 Poster: A snowHead
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The US$ is at its weakness level for ages. For the independant traveller, surely this is a good opportunity to consider the US as a ski destination. No language problems, no ESF  , a high quality of service engrained in their culture and good snow cover. What more can you ask?
Any opinions from anyone who has made the jump across the pond this year regarding what types of deals that are available and how it compares with last year. And from those who skied in the States last year or longer, their experiences compared with Europe.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sat 27-11-04 21:49; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I must admit, it has crossed my mind. The biggest drawback is the flight time / jet lag. I can handle it on a 2 week trip, but one week to Colorado or the West Coast sounds a bit frantic for me. I've never fancied the East Coast, but perhaps someone could persuade me to give it a go. Most of my skiing in the States has been for 2-3 days when I've been there for longer periods or as an add on to business trips.
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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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Cheap prices or not, I really don't fancy the new immigration process, fingerprints/photo/questions and what happens to the information they collect. Have skied Breckenridge,Copper Mountain, A-Basin , Keystone,Heavenly,Sierra at Tahoe,Squaw Valley,Kirkwood and some others in California. Much prefer European resorts as they tend to have bigger skiing and have smaller queues. I can avoid the ESF. My experience was that US resorts tended to be manufactured "chocolate box swiss style twee" or a string of run down motels along a main road with some casinos at one end!. It is a long way to travel, I prefer to spend my time skiing 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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snowbunny, I visited the US last month and was fingerprinted and photo-ed; the time taken (~40 minutes) and the degree of questioning was about the same as that I experienced when I visited Mexico a couple of years ago - and the Mexicans were rather concerned by the contents of my luggage. The Americans were rather more enthusiastic about security checks for the outward leg, even going to the lengths of x-raying the strappy sandals of the woman in front of me. I considered pointing and laughing, but thought it unwise at that point.
Best avoid looking obviously Muslim though, a Bangledeshi colleague of mine was held several hours outwards and return when he visited.
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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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snowbunny,
Agree on the immigration process.
My experience on lift queues is the opposite!
A great advantage of America is room size!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I wouldnt bother going all that way just because it was cheap as *most* americans annoy me. Not all - but most! especially the children 
Last edited by You'll need to Register first of course. on Sat 27-11-04 10:15; edited 1 time in total
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Nadenoodlee, would that be the entire continent or just a few hundred million of them ? Have you met most of them ? Tell me, which Americans do you dislike the most, the children, old people, disabled ones or just the middle aged ones. You are of course entitled to your opinion but don't you feel you are being just a tad bigoted and small minded. Any way more constructively and staying on the topic I am really tempted to visit the US for the first time this season. Many of my friends have been to various resorts and whilst some say the skiing is not as extensive as say the French Alps I hear great stories of service, food and well, friendliness.
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You will only obtain increased value on your GBP if you can book and pay in USD. Otherwise, you'll be paying UK prices from UK operators - the weakening dollar will simply increase their profit margins.
You will, however, find your spending power is increased once out there.
To take maximum advantage of the weak USD, book as much as you can directly with the US resort/operator/whatever. ie increase your USD spending, decrease your GBP spend. Haven't looked into it in any detail, but see no reason why you shouldn't be able to limit total GBP spend to flights only. Of course, once there, hammer the credit-card
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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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If you book any flight to the US, the authorities there, (Homeland Security) demand that the airline pass all your personal details to them. ie credit card info, dietary requirements and lots more. The US authorities have been "unable" to explain how some of this information has passed into the hands of merchants who have been contacting travellers based on their "profile" .This has been well covered elsewhere on the net.
The problem with Mexico, and Mexican security turning out the luggage,is because your flight to/from Uk will inevitably pass through US airspace, and the US has forced this on Mexico-so a Mexican told me during a 3 hour long queue at security in Cancun airport! Never again.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Sat 27-11-04 17:56; edited 2 times in total
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snowbunny, well theres two possible options, neither of which I'm sure they'd like to admit to:
1. Their security system for holding the data is full of holes and someone has hacked in.
2. They're selling the info given to them, something that concerns had previously been raised about.
Still I'm sure your details will only be passed along to American companies
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Remember every person travelling to USA under the 'visa waiver' scheme (incl kids) now needs to have their own machine-readable passport. Otherwise, you'll need to obtain a visa which costs quite a lot and means a personal visit to a US Embassy which costs a lot more for most people. And if you've ever been arrested (not necessarily charged or convicted) or you have HIV, a visa may not be granted. What all this has to do with security is beyond me.
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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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I shall be taking a few days in Colorado as an add-on to attending a conference in the US in January: I'll post a report when I get back.
