Ski Daytrip from the UK (yes, yes, I know..)

A snowHead

But an evening flight after work, a night in a cheap hotel and on the slopes for first lift is perfectly feasible for many. Losing the hour on the way out is a bit of a killer for early morning flights.

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@pam w, Yes it is but technically not a day trip Toofy Grin

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@halfhand, the OH has 36 hours before her carriage turns into a pumpkin. And spending two nights on a train isn't a day trip either, is it?

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Booked! Although no thanks to lastminute.com. I just wasted over an hour of my life on three failed phone calls. For some reason when I tried to add a child to the booking I kept getting technical errors so I had to ring them. I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say I almost completed the booking three times before "technical error" their end, which resulted in variously them hanging up on me, me being told to ring another department and then me being told to ring Eurostar myself.

Eurostar of course don't offer the same amazing prices, but the really really helpful chap I spoke to found some sort of promotional deal that I don't think is online and we're going Premium Economy for both of us £338 all inc which is a really great deal. It would have been £228 (I think) standard for both of us but given it's only for the day we might as well travel in the best comfort we can.

So in short - if it's just adults travelling, try the lastminute.com price, but if you have a child, go straight to Eurostar and actually ring them.

Quite possibly in future years I may go with one child for a bit longer over a weekend and use some of the great tips for flights etc here, or even the change at Paris for the Intercity option which of course runs on more days.

Thanks everyone for all your help! Cannot wait to go now!! Very Happy

I didn't think I was going to get to ski properly this year but now I am!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@sparklies, Glad to hear you got sorted. Where will you be heading? Les Arcs? Forgive my ignorance if you've already posted.

Someone mentioned the English skia areas. I'm a member of the Lake Dsitrict Ski Club, but have otherwise experienced Yad Moss. I've not managed a day yet, although I beleive they've only ran the tow once this season so far on around the 28th of December. I think they were open for 35 days last season which was the best for a long while. A bit Scotland it tends to be better in March/April time. You do have to earn your turns though, it's around an hours hike to get the tow and if cover is good some very interesting off piste is availible. I managed to ski from summit to base in 2010 (I think?!) in February. It's 25 mins from my front door though so even if I get one good/skiable day it's worth it. If you're in driving distance it's worth a look, whether it's worth the extra ~8 hours roud trip to the Scottish resorts is debatable there's only one tow.

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@Bene, yep, Les Arcs seems the logical choice! Especially as there is already so much great information in the trip report by holiday_lover linked to earlier in this thread. I've not done Les Arcs before, only La Plagne (we never made it over!) so it'll be fun trying a new area. I'm looking forward to doing some research on potential itineraries as we get closer to the day!

The in-laws live over the Whitehaven side of the Lake District so still a bit of a drive when we're staying with them, but an awful lot closer than Hemel just the same. Since we invested in a roofbox when we started camping last year we will at least have room for skis and everyone's luggage on the drive up from down south. Hopefully! As you say, the hike makes you feel you've earned it Happy

We both enjoy hiking and hill walking and we're both runners so hopefully we'll be fit enough to manage it with the right gear for the season as well of course.

And yes, technically it's not really a day trip with all the travel, no matter when I'm travelling/resting etc, perhaps I should have rephrased it as "a day's skiing" instead!

Good point about the free ski carriage, although I guess you have to wait for the skis to pop out the other end. Might be worth it though for a weekend's skiing (i.e. out on a Friday night, back on a Sunday night) sort of thing.

at GVA my skis popped out quite literally as I walked in to the baggage reclaim area and looking at the screen to work out which carousel the bags would appear on. and that's within Schengen for me, so no immigration to clear before the reclaim.
saying that, it would have been the 1st saturday of the high alpine resort season, so might be longer on a mid season Saturday. weekday should be quick.

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@sparklies, Small world I work over that side of the county. It's not too uncommon when travelling to mention Cumbria and people don't have a clue where it is-these are UK residents too!

I fancy doing what you're doing just to say I have, but will stretch it out to at least a weekend. I'm usually down in London with work once or twice a month in and out of Euston, so a short hike over to St Pancras for the Eurostar. The train service from Penrith to Euston is really good taking just over 3 hours, certainly preferable to driving. I'd probably leave my skis at home as the thought of lugging them from A to B to C doesn't fill me with joy! Shocked

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I've done a few trips where I've tried to get on the slopes on the day of the flight. The big delay in the day is always the time between plane landing and driving off in hire car.
We now have this off to a fine art:
Sit in the front of the plane. You get off first then peg it.
If there's two of you check baggage in with one who retrieves it. The other one bolts to the car hire desk. It's all about getting to the front of the car hire desk first! You can add at least fifteen minutes for everyone in front of you in the queue..

