Tour operators v do it yourself

A snowHead

Sharon and I are thinking of a second ski trip in late Feb / March, ideally we’d like to go to Canada Smile

(if we can afford it)
Ideally it would be Sun Peaks and somewhere else (yet to be decided)

The thing is we are wondering whether it’s worth going independently, arranging our own flights, hotels etc
or
go through a travel agent
I know you might get a cheaper deal if you sort it yourself but not sure about the hassle etc.

what’s snowheads thoughts on this one Puzzled

would people like to share their experiences?

A snowHead

I do both. I enjoy sorting out my own trips. I like to research and find the best deals. Equally I use a couple of specialist ski holiday companies also. Have never used any of the medium sized or bigger players (Crystal etc).

You could find a holiday that you like the look of in a brochure and then see if you could better it by DIY. One of the biggest costs can be the transfer at the other end, depending on the resort distance and ease of access from the airport. You may need to hire a car, which can really bump the cost up.

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

I always sort my own trips and like Ray Zorro, quite enjoy doing it . I find it a bit less of a hassle doing my own thing than fitting in to tour operator schedules. For me it is usually cheaper because I ski at a)holiday time with the children when tour operators tend to bump up their prices much more than resorts do and b) Non sat- sat times which tour operators are not very good at from Scotland at any rate.

For typical Sat- Sat deals I would be pretty pushed to match the tour operators prices particularly last minute ones from London.

If flying to Canada my main concern in using a tour operator would be if you are tall charter flights for long distances can be extremely uncomfortable for lack of leg room. Personally I would be prepared to pay a modest premium for a scheduled flight

DIY is really very easy since the internet. I used to do it before most resorts hotels had a significant e presence and even then it wasn't difficult.

brian

rob and sharon, in my experience:

- It's not much more hassle, you're looking for 3 things (flights, transfer, accomodation) rather than one package. The net has made things infinitely easier. I enjoy the planning bit anyway.

- It's usually cheaper unless you're going last minute.

- If things go wrong, I'd rather try and sort it myself than rely on the efforts of a rep who, when all's said and done, is not the one having the problem.

- there's much more on offer and it's entirely flexibile. The world is your oyster.

- you don't have to put up with being herded around like a brain dead sheep.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Flexablity is the key advantage otherwise TO's do this quite well. Bare in mind that a flight to Canada will be the best part of £400 before you even start...

If you can get a price at £700 per head at that time of year from the TO you will have trouble beating it DIY, I reckon

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I do both and have yet to be convinced that DIY is always the cheapest option. For example we went to Stowe in Vermont a few years ago which I organised in DIY mode. I compared the same holiday that we had with the Virgin brochure when we got back and was horrified to see that we could have done it quite a bit cheaper.

So this year we are with a TO at Christmas and DIY at Easter.

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

Depends on what you mean by cheap...

I/We are by no means cash rich but we are extremely time poor. So even for ski holidays - as opposed to weekend commutes - we leave Friday and return Sunday. 9 days skiing for 5 days off being rather more efficient than 6 for 5. (We have the advantage of easy accomodation in several fine skiing locations).

I don't believe any tour operators offer this. So even if marginally more expensive, we DIY.

If you are doing a sat-sat (or alternative package dates) I think you'd be hard pushed to save money, especially this year when 1. the scheduled flight operators have put their prices up (although Easyjet don't seem to have firmed to quite the degree I expected) and 2. the package operators are already moaning, issuing profit and price war warnings and offering good deals (apparently). I have heard that Colorado is already showing some fine discounts. No idea about Canada.

After all it is free

We do independent to Canada, and it does work out cheaper for us. But one of the ways it's cheaper is that we buy an early season season pass (too late now for this season) and then use that to get 10% off the accomodation booked through the resort. If you want hotels then booking through a specialist operator doesn't otherwise save you much/anything against booking directly with the resort as they do exactly what you will - deal with the resort's own central reservations office.

Worth thinking about what you pay when though. Book with a tourop and it's a deposit and the rest about 8 weeks before you go. Book independently and it's up front in full for flights, usually 10% on booking for hotels, and the balance when you leave. Ditto car hire or transfers can be paid on arrival (or very soon before) if you DIY but up front through a tour op. Lift tickets will be included by some tourops (but again you pay in advance) - DIY gives you the chance to pay when you get there (unless like us you buy them early to get them cheap and pay the lot in September!).

For Sun Peaks and the others in that area you cold probably save a bit by renting directly from the owners of apartments (look for Sun Peaks and VRBO in google as a starting point).

If you have time it's possible to fly into Vancouver (try Canadian Affair or zoom for cheapish flights) and drive up to Sun Peaks (for a two centre two week trip it's cheaper for us to drive with 3 of us than it would be to use the transfers - might not be for 2).

