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Easter 2020 flights/ budget holiday.

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Right guys, I know it's a long way away, but I'm trying to put together (or at least get some ideas together) for a budget DIY trip for Easter 2020. Appreciate that none of it will be booked for months yet.

There are some questions that would I definitely appreciate answers on (flights), but also happy to hear suggestions for anything else.

3 adults, 1 child (13) with abilities ranging from 1 week experience to about 12 weeks. I have the most experience but am happy to cruise around on blues and reds. The other 2 adults (partner and mother in law) haven't been for years, so would need to start off on easy slopes although look to progress fairly quickly.

I've eliminated Christmas/New Year/Feb half term on the grounds that it's either too early in the season/too expensive or too crowded. So Easter it is.

I'm really trying to keep costs down to a minimum, so looking to cut corners wherever possible. I've been looking at Sunweb/Snowtrex in France as they seem to offer very good value for accommodation and lift pass, but ultimately it's the overall cost that matters most. Their deals for France seem to bit cheaper than for Italy or Austria, although I'm more than happy to go to either of those 2 countries if other good deals are available. Probably Andorra too.

How much can I expect to pay for flights if I book them as soon as they go on sale? Typical route would be London (preferably Gatwick) to either Geneva/Grenoble/Lyon/Turin, although as mentioned above happy to try other parts of Italy or Austria if good deals on accommodation and lift passes can be found.

More than happy to avoid the usual big name resorts to keep the costs down. In fact I prefer the idea of going somewhere less well known. We have no need for 600km worth of piste.

I've also completely eliminated driving from the UK, as i drive for a living so would like a break from it if I'm on holiday. That said, I would be willing to hire a car to get from the airport to the resort and back, although shared transfers would be preferable. Happy to use train too.

And lastly, the accommodation (self catering) needs to have 2 bedrooms PLUS a living area. None of this 'cabin' nonsense, and no sofa bed in the living room Very Happy

Any suggestions about flight prices and accommodation/lift pass deals would be most welcome.

Oh yea, and it needs to be reasonably snowsure for the 2nd week of April Very Happy
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
How long is a piece of string? But I'll have a go at guessing some prices. If you are all renting skis and boots you can easily fly with just cabin baggage, which will keep flight costs down. If you can book as soon as flights opened I would think you could reasonably hope to fly to Turin for £70 - 80 return. Maybe more for Geneva. Easter is low season in FRance. You should be able to rent a two bed apartment for £700. Lunches and drinks on the slopes can be a major cost - look for an apartment to which you can return for lunch, and stock with beers, wine, soft drinks at supermarket prices.

Be aware that school holidays may not coincide with Easter.

Good luck - it's a nice idea. snowHead
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@pam w, only 1 of us owns a pair of skis/boots, although I'm working on the assumption that everyone will have 1 checked in item of luggage each. Appreciate that it's possible to fly hand luggage only - well for me anyway, partner and mother in law not so much.... Very Happy

Not going to get bogged down in food costs, as it will mainly be supermarket shopping anyway which isn't really an additional cost compared to spending money on food at home.

By 2nd week of April (7th) - I actually mean 1st week of school Easter holiday. I have no idea of when Easter weekend actually falls, but that's irrelevant.

£700 + 4 sets of full price lift passes is more than I'd like to spend, although if flights can be had for as little as £100pp there will be more leeway on other things.

Anyone know much about Valmeinier/Valloire?
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Valloire is a very pleasant resort (less so Valmeinier, really dead!) with prices on the low side, a faithful French clientele, well suited to intermediates...BUT most of the pistes get the afternoon sun so second week of April *might* make things slushy.
In the same area and probably the same price range I would consider Val Cenis instead.
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@balso, cheers, yea I feared they'd be south facing slopes Sad

Heard good things about Val Cenis. Not the closest resort to an airport (plus 60 euros for the Frejus tunnel from Turin). Train from Lyon to Modane could be an option though.
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Easter is 12th April.

I echo above & if you look on Valloire tourism website, they do a lot of addon deals with accommodation leading to cheaper lift pass, lessons, hire, etc.
you can look now for an idea of prices. They also do 'family' weeks for cheaper prices.

https://en.valloire.com/
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@Mr.Egg, thanks

That's a good website by French standards. Very easy to find exactly what I need. Nice apartment and 4 lift passes coming in at £290pp - I put in this easter as a tester for price. Actually the apartment I'm looking at is half price. No wonder it's so cheap.

Ski/boot hire around £80 for intermediate skis. Could probably find it a few quid cheaper elsewhere.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@mikeycharlton, regarding trains from Lyon, if the 2019 schedule can serve as a guide, there are 2 daily direct trains a day from Lyon Airport to Modane for Val Cenis. Sadly they don't stop at St Michel for Valloire (connection required). The train tickets can be less than €20 if you are in front of your computer / phone at 6AM when sales open (usually 90 days before departure).
In short, it should work but it's a bit of a hassle.
Paris will be on school holidays that week in 2020 but this shouldn't have any impact on accommodation prices in France outside of a few premium resorts.

