Advice on organising ski/snowboarding holiday for group of friends

gillbee

A few years ago we did a DIY trip to Soldeu. We flew to Barcelona with Easy Jet and got a bus from Barcelona to Andorra de Ville. I think the bus transfer was 3 hours ish and no more than £30 return. There were a few buses heading up each day. We'd booked a hotel in advance and taxi'd there once we'd made it to Andorra de Ville.

I think Soldeu was about 30 mins from the centre. I'd recommend getting directions to your chalet / hotel in Spanish or French if you're planning on taking a taxi.

Probably did the hotel, flights (from Glasgow - probably cheaper from a London airport), and transfers for £250. The only downside was carting gear around between airports and bus terminals. Car hire would be a good option if you have wiling drivers. If you’re heading back down from any of the resorts on a weekend – the traffic is heavy with all the locals heading home. Give yourself plenty of time if you have a connection – we missed our bus and had to stay another night!

Soldeu is a great resort. It's cheap for food, drink, lift pass, equipment and the snowboard school has the best (and cheapest) instruction I've experienced. The ski school has a great reputation as well. The resort isn't as big as Pas De La Casa but I have to say I preferred it. If pub crawls and nightlife are high on your agenda then Pas is gonna be your place. It also has a greater variety of equipment shops if you're although I stocked up in Soldeu no problem!

The ski areas of Soldeu/El Tarter, Pas de la Casa, Encamp and Canillo are now linked up so for more experienced members of the group, it will probably be worth buying an area pass for the extra euros. You can find details here : http://www.grandvalira.com

Awrabest.

mrvolleyball

It looks like the lack of snow in Andorra could mean we have to (quickly) look else where for snow. Think we're going to have to lose our deposit and probably flights (Ryanair charge £17 per person to change flights + the difference in cost of new flight and original flight).

Any one have any advice on where is good (and cheap) to go that is relatively close to Salzburg, Austia since we can get reasonably priced flights to there.

Thanks

whitelabel

have you thought about slovakia ?

cheap flights (from £1 if your lucky with https://www.skyeurope.com !) good accomodation and good powder

ryanair fly to bratislava which is 3 1/2 hour transfer but an option if you wanted to transfer flights
my friends have jsut moved out to Jasna there to start a chalet and ill be paying a trip in jan

have a look - could be up your alley !
http://www.skiandsnowboardslovakia.com/

ajtrader100

Mr volleyball, I am so sorry my recommendation has caused more spend rather than some money saving - I hope it all works out! Keep us posted

mrvolleyball

ajtrader100 wrote:

Mr volleyball, I am so sorry my recommendation has caused more spend rather than some money saving - I hope it all works out! Keep us posted

It was the mild weather this year that caused the problems not your recommendation. I appreciated all your advice/ recommendations.

Ended up going to Austria for a weeks excellent snowboarding. Had a brillant time and now some of us are looking to book another week somewhere in Feb/March this year. (Think I've got the snowboarding bug). Any recommendations are welcome.

The cancellation of the Andorra trip cost us about £75 each, so it wasn't too bad, but rather that than save the £75, go to Andorra and have no snow!!
For anyone interested we went to Solden in Austria, (which is about a 3 hour drive from Salzburg airport), and would definitely recommend the place, although I'm speaking from the view point of 2 beginner snowboards, 1 intermediate boarder, 1 intermediate skier and 1 begineer skier.

ajtrader100

:T Hurrah

Sounds like you had a great time there..........

depending on how much of a budget you are on, France would be the next step up to test you with more pistes..........

I dont know what Bulgaria snow would be like, pretty good if you skied Austria (I would expect)

Glad you enjoyed yourself mate! You have been bitten by the sound of it! Austrian Wine any good?:beer:

interactiveresorts

Check out https://www.last-minute-ski-deals.co.uk - great last minute offers - easy to search!