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On the many trips where we've taken the first flight out we've usually been able to ski that afternoon provided the transfer time is less than 2hrs and that includes not sitting at the front, waiting to pick up checked in baggage and skis, queueing at the hire desk and getting away from the airport. Laughing

@sparklies, well done!

Can I suggest you sign up to Samedijeski.fr : every Wednesday you get a reminder email, from which you can download vouchers which will get you a Saturday day ski pass (including Funicular both ways, buy at Funicular bottom station) for about €28 - as opposed to €50 and €40 respectively for you and your 8 y.o.

You can only download from the Wednesday for the Saturday 3 days hence, and you'll need to photocopy the voucher for you and your daughter: even though it says they'll accept up to 5 passes on one voucher, when you get to the kiosk you'll need 1 bit of paper per pass. Go figure.

But for the price of 2 bits of A4, why not?

They also serve free hot chocolate to welcome early arrivals at the Funicular on a Sat. Enjoy your day!

AR

You know it makes sense.

@andy, you were lucky! Although I've often had that with pushchairs.. then other times our luggage has come out right away but we've still been the last ones there when they finally bother putting the pushchair on the belt. I just know it would be my skis coming out last!

@Bene, very true. I'm from Cornwall originally and most people do at least know where that is, but most are also quite painfully unaware that it's a county it can take well over two hours to go from one end to the other of and isn't quite the incestuous melting pot of everyone knowing everyone else that they imagine! As you say it's a really quick three hours from Penrith. The in-laws come down a lot more frequently than we visit them for that reason as taking all six of us on the train (even when we were five!) is a) beyond expensive which is why we drive, and b) beyond stressful whereas for them it's quite pleasant. It's often cheap to get the First Class tickets on the Virgin trains there as well.

@cameronphillips2000, great tip on the car hire desk - hadn't thought of that! Normally we've not been anywhere where we've been in a huge rush to hire the car (US really) but definitely useful for ski holidays where you want time on the slopes first day.

@Arctic Roll, wow, thanks for that - I will sign up right away! That's really useful. And good to know about the hot chocolate.. I get the feeling we're going to be having a lot of that over the day.

I'm probably going to hire skis from the Polaire Star and use their storage facility too as mentioned in the other review. Obviously we'll take our own boots but for the sake of what looks to be around 25-30 euros for both of us, not having to lug the skis from the house to the station, luggage racks on the train, from Euston to St. Pancras and all through the station I think it's worth it! Plus, get to try out some new skis Very Happy

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Just for further information, I've flown many times into Zurich on the 6am Swiss from Heathrow; EVERY time my skis and bags have been in reclaim before I cleared passport control. It must be the very early morning thing! Very Happy

A snowHead

Wow! I admit I've not flown with skis before but I've flown more times with a pushchair than I can count.. and the last time we flew into Luton we took so long waiting for the pushchair the taxi driver nearly had to drive off due to the 30 minute restriction or whatever it is they have there! And yes, our bags were off first, grrr.

Still, if skis are treated better than pushchairs then perhaps it is worth taking them with me if flying with Swiss for the free carriage Smile

A snowHead

@sparklies,

You could ski at Le Crozet, 20 minutes drive from Geneva airport. You can see the (line of) ski lift from the Tarmac when you get off the plane, if you know where to look. It's a small area but is a real mountain - and is umpteen times better than an indoor slope. We were there for a day a couple of years ago and it was a bargain €25 a day for a ski pass.

It's linked to Lelex in Switzerland, so you could ski 2 countries on your day trip, and has great views over Lake Geneva (& the airport). Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@sparklies, Here is the info I posted about coming by train from the UK for a day. Hope it helps.

Ski and Snowboard Day Trip from London. An above average day out!

Came direct to Bourg on the overnight Euro star.

I met them by the train station. I think it was about 7am. We had breakfast up the road at Chez Roger.

Then we went to the bottom of the Funi station, ten minutes walk. They got their day lift passes. They had already ordered the Samediski day lift pass which is a special discounted lift pass just for Les Arcs on a Saturday. They presented the coupon at the ticket office and that was all done in a few minutes.

They changed into there ski and snowboard gear at the Funi bottom station. There are even showers there so not a problem or you could change at the railway station changing rooms which are bigger if you have a bigger group.

We then went to Polaire Star Ski and Snowboard rental shop by the bottom of the Funi and they rented the gear. Much easier than bringing it with them on the train just for one day. The shop has a really good range of piste and all mountain skis and snowboards.