If Turin works better and you wish to avoid tunnel tolls, then Montgenevre is another good option - drive from Turin is fine, resort is also quite cruisey, can't comment on resort life itself and unsure about prices though.
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@balso, 20 euros return?

Yeah, quite a bit of faffing if they don't stop at St Michel, although stopping at Modane gets you quite close to Val Cenis.

It gets you very close to Valfrejus and La Norma. I've looked at these resorts before. Anyone been or know what they'd be like around the 7th April? Montgenevre reliable for snow that time of year?
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I meant one way, and it's a minimum price... Car from Lyon could be cheaper as I see that there are four of you. Regarding La Norma, I remember reading a spring trip report from a snowhead - worth a quick search. Can't comment on Valfrejus, ski area could be a bit small for a week?

As for Montgenevre, never been that late but the main slopes face north, they are all above 1,800m, and snowfall is usually higher than in surrounding areas because it benefits both from storms coming from the east and from the west. So I'd rate it as a good bet too.
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@balso, thanks. I'll have to do some research on Montgenevre.

La Norma and Valfrejus are on the same lift pass, so that's 150km combined which is plenty for our needs.

Can anyone shed some light on flight costs at Easter of booked early?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@mikeycharlton, here is my TR for La Norma March 31st to April 7th 2012 which is perhaps the report balso mentions.

On that occasion and no doubt on several others going any later would have been really pushing it and conditions poor. We were OK our week and perhaps they have more snow cannons now. You could check the webcams this season to see how it fairs.

Actually on dates I note that April 7th 2020 is a Tuesday Puzzled

Would you be going 4th April or 11th April?
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mikeycharlton wrote:
Can anyone shed some light on flight costs at Easter of booked early?

I drive rather than fly but there are threads on here on the day flights are released where people say what prices they paid at certain times. Definitely worth searching for and reading the ones from the last couple of years and will give you real life data of what is acheivable.


Last edited by So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much on Tue 15-01-19 11:02; edited 1 time in total
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You know it makes sense.
mikeycharlton wrote:
I've eliminated Christmas/New Year/Feb half term on the grounds that it's either too early in the season/too expensive or too crowded.

I wouldn't write off pre-Christmas week or Christmas week. Late season carries the risk of pistes deteriorating very quickly, slushy slopes, etc. Early season carries the risk of poor coverage, thin cover, etc. Either way you are taking a bit of a punt on getting good conditions. But there are normally plenty of pistes open and sometimes you get lucky and there is a dump of snow. Some people like to get away at Christmas, some people prefer the long sunny spring days, some like both!

Pre-Christmas week is cheap and quiet. Christmas week moderate. New Year week is the busiest and most expensive.
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@Layne, that's the report I remembered, thanks! Thought it was newer.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
thanks @Layne,

Pre Christmas week is non starter as we are restricted to school holidays only, and we don't really want to risk Christmas again, due to experiencing a very poor one in 2016 when we went to Flaine. Appreciate no 2 Christmas' are the same when it comes to weather, but with the amount of moaning that I had to put up with from the mother in law re going too early in the season, I'm really not willing to go through that again Laughing

Yes I got the dates slightly wrong. It would be Sat 4th of April. In fact our daughter breaks up on Wed the 1st so there's potential to play around with the departure date.

I'll have a read of your report now. Cheers.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@mikeycharlton, understand re: Christmas. We've had some good ones. 2011, 2013 and last year for example aswell as really poor ones. To be honest I'd say it's 50/50 early v late season. But I can understand you don't want the wrath of the MIL bearing down on you again.

All my reports are listed at the top of the most recent one
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Some options/opinions for Andorra...

mikeycharlton wrote:

I've eliminated Christmas/New Year/Feb half term on the grounds that it's either too early in the season/too expensive or too crowded. So Easter it is.


Andorra ski resorts close shortly after Easter. SOmetime their last days are Easter Monday. The new season days only becomes known sometime in the summer after the previous season has closed.

mikeycharlton wrote:

I expect to pay for flights if I book them as soon as they go on sale? Typical route would be London (preferably Gatwick) to either Geneva/Grenoble/Lyon/Turin, although as mentioned above happy to try other parts of Italy or Austria if good deals on accommodation and lift passes can be found.


You can fly LGW -> BCN. I do that regularly with BA or Vueling, but other airlines operate that route too.

mikeycharlton wrote:

I've also completely eliminated driving from the UK, as i drive for a living so would like a break from it if I'm on holiday. That said, I would be willing to hire a car to get from the airport to the resort and back, although shared transfers would be preferable. Happy to use train too.


