Gap, France
 

My daughter and son-in-law are considering a summer trip to Gap, France to meet his cousins he has never met although his parents have. Any opinions, suggestions about this area? Also, best, cheapest way to arrive from Amsterdam...and leave to Marsilles or Nice.

holakjs, I don't know much about Gap but passed by it. It's a beautiful countryside. Gap is surrounded by mountains and we saw alot of sky divers.
There are beautiful lavender fields in the summer.

We spent the night several years ago in Gap...on the way driving from Geneva to Nice. It's a nice little interesting town, and will be great to visit relatives. We rented a car in Geneva, had a nice drive...stopping at a country Auberge in the Mts. for lunch and arrived in Gap mid afternoon.
Or I guess you could rent a car in Nice and go "up" to Gap...since you'd want to return the car in the same country. (cars are cheaper in Switz. however, and Geneva is right on the French border. If you don't want car, perhaps there is a train, or bus to Gap. Google "Gap" and see what is in the surrounding area of interest.

Gap is known for winter sports, it's up there, in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere. You can drive all the way, of course, but you may never get there because there are so many hundreds of tempting places to see on the way...

It will take you 12 hours from Amsterdam, not counting rest stops or any other stops or slowdowns.

Trains go via Paris to Oulx-Cesana-Claviere on the big Paris-Milan line, a couple of valleys east of Gap, over into Italy. They take you ten hours or more, much more in some instances. Then you have to have a way of getting to Gap.

The only two realistic day-trip train connections are these two:

1) Amsterdam Centraal dep. 08:56 (Thalys luxury train, supplement and reservations mandatory) arr. Paris-Gare du Nord 13:05, make you own way to Paris-Gare de Lyon, lvg. 14:24 (EuroCity train, reservations mandatory), arr. Oulx 18:55. Don’t know if one of the shuttles (“navettes”) will still run that late to get you into Gap that night (it’s at least a two-hour road trip, and not a freeway). I’m also not sure if these navettes run in summer.

2) Amsterdam Centraal dep Intercity train 09:23 arr. Brussels Midi 12:14, dep. Brussels-Midi 12:40 (Thalys luxury train, supplement and reservations mandatory) arr. Paris Nord 14:05, you make your own way to Paris-Gare de Lyon. dep. 15:50 (EuroCity, reservations mandatory) arr. Oulx 20:24.

There is no direct metro or RER line connecting the Paris stations Nord and Lyon, you’ll best take a taxi, it’s not that long a ride.

Nearest airports to Gap are Chambery (served only in winter from Amsterdam), Nice, Lyon, Geneva, or Marseille/Provence.

Flights from AMS to Lyon with KLM are exorbitantly expensive (USD600 or so, one way).

Transavia flies from Amsterdam to Nice fairly cheaply as long as you don’t mind getting up very early - I see flights in June leaving AMS at 06:50 for 70 Euros, getting into Nice at 08:45 with plenty of time to get to Gap, probably best with a rental car in about four hours.

You can fly cheaply from Amsterdam to Geneva, with easyJet (Euros 30-ish and up), and drive to Gap in under four hours.

About USD131 gets you from AMS to Marseille on a good day, with BA, but it’s via London Gatwick, leaving AMS at 10:10 and getting into Marseille at 14:15, still in plenty of time to rent a car and drive to Gap in a bit over two hours.

Hope this helps?

WK

Hi Wally,
What complete information. Thank you so much! That kind of focus and info really helps when it seems like such a big Europe out there. The train and airline suggestions are super.