I haven't experienced any major hassles with airport security, Customs or Immigration on my previous trips in the last couple of years, and I think that this is a problem that is based on a few travellers' tales that have been exaggerated out of all proportion.
Certainly, having made all my bookings over the net, I've been delighted to take advantage of the US lira's declining exchange rate.
Incidentally, is there anyone still around whose passport isn't machine readable? - I thought that all the burgundy passports (which seem to have been around for ever) were machine-readable.
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You know it makes sense.
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The Canadian dollar is not entirely independent of the US one (much as they would like it to be). You should be seeing lower prices in Canada as well, no?
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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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Well, lets include Canada too
Subject title amended.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| comprex wrote: |
| The Canadian dollar is not entirely independent of the US one (much as they would like it to be). You should be seeing lower prices in Canada as well, no? |
Not sure thats true. I'm pretty sensitive to both. Share options in a US company - low US dollar = not so much cash for me. Higher Candian dollar = pound gets me less when I go there next January.
Canadian Dollar seems a bit stronger than last year, US dollar is way weaker.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nadenoodlee, c'mon now, we're not all bad! 
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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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Acacia, some overseas embassies have only relatively recently received the equipment for the new style passports and I think the earlier Purple ones issued in UK were not machine readable. So it is possible a few snowHeads have purple jobs nearing the end of their life that don't have the 2 lines of scannable code on the bottom of the photo page.
The next stage (but no-one is yet ready to issue them) is the biometric passports. The US Govt. would love all visitors to have them and I can see a real security benefit with those - when they arrive.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Funnily enough the biometric passports would probably not have prevented 911 as the vast majority of the terrorists concerned with that attrocity had never commited a crime before, all it would have done is given the authorities a little extra information after the fact
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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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D G Orf, true in that case. And the terrorists were legally in US on valid visas. But at least in future the biometric passport holder will really be the person concerned. Identity hijacking and false passports will become impossible. Not a bad thing, if not the USA's answer to a security prayer.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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ssh, I had you in mind as one of the nice ones! Its the tourists that drive me up the bloody wall, but anyways - calm thoughts!
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Think the Americans are running around like headless chickens when it comes to security . Its just inconvienice to innocent travellers but I guess they have to reassure the public that they are doing something all be it targetting the wrong poeple.
Do you think it is going to make one bit of difference having a biometric passport to some terrorist who is planning a future 911 style attack (I doubt they'd try that stunt again) & willing to commit suicide ?
They are not going to send a terrorist who has a terrorist record Bin Laden would be proud of 
The 911 perpertrators were already IN Amerca had no previous & were educated . Acting as intimate secret cells with no record im sorry to have to say they will allways have the advantage.
Its a bit like Robbing a Bank if you have no previous the likely hood of success is very high !
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Hmm. In the last year the Canadian dollar has been at its strongest against the US for years and against sterling it's about the same as it was last year. It's still pretty good (around $2.3 to 1GBP) but there's been no currency change that makes Canada any better this year than last year.
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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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Not only has the $ fallen against the £, the £ has fallen against the €, exacerbating the difference between European and American holidays. Here are some of the glorious (for those of us off to the States for a ski this year  ) facts about the $/€ exchange rate:
| Date | Decline |
27/04/04 | 8% |
27/11/03 | 8% |
28/04/03 | 17% |
27/11/02 | 30% |
26/04/02 | 44%
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If the last time that you looked at US prices was when the winter 03 brochures came out, you've a pleasant surprise in store. Since then, American prices have fallen by 44% compared with European prices. And what that means in practice is that the local currency element of the half-term deal I got in the States is now about twice as expensive in Tignes, based on a quick unscientific poke through Expedia.
Grab a bargain while you can.
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Nadenoodlee, but the problem tourists aren't American!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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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I'm more interested in why a Cloggie who lives in Switzerland has a UK passport. I'm assuming Nigel might not be telling the truth all the time though.
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Personally, I'd recommend going to the US/Canada because you want to ski there, not because the $:£ rate is better than it was a year ago. The exchange rate isn't the only determinant of the cost of a holiday, so you may have more spending money relatively speaking, but other elements may not necessarily be less. Make sure it's like-for-like: e.g. sounds like you can go outside UK school holidays, which would make a huge difference to the Alpine cost. Also make sure you're happy with the jetlag: yes, some people say it's all in the mind but that's no use if you suffer from it badly. Took my wife at least two days to recover from jetlag + altitude adjustment when she flew out to join me in Denver/Vail - I'd only had to hop over from St.Louis at the end of a business trip, so was fine.
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You know it makes sense.
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@LaForet, this thread is 15 years old! I assume @albob resurrected it because he wanted to enter into a discussion with or about @stanton.
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