The train journey is an option (London -> Paris -> Toulouse), but probably will be more expensive that airplane. You have to get the bus from Toulouse anyway. It ends up being 15h of travel.

You can rent a car in Barcelona. Remember to ask for snow equipment because it is compulsary for driving in Andorra even though the roads are kept very clean. previous season we had some big snow dumps in April. The journey is just over 3h of driving.

If you do not want to drive, then AndBus (www.andorrabybus.com) is the best option. It goes from the airport and drops you at your place of stay. Obviously then you have to be more careful as to your place of stay.

mikeycharlton wrote:

And lastly, the accommodation (self catering) needs to have 2 bedrooms PLUS a living area. None of this 'cabin' nonsense, and no sofa bed in the living room Very Happy


Generally you should be able to find some good apartments to rent for decent rates that late in the season. The Spaniards are already thinking about the beach in April.

If you have a car, then I can recommend the Apartaments La Neu in Llorts. It is on the way to Arcalis, which will have some of the best snow cover that late in the season.l it also stays open later than the other resorts.

With or without a car your can consider Aparatments L'Orri in Encamp. This town has a free skibus that takes you to the gondola to access the Grandvalira side.

Without a car, best is to stay in La Massana, Erts, Arinsal and still get connected to any of the three Vallnord resorts via the skibusses. If you rather want to use the Grandvalira area, then you'll have to look at Soldeu, Encamp, Canillo or Pas de la Casa.

mikeycharlton wrote:

Any suggestions about flight prices and accommodation/lift pass deals would be most welcome.


If your order skipasses online you can get a discount. Multi-day passes are cheaper too.


HTH.
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@mikeycharlton,
I have skied in the Maurienne valley a couple of times in April 1 two week holiday and one 10 day one as well as at other times.
I would say the snow is likely to be pretty reasonable at this time from my experience.

The first time we had booked flights to Turin and cancelled our booking elsewhere because in a bad snow year the snow reports were so bad we elected not to go there and stayed in Bessans in the Haute Maurienne in what was a very poor snow year generally the skiing was excellent at Bonneval (though the area is very small) and acceptable in Val Cenis, not outstanding but OK.
For comparison we went to Orelle for one day to ski Val Thorens and the snow there was good but no better and a lot more crowded than Bonneval.
The second time we went we skied much of the upper valley as far down as Valloire on a Maurienne valley lift pass which was excellent value but they don't appear to do it anymore.
In what was a good ski year we had really good conditions in Val Cenis and Bonneval decent skiing with good coverage in Valfrejus, enjoyable but pretty soft skiing in Valloire /valmenier, good but very busy skiing in Orelle /Val Thorens.
Out of the resorts that I went to the ones I would recommend for the skiing you describe at that time of the year would be Val Cenis and Valfrejus in that order. The lift passes for both are pretty good value compared with large resorts.

I notice your comments on apartment sizes one thing I would be cautious about is the very good value bundling of accommodation and lift passes although the prices are very reasonable they do tend to be in small apartments with combined living /sleeping areas.
Personally I have often found cheap reasonably spacious accommodation slightly out of the main resort (First time was very cheap stuff on sale in Bessans booked last minute as it is primarily a x country area there are few people wanting accommodation in April) For this having a car is useful, personally I find that a car is often the cheapest and easiest transfer for a family. The area is very easily reachable form Turin Lyon Grenoble and not bad from Geneva though car hire is usually more expensive here.
If it was me booking I would try and get cheap flights and not worry too much about where to go till later the smaller non fashionable resorts are pretty quiet at this time of the year accommodation is easy to find and you may want to check where the snow is.
Having skied Montgenevre as well a few times at this time of year on day trips from Serre Che I would say in my experience you are likely to have better skiing in Val Cenis though obviously it will vary from year to year.

This is a decent web site for getting a flavour of the accommodation in the valley as a whole (you will need a map to check where the paces are) and I have booked through here in the past though I usually try and find out a bit more and go more locally when doing the booking.
http://www.maurienne-tourisme.com/preparez-votre-sejour/gites-et-meubles/
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@ysb33r, thanks for the advice on Andorra, but I'm kind of leaning towards Haute Maurienne.

cheers @T Bar, Very helpful post.

I've been in touch with the Val Cenis tourism website and they're offering some ridiculously good deals. Not quite found the accommodation that I want yet, but that's because they've only sent me a couple of options for 2 star apartments.

The prices however, for the accom/lift pass/ski hire bundles are ridiculously good though.

