Ski Holiday

Notlob

Hi,

The family have just got hooked on skiing and we are now researching costs, destinations which are beginner friendly and catering facilities for a holiday planned for this Christmas.

Not looking for cheapest holiday, just value for money. Also not sure if wise to go self catering or half board.

Your experienses welcomed.

Cheers

barginunter

We go every year for Christmas. Don't book more than 6 weeks before- check the snow conditions - Christmas is quite early snow-wise.Higher altitude resorts (1800m) will usually be a fair bet.
This year we paid £250 each for half-board in a hotel, flights, transfers etc.(First Choice) The prices always drop a lot a few weeks before Christmas.
A big expense is ski and boot hire. If you've got the bug and will be going skiing regularly, it's worth buying your own gear. The October ski shows (Manchester, NEC and Olympia) are a great source for bargain gear.
If you intend to hire stuff, do it online before you go - google will reveal lots of sites - there are big savings to be made compared to what your tour operator will charge you.
We used to go for Xmas and New Year - drove out and hired an apartment. French apartments are not generally huge so get one with plenty of space. We like Avoriaz (Portes du Soleil) and it's good for families with a great childrens ski village. I would think it's great for beginners too. Andorra is supposed to be good for beginners but snow conditions are not so reliable. My favourite ski holidays are in chalets - in fact anywhere where I don't have to cook! Despite that we have had great apartment holidays - not having to get up early for breakfast unless you want to, coming back at lunchtime if its cold for a bowl of soup and a little rest, crate of beer keeping cool on the balcony (next to the Mars bars).
Websites like www.igluski.com are good for deals. We like www.neilson.co.uk - my daughter likes the breakfasts on Thomas Cook flights!
Whatever you do have a great time.

Notlob

Barginunter, thanks for the info.

Where are you going this year?

It would appear from your post that it is for checking snow conditions that one should not book prior to 6 weeks before the holiday. From your experience, is there a risk that destination choice will be restricted? We are a family of 5, 4 over twelve years and 1 under.

Also, is it best to book a ski pass in advance or wait till arrival?

Cheers

poe.tuesday

I am hooked on finland for skking but it also has all the lapland stuff on offer too, check out crystalski and inghams for more details, it's great for beginners with learn to ski packages about £150 for adults which includes ski and boot hire, lift passes and 1.5 hours for 5 days, if you want to hire just the stuff it costs about 45 euros for 3 days boot and ski hire with lift passes being about 100 euros, it does work out cheaper to get the learn to ski packages even if you don't do any lessons you still have all the gear and the passes for 6 days

finland also gives you great self catering with lots of log cabins about most of the main resorts adn being so far north there is more chance of snow at that time of year. If you want to go christmas or new year week you will pay a premium and I would guess that for a family of 4 it would cost 2 grand, go a week later out of the christmas period and you will be able to get last min cheapies for half that, one thing you have to remember about finland is that there is no sun during that time of year adn that the temps can be very cold. we were there are christmas and the coldest it got was -15 but when we were there 2 weeks ago it was -21 on some days, there was tumps of snow on both visits

it may not be what you have thought of as a ski resort but it certainly is great for beginners and it also has all the optional extras such as snowmobiling, husky and reindeer safaris etc

if you need any more info about lapland/finland check out www.laplandforum.com

barginunter

Notlob wrote: »

It would appear from your post that it is for checking snow conditions that one should not book prior to 6 weeks before the holiday. From your experience, is there a risk that destination choice will be restricted? We are a family of 5, 4 over twelve years and 1 under.

Also, is it best to book a ski pass in advance or wait till arrival?

Cheers

If you're flying from anywhere but London, the risk is shortage of flights. We are in the North-West so Manchester is our usual outbound airport. We are a family of 3 (DD of 14) so we sometimes pay a supplement for under occupancy. There is always tons of accomodation - particularly self catering - so if you're driving out there (v. easy by the way), you'll always find accomodation and it's sooo much cheaper. Whilst you say you don't need to save money, unfortunately we do and I'm a canny Yorkshire lass too!
We often book our ski passes online https://www.skiholidayextras.com or similar - the savings are only ever 3 to 6 euros but x 5 that's quite a few beers. Generally speaking the holiday reps make a lot of commission from ski hire and lift passes.The advantage of waiting till you get there is you can decide based on conditions if it's worth getting a full area pass or a local one.
The other main reason for us waiting nearer the time before booking is that the prices are reduced considerably. 3 years ago we paid £600 for the 3 of us (Xmas) for flights,transfers and full board in a club hotel in Alpes D'Huez (another great place to go) - the brochure price was £750 per person!

We are umming and arring about skiing at Easter cos it's so early but haven't booked anything yet - we'll be driving (300 miles to Eurotunnel for us).

cosyc

We also did xmas two years ago, booked on Wednesday left same week on Saturday with Thompsons in full catered Chalet for £250 each at Val Thorens. It was great sat in the sun Xmas day with a pannini and glass of vin chaud. I had all the ski stuff down from the loft but didn't tell the kids just in case we didn't go.

If you are prepared to travel a bit to in England there are always deals to be had. We had to go to Newcastle a good 2 1/2 hour drive but worth it. As the others I would book passes and gear online, many resorts seem to have a few outlets in same resort.

This year we went half term to austria and booked own hotel and went via North sea ferries but only as all flights were way over the top.