DIY Ski versus the Package Holiday

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Dave Burt, re changover days, I've found that this depends on the Hotel. The Mercure chain are quite reasonable in terms of costs and facilities (have stayed at several across Europe) and even in France, home of the sat-sat full week or nothing booking approach, they allow any day to any day. (We did Monday to Sunday at Christmas in Val D. I was talking to a French hotelier during our last visit and he thought the traditional 'full week' booking restrictions would soon become a thing of the past as French hotels woke up to the benefits (in terms of filling rooms) of being flexible especially with regard to self-booking over the internet.

Agree with nuttyprofessor, re extending, and have done this a couple of times, it's particularly easy if you are self-drive (only change is to the tunnel crossing and they are very flexible - no charges for last minute changes. Of course if you have the kids with you, and term is about to re-start it can be more difficult Shocked

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Have just returned to-day from my own DIY ski-ing holiday in Nendaz, Switzerland, where incidentally the conditions over the last week have been absolutely fabulous, to see the responses to my post.

I am just making the point that if you ski DIY be aware and street-wise to the pitfalls, particularly missing flights home where inclement weather can cause difficulties and substantial extra cost getting to and returning from the destination airports.

As with every holiday undertaking if you are inexperienced in DIY holidays and want some one else to take the strain then the travel agent and tour operator are there to help and provide the complete service. Generally speaking I would argue that this works otherwise we wouldn't have such a buoyant, value for money, fiercely competitive travel business in the UK, would we?

I don't agree with the premise that if you pay cheap you will get a rubbish product. From my perspective each package holiday which is put up for sale has a dynamic economy of its own when it comes to its price over the life time of the booking period. Nowadays the cost of a holiday can work like perishable goods on a market stall ie when the holiday dep. date = the sell by date- once passed then it is valueless. During the time that the holiday is up for sale the only thing that will vary is the price according to its demand - everything else should remain the same.

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Sounds like tourist industry gobbledy gook to me.....isn't this what holiday insurance is for David? From the postings I have seen on here both DIY and holiday company hols have their pluses and minuses, from personal experiece of both I prefer my independance and if one has a bit of grey matter most problems can be ironed out without the need of a rep...most of whom I must say have been very polite and enthusiastic but have no more idea of how to sort out a problem than me!

PS. thanks to snowheads once again re: address of Koln police....our missed flights home and cost incurred now being sorted by the insurance company. Little Angel

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I would agree with David Snell that there are pros and cons to both DIY and package holidays.

I think a newish phenomenon is the idea that DIY holidays are somehow more 'worthy' than packages and confer some type of moral superiority over the mass market traveller.

Transfer day is the only real pain with packages. You do not need to have much to do with the rep apart from that.

As has been pointed out , last minute packages are like perishable goods and bargains may be there for the taking if you can be flexible.

After all it is free

The pressure on coarch drivers on getting end-of holiday skiers to catch a flight must be considerable.

In the recent heavy snow in Bravaria the Autobahn was jammed solid from from Austria side all the way to Munich. I was driving my brother family to catch a Munich flight the next day so we were not too concerned but still decided to go through the counrty roads instead of being stuck in the Autobahn. Needless to say the amount of snow on country roads made driving very hazardous even we had a full blown 4x4 with good all-season tyres and carrying snow chains.

We were overtaken by coarches desparately returning to the Munich airport. Many of them eventually got stucked in snow on slopes. Many lorries were doing the same. We drove carefully to arrive obviously late in the evening to a hotel close to the airport. The only thing affecting us was dinner at 11pm and it was nearly impossible to find a restaurant still open on that evening, after we had checked in.

Nowaday the traffic condition at transfer day does warrant an as-early-as-possible departure.

We always do DIY holidays ourselves and use own car, with forward journey in a day but 2 days for return. As a rule we would cover 75% of the journey if possible in the first return day, leaving a leisurely 25% journey on the day when we must catch the ferry.

Does anyone expect anything more than flight + transfer + accomodation from a budget TO?

Then the TO v DIY argument comes down to separately costing the 3 elements. I've used both options several times in the last few years, and have never booked a holiday without attempting as close to an apples for apples comparison as I can.

My experience has been:
1. In Europe, I tend to go for Austria. I've found flying to Munich, hiring a car, and booking hotels through local tourist offices to work out 20%ish cheaper than budget TO prices. Add the benefit of picking ideal flight times with BA or Lufthansa. DIY has been the winner.
2. Canada, TO wins. The TO prices (for Neilson and Crystal), including transfers and scheduled Air Canada flights were cheaper across a range of accomodation than contacting the hotels directly for ACCOMODATION ONLY prices.
3. Summer Holidays. Perhaps less relevant but for my last 3 summer holidays I've found the package price with flights and transfers to be cheaper than the accomodation only price from contacting the hotel directly.

For me the other pluses and minuses are pretty minor.

I've been lucky enough never to have had a bad experience with a budget TO, though perhaps that's down to only requiring transfer services. I've never even had a TO transfer that's been any worse than faffing around with car hire or public transport. Although I get a bit coach sick sometimes - but that's another story.

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Best policy is have a friend with a house somewhere nice - I recommend Kitzbuehel myself - and do the Ryanair Stansted/Salzburg thing with your friends picking you up @ Salzburg.

