Satnav sends Alps tourists to Spain

A GROUP of Belgian tourists who won an Alpine skiing holiday in a radio competition made a 1,200km detour via the Pyrenees when their coach driver wrongly programmed the sat-nav.

The 50 lucky winners left Brussels bound for La Plagne in Savoie, but ended up in the Ariège, not far from the Spanish border.

There are three communes in France called La Plagne and the driver had chosen the wrong one.

One passenger said on Twitter that the error became clear when the group saw the Mediterrannean and the town of Carcassonne - instead of the Alps.

The tourists eventually reached the correct destination a day late.

Radio station Studio Brussel, which organised the competition, greeted the winners with a Spanish tapas reception, in a nod to the detour they had made.