfrom €260 per vehicle, Saturday €350
Price for your dateChoosing the vehicle
Standard takes up to eight passengers and suits most families. VIP takes up to seven in a higher-specification vehicle, with more room for each person once the ski bags are loaded. A party too big for one vehicle is priced as the number of vehicles it needs.
Car seats and ski bags
Child seats cost nothing extra: ask for them at booking and give the children's ages. Declare skis, snowboards and oversized luggage at the same time, so that the vehicle sent has room for the equipment as well as everyone in the group.
Finding your door in Alpe d'Huez
At the top of the hairpins the resort spreads across a broad, south-facing shelf, with separate quarters such as the old village of Vieil Alpe, Eclose and Les Bergers, and plenty of chalets on the lanes between them. The full address saves a search in the dark. Vaujany and Oz-en-Oisans share the ski area but are separate villages, reached by roads that leave the valley before Bourg-d'Oisans; if that is where you are staying, book that address.
Heading home
For the return we take your flight time and work backwards: down the hairpins, back along the Romanche valley and through Grenoble, the motorway to the airport, and time to check in with ski bags. On a Saturday, with both Oisans resorts emptying onto the same road, the margin is larger. Book the return with the outbound and each leg is priced at the rate for the day it falls on.
