 Poster: A snowHead
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Blazing sunshine here so thoughts turn to dark evenings battling to far away airports after a day at work.
Any suggestions? Maximum slope time, minimum time off work for a wage slave working in central Leeds (so helicopter transfers are right out). Anybody remember the Doncaster to Geneva Thomas Cook flights to Geneva - out 6pm on a Thursday, back 9pm on a Monday? Perfect. Best compromise last year was Liverpool with Easyjet but far from ideal.
Don't find it easy to search on these criteria but wondered if anything different was out there.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@sergeantslow, EJ from Liverpool/ Manchester if you book early and not taking skis, Jet2 can be OK if not taking skis, Lufthansa or Swiss from Manchester (free ski carriage). Monarch used to do package flights from Leeds Bradford but not sure if they still do.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Don't know if the flights will still be the same this year, but we flew Ryanair from Manchester at about 8pm on a Friday night, out to Oslo, then fly back at 6pm on Sunday, in March this year.
There's a small ski resort in Oslo city itself, just at the end of the underground line, called Oslo Vinterpark.
It's by no means massive (about 10km of pistes) but is pretty much perfect for a weekend of messing about on the snow without having to take any time off work (or lose loads of time to travelling).
If you search for Vinterpark on snowheads, me and someone else have posted trip reports. We got a really nice AirBnB apartment near to an underground stop.
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Thanks for this - the Lufthansa ski carriage makes a big difference though I notice there cheapest advertised price is "lite" and includes no luggage. Still much better than the others I agree.
Vinterpark looks interesting!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We're doing Friday evening to gva. We're back on Wednesday but you could do early Monday morning And go straight to work. Could be fun rolling up in salopettes and ski boots😊
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@Kingofthec, that looks like its worth a shot one weekend. Just priced up a quick blast, flying Friday night, returning Sunday night. 2 days on the slopes.
Manchester (MAN) - Norway (RYG) £80
Ski Pass £80
Ski hire (skis only) £45
Accomodation 5 mins from Vinterpark (Air BnB) £103
Thats £308... call it £400 for the sake of eating enough to survive and you've knocked Oslo off your "must get around to visiting" list! 
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I'm sure you know this but easy jet and jet2 do flights from leeds bradford to geneva that work for weekends not necessarily the cheapest though
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And Flybe from Donny to Chambery - Sats only, but you can always mix and match.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks all - the EJ flights from LBA are rubbish times for a weekend trip (out Friday lunch, back Monday lunch = 1.5 days off work for 2 days skiing ) Jet2 look to be scheduled better this year with Thurs earlyish and back late Sunday = 2 days off work for nearly 3.5 days skiing  . But a bit pricey when ski carriage added. Probably favourite though as saves a winter crossing of the Pennines!
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| letsgetpiste wrote: |
@Kingofthec, that looks like its worth a shot one weekend. Just priced up a quick blast, flying Friday night, returning Sunday night. 2 days on the slopes.
Manchester (MAN) - Norway (RYG) £80
Ski Pass £80
Ski hire (skis only) £45
Accomodation 5 mins from Vinterpark (Air BnB) £103
Thats £308... call it £400 for the sake of eating enough to survive and you've knocked Oslo off your "must get around to visiting" list! |
Yeah that does sound expensive to be honest.
We did it all for £250 I think. Our main differences though, were:
Our flights were only £40 each, return
Accommodation, we didn't stay as close to the Vinterpark as you're saying (there was no real need, we just stayed near a metro station), which was just over £20 per night for 6 people (so £40 each for the weekend).
If you can find a cheaper flight and cheaper accom, it's worth doing, but as you say, £200 a day is a bit on the steep side!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Why not watch the weather forecasts, and pile up to Scotland when the conditions are favourable.
Relatively easy Friday night run means Aviemore around 7 hours, reliably. 2 whole days skiing, sprint for home at 4 on Sunday and snooze the day on Monday. Its not Alps style open piste, but it is definitely the worth the effort.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Strax, Taking a last minute trip up to Scotland when conditions are right would be a good bet midweek but maybe not for a weekend. When conditions are good, weekends are very busy; biggest lift queues I've ever encountered were in the Cairngorms on a bright, beautiful, Saturday with good snow. Flying to the Alps you have the advantage of the quiet Saturday changeover day.
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| Kingofthec wrote: |
| but as you say, £200 a day is a bit on the steep side! |
I was leaning towards it as a possibility!! 
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You know it makes sense.
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| letsgetpiste wrote: |
| Kingofthec wrote: |
| but as you say, £200 a day is a bit on the steep side! |
I was leaning towards it as a possibility!! |
Depending on your tastes, there's a relatively well-placed youth hostel (Oslo Haraldsheim) that I have stayed at in the past in Oslo (albeit, I stayed there for all of 6 hours because it was just an overnight stop on the way out to Hemsedal for the end-of-season party out there).
