Poster: A snowHead
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I am organising a ski weekend next feb/march any ideas for good mix of cheap airlines,shortish transfer times , decent size ski area, lively nightlife,did chamonix last year but fancy a change. Any suggestions for resorts or suitable accomadation for thur ,fri,sat night would be great.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Fly to Geneva and then short transfer to Morzine / Les Gets or go to Sameons for the Grand Masiff (Flaine etc). Easyjet to Geneva.
In terms of accomodation I have found that outside of Chamonix weekend stuff that is budget can be harder to come by - maybe I just looked in the wrong places. Last season stayed in a B+B in Sameons.
In les Gets you might get a weekend stay at Le Chamois, a 2 star hotel run by Brits (football on Sky etc). I stayed there for a week last season.
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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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hedley, oh my goodness, I'm going to recommend Megève for the second time in 5 mins! It's about the same distance from Geneva as Samoëns.
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Is their decent nightlife in megeve ?
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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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hedley, put it this way, when I'm there with a (veterans') football team, no-one gets to bed before 3am! When I'm there en famille I'm on a slightly tighter leash, but the younger folk seem to have a pretty good time. There's a good jazz club and a casino, as well as the usual bars and clubs.
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In recent history we've done Samoens (Flaine), Chatel (Portes du Soleil) and Chamonix from Geneva, Gressoney from Turin. Flims from Zurich. All are good options as far as transfer times are concerned. Gressoney and Samoens aren't the livliest of places if you're into late night partying. Portes du Soleil has plenty of accomodation options and a huge choice of pistes - maybe too big to get to know in a weekend.
Flims is my personal weekend favorite but can't be regarded as a budget option.
As for problems booking - we've never actually failed to get reasonable accomodation although a couple of times we've got a bit worried but the usual problem is choosing the best option. Check resort websites for local events and national holidays and avoid those dates.
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I am also consider a long weekend next year and was starting to Look at Chamonix
chrisb, you mentioned about getting weekend accomadation, what is the best way, We are considering going early Feb, is it ok just to turn up and find somewhere or best pre book through tourist office?
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hedley, are you looking for catered or s/c? how big is the party? I fix a weekend trip (well Friday evening to Weds evening with 5 days on snow) for a group of 16 - 18 lads each January, and we have done Chamonix, Flaine, Les Carroz and now Les Arcs for the 4th year in a row. It a 2 - 2.5 hour drive from Lyon to Les Arcs, great skiing although nightlife not stunning, which is true of all of my list bar Chamonix. I can give you some steers about these resorts if you let me know
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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rich, where do you stay in Flims - its caught my eye before now and I think the lads will want a change next year
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Martin Nicholas, I have stayed at Hotel Crap Ner. Can recommend. Don't worry about the name. Everything in Flims is called Crap. As far as I know it's the local Reto-Romansk word for Mount, i.e Crap Sogn Gion is the name of Mount St.John!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Martin Nicholas, I've stayed at the Waldeck a couple of times and would also recommend. But it's at Flims Waldhaus (iirc) so you benefit from a hire car to get to the lifts in the morning.
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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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Verbier fits all your requirements. Flexiski should be able to do you a deal on accomodation. Don't forget to avoid half term!
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You know it makes sense.
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Martin Nicholas, we've always stayed in Flims Dorf and used a few different hotels, the Vorab and Meiler definitely and maybe the Sporthotel. There is another I can't recall the name of, I'll check with others in the group what it was. We haven't had any bad experiences with any hotels there. I'll check and get my facts right before giving a best /worst opinion - not sure which hotel is which at the moment.
Most of the time there's no problems with lift queues but we don't tend to go peak season. If going early Jan avoid the weekend of the white schuss public races (unless you fancy having a go)
Top place
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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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Martin Nicholas, Bit of dealyed action but re-Flims Dorf. The Girschuna is very close to the main lifts (over thr road and across the bridge <100m) and OK, no frills but reasonable price and friendly. Sporthotel is about as close as you can get to the lifts but is pretty expensive, I think its had a name change to the Albana Swiss Hotel. The Vorab is a bit more of a walk down the road (5 minutes to the lift) but has a sauna which the others don't. The other that friends have used is the Bellevue which has rooms of varing standard/facilities depending on budget.
If you stay at the Vorab you have joy of passing the preserved cowshed at least twice a day complete with preserved smells - very refreshing.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I doubt that you could beat les Carroz (Grand Massif (Flaine) area) for convenience; about 30/40 mins from GVA. The nightlife looked pretty tame, 'though, but there are some perfectly decent restaurants.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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hedley, You could easily do Easyjet to Grenoble and pop up to either ADH or LDA. Both are about 1 - 1.5 hours drive from the airport, and no hassles at the airport compared to bigger ones. Southampton Chambery is good too if operational and ditto for the transfer times. Chamrousse is very close to Chambery, but I don't think there's much night life there. Paulmc may do a deal on his apartment in LDA if it's not a busy time. Also several handy B & B's, cheap and cheerful who will do weekends.
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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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acanno, We booked direct with the owner of the B+B for Samoens, I think it is a lot easier to book Chamonix though using the web.
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La Plagne. I dont know how far it is from the airport etc etc, but turn up- bring Heat Magazine and smirnoff ice and you can kip on the floor!
We did La Tania last year for 3days in total, fair enough its 2hrs from Geneva give or take- but the skiing is ace and The Mountain Centre was a great base, easyjet flights were £40 return.
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