My Lake Annecy

Let me tell you about my drive from London to lake Annecy yesterday. It might help you planning your own journey should you want to drive to lake Annecy from the UK sometimes soon.

The distance from my house in North London to my house in Doussard, the south side of lake Annecy is roughly 620miles (1000km). The total journey time, including ferry crossing and two fuel stops was 11.5 hours. If you are heading to Annecy itself, the journey time will be 30 min less as you save the drive along the lake to Doussard (although very picturesque). You can also reduce the total journey time by one hour if you use the Eurotunnel to cross the channel, more if you break speed limits (not advisable).

I started from my London home at 10.15am. It took me just over 1.30hours to get to Dover. Not bad, considering I have to cross from North to East London, navigate Blackwall tunnel and cross M25. I always plan for a minimum of 3 hours for journey time from London to Dover ferry departure as I have been caught out in traffic before and missed a few ferries before. I also use any spare time I have before ferry departure to refuel the car, check tyre pressures, lights etc. Refuelling in Dover gets me further into France without stopping and currently fuel is cheaper in the UK too.

Ferry left on time (they normally do) and with a crossing time of 1.5 hours I reach Calais at 4pm local time (don’t clocks go one hour forward when travelling to the continent). Also make sure you travel to Calais, not Dunkerque or any other port, otherwise your crossing will be longer and your drive to Lake Annecy will be longer too. The route goes broadly Calais – Reims – Troyes – Dijon – than direction Geneva – Annecy – Doussard. It is all motorway until 40miles from Geneva, where you come off the motorway and drive across the countryside to get to lake Annecy. There is not much you can do wrong to get there.

Calais to Reims is just under 200 miles and you are in the centre of the Champagne region. The Champagne is a fairly flat but obviously many wineries vineyards. If you are driving from the Midlands, this is probably half way point and not a bad stopover. I always do the journey in one day, but I do stop to buy Champagne. My tip here, don’t buy near Reims where all the big Champagne makers are based, drive on another 100miles and stop near Troyes, which is still the Champagnes. For me this makes a perfect first fuel stop (300miles into the journey) and gives me an excuse to pass by my favourite Champagne makers.

After Dijon, you pass the Burgundy region, another possible stopover and opportunity to buy wine, this time Burgundy!!
The total drive time from Calais to Lake Annecy will be 7.5 hours if you keep your stops to a minimum and short (6.5 hours if you are super fast and have a big petrol tank). It took me 7 hours but I had to stop 2 times for petrol. If you drive first time or if you travel with a young family you should plan for 8 – 10 hours from Calais. If you try to avoid motorway charges altogether, drive route national, you save 65Euro (£50) but your journey time will increase to 10 – 12 hours.

Cost to drive to Lake Annecy, ferry £80 return, motorway charges £50 one way, petrol £100 one way, which makes return trip cost by care about £380 – £420 depending on ferry cost and fuel consumption of your car. I always leave London late morning 10am ish to beat the traffic. That normally gets me to Lake Annecy around 11pm. I have lunch on the ferry and only stop for fuel. Alternatively leave your UK home before 6am, which can get you to lake Annecy for 7pm in time for dinner in one of the many restaurants along the lake.