Tour group arrived at La Plagne nearly 24 hours behind schedule

The driver turned around in Toulouse after realising his error

Their coach driver selected Plagne, in the French Pyrenees, as destination

Group of 50 holidaymakers were travelling to La Plagne in the French Alps

A group of Belgian holidaymakers who were heading to the French Alps for a few days of skiing wound up being taken on a major detour thanks to their coach driver’s sat-nav mistake.

The driver wasn’t familiar with the route to La Plagne, a popular destination for ski tourists, and mistakenly drove the tour group to the South of France after selecting the wrong destination on his GPS.

Instead of entering La Plagne into his sat-nav, the driver entered Plagne, located in the French Pyrenees, putting the group of 50 holidaymakers on a nearly 800-mile detour, Belgian media reported.

The tourists were travelling to La Plagne in the French Alps, but were driven towards the South of France

The bus driver said there were three entries for Plagne on his sat-nav and he chose the wrong one

The driver told Dutch-speaking radio station StudioBrussel: ‘There are three entries for Plagne in France and we were wrong.’

StudioBrussel is owned by public broadcaster VRT, which organised the ski holiday for its listeners.

By the time the driver realised his mistake the group was already in Toulouse, nearly 425 miles south-west of La Plagne.

He turned around and drove to the correct destination, and the holidaymakers arrived 24 hours behind schedule.

When they arrived they were greeted by a StudioBrussel journalist, who treated them to tapas.

The coach driver realised his mistake and turned around in Toulouse, nearly 425 miles from La Plagne

The ski tourists were driven towards the French Pyrenees after their driver picked the wrong destination

Despite the disruption – and lost time on the slopes – some of the tourists took it all in stride and were happy they were taken on a detour.

One of the passengers, a Twitter user named Sven, tweeted that the group had ‘just seen the Mediterranean and Carcassonne’, referring to a fortified French town located between Toulouse and the Mediterranean coast.