 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@BlueBird13, my experience when we were doing that (and we did it rather a lot) is that by being sensible the per day cost is no worse than on a week's trip.
Pick your airport and book flights first, so they're cheapest. You may already have missed out on this. Travel light. Low cost airlines aren't necessarily cheapest.
Good airports for very short transfers are Geneva and Turin (Milan also works). I have little Austrian experience so can't comment.
Rent a car.
Avoid busy weeks when short bookings are at a premium if possible at all.
There are heaps of online booking resources for accommodation.
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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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@BlueBird13, flight to salzburg, 45 minute transfer to Haus Suzanne run by flangesax on here
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Check out airports that you can get to first thing in the morning and leave late evening so you can get a full day's skiing in on your last day. We are big fans of the 9.35pm flight home from Geneva to Gatwick for example, which really does enable you to have a full day in the slopes, somewhere like the Les Carroz in the Grand Massif, and still not feel pushed for time to get back to the airport.
Also look at Turin or Milan Malpensa and skiing the Monterosa area- really cheap car hire from Malpensa and 2 hours to Champoluc, with great skiing, lovely village with some good value hotels, great Italian hospitality and on mountain grub that's hard to beat. We spent Christmas and New year there last season (in a nice hotel) and liked it so much, we had a cheeky long weekend there in March, this time at the Hotel Villa Santa Anna-quaint, good value, albeit with creaky floorboards and thinnish walls. Under 5 min walk to the lift and fabulous skiing.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@under a new name, I'm working in London after Xmas so cheap flights will be easier for me than the rest of the party. Although cost is probably less of an option for them.
I'll keep all of those in mind.
Do you have any recommendations for Italy? I've everywhere else in Europe so could be persuaded 
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@BlueBird13, Champoluc (Monterosa) or Courmayeur spring to mind, as both have easy transfers from Turin.
You probably also want to bear in mind flight frequency. There's no point optimising the rest of the logistics to find your flight's been cancelled and there isn't another one for a week, f'rinstance.
So Geneva is a better option than Salzburg. E.g. per Skyscanner, there's one direct flight from the UK to Salzburg a day on the dates I had a quick look at. Whereas there's loads to Malpensa (Milan) which is a short ~1hr45 to Champoluc or Courmayeur and even more to Geneva.
Don't forget that logistics at the home end are also important, it's horrible arriving at e.g. Luton airport at midnight when there are no trains...
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Hi,
I travel to Austria for a long ski weekend every year. We travel Fri early and come back late Mon, so only 2 days off work. This gives you 3 to 3 1/2 days skiing.
It depends where you live but from the northwest I fly from Manchester to Munich via Lufthansa. Flights are reasonable and if you pay for a checked in bag you get free ski transit.
The return flight is 9.30pm on the Monday giving you that day on the slopes and back in work Tuesday.
There is a early Friday flight that arrives at 10 am local time. As you would expect the collection of bags and passport control is efficient. The previous poster is right that hiring a car is the best option really. I have paid as little as £100 for a decent size car to throw our gear in the back. The journey from Munich to Austrian Tyrol is easy. I would recommend (although they are the best value) not hiring from budget/Avis as the queue is always huge picking the car up. You can get away in the car pretty sharpish and be in resort for just past midday.
We normally go self accommodation and Booking.com is great for this. It allows you to book for the days you need. If the chalet is cheap enough sometimes we book until Tues so we can store our bags and have a quick shower before we head back to the airport on a Monday. It's up to you as we have gone 'slope fresh' straight to the airport sometimes!
The great thing about this type of holiday is that's it's completely flexible. On some trips for approx 30 mins commute in the morning you can ski a different area everyday. One year we stayed near Kitz and the snow wasn't great on the forecast so we travelled first thing to Kaprun and had a great day on the glacier. All lifts in Austria have free parking.
The best resort choice for me from Munich is the Ziller valley. Only a 2 hour drive and tons of choice. This also allows you to be on the slopes if you choose before 2pm on the Friday. ski Jewel area is even closer. On some occassions and sacrificing the half first days skiing we have made the longer commutes to Solden and St Anton. These normally take around 3.5 hours to drive, but worth it!
