 Poster: A snowHead
|
chamonix on the cheap.... for a week (6 days skiing)
beat this....
flights from edinburgh to geneva easyjet..............£81 (including 1 bag)
hostel...............................................................£110 (7 nights)
transfers.............................................................£44 (return)
so that's...........................................£235
this is what you would get with a booked holiday!(ok no rep and your in hostel)
rest of costs.............
lift pass chamonix normaL......................................£194
rent skis (cheaper than £54 carrying on easyjet)
red/silver set from ski 2000 online discount................£45 (didn't check snowbaord price but bring your own only £54)
spending of 25 euro p/day (this poss
as kitchen in hostel/ packed lunches)....................£148
winter sports insurance (online).................................£16
so........grand total= ................. £638 all inc (basic package)
now the upgrade...........
6 days premier skiing
extra costs.......upgrade to ultimate chamonix lift pass extra £55
day1. Brevent- Flagere then Domaine de Balme
day2. Les Grands Montets (now you can access top chair giving loads more runs)
day3 Les Houches (not included on normal pass but includes world cup run! now included)
day4. Courmayeur Italy (free bus to get there and now included on pass)
day5. Verbier, Switzerland (included on pass, bus is £21 return and £4 euros for new ticket)
day6 hide in room cause you is fooked!... no... either ski favourite place again (not verbier as only once is allowed on pass)
....or do the famous off piste vallee blanche... but you will need to join a guided group (unless you are insane)...you go to guide HQ in chamonix and join a group minimum £60
ok the total, including, flights, transfers, lift pass, skiing in 3 countries (on the best off piste in the world) is now, including spending money, ski hire and insurance ...
£718 WITHOUT VALLEE BLANCHE OR............£778 WITH
BEAT THAT!!!!!
DSTORMER23
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
dstormer23, we can't beat a Scot when it comes to sniffing out the cheapest deals
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
mayrhofen on the cheap!!!!
return flights from edinburgh to munich inc hold bag and ski bag.......125
Self catering apartment in the centre of town...230 but split between 2......115
transfers by train.............75
grand total £315
Ski pass for full ziller valley including buses and train....£215
full trip not inc food.......£530
insurance.......full annual policy in winter sports so not counting that
and yes I am Scottish
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| dstormer23 wrote: |
chamonix on the cheap.... for a week (6 days skiing)
beat this....
£718 WITHOUT VALLEE BLANCHE OR............£778 WITH
BEAT THAT!!!!!
DSTORMER23 |
Easy. UCPA/Action Outdoors. Argentiere starts from £483 inc full liftpass/kit hire/full board food cooked for you and 12 hrs of optional lessons. Add on transport as required at your £125 and insurance at £16 makes it £626. Options to change to full 6 days of guiding for an extra £100.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
Sideshow_Bob, you win 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
You would have to pay me to sleep in a hostel...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
fly swiss air, I did it last year for £115 return, that includes luggage and skis so you don't have to use rental gear.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Many moons ago someone dropped out of a group trip and I got a week in La Tania in a catered chalet, including train for £171. That was a bargain.
More recently did a trip, 5 blokes driving over in one car, staying in a discounted cosy and bijou apartment in Belle Plagne, cooking in the apartment, drinking supermarket beer. That was a pretty cheap do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 have a trip to Les Contamines coming up in January.
£510 for a twin room with UCPA.
Flights £125 with Swiss Air, including my enormous snowboard bag.
Transfers for £40 return.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
zanarchist, and that presumably includes your lift pass and full board? If not equipment hire too. It's really hard to beat the UCPA prices.
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
Pam, yep, lift pass and full board. Equipment hire is "free"
Ive found in that past that its easy to match the UCPA price, as long as you don't include lift passes 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
The only thing that's really cheap in the OP's post is accommodation - but then you're sleeping in a hostel. OK for a bloke or girl alone, but probably not what you'd want if going with a girlfriend/partner/wife, etc.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Quote: |
but then you're sleeping in a hostel
|
yeah, I just don't get it. Skimping is for losers (where is Whitegold when you need him/her/it?). Many 4 Star hotels in, say, Austria or Italy, offer package deals inc. lift passes and half board for somewhere in the 700-900 Euro range for a week. You find them on the hotels' websites and if you email them asking for a deal for a small group or family they'll often beat it, and of course there are normally v generous child discounts, if not free. Sure, it might add up to a few hundred quid more per adult than the sad examples cited above, but someone else is cooking, doing the dishes, making the beds etc while you are in the swimming pool and sauna. It's a holiday isn't it?