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edsilva, a very good point. I intend to discuss this one at length at the EoSB - all those going, be warned! There must be a cheaper way for a family of five to get to the slopes and all have a throughly good time without blowing the year's savings...

TallTone,

savings????????? Your not getting out enough..

You know it makes sense.

Question:

Are we saying that DIY trips save a lot of cash during the weeks that the TO's have their prices jacked up? I usually go on those cheaper weeks in early January, and whilst I prefer that smug independent feel you get when you wisk through the airport to a BA jet and mosey past the hordes of coaches to a hire car at Innsbruck, I find it very hard to get the DIY price down to a TO's price.

I seem to have become stuck in the early Jan routine BECAUSE the TO price is lowest then. Would I be able put a DIY package together in early March with the price of an early Jan TO deal? Is it the case that TO's put the prices up during peak weeks, but airlines and hotels do not?

I have done DIY and TO stuff and generally (95%) all goes smoothly. I see TO trips as the same as DIY trips but just using the TO's transport facility.

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

beeryletcher, I think you might if you book everything early enough.

A snowHead

beeryletcher, a lot depends on where you want to go, and how many of you there are.

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beeryletcher, I've done a lot of DIY holidays in early March, the latest being last week in Ellmau, Austria, and we have found that we usually are paying just over the TO price, eg, we paid overall £540 for transport, and half board accommodation whereas the Inghams price to our hotel was £509. But ... we didn't have to fly on a charter and the transfer from Munich was ridiculously easy and the times were very convenient (ie no early starts!)

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I think we have taken the DIY Vs Package debate too many times round the block. Each to their own.

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When I coined the phrase “Avian flu infested chalet slum”, I was obviously being a tad dramatic and avian flu was topical that particular day (I am proud it’s being used though). I was referring to some of the liberties taken by some of the big-name TOs. They are working to a business model which dictates that you, the “Billy Bunters” are bottom of their considerations. Firstly, they are looking to fill aircraft seats (be it their own planes or bought-in seats on other charters – big tour operations are all about keeping aircraft flying), secondly they need to fill their inventory of beds that they have to pay for empty or not (ie chalets), thirdly, they are seeking to cover as much of the rep’s costs as they can by selling passes, excursions, fondue nights etc etc and, at the same time, carve the cost of ingredients, free wine etc. Above all of that however is the fact that they have shareholders to please and significant head office costs to cover. There is huge pressure to secure the cheapest chalets, dress ‘em up, and squeeze in as many folk as possible. There is also the issue of the 15-20% they now have to pay to certain travel agents. All down the line, the pressure is on to tell customers anything they want to hear to make them buy. They know that the weather has the major say in whether or not you have a great time – perfect conditions will soon erase the lumpy bed, lumpy grub and the “five minute stroll” from your memory. They make very good money out of those who book a long way in advance, mega money out of those who need to travel at New Year, HT and Easter, and lose tons of dosh on the last-minuters. But that’s all factored in.

A couple of years back I met a family staying in a chalet in Austria over New Year. They’d paid nearly £800 each and were less than happy about the whole thing… food especially. We, meanwhile, were staying in a four star hotel half board (with swimming pool, sauna etc), flew scheduled, had a hire car and all for under £550 each. There is no contest and making your own arrangements is all part of the fun.

Go independently and that hotelier will love you more than if you went via a TO – they get to keep their entire margin and see you as someone to really look after as you’ll probably want to return. You’ll get birthday cards and Christmas cards. You’ll get special offers for low season and you’ll generally feel well looked after.

Smaller, more service-orientated ops without the mega overhead and fleet of planes are where to go if you absolutely have to go for a chalet.

Frosty the Snowman,

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Elizabeth B, depends where you're going but, if I have to travel alone, I take the train.

After all it is free

Going on that none of my friends, even the few with licenses, are prepared to drive in snow and on the right, so we have to go with a TO. Just as a matter of interest, what do people recommend out of the big (budget) TOs? Thinking of Neilson. Do they have less horror stories than the rest?

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Let's be fair here - the so-called horror stories are a minority and you have every chance of having a perfectly good holiday with any tour op. As the HR monkeys never tire of telling us in training, a happy customer tells two people about his experience, and an unhappy one tells 10. Or some such figure.

Mind you, I wouldn't recommend Airtours.

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JohnHill, I do when I'm skiing in Switzerland. Their public transport is wonderful snowHead

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I think with TO vs DIY, it's really "horses for courses". When I first started skiing, I always went with TO's, as I hadn't a clue what to do.

Now that I know what I want, I go DIY.

I've never had a bad experience with TO's, but in 15 TO hols I've only ever managed to ski on the arrival day once, and that was only for 1 hour.

Whereas with DIY, I am usually on the slopes at lunchtime or very soon thereafter.

As per latchigo - we did DIY this year twice, once to Rob@rar's apartment in Les Arcs and once to Whistler. For Les Arcs, we got a local taxi firm to do the transfers from the aiport and back at a cost similar to hiring a car plus petrol, in whistler the folks who run the B&B we used did the airport transfers for us, but there's also regular scheduled buses

Help!!

DIY Ski versus the Package Holiday

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