Even after adding ESF lessons for all, it's working out (currently, for basic accommodation) £325pp. The only thing I'm currently stuck on are transfers. As Altibus from Lyon doesn't operate to Val Cenis in April. That leaves some kind of train/bus/taxi combo. Train from Lyon to Modane, and then bus/taxi from Modane to Val Cenis. Will also need to make sure that flight times coincide with train departures (think there's only 2 fast trains a day).

Other shared transfers seem to be non existent - even from different airports.

There's still the option of car hire which is my least preferable option, although would be willing to do it if I can't find something better.
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@mikeycharlton,
Sounds like you've got it well in hand, if you want to know anything specific feel free to post or PM but I am not sure how much useful stuff I can add, my last Easter trip there was quite a few years back.
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Cheers @T Bar, some very nice and affordable accommodation on the link you provided.

The tourist office has sent me a link for a nice 2 bedroom property. I can see the value of the apartment is 700 euros. However they are offering additional lift pass + intermediate ski hire +lessons for 250 euros pp. Not a package as such, but I can work the value of it out by subtracting 700 from the overall quote (1700 euros).

In fact she keeps telling me there is no package for the extras, so i'm baffled how the prices are so low or how it's calculated.

Flights proving a slightly bigger issue than I thought. Earliest flight arrival time in Lyon from London 14.15 which is ok and leaves 1 hour 20 mins to get on the train. Later train options are a bit grim. Would have to wait another 2 hours for next departure, and that train would take over an hour longer due to 2 changes, rather than the earlier one which is direct to Modane.
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@mikeycharlton, that is a very good deal.

What is your issue with car hire?
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@Layne, good question

In no particular order here are the things that are putting me off.....

Never driven on the other side of the road, let alone over 200km+ of it. After an early start/flight this becomes even less appealing.
Unsure what size car would be required for 4 passengers, 4 suitcases (likely to be large ones because of the amount of crap the Mrs and mother in law will want to bring), 1 ski bag, 1 boot bag and other small hand luggage sized bags. Don't really want to be driving with a ski bag down the centre of the car encroaching onto the handbrake/gear lever.
Quick look on holiday autos quotes £243 for an estate size car (Focus). What other hidden extras am I likely to encounter, ie extra insurance/chains/motor way tolls??

Car hire from Turin looks a lot cheaper although that's with hire companies I've never heard of, and a bit wary of getting scammed. Flight times from Turin aren't great either, ie late arrival in resort, although that would be the same if it's a transfer.
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@mikeycharlton, There are many more flight options to Geneva than to Lyon. Taking this Easter holiday as a guide there are return flights Luton to Geneva for £75 with Easyjet.

I imagine similar deals will be available next year. Then get a transfer bus to one of the nearish resorts or even a biggish resorts. With Easter still being latish next year I think one of the higher resorts such as Val Thorens would suite better than the Maurienne valley. The Maurienne resorts may even be closed Easter holiday week this year

I'm quite suprised that the booking office is taking booking reservations for 2020 already.
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@johnE, for what dates exactly?

I'm looking for 1st week of school Easter holiday which is 6th April this year, and 4th April next year. If I put 6th -13th April (Geneva) into skyscanner, it's all around £300+ for not particularly good flights.

I know Val Thorens would be better, but the overall cost would increase dramatically. And I'm on a budget.

By the way, the booking office isn't taking reservations for 2020 yet (well they might be), I'm using 2019 prices as a guide.
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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.
@mikeycharlton, for the most part, with flight prices, the airlines release x amount of seats at a cheap price, once they sell, another x at a bit higher, and so on. Hence closer to travel time prices are higher, than one first release. However that being said, I am certain that even at just after midnight when the half term flights were released last year they didn’t bother releasing any cheap seats.

Easter maybe different, I didn’t look at that on initial release.

Looking NOW at Easter flight prices for this season is not an indication of next years prices on initial release.
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@NickyJ, I know that if you don't book them as soon as they're released they can become astronomical within just a few hours. However I don't know how 'little' they can cost on initial release. Presumably less of a mad scramble for Easter than half term.

Yes I realise the prices for this Easter (looking now) are not an indication of next years prices on initial release, I just wondered where

@johnE had seen them so cheap. My guess is that it was for the end of April rather than the first week of school hols.
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@mikeycharlton, tbh nobody knows.
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@mikeycharlton, Easter this year is April 21st with the bank holiday the next day. Since I don't work in a school the dates of school holidays are is a complete unknown to me and from your post it doesn't appear to be easter. We get good Friday, the bank holiday and the Tuesday off work as the Easter holiday so that was what I was looking up and thinking of going away.
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@johnE, fair enough.

Yes Easter school hols start well before Easter weekend. 2 weeks before in fact this year.
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@mikeycharlton, well you are right to be sceptical of the rental companies and add ons. There are threads on here discussing this. I think whichever way you do it the transfer has it's challenges. As we drive I'm not the SME though.
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