They were allowed to leave their day bags with their travel clothes and other items safely stored at the shop all day as they had rented the gear from them.

http://www.polairestar.com/ (For your ski and snowboard rental)

We then went up the Funicular, had a coffee near the lift and waited for the first lift to open at 9.15 am. Sometimes in High season the lifts open at 9am.

After a short wait we headed up the lifts. Had a great morning skiing and snowboarding all over Les Arcs area. Even managed some piste natures and the Aiguille Rouge.

Had a quick lunch at a nice out of the way restaurant at the end of one of our runs, so know waiting. They wanted to make the most of the day on snow. But still enjoy the whole experience of being in the Alps with a mountain lunch.

Out on the snow again all afternoon and in the park until the lifts closed.

Then a nice drink at the Altiport near the snow park and waterslide to watch the sun go down and a final ride down to the Funi after the pistes had closed as the sun was going down.

A final Apre Ski drink at the bar in Arc 1600 and then back down the Funi in time to give back the hire skis and boards before changing for the journey home.

We then walked up to town and had dinner at the Petit St Bernard Hostilere (restaurant). Really nice as always.

I walked with them back to the train for 9pm and they left on time at just before 10pm.

I heard they had a good trip home and a nice restful day on Sunday.

............................................................

I think I enjoyed showing them around Les Arcs on a Saturday as much as they enjoyed the day away from London.

I have now done this with friends at least 6 or 7 times and it is always really fun. Even if the weather is not so kind.

My advice. Well worth the effort. You have Sunday to recover for work on Monday

Hope that helped. If anyone does decides to do this let me know and we could meet up for a day out if you are interested.

Take a look at my Les Arcs Winter facebook page for photos of some of the skiing and snowboarding we do around Les Arcs. If you come in late Feb or March you can even risk the 'Waterslide'.Very Happy

Let me know if you do come and fancy meeting up.

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Good luck with your ski in a day challenge. I really enjoyed reading the thread but shouldn't we be setting the bar a little higher?

Why not take a private Leer jet from Luton direct to Courcherval Altiport arriving 0900? Naturally this will be weather dependent but the thought of slumming it in a helicopter from Geneva is not very appealing don't you agree?

skidoo transfer fom the Altiport to the southern aspect slope side chalet.The skidoo will be driven by the chalet's private ski guide or your choice of 00 Agent (I'd suggest Daniel as Roger is showing his years but he may still have that chalet in Crans Montana)

Massage and hot tub on the veranda to ease away the aches from the journey . Light salmon and champagne breakfast and then onto the slopes for a full morning of 'niceness'.

Fondue lunch on the slopes in front of a roaring fire and then off for an afternoon of powder and blue skies. Five o'clock vin chard before heading back to the Altiport for a flight home around six. Back in Herts well before bedtime unless of course you want to stay for the season? Bring the rest of the family and make the lazy & spoilt chalet Au Pair earn her keep?

How many Hemel based Russian Oligarchs are there??????

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Courchevel Altiport can't accommodate my Lear Jet rolling eyes

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Isn't there an early flight from London City to Bern? You could be on the hill in Grindelwald or Wengen by 10 pretty easily. I think the airline is called Skywork?

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@Bergmeister, wow, I never knew there was a ski resort so close to Geneva! Lucky sods! Reminds me a bit of Vancouver where there's a smallish but perfectly good fun ski area just outside the city a short drive away, and you can see the whole city as you ski down at night when they do evening sessions. Not skied it myself sadly, as when we were there it had just closed for the season (we weren't there for the snow anyway!)

@snowcrazy, thank you for that! That's pretty much consolidated my plans of the start and end of the day at least! I'd forgotten the waterslide was there in Les Arcs. Not sure I'd want to risk it myself with no dry clothes and a long train journey ahead of me but it looks like loads of fun to watch. Some other great ideas in there too. Very kind of you to offer to meet up - I may take you up on that!

@andrew.woodbridge, you're absolutely right of course. My cover is blown.. I had to pretend I wanted to slum it in order to get the rest of the good advice. I'll be getting the most prolific one of course in the form of Sean, why settle for anything less? He'll be bringing along his "son" from the Last Crusade as well who will teach me to dodge avalanches whilst not leaving my helmet behind. Naturally I have arranged for use of his ship to get me direct from Hemel (there's a few parks he could pick me up from) and allow me to parachute out over Les Arcs! Heli-skiing is for wusses.

@telford_mike, we moved to Hemel two years ago.. ironically we were only a couple of miles from London City before, it was actually walkable to. I wish I'd taken the opportunity back then but circumstances were different.

Help!!

Ski Daytrip from the UK (yes, yes, I know..)

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