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
| boardiac wrote: |
| The only thing that's really cheap in the OP's post is accommodation - but then you're sleeping in a hostel. OK for a bloke or girl alone, but probably not what you'd want if going with a girlfriend/partner/wife, etc. |
Tricky with all three of them that's for sure.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
| queen bodecia wrote: |
| You would have to pay me to sleep in a hostel... |
Me too. A lot!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
A good number of the UCPA centres have twin rooms - and the food, according to my daughter (who is fussy) and the SHs who have been, is excellent, and full board. Top quality tuition, too. It's definitely not slumming it. But for young single travellers, for whom the hotel deals work out expensive, a UCPA dorm room or hostel can be very good value. I happily stayed in youth hostels in my young days, including some very rudimentary ones in Switzerland, where you slept in a kind of attic on a wide bed with a sort of straw mattress. How much space you had depended on how busy the hostel was.  A niece of mine (3rd year medical student at the time) had a great and cheap holiday in a hostel in Chamonix - she has slept in hostels and dorms all round the world and reckoned it was one of the best she'd encountered. They lived on baguettes, cheese, ham, fruit, salad from the supermarket.
Yes, it's a holiday - but for adventurous travellers of whatever age (but most of them are young.....) a holiday isn't about being sat down and waited on and given more food than is good for you, it's about getting maximum time on the snow for minimum $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Not necessarily "sad", at all. Indeed the word might more accurately be applied to us old farts for whom anything other than our own room with en-suite facilities is utterly unthinkable.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
pam w wrote:,
| Quote: |
I happily stayed in youth hostels in my young days, including some very rudimentary ones in Switzerland, where you slept in a kind of attic on a wide bed with a sort of straw mattress.
|
yeah, but wasn't that just after WW2??? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
|
|
boardiac, Vietnam, maybe....
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
pam w wrote,
| Quote: |
Yes, it's a holiday - but for adventurous travellers of whatever age (but most of them are young.....) a holiday isn't about being sat down and waited on and given more food than is good for you, it's about getting maximum time on the snow for minimum $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
Not necessarily "sad", at all. Indeed the word might more accurately be applied to us old farts for whom anything other than our own room with en-suite facilities is utterly unthinkable.
|
I couldn't agree more. It is oh-so-easy to be seduced by all the "bling" of the 5-star places. Whilst the luxury can be nice sometimes, and the £ isn't really the issue, I am fortunate that "Ms Boardiac" agrees with me in that we see the hotel we go to (not necessarily ski-related) merely as a place to fall asleep in after a day's adventure/skiing/sightseeing etc. I don't really want to spend £££ on a room somewhere that I never get to enjoy because I've been out all day and am too knackered.
Similarly, one of my most memorable meals was not a gourmet creation in a fancy restaurant, but a simple meal we cobbled together from bread, cheese, tomato and an unfortunate basil plant (all of which we bought from a market in Venice) and ate on the steps next to a canal. The only "cutlery" we had was one plastic fork, and one plastic knife (between the two of us). Sounds terribly basic, but you know what? It was an adventure and it was awesome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
| Quote: |
we see the hotel we go to (not necessarily ski-related) merely as a place to fall asleep in
|
If Mrs M thought like that I could afford twice as many weeks a year on snow 
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| Quote: |
we see the hotel we go to (not necessarily ski-related) merely as a place to fall asleep in
|
If Mrs M thought like that I could afford twice as many weeks a year on snow
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sideshow_Bob wrote: |
| dstormer23 wrote: |
chamonix on the cheap.... for a week (6 days skiing)
beat this....
£718 WITHOUT VALLEE BLANCHE OR............£778 WITH
BEAT THAT!!!!!
DSTORMER23 |
Easy. UCPA/Action Outdoors. Argentiere starts from £483 inc full liftpass/kit hire/full board food cooked for you and 12 hrs of optional lessons. Add on transport as required at your £125 and insurance at £16 makes it £626. Options to change to full 6 days of guiding for an extra £100. |
This. Went with them to Tignes. Best value ski holiday ever.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are a few responses on here that clearly perpetuate the perception that snowsports are just for the very well off. Bit of a shame really. While it is lovely to stay in posh places now and again, what counts for me & Mrs MA is to be on the snow in winter, or in the mountains the rest of the time. Some may scoff but we had great fun camping in the car in Cairngorm car park a couple of times last spring. Surprising just how comfy Hotel Mondeo can be! In fact there's something quite satisying about getting a couple of days quality ski touring in for little more than the price of a tank of fuel.
Outside of trips abroad, we are out every weekend of the year skiing, mountain biking or hiking, often including overnight stays - so couldn't possibly afford to do all that if it always had to include pricey accommodation. Now where's that lottery ticket....
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
