Ski accommodation for two couples

A snowHead

Hello,
We (myself and boyfriend) are looking to go away over Christmas week with some friends of ours (another couple). The following are important:
- two double bedrooms
- not a catered chalet
- a resort which isn't too manic over Christmas (I realise everywhere will be reasonably busy!)
- not a French mega-resort

We are flexible about these aspects:
- country
- resort (with above caveat)
- resort size
- hotel/self-catering/B&B pension gasthof thing (s/c preferred)
- travel (method/time)
- budget (to an extent)

We are all reasonably good skiers who are happy to ski all pisted runs/offpiste/just starting to get into touring. Christmas is a week we have to take off work anyway, so it makes sense to go skiing during it!

We are really struggling to find places that cater for two couples that aren't a catered chalet or half-board hotel. What we would really like is a s/c apartment where we each have our own bedroom, no one sleeps in the lounge, we can cook for ourselves part of the time (we all enjoy cooking), but also eat out some of the time. None of us are keen on catered chalets, and will already be doing it for another trip later in the season anyway (to a French mega-resort).

We are happy/would prefer to go to a smaller resort for this trip. Sainte Foy has been suggested, but I've struggled to find suitable accommodation there. To get two double bedroom (even two bedrooms!) seems to involve going up to an 8 person chalet, with the other four poor hypothetical souls in bunkbeds/on the sofa.

Does what we would like exist, anywhere? We would be very grateful for suggestions or resorts/accommodation to try.

A snowHead

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

annaski, As pam w says, but for two double bedrooms you may need to search for apartments sleeping 6 and not use the sofa bed in the lounge.

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There are also hundreds of hotels you can book into- most are not half board. Did you try hotels.com?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Thanks for the replies.

pam w, there are lots of apartments with two bedrooms, however this almost always seems to be 1 double room, 1 bunk room. Occasionally 1 double 1 twin - but to get the two doubles[b] rooms seems to require going up to a 3-bedroom 8-person apartment (and then costing more per person than a catered chalet when divided by 4). I have been looking on the resort websites -I've seen you suggest this before!

[b]RobinS, we'd be happy to go up to 6 as you suggest, but everything like this I've found has tended to be 1 double, 1 bunk, 1 bed in the lounge, and we don't want anyone in bunks or the lounge.

peanuthead, thanks I'll try that - I was looking for hotels on the resort websites, for some reason it never occurred to me to try hotels.com for ski holidays!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

pam w, sorry, don't know why that all came up in bold. I've looked pretty extensively on various resort websites, erna low, peak retreats, igluski, websites associated with particular resorts, snowheads via google, googling "two double bedroom apartment" for various resorts. Quite a number of hours of searching over a couple of weeks on and off. The problem I keep coming up against is that to get the two double bedrooms we need to rent an apartment for 8 people, which pushes the price per person to more than it would cost for a week in a catered chalet. A non-half board hotel would be ok, but again, these seem to be a bit scarce Christmas week. I will try hotels.com now though.

After all it is free

annaski, here's one, ski in/out, available for €650 for Christmas week. But you'd need to book fast - I was surprised it was still available. http://www.locapart-lessaisies.com/

and here's another, probably more expensive, a bit bigger, marginally less convenient http://www.lessaisies-lesalpagesdebisanne.fr/1.html

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pam w, thanks very much, that does look very interesting and very good value.

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I have just, at random, looked at the Megeve website and very swiftly found a place with two double bedrooms. More expensive €1035(it's a more expensive resort). I just don't understand why you are having such a problem, really. If you want to know more about the Les Saisies one, let me know - it's in the same development as mine (which I don't rent out, so I have no vested interest here). But if you don't fancy Les Saisies there are 1001 other resorts out there. I wouldn't leave it too late for Christmas, though.

I don't know the owner of that apartment by the way - I know several owners but their places are either rented out already or they'll be in them themselves.

snow reports

have a look at charlotte swift's website - one of the apartments she manages in Les Deux Alpes has 2 bedrooms and is available that week. You can rely on her descriptions, too. http://www.easi-apartments.com/

annaski, I would also suggest looking at some Austrian resorts via their tourist board websites - two bedrooms each with an Austrian double is quite common there, as it is in the Dolomites. We have found this when looking for on double and two singles!

You know it makes sense.

annaski, Another good place to look for accommodation (of all types) in Austria and Northern Italy is www.tiscover.com

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

Is Austria an option?

When I was looking last season, I came across the Kristall Apartments in Saalbach which are very handy for the slopes and seem extremely spacious, not to mention having been refurbed in 2012.

Nice town, plenty of close options for supermarket shopping and eating out. Lively if you want it. Great area to ski with plenty of variety.

A snowHead

annaski, you could have a look at www.snostation.com who run a variety of apartments in Chamonix. I think your problem is budget as much as anything else, Xmas is, as you mention, not cheap. 2 bed places seem almost always to get sold as 6 person capacity (usually with sofa bed).

