 Poster: A snowHead
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Why are you picking the most expensive ski areas? Have a look at Austria or Italy.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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madlondoner, Valmeinier and Valloire are not expensive - and with Snowcoach they are excellent value as a package. St Gervais with Snowcoach is not particularly expensive either and the Evasion Mont Blanc pass is good value.
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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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Is that supposed to read as "it's NOW looking like we will...."? If so, there are lots of really cheap flights out to Grenoble, Lyon & Marseille from London on 28th March, but there are no return flights showing yet as the flight companies haven't put out their spring schedules yet.
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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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Cheers gary,
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Right, so after presenting the options, and both our better halves dropping out, it's NOW looking like we will go the first week of Easter holidays (28th March).
Just having a quick look at prices, seems I should be able to widen the net a bit now. So:
- travelling from London
- plane or coach
- catered ideally but could do SC
- £700 for travek and accommodation
- snow sure
Cheers
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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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Dibergio, I'll add Austria into the mix. You may need to self-drive if the flights to Salzburg are too pricey, but most resorts are less than an hour further away than French resorts, and you'll be driving on toll-free autobahns almost all of the way.
Ferry: Norfolk Line / DFDS Dover-Calais or Dunkirk £60 each way = £120
Car: Calais - Saalbach/Zell/Kitzbuhel/Lofer/Leogang/Ski Amade etc. approx. 750 miles each way = 1500 miles @ 20p = £300 for petrol.
S/C Apartment: Should be no more than £1000 for a decent apartment at New Year. Far less at Easter, but pick the right resort for snow.
£1420 for four = £355 each.
Lift pass will be about £200 each, and you're still £145 under your £700 budget.
Drive non-stop from UK on Friday night and you'll be in resort by mid-morning.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Dibergio, snow conditions at Easter are very variable. 2013 - in the northern French Alps but also I think in many other areas - was terrific, with masses of snow. 2014, on the other hand, had seen less snow during the season and then some very warm weather. An early Easter helps, obviously, but 2015 is not early.
So take with a pinch of salt any claim that "we went to resort X at Easter and conditions were very good". Also take any claims about snow-making with a pinch of salt. Some resorts don't allow snowmaking after a certain date and they can't make snow if it's warm anyway. And all that salt will make the snow melt quicker....
Aspect is as important as altitude in spring - so you can head to the slopes which get the sun earlier when it's icy, first thing, then to the more shaded slopes in the afternoon, when it's getting slushy.
My apartment is at 1550m in an area which tops out at only 2000m - northern French alps. I'm always there at Easter and we've sometimes had great conditions, sometimes just OK. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who has the entire Alps to choose from. In France, Tignes is one of the more obvious high altitude areas and Les Deux Alpes would also be good as long as you're not one of those who sulk if you can't ski enjoyably (or possibly at all) back to the resort. Avoriaz is high but much of the surrounding ski area is low. The same applies to Flaine.
Some resorts "guarantee" good snow conditions because of a nearby glacier but again, get some disinterested advice - if conditions are poor elsewhere the glaciers might be too busy to be enjoyable.
Another pinch of salt - or at least some wariness - might be applied to anyone recommending a particular area who is keen to flog you some accommodation. They just might be biased; make sure you get some other views too.
If I could only ever ski again either at New Year or at Easter, I'd choose Easter every time. Much less crowded and much cheaper. But I'd definitely do a DIY holiday as tour operators bump up prices for the UK school holidays although in France it's low season and accommodation is cheap.
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We have flights, accomodation and car hire booked for December 26th, for 8 nights for grand total of €500 each. We are flying into Munich picking up carhire and driving to Lofer about 2 hours away.
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Dibergio, we've been at Easter school hols for the past 6 years - others have been going for a lot longer. Leave it late before booking, it's usually pretty quiet so there is usually good availability for lots of places and you can get a bargain. That way you can pick and choose somewhere based on the conditions. We're not last minute bookers but usually leave it until a month before (by this time you can be relatively confident that the snow will last). You could do this easily within your £700 budget.
We've only had one trip where conditions were pretty poor, that was when it had hardly snowed from January through to Easter and when we were there it was 20c+. It was also the highest ski area of all we've visited at Easter. This year we had days where it was 20c+ but there had been lots of snow so conditions were still very good. We've even skied down to 700m in Austria at Easter - but we wouldn't have booked to go there 9 months in advance!
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Given a choice between Easter and New Year for skiing (and I have skied both for more or less the last 30 years) I would choose Easter ever time. To my mind Easter is almost perfectly times this year 3rd - 6th of April. With a bit of planning you can get away on Maundy Thursday and perhaps not return for 10 days. This year it falls just after the clocks go forward so you get maximum time before the snow goes heavy and lovely long evenings for an apres ski drink.
In my experience the snow is usually better at Easter as well, but then I tend to go high. The crowds are significantly less though of course this means less raucous apre sk and the accommodation prices are about 1/2 New Year levels (one of the most expensive weeks of the season). However, I must point out that the other costs, lift pass, fuel to drive down, tolls and food are almost exactly the same so the savings are only in the order of a few hundred euro for a party of 3 or 4 if you DIY.
Just to add to quinton, comments about costs of driving We just drove to Les Arcs for a weeks climbing, which at 610 miles is a significantly shorter journey than the 750 miles reported by quinton and the costs came out as:
Tunnel: £120 return
Tolls: 174 euro return - £140
Diesel 150 euros (a very efficient car averaging 52 mpg, but this would be much less if we strapped skis to the roof, perhaps an extra £40 in fuel) £120
We had insurance etc already
Total cost £380 shared between 4 of us.
Diesel is about £0.20 per litre cheaper in France so we made sure we filled up in Calais on the way back.
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