 Poster: A snowHead
|
I think paulio should get some sort of prize for subtle fishing in this thread.
You're not AlpineZone on TGR by any chance, are you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Subtle?
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
I'd just like to admit that I used to take my guitar on holiday. But not skiing holidays. And I never inflicted it outside of my immediate group.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
paulio, I'd love to have a skiing trip on my own - much as I enjoy skiing with family, just to do what I want for a few days would be heaven 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
oops
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
this thread is LOL.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
paulio, well, obviously subtle enough for some 
Or maybe those posters are even more subtle than I realised, and reeled me in...
Oh damn.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spending £'000s on a chalet means not having to break bread with the type of people who wax lyrical about DIY. Big bunch of DIY'ers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
|
The thing is, I've managed to get some outrageously cheap last minute deals on package holidays, deals that will blow any DIY savings completely out of the water. It's generally considered bad form to crow about such savings whilst on holiday because there's always someone else who's paid full price with the result that they think your an awful oik for showing off about how clever you are, a concept seems to have escaped many DIY'ers.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Tue 16-03-10 16:55; edited 1 time in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
Dr John, not all of us DIY'ers do DIY for the price alone strangely enough. I do it cos it suits my needs and that's it really.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
IME DIY can often cost more than a package deal. When I have DIY'd its been for reasons other than price. In fact I rarely base buying decisions solely on price. If I did I guess I'd buy all my clothes at primark, and only ski in Bansko.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Boris, and that's perfectly fine, knock yourself out, I've also done both for various reasons, none of which were price. The problem is with your erstwhile DIY'ing colleagues who have no appreciation that other people have different priorities and choices. I'm not sure why so many DIY'ers have an almost autistic fascination with showing off about how little they paid or which specific route they took on their Wacky Races charge across France. As I've stated before, I don't particularly care how anyone gets to the slopes or how much they paid, let's just have a beer and get on with it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
We like catered chalets, as opposed to hotels or s/c, and avoid the potential of having to spend a week in a house with people we would normally cross the road to avoid, by booking a sole occupancy property. As our group is usually 8 family and friends, this is pretty easy. However, this year, one of those friends found herself (after a pretty liquid night out) inviting a 'friend' of hers to join us. It was a disaster, and if any of us (including the friend who brought him along) come across him in a dark alley, he had better run - fast. And he didn't even have a guitar 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
ON one of our trips, ski rep invited someone back to keep him warm in the cold attic room. Some of us were woken by a disturbance, when her nieces turned up to look for her. Turned out the nieces were older than their aunt, and aunty was under 16. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
I think chalets shared with strangers are great. You meet interesting people with diverse views and that adds to the delight of a skiing holiday. I have to disagree with many of the negative views of chalets in this thread. Most of my skiing holidays have been in chalets shared with a number of strangers. Whilst you meet many 'characters' there are very few people, almost none, that I would call unpleasant. Perhaps the numbers that I would want as best friends is small, but the same applies to people at work and elsewhere.
As others have said, the quality of the chalet staff is important. So choosing a mid-range company works for me. Being nice to the chalet staff is a good investment in time and effort. A phone call before you travel to learn what sweets or whatever they have been missing from home provides a small present you can give on arrival and make them think you may be an OK person.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
Adrian, yes, despite having met one or two unpleasant characters on the one chalet holiday I did booked on a last minute deal, and none the rest of the time, I've also met plenty of new friends to keep in touch with besides here and there, so I'd say that the good outweighs the bad on the whole. Also you can meet new friends in any accomodation be it chalet, hotel, chalethotel or whatever. I'd still go for a chalet-hotel rather than a chalet though because then the more people there are, the more good people to meet. I do like to meet new people when I go skiing. Also like someone else said, if you have your usual trips with friends/family throughout the season and you want to go somewhere else by yourself, a chalet is a good way of mingling with others even if you do like to ski by yourself, someone to have dinner with etc, so they're a good idea. The food is usually better than hotel food as well I think, as well as having the additional benefit of afternoon tea  Chalets are a lot more sociable in this respect than hotels are, I think.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
I pretty much always holiday alone. I'm a single gal and my friends are all hitched and/or sprogged up. However, I do now have the luxury of ski buddies to meet up with and ski with every season. These are just people I have met over the years whilst holidaying alone.