The Canadian Affair flight gets in early afternoon, so you can drive a good part of the way over (we usually stop at Abbotsford) and then make an early start the next day (you'll wake early anyway given the time difference) and drive up getting to your resort late morning the next day. Watch out for the BA flights btw - they get in very late and any delays mean you might not get a transfer flight up the same night!

With a car you're free to do your own transfer on to another resort at a time which suits you and doesn't lose you any skiing - try Silver Star about 2 hours drive south of Sun Peaks or Big White another hour on from that (or those two are less than 2 hours from each other if you want to do those or make it a 3 resort trip). There are regular organised transfers available between BW & SS, there certainly used to be a twice weekly one between SS and Sun Peaks, and between Sun Peaks and Whistler.

BTW - for anyone doing Whistler on a budget it's a lot cheaper to get the GREYHOUND from the main station in Vancouver, than it is to go on the resort transfer buses.

Okanagan, naw, get 8 of you and grab a limo (with a fridge for the champagne)! Honest, worked out cheaper than the Greyhound for 5 of us (not counting the drinkies...

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Because we can be easy about when we go and how late we book, the last two years we have gone to Canada on last minute deals. The first year was banff, flights and room only, had to pay £20 each for transfers, but came to £320 each. Zoom weren't flying then and there was no way I could even get a flight at that price. Last year we got a full board week in Banff again for £360. The zoom flights to Calagry were about £20 more for the end of Jan when we went. For us DIY just isn't an option.
The holidays were with Thompson and that meant flying with Monarch. As Thompson sub the seats from Crystal, who actually charter the plane, we couldn't prebook the emergency exist seats, £30 each, each way, before arriving at the airport. Atleast diy means you'll get decent flights/seats.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I have done a few DIY to Canada. Here are some comments.

If there is a cheap flight to Calgary to find on a DIY basis, then I have not found it !. Coming from Scotland does not help, it seems only Air Canada fly scheduled direct daily in winter, hence no reason for them to sell cheaply. They fly from Heathrow, so we need to get a connection via there which hikes up the price. Zoom and the charters fly it seems from London or Manchester and not everyday. Charters to Canada have a very poor reputation for legroom and ,it seems< reliability........hearsay only as I have never been on one.

If you live close to Gatwick or Manchester and can leave things to the last minute you could pick up a bargain, otherwise if you want to plan ahead you may end up paying a fair bit.

Vancouver is for us a much better bet. Although it is further it costs less as there is more competition. For us KLM via Amsterdam is good. It avoids Heathrow, there is a short layover in Schipol and you get into Vancouver at noon, which gives you plenty time to start getting to where you are going (for us Whistler). Air Canada and BA are more expensive, go via Heathrow (a place I hate) and get in later in the day......but you leave at a more civilized hour, for us KLM to Amsterdam is a 6am flight. Getting back on KLM you leave Vancouver at 13.30 and I am back in Edinburgh at 10.00am (really 2am as we are 8 hours ahead). Thus it is not really an overnight flight (whereas AC and BA are). We can go Zoom to Vancouver but only for 7/14/21 days as it is a once a week flight. For my trip in Jan it is about £380 by Zoom or £420 by KLM, as I want to go for 10 days I am going KLM.

You can order anything on the web, transfers, accomodation, ski hire, lift passes, ski school (for Whistler anyway, I assume Sun Peaks etc is the same). It all works easily. I have never encountered any issues at all.

snow reports

I only go independent as I travel alone. I can't stand the sort of people you always find on charter flights/buses. I like the flexibility it gives me but it probably would be cheaper if I went through a TO, on the other hand you have so many supplements these days perhaps not.

Through always booking with Air Canada they've given me upgrade tickets through their loyalty program, so these time I'll be sat in business sipping champagne rather than on a charter flight with the hoardes! Laughing

Alexandra,

what sort of people do you find on charter flights/buses............better or worse than those sipping champagne at the sharp end of an Air Canada 747 ?

You know it makes sense.

You'll struggle to beat package prices for the Calgary area resorts though my first trip on a Scairtours charter with a bunch of braying drunks from some rugby club wasn't that pleasant.

DIY usually means you have a car hence more flexibility & you can resort hop rather than being chained to one place (most North Americans rarely take one week holidays so negotiate a discount for 7 nights or more accomodation if you do DIY)

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

A snowHead

I find that anything beyond a 'standard' trip is better done DIY. If you want an upgraded room, often the operators are useless (as a for example). If you are willing to go with a package and settle with the basics offered, you can do better on a package. I would say this is more likely nearer last minute, certainly we have tried a number of times to book well in advance (i.e. a few months) and discovered we can better the prices of the ski operators.

Calgary area is actually our normal destination. As I say, we do tend to go for upgraded rooms as a rule, but advance planned DIY has always been significantly cheaper.