It's quite close to a metro stop, has a decent breakfast, and even has kitchen facilities so you could cook for yourself at night if you wanted.
Might help to cut the cost down
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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A weekend skiing trip is never going to be good value on a per-day basis, but am I alone in thinking that this is a lot of time, money and effort to ski in a pretty third-rate resort? 10km of pistes and 348m of vertical?Don't get me wrong, I love Oslo and have been there a few times, but surely one can do better than that? Is there no way to get to GVA and then transfer to Flaine or similar?
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Poster: A snowHead
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| foxtrotzulu wrote: |
| A weekend skiing trip is never going to be good value on a per-day basis, but am I alone in thinking that this is a lot of time, money and effort to ski in a pretty third-rate resort? 10km of pistes and 348m of vertical?Don't get me wrong, I love Oslo and have been there a few times, but surely one can do better than that? Is there no way to get to GVA and then transfer to Flaine or similar? |
Absolutely agreed, it's nowhere near as good as going to somewhere in the Alpes, and for quite a high price.
I think the appeal, certainly for me, is in the fact that the flights mean you don't need to take any time off work whatsoever. My wife is a teacher so a "weekend ski trip", outside the school holidays, can't be a matter of leaving at Friday lunchtime, coming back on Monday night, it has to be just a weekend ski trip, and this was the only place I could find last year that would meet those conditions.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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When planning a ski weekend, try and get out of the mind set of taking the Friday off work - aim to fly late on Friday after work or early doors on Saturday, then take as many or as few days off the following week as you can afford / would like. This works better for many reasons, not least the fact that most accommodation runs sat-sat so if you want to arrive on a Thurs or a Friday you're asking the owners to give up two weeks rental income for your weekend.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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EJ - MAN - GVA depart 18:10 Friday 27/1/16, Return GVA - MAN depart 16:45 £240. 2 people with no luggage.
EJ - LPL - GVA depart 17:25 Friday 27/1/16, Return GVA - LPL depart 21:25 £337.96 2 people with no luggage.
Other Northern airports (LEEDS/Bradford or Newcastle) can also be done but times are not so convenient. I think practically you need at least half - one day off work for MAN and LPL and 2 days for NCL and LBA
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| Quote: |
| Taking a last minute trip up to Scotland when conditions are right would be a good bet midweek but maybe not for a weekend. When conditions are good, weekends are very busy; biggest lift queues I've ever encountered were in the Cairngorms on a bright, beautiful, Saturday with good snow. Flying to the Alps you have the advantage of the quiet Saturday changeover day. |
That can still be the case for Cairngorm, and to a lesser degree, Glenshee. Irrespective of conditions in the mountains, it's particularly the case if they have snow at city level across the central (ie populated) belt of Scotland. That's why we tend to visit those areas at quieter times, or when all lifts are operating to spread the skiers out.
When all key lifts are running on the upper mountain, Glencoe can be busy but is usually perfectly manageable/bearable in terms of queues of only a few minutes at peak times. Regarding access to the upper hill, the position was also improved last year with the new drag lift that they installed on the Plateau. It will further improve in winter 2017/18 with the installation of a new Plateau chair to supplement the two existing drag lifts.
Nevis Range is best of all though - it just doesn't do bad (if any) lift queues and is, in my experience, never busy. It's a great area, with some challenging slopes (see the Back Corries in particular) - seriously under rated and under visited.
Due to full time working, 9% of our Scotland ski trips (10+ trips each winter) are over weekends. We certainly wouldn't be doing a return trip of up to 600 miles to have a miserable time standing in queues or skiing battlefield pistes. So I certainly wouldn't dismiss a Ski Scotland trip out of hand.
Kingofthec Having a former school teacher in our regular group of four, we became veterans of the 1 night/1.5 days on the slopes alpine dash. We must have done about ten one nighters over the years to/from loads of different airports and to assorted countries and resorts. Even Stansted is feasible (230 miles each way for us - a mere pop for those anywhere further sarf once you set your mind to the fact that it is perfectly feasible to drive to/from an airport that is more than 50 miles from your house. IMO, where circumstances dictate, the one nighter is so well worth it - it feels like a week off work  . And it's great telling your Ikea visiting and car washing workmates just what can really be achieved in a weekend.
(I think) a current good option for early out/late back flights is easyjet Manchester to Geneva - loads more if you do spread the net to Stansted or Luton.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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have you looked at options of flying into munich? much bigger airport, with potential for more flight options. you can get to the ski welt in Austria <2hrs by hire car or can get train + short taxi. although I think if theres 2 of you the hire car actually worked out cheaper than trains and taxi!
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The easyjet Liverpool to Geneva 7am flight comes in handy for me and is usually pretty decently priced too. Would usually mean the Friday off work though.
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I do Friday to Monday with two full days skiing in December... but have nobody to go with..
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@yorkshirelad, details of your trip? Add it to the solo section and you may get some interest
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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