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How to reach the event


When planning your trip, please consider the carbon footprint of the different options.
Researchers often have a very severe carbon footprint related to their travel. For many research institutes, the emissions related to travel make one fourth to one third of the overall carbon footprint of the institute. Even when taking into account the emissions related to construction and maintainance of the infrastructure, train travel generally produces 5-10 times less CO2eq emissions than travelling by plane or single-person car drive (depending on the details of the trip; on some trips trains save even more). Changing your travel behavior may well be where you can make the biggest positive change.

By train:

Travel to Les Houches by train usually goes via Geneva, which can be conveniently reached from e.g. Paris, Germany, Austria,... You may also consider night trains (e.g. from Northern Germany or Budapest, Prague, Vienna,... there are night trains to Zurich/Basel, and then go through Geneva. 

One can travel from Geneva to Les Houches by train (+ taxi from the train station to the School). Note that there are 3 connections (go through Annemasse on the French side or through Martigny on the Swiss side).

Arrival at the Les Houches station, with one change at Saint-Gervais (from France), or at Martigny (from Switzerland).
There are about 10 trains per day between St Gervais and Les Houches (schedules, 20mn trip).
Then we advise you to take a taxi to go up to the school (5km).

Taxi phone numbers :
 * Cham Taxi: +33/0 6.07.26.36.62
 * Taxi Plus: +33/0 6.12.35.30.72

You may also go to Geneva airport (train station) and take a shuttle from there (see below).

We recommend https://www.oebb.at/en/ to plan your trip.

By plane:

At Geneva Airport:

https://www.gva.ch/en/Site/Passagers/Preparation-voyage

Information on transit through Switzerland with Travel Check.
And Entering Switzerland
 

Geneva Airport is 1 hour drive from les Houches.
Once you have landed, you can reach the school using a shuttle service, the regular bus service or by train.

Shuttle service

The simplest way is to use a shuttle service (approximately 40 euros up to the school, book at least three days in advance). If you already have your return date, we would recommend to book a return trip.

We recommend travel with Mountain Drop-Offs. Use promo code EDP2014 for Price discounts .
To find Mountain Drop-Offs' meeting point easily in the Geneva Airport please consult the video How to find Mountain Drop-Offs at Geneva Airport.

Other shuttle companies are also available.
> Consult the list of companies

Beware: we do not recommend the Alpybus company (they do not reach the school).

Regular bus service

There is also a regular bus service between Geneva and Les Houches (only once or twice a day). One should then take a taxi for the last 5 kms from the Les Houches village to the school (the total cost is similar to that of the limousine).

By car

Les Houches are easily accessible from France (A41 highway), from Switzerland (Martigny and Col des Montets) and from Italy through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. From Geneva and Le Fayet 8km before Chamonix, 300 m after passing under the tunnel, bear right by the first road out for "Les Houches Bellevue". When arriving at the cable car station "Bellevue", turn right and continue upwards (roughly 2 km starting from the teleferic). 500m after the cable car station "Prarion", turn left and follow small arrows at crossroads. Continue up to the end of Route de la Côte des Chavants. Here you are! From Chamonix Bear right for "Les Houches-Chef-Lieu", turn right in Les Houches, go ahead at the cable car station "Bellevue". Then proceed as above.
Cars may be rented from Geneva and from Chamonix, it is useful to make a reservation.


You may find additional information about reaching the Les Houches Physics School can be found here.

Visa information

If you need an invitation letter to attend the event, you will be able to download an automatically generated letter in pdf during your registration.

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