If you want a good source for Calgary flights, try swift travel. The price I got for January is lower than the TO's could get them for (that is BEFORE they add their cut!).

Adam

A snowHead

Colin, Zoom fly from Glasgow to Calgary

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

Elizabeth, unless I am reading it wrong, the flights are Summer only, from May to October

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Colin,

didn't look at time of year.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I don't think anyone's mentioned that thanks to increased competition it's often much cheaper to fly into Seattle than it is to Vancouver. We've done this quite often and then driven up to the Okanagan (only adds a couple of hours driving) - would probably work for Whistler too although the extra travelling time is a bit more.

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maggi,

well observed - I have a problem with people like Alexandra on planes/coaces when they are intolerant of children! Perhaps she never was one herself.

To give her the benefit of the doubt maybe it came out worse then she intended.

Easy to type without thinking.....

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

Please don't misinterprete my comments, I meant exactly as I typed and it was not child specific. Why on earth should I feel embarassed or ashamed about not wanting to mix with horrible common people with no manners?

After all it is free

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Ee by gum, Frosty, that lass wants tekking on a real proper Yorkshire 'oliday wit' charabanc trip an' a crate o' ale. That 'ud show 'er 'ow to 'ave a gud time wink

(I'm really a Yorkshire lass but just live in Nottingham Cool

)

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

maggi,

snow reports

If the defining characteristic of the "horrible common people with no manners" was that they went chartered as opposed to scheduled, given that, as we know, Alexandra now seems to have graduated to the front end of the plane......how does she feel about those behind the curtain in cattle class on that plane? Maybe Air Canada is different from other airlines and you have to pass a test on (1) are you horrible (2) are you common and (3) do you have manners, before they will sell you a ticket.

You know it makes sense.

I do have a point though, nobody wants to share a plane/hotel with bunches of loud-mouthed abusive drunks for example. I'm not suggesting that anybody here is, however I've had the misfortune to see that type of person on the slopes/hotel and it makes me ashamed to be British.

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

On a serious note more in line with the topic, I’ve done a few trips with major operators but these days we always go under our own steam. In Europe I’ll drive rather than fly, outside of that I’ll book my own flights and hotels.

I prefer driving as you don’t get the frustrations of airport delays and the horrors of baggage handling. Also you do miss out on some of the unfortunate aspects of being hearded like cattle. Shocked

Like other posters have said, the planning is half the fun.

I did have a very unfortunate experience at the hands of Thomson Holidays which fully reinforces the view that (some) reps don’t have the training or ability to do a good job of looking after their clients, and that big operators cut corners to cut costs. Evil or Very Mad

The one operator I really liked was Interski, www.interski.co.uk who give you the option of driving yourself, and seem to be very well organised. Their reps are also more ‘mature’ and clearly better trained. I’ve been with them several times now, including a couple of their weekend trips, and they have never put a foot wrong. They only operate in the Aosta valley which limits the choice of resort to Courmayeur, La Thuile and Aosta/Pila.

DIY doesn’t seem to be the cheap option to me, it just gives me more choices and control over where and when I go. Of course when all 6 of us travel, driving can be quite a bit cheaper than flying and the only ‘annoying kids’ I have to deal with are my own! (tongue in cheek there, no offence meant to other parents whose children’s behaviour I’m sure is beyond reproach, no doubt due to their far superior parenting skills.) rolling eyes

SimonT

A snowHead

Alexandra, I couldnt agree more on all aspects of this statement.

A snowHead

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

Hope I'm not derailing this thread, but I have always booked tour operators, last year for the first time waited til last minute and got a great deal - £300 full board in Les Deux Alpes for a week.

This year a friend suggested the DIY approach and I am feeling like a fish out of water. Where do you find chalets/hotels that will give you an accommodation only price? All the sites I know assume you are taking their flight deals.

Any thoughts much appreciated!

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ken_1969, have a look in snowShops, you'll see our ad there or go to www.tracksvacations.com for more information.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

ken_1969, there are also a few private owners of apartments (myself included [/blatant plug]) who advertise their places in the "Chalets and Apartments" section of this forum.

You'll need to Register first of course.

ken_1969, pick your resort, then look at the local resort website for a list of accomodation, then fire off availability request emails to all that you like the look of.

That's it really. snowHead

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

Thank's for the advice all! I'm on it!

After all it is free

Hi Rob - thanks for the plug but sadly there are going to be at least 7 of us, and more likely 9. Don't think we'll squeeze into your apartment! Sorry! wink

I did a DIY climbing trip to Calgary and had a transfer via Chicago and Denver from Manchester. Flights worked out at £280 (this was 2002 btw). Car hire and motels were cheap though, and Canmore rocks!!!

Help!!

Tour operators v do it yourself

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