 Poster: A snowHead
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I once did a coach trip to Northern Spain with our school at age 17 - IIRC it was something of a riot, and I don't recall the trip in the coach with bad memories - I do recall though a mammothly long visit to a service station at about 9am when we all scrubbed out teeth!!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Obviously I forgot to come back to this... Anyway, here are my thoughts.
As I said earlier, I've been on a number of different types of ski trips. Before every trip, a comprehensive series of dry-slope sessions and instruction took place at Gloucester ski slope. This has a huge impact on the quality and enjoyment of the trips (although it didn't prevent me from being generally hopeless on the first trip...)
>My first school ski trip was to Serre Chevalier. The trip was only for pupils in the upper school and costed around £700-800 all inclusive. It was New Year (heading out on Boxing Day) and we stayed in a family run hotel in Briancon. We flew out to Turin (via Rome) with Alitalia and then hired a coach for the transfer. Each morning we had a short walk to the ski bus stop and travelled to Chantemerle due to the poor snow above Briancon. This trip was put together by the teacher, bartering with various people to get a good deal (which it was given the time of year and all-inc nature).
>The second trip, to Claviere at Easter, was led by another member of the PE Department, as the previous leader had left to become Director of Rugby at a public school. This time the trip was opened up to all members of the school (which meant everyone in year 8 upwards by the time the trip came around). This was great from an inclusion point of view, but was a bit tricky as far as other issues went. However, all 16 year old+ pupils were allowed to drink. This was a coach journey trip, which I certainly found a drag. There were two coaches and the trip was about 70+ strong (over 10% of the school). We used Ski High Days for the trip.
>The third trip was to Bardonecchia. This was again open to the whole school and was run at Easter. However, being another over-subscribed trip, this time it was run as two separate trips, with the Y8-10 pupils going in the first week of the holidays and the Y11-13 (plus a couple of leavers and teachers mates) headed out the following week (we skied in Sestriere/Sauze d'Oulx during the second week). Again, we used Ski High Days.
Both of the second and third trips came in between £450 and £550 after add-ons for little extras organised by the teachers such as prizes (plus a little extra for snowboarding).
>The fourth trip was to Meribel at Easter, we went back to a single trip given the offer we got. This was with Schools Into Europe. It was their first season running ski trips so it was a bit of a gamble, but we did get an excellent offer of under £500 all-inc to entice us. So after the extras for prizes and admin it came in at very little over £500 - an excellent price for Meribel during school hols all-inc. Two teachers, a teacher's mate and I flew out to avoid the coach journey (that was great, no luggage to check in as it was all on the coach, and then a chance to get lost in France...  ). If I recall correctly, the trip was put together by part of Schools Into Europe, but I can't remember exactly.
>The two trips this year were at February for Y8 and Y9 in La Polsa - chosen for its value, compact size and decent hotel. Whereas Zell am See was chosen for the senior trip at Easter, as it's a bit more interesting and is larger/more challenges etc. Again by coach and this time put together by PGL for around £600 all-inc. I can't comment on the trips themselves as I was unable to attend as I had hoped.
As I remember the trips:
Serre Chevalier - *Special as it was my first skiing trip. *Small group. *Good value, but expensive for a ski trip. *Flights much better than coach, but held up in Rome on our return flight.
Claviere - *Again good. *Separate hotels for junior and senior parts of ski trip (about 100 yards apart).
Bardonecchia - *Separate trips. *High Days and coach company very helpful due to Bardonecchia's early closure due to poor snow, transporting us to Sestriere and Suaze d'Oulx as we requested.
Meribel - *Excellent value. *Great resort. *Reasonable hotel, looked into returning to it as a self organised trip. *Price for the year after was much higher as company had completed a season doing ski trips.
La Polsa/Zell am See - *Good value. *Excellent range of resorts for any type of group or skier standards. *Excellent service from Anna Wedgwood at PGL.
As I said, I have been involved in different types of trips with different operators. From the second trip onwards I helped out with admin type stuff (putting together 'brochures', co-ordinating dry-slope session allocation and getting letters copied etc), and then I actually helped organise the 2007 trips (which was interesting as I left the school in 2006), which is partly why I was so annoyed that I couldn't go on either of them (the second time partly because I lost my passport).
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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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now for a blatent plug for a mate, anyone looking to organize a trip may want to take a look at IBT travel, http://www.ibtski.com/homepage.php they are a small scottish company who run summer and winter trips..... their schools program is pretty new but is being managed by the guy who used to run the sales/marketing for Interski, they trvel to ski welt armarde [SP] in Austria, a hugh region which has had pretty good snow over the past few years....prices are i belive on a par with or slightly less than Interski
good luck to anyone running a shcool trip 
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