A snowHead

You could rent our place, although its in the PDS Very Happy

actually 3 bedrooms so you could also invite another couple of people. Toofy Grin

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

dennisp, looks lovely Very Happy

What's the access to Chatel like ? wink

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dennisp, what is the cost for a week in January?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

annaski, as a family of four we always go for 2 bedroom (other ways to keep the cost down rather than have teens cluttering up the hall or lounge Toofy Grin

). IME the second bedroom nearly always has twin beds that could be placed together to make a 'proper' double (chat to the owner) or worst case scenario, nothing that a bit of shoving wouldn't sort out wink

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Firstly thanks for the responses, there are some good suggestions above and by PM, which we will definitely be investigating.

Just to explain a little more, it's not so much 'budget' as 'value'. I realise Christmas isn't a cheap week to go and I don't think we have unrealistic expectations about cost. The objection to catered chalet is for various reasons (mainly the catered aspect) but price isn't one of them - I think they are good value for what you get.

The standard/normal/common options seem to be as follows (costs given are for illustrative purposes only and not intended to be an accurate representation of anything):
a) Catered chalet. Holiday cost per person £1000.
b) 4 person apartment with bunks/sofabeds. Miniscule kitchen. Holiday cost per person £800.
c) 8 person apartment with two double bedrooms and unused bunks/sofabeds. Small kitchen. Holiday cost per person £1000 (i.e., as (a) above)
d) Rooms in a hotel. Holidays cost per person £1200.

And then we want:
e) Two double bedrooms, nice apartment with decent size kitchen/living area (i.e. apt size >45m2)... cost ???

(b) is completely off the table for us, (c) seems expensive for what is it is compared to the cost of a catered chalet (albeit that we don't really want), (d) is an improvement but again expensive given it's not really what we want.

As to why it's so difficult to find - well, there clearly are examples of our holy grail out there, but they are hard to find and feel like looking for a needle in a haystack. I must have looked at literally hundreds of 4-8 person apartments that all seem to come into categories (b) and (c).

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

annaski, here is a place in Courchevel Moriond which may fit your requirements. http://www.courchevel1650.com/index.html

I skied there just after Christmas last year and as it is its own ski area was fairly quiet.

I have no idea what the prices are but came across this while I was researching apartments.

After all it is free

annaski, when you talk about "holiday costs per person" it sounds as if you are using tour operator packages. These are really NOT a good way of finding decent self-catering accommodation but there are plenty of other ways. I spent a couple of minutes googling to find the examples I provided.

one tip - if you are interested in France, use google.fr

Forget about TO packages. Put your own package together - there are plenty of good suggestions above - and the difficulties should fall away.

When you rent an apartment privately you pay for the apartment - if it's a 6 person apartment you pay the same whether you put 2 - 6 people in it. There are no "under occupancy" charges etc etc.

All the resort websites have links to accommodation providers. You may find private accommodation cheaper than those managed by the big agencies, just takes a little bit more sorting out.

The apartment in Les Saisies I linked to, which answers your description, would be €162 per person - and I dare say there are similar places elsewhere, probably more expensive in better known resorts but I bet there are plenty of good value apartments in Austria too.

I've never been on holiday with a tour operator and wasn't planning to for this trip - though I wouldn't rule it out in the right situation. I have been looking on resort websites. The costs were nice round numbers I pulled out of my head to explain my point, they weren't meant to be indicative of anything. When I search I get pages and pages of apartment listings, all of which have to be looked at individually and virtually none of which seem to come close to what we are looking for. I understand about paying per apartment, but a shoebox with a tiny kitchen and an unused bunkroom and sofabed is still a shoebox - i.e. you pay for extra beds you don't use and seem to get little improvement in the other facilities.

I do appreciate the suggestions, it's just I think I've been doing them already. I found Google.fr worse if anything. The percentage of apartments which fit the bill just seems tiny relative to those available, which is why I thought that actual recommendations would be helpful - and it has been Happy

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annaski, Have you tried the solutions room at chaletsdirect.com?

As you point out it is quite unusual to find a 2 bedroom apartment with 2 double beds, most have one double and 2 single beds to cater for families.
Our apartment has 3 bedrooms equipped with twin beds but we can convert two of the bedrooms into king size bedrooms. It is not all that obvious unless you look in detail on our website and I'm sure other owners would be willing and able to do this but it will take a lot of searching.

If you put your request on chaletsdirect maybe somebody will get back to you.

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

Anna, I understand totally how you are working it out. Send me a PM if you want to stay at ours, it would be well within your PP budget even for Xmas week, I'll just have to tell the wife we arent going Wink

Edited, as I have time to do this at the moment Smile

For our place, assuming 4 will stay:

Accommodation pp E350
Flight pp E150??
Ski Pass pp E175 (assuming 5 days, mixing PDs and M/LG passes)
Car rental pp E100 (this is based on what we paid with Sixt CH)
Petrol pp E25
F&B pp E200-E400

So looking at above, easily EURO1000-1200pp. If you have 6, then the price pp for accommodation (and maybe economies on car rental) would go down. Lower than your GBP1000 budget.

I realise this may be seen as advertising by mods so delete if I have broken any rules, just wanted to show the OP some 'value' as requested. This clearly shows the difference though in making the sacrifice in leaving the resort main town and not being in the thick of things, over value for money a little further out.

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

PM'ed you

Help!!

Ski accommodation for two couples

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