Travel to Serre Chevalier - planes, trains and automobiles

The Serre Chevalier Valley is in the Hautes Alpes region in the southern French Alps not far from the France/Italy border. The valley is extremely well located with 4 main international airports (Grenoble, Turin, Lyon and Chambery) less than 2.5 hours away, and also accessible by train with 3 international stations nearby (Briançon, Oulx and Grenoble), view location map.

With so many low cost airlines and regional options available most people prefer to organise their own international travel. We can offer you travel advice on arrival airports and rail stations, driving times, etc, should you need it. Please contact us if you have any questions.

As part of your holiday package, we can organise transfers to Serre Chevalier from any of the airports and train stations serving the valley.


By air


The nearest airports to Serre Chevalier are Grenoble (France) and Turin (Italy). It takes 2 hours to travel to Serre Chevalier from these airports.  Chambery and Lyon airports are good alternatives as it only takes around 2.5 hours to travel to Serre Chevalier from them (see our resort transfers page for further details).

Various airlines fly from different parts of the UK to these airports, so you should be able to find flights to suit your particular group and budget. Use the airline finder tool on the right to find out which airlines fly the routes you are looking for.


By train

Serre Chevalier is located close to 3 international rail stations and, in fact, Briançon rail station is in Serre Chevalier Valley so you can’t get much closer to resort! Oulx train station is just over the border in Italy and is about 45 mins drive to resort.  Finally, Grenoble station is in central Grenoble and it takes approximately 2 hours to travel to Serre Chevalier.

To travel by train from the UK, you would generally need to take the Eurostar from St Pancras station in London to Paris, Gare du Nord. You would then usually need to change to either Gare d’Austerlitz or Gare de Lyon for your onward connection.  You can find out details of the train timetables and book tickets at Rail Europe.

You can also find details of European train travel at The Man in Seat Sixty-One.


By car

An alternative to planes and trains is to drive to resort. This can be a good option so you don’t need to worry about luggage allowances etc and allows you to explore the area surrounding the valley more easily. Many people don't realise that it takes no longer to drive to Serre Chevalier than to the Three Valleys or the Tarentaise Resorts (about 10 hours from Calais). The journey is largely on very good autoroutes (motorways). We have done the trip many times ourselves so we can offer advice on the best routes to take.

See our Serre Chevalier location map to assist in planning your car journey to resort. See also Via Michelin which will help with planning your route. Don’t forget that a number of autoroutes in France are subject to tolls.

Winter driving conditions
A couple of points to note if you are planning on driving to resort in the winter season:

  • in winter you will need to have snow chains and/or snow tyres for your vehicle, these are often obligatory when driving over the Col du Lautaret which is the main route into the resort
  • the Col du Lautaret can be closed due to adverse weather conditions with may affect your journey time, however when this is the case it is normally possible to travel via the Frejus tunnel and the col du Montgenevre. In the rare event that both cols are closed, access to the valley is via Gap.