Anyway, regarding the local cuisine question, I don't find it a huge problem being vegetarian, but it helps that I speak the lingo. It's been a fair few years since I last skied in France, but I love all the cheesy fondue/raclette and they serve some lovely salads. Italy is probably the easiest. Our hotel this year served traditional local food, with delicious salad antipasti, followed by a choice of soup, pasta or gnocchi dishes, followed by a meat dish for the meat eaters and a cheese or egg dish for me. Delicious. And yes I'm probably half a stone fatter.
Austria was a bit tricky but they do serve some nice soups and dumpling dishes without meat. Just because I'm a vegetarian doesn't mean I don't enjoy my food, I just choose not to eat dead bodies.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
| Quote: |
I just choose not to eat dead bodies.
|
I also choose not to eat dead bodies. I much prefer a decent steak or similar 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
Whenever I fly, and I must confess I am a little bit scared of flying, I secretly - deep down - hope that the plane will crash, leaving only myself and a few other survivors, stranded somewhere remote for many many weeks.
It's the only way I'll ever legitimately have the opportunity to eat a woman.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
make them think you may be an OK person
|
as opposed to those who arrive and make instant judgements on the moral and intellectual qualities and entertainment-value of their fellow-guests based on what kind of ski suits they wear. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
pam w, but jumping to instant conclusions about people saves so much time!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
Love Chalets. We've been very lucky with ace staff both times with Supertravel, can't quite get my head around this "not enough bread at breakfast" and "only 1 bottle of wine per person" - we had everything and anything we wanted 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
It was so much simpler in the old days when all the punters came from Fulham. All the companies were based there or Earls Court and there was no such thing as a chalet boy.
Cooking and cleaning was women's work and they were usually posh sorts who claimed to have cordon bleu qualifications - as opposed to gap year students.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
I hated a group in the last chalet I stayed in. 3 groups, us, a group of 10 and a family of 4 with two early teenage kids. The 3rd group told the kids not to go in the lounge as they were watching a DVD not appropriate for them at 4pm !! Bearing in mind the lounge adjoined the dining area I thought, as did my group, that they were being totally unthoughtful and selfish.
The lounge/dining room were communal areas, especially as there was always drinks and cake around in the dining area at that time 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
there ARE things, and people, I don't like about Chalets. There ARE things I do like about chalets.
To hear some of you pontificate you'd think you were spending the week in purgatory. Fine, if you don't like them don't go. I wouldn't choose to do hotels, chalets, apartments or in fact any form or accomodation based on then ramblings of the snowheads mafia, in fact, would probably avoid skiing altogether.
Fortunately I know better, having discoverd skiing before 
Have a little fun, and whinge about the dreads - it's all good 'net banter, and you never know, some people may recognise their own habits and change them ( somewhat doubtful). But as with all these things, skiing is a broad church, and it's horse for courses.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
chalet nightmare ???
verbier 2008 , first time in chalet,first time skiing on own, last minute booking , no idea what to expect, transfer from geneva drops me off in the center of town with vague directions to chalet "just down to bottom of hill" half an hour later arrive at chalet , to be greeted by 10 other individual house mates !! who had been in situ for a couple of hours getting along famously, am shown to basement broom cupboard with "mountain view" obscured by compost heap(paid a extra single supplement for this!!!). OMG what have i let myself in for. so never mind, up from the coal store for dinner with housemates who included : one vegan, two veggies,one guy who needed the exact provenance of every food type used just in case he came within a mile of an animal, two yoga masters, one sixteen year old lad(packed off there by his parents whilst they went to their house in the Caribbean) one australian gynecologist , a dry slope ski instructor and a forty year old ski bum just ending a season off work, disaster or what !!!
