Skiing Holday Dec 2006 Help

chopperwelsh

Hello people,

Im just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction as to the best (and Cheapest) place to book a skiing holday is. Ive booked and searched for other types of holidays before with ease but for some reason skiing holidays scare me, i think its cause of the many differnet thigs there is to remember to book/buy and hire. and it all seems VERY expensive.

If anyone could help i will love them forever :happyhear :kisses2:

Backbiter

Skiing is expensive. Through my job I've been offered 'Free' ski holidays, with flights, transfers and apartment, that would still cost several hundred when you add on:
1. Lift pass (£120+ for the week)
2. Ski/ Boot Hire (£70+)
3. Insurance
4. Meals
5. Sky high drinks prices
6. Apres-ski entertainment
7. Ski school
8. Ski clothing
Your best bet is to look for something low season i.e. pre-Christmas, Jan or pre Easter. And to look for a half-board deal with lift pass thrown in, as some hotels offer, and possibly a 'learn-to-ski' package with ski hire and tuition at a special rate. It's possible to save a lot with a DIY holiday, but you might not benefit from some of the special offers.
The most famous resorts are a lot pricier than the countless others you may never have heard of, where the skiing will be limited but you can still have a fantastic time. Bulgaria is the cheapest place, but I've heard very mixed reports on it. Austria and Andorra can be good value - France is excellent but expensive.

Ems!

Backbiter wrote:

Bulgaria is the cheapest place, but I've heard very mixed reports on it.

I really enjoyed Bulgaria when I went as a beginner - we went to Borovets 2 years on the run, but now i am more experienced, I probably wouldn't go back cos you could do all the runs in a couple of days, and its not that much of a challenge. But, if you are beginners i would say it is a good bet because the ski schools are v good value for money.
However, i'm not sure if you might be pushing your luck for decent snow in Bulgaria in december, though I'm not an expert so u may want to get some advice from a ski specialist. I got told we would be lucky to get good snow in Bulgaria when we first went mid march, but we had fantastic snow fall.


Also, i would try to get a travel agent who knows their stuff on skiing, i think most specialist ski agents will be internet based but you can call them up for advice. You tend to find that high street travel agents might have only 1 person who knows about skiing and if you don't get them then they just don't have a clue.I've been in and asked for advice on where would best suit my requirements, given them a few ideas of where i was thinking etc, and she just sat their reading the brochure out to me - she didn't even know what country the resorts I mentioned were in!

Debt_Free_Chick

You are going to be restricted in December, as the snow can be very unreliable. By restricted, I mean you will need to look at very high resorts (more than 2,000m e.g. Tignes, Les Deux Alpes, Val Thorens .... all in France) to be confident of enough snow. Even then, it's not guaranteed although I have skied on the glacier in Tignes in mid-November.

Christmas/New Year is a little more reliable, but horrendously expensive - especially in France, where they are "treasured" holidays.

First two weeks in January are generally the cheapest, but can be stormy meaning that high winds can close some lifts.

You don't need to book everything when you book the holiday and some things work out to be a "false economy" as they can be no more expensive when you get to the resort. Whatever you "forget" can simply be bought/booked when you get to the resort. Things like ski-passes are never difficult to buy - you just go to the lift station! Ski lessons - go to the ski school. Ski hire - go to the hire shop.....

You can check out the prices of just about everything on liine, so you can compare them with any offers made by the tour operator.

It all sounds very daunting, until you actually try it. I've not booked any of the last dozen or so holidays via tour operator - just organised travel, transfer & hotel then bought/hired in the resort.

Do you have somewhere in mind?
Do you have a budget?
What level of skier are you?

If you give us some more information, we may have a few pointers for you.

Regards

DFC
(only back from skiing - again - a week ago!)

jasper12

I would be tempted to leave until a couple of weeks before, mainly so you know who has got decent snow! Availability in dec will be fine (so long as not xmas/new year & even that, this year any way, was fine) and you can normally get some really really good deal.

I would go onto sites of main operators, crystal, inghams, thomsons etc and subscribe to their e mail alert services so they send you last minute deals, offers etc. Also see link below to Ski club of gb. They have a very good section with links to many providers. I personally have found igluski.com to be good and their advisers seem to be skiers. Also have used Ski independence. A bit more expensive but absolutely fab service and really know their stuff. If they haven't skied the resort they will speak to someone who has.

http://www.skiclub.co.uk/skiclub/skicompanysearch/default.asp

Last year there were some really good deals out of London to the Colorado resorts as there is a new LGW charter service. You were getting a week in US for same price as Europe. With this however you have to weigh up a few pro's and cons. 1 - lift tickets are more expensive, 2 - tend to be room only and 3 - jet lag However, I find the service to be fab, very polite & friendly, short lift q's. Prices for meals, shopping etc are low and they speak english - v imp if you have kids or, like me, have awful french! Personally, I always head to North America.

Whether in Europe or North America, a chalet can often work out cheapest. You get a big breakfast, dinner, tends to be friendly and you can usually drink your duty free in the lounges. Again, you tend to get some fab late deals.


Anyway, I'll stop rambling on. Hope you enjoy.

ejmna1

I've just come back from New Hampshire which was great, Booked with White Mountains (http://www.white-mountains.co.uk/#) who had a great selection of hotels and great deals on ski gear/ lessons etc (£180 for a weeks hire,lift pass and 6 lessons).
We stayed at Loon Mountain they make snow to suppliment the annual snow fall starting from thanksgiving so you are guarenteed snow for xmas.
The ski instruction was just great and the actual resort has over 40 runs with something for everyone.
n

n_earnshaw

We've been to Banff a couple of times in Canada in January. We found it very reasonably priced. December/January are classed as low season as the tourists tend to go in the summer when it's warmer. The result is that you can get 4 star hotels relatively cheap and everyone else amends their prices because of this (Restaurants, bars etc)

there always seems to be good snow coverage aswell, but it can be very cold.

The town is away from the slopes, however they put on Free buses and the furthest resort for skiing (Lake louise) is only about 35mins away. You don't notice the bus ride.

We booked through Inghams who were the cheapest at the time.

Food is relatively cheap aswell (even at the ski slopes) Burger,Fries and a drink came in at about £3.50 - 4.00

chopperwelsh

Cheers guys.

We where looking to go on Dec 16th for at most 7 days but would like to be less. We cant go any earlier or later because we a students and in our final year then so dont have much spair time.

I dont have an exact figure on the budget but the cheaper the better really. Also we have never been skiing before and so will need and want to have lessons, My plan is to make this a regular yearly thing so would like to learn how to ski propperly because i dont want to break my neck.

I prefer adventure type holidays, i dont like to pay hundreds of pounds to just sit around on the beach and bake for a week. I could do that at my parents in Newquay during august if i wanted a tan.

CHeers again for your help. This seems to be a very helpful forum.