result was actually my best ski holiday ever , great laugh every night , wether staying in or out on the town, two new best friends for life !!!!!!!
but i suppose this is normal for a WSA course
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
| Quote: |
The 3rd group told the kids not to go in the lounge as they were watching a DVD not appropriate for them at 4pm !!
|
Completely unacceptable. The majority should just have switched the damn thing off. In fact, there is really no place for a telly or DVD player in the communal lounge of a chalet - they should be banished to a separate room for those hopelessly addicted who can't spend a week without goggling.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
Pampas Grass
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
The fellow guest who justified buying a Subaru Impreza - the non-turbo model
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
| paulio wrote: |
| Helen BeamontThat sounds like a description of a load of bedsits with a communal living area and kitchen. Round where I live, a bedsit is about £300 per month (approximately the £9 per night I posited earlier). Still sounds like people staying in these so-called 'chalets' are being royally scammed. |
Round where you live isn't in the mountains.
A bedsit doesn't come catered in the cost, nor does it include flights from the UK to the Alps in the cost. Nor does it include cleaning, bed linne, etc.
Chalets generally come in cheaper than half board hotels, but more expensive per person than (fully occupied) apartments.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| paulio wrote: |
So let me get this right. So-called 'skiers' are paying literally thousands of pounds, to stay for just 1 week in a house in a remote location in Switzerland, with other people's children and a communal hot tub.
|
Since you started by saying "So let me get this right", perhaps you should have made some attempt at doing so.
Very few chalets indeed cost anything remotely approaching £1000 per person, even at peak times (it is usually more like half that or frequently significantly even less). Quite a lot of chalets don't allow children outside of recognised school holidays. The location is usually in a ski resort, which is not "a remote location" if your intention is to go skiing 
Your last point is right (if they have a hot tub), but that is equally true of any hotel or apartment block.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
I always stay in chalets as I dont want to go on holiday and cook or clean and I am a sucker for pre dinner canapes and aperitifs, but I am pretty tolerant of people and taking the wee wee out of chalet mates, makes for good chairlift chat!! Having said that I have never been in a chalet with kids - that would probably push me over the edge!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
Flatulence
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Flattoad, Welcome to snowHeads
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
Very few chalets indeed cost anything remotely approaching £1000 per person
|
but some cost a great deal more. My son cooked in one such, and guests included the Duke of Devonshire who was so impressed with the food he offered him a job in one of his hotels. Some have pools, saunas and massage rooms (masseuses bussed in as required) and private 4WD transport to and from your lift of choice each day. The people who stay in those chalets could afford the best hotel in the resort but prefer something a little more individual. Chalets are exactly like hotels in that some are cheap and good value, some are cheap and nasty, some are expensive and nasty and some are expensive and the last word in comfort and luxury. However flatulence cannot be excluded from any of those categories.....
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
|
I agree with pam w, and essentially it is down to recommendations as well as the luck of the draw on your chalet staff. I would say the Cook is the most important part of the Chalet staff and hence they always get the larger pot of the tip. I have been with Scott Dunn, SkiVerbier and Hip Chalets and always had no problems at all, and if any thing height of luxury and service. We have even become friends with numerous of the chefs and helpers...
pam w, which chalet co. did your son work for?
Oh and worst things are chalet hands who invite their friends and parents back and lounge in your chalet... Yeah was not good... Think it was Crystal Ski...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
michaelminhatkinson, I would be very surprised if you did have any problems with Scott Dunn or SkiVerbier (not aware of Hip Chalets, although their website promised much), as thay are amongst the best in the business, and I think I can say with some confidence that they were in the £1000+ category (good for you mate, why slum it if you don't have to). Chalet staff who invite friends and family into the space of paying customers are playing a very dangerous game, one complaint and they're toast.
In summary, I think we can say vive la différence, each to their own etc, but a I'd like to see more people embracing that difference, not prescribe quite so vehemently to any particular type of trip and not be so dismissive of those who choose a different way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