Ski passes normally cost around £100-120 for 3-3.5 days skiing.
As we travel as a group the cost is shared with the hire car and accommodation making it super value.
It's also cheap to eat and drink in Austria with plenty of supermarkets.
I love it and hope this helps.
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I would only suggest, @Claffster, that flying the evening before makes the first day's skiing more efficient. But that's very flight dependant.
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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.
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Hi, dito much of the others comments, I’m lucky to get away a bunch of times during the season but all are for usually 4 nights or so. I piece together everything and it usually is cheaper and far more flexible than going on a package deal. Some tips I’ve picked up –
Getting to resort...
Car rental (if necessary) I use holiday autos (Google it) are rock bottom car rentals that just must have a deal with some of the big players, as every time I’ve used them (too many times to count) my voucher is with Avis/Europe car etc. Usually use this option to get to ValD, Tignes, Les Arc etc as transfers are crazy expensive. For larger groups it is always worth paying for 2/3 smaller cars than trying to get a MPV or mini bus. Example 1 week small car hire (min insurance) £100, large MPV £460 enough said. Take into account the cost of parking, seems trivial but in ValD for example this will cost you almost as much as the car hire! Finding a legitimate parking spot is difficult but the real money conscious will wait and pounce (best done on a Sat when everyone is leaving).
If you are travelling to Austria, then their public transport systems are excellent and super cheap, although can sometimes be awkward to understand, I would pick up the phone and ask, but I’ve never had to book any tickets in advance, removes the risk of delays etc.
Flights
As I’m sure you know, most (but not all) low cost operators charge significant money for equipment carriage, circa £60 yet some of the others like Brussels airlines and BA don’t. The likes of BA are very competitive with easyjet and others and you get you kit on for free. The important thing here is to look at some of the more obscure airports. Yesterday I started researching my NY trip (very late) and flying into Basel rather than Geneva would save me £150 on the flight and only add an hour to my transfer. Tip is to look at other lesser know airports.
Accommodation
The best deals I’ve had is from phoning the tourist office in the resort(s), they know of far more options than I can find via the net. Works particularly well in Austria! Sounds like I’m a nerd on getting to resort cheaply given the amount I’ve written – I have no excuse sorry…
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We run packaged weekend trips from our chalet near Bourg Saint Maurice. Either travel by train overnight or fly to Geneva and we can pick you up - transfer time around 2hrs.
Full details here: www.whiteroomchalet.com/win_ski_weekends.htm
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Quote: |
phoning the tourist office in the resort...Works particularly well in Austria
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Hmmm, I don't think that would be the recommended method for, say, Champoluc. Depends very much on the resort and TO.
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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.
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@Somersetjedi, BA now charges for skis. Swiss doesn't.
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Chamcham, be good to get this confirmed as i've just checked the BA T&C and it states
Carrying sporting goods and musical instruments
Oversized bags
Larger items of up to 190cm x 75cm x 65cm (75in x 29.5in x 25.5in) can be carried for an additional over-sized bag charge. (Currently, we waive this charge so you do not pay it.)
Still states it's free if you keep within the 23kg limit.
http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/sporting-goods-and-musical-instruments
But there might be some other small print i've not seen. I last went with BA this summer with a bike and didn't get charged.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Quote: |
Hmmm, I don't think that would be the recommended method for, say, Champoluc. Depends very much on the resort and TO.
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Agreed! Don't follow my logic to the letter, main stream sizable resorts tend to have a reasonably functioning TO.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@Somersetjedi, you say that but Chamonix for example has some very strange practices for registering your accommodation with the TO. I.e. we don't. Never got any bookings through them when we did...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that there are odd practices, the website when looking for accommodation is odd, looks nice but it's a devil to get a proper list of available places. That said, I've had success today booking Hotel Du Louvre over NY. I've always looked but never booked through AirBnB, not sure why as it seems to be gaining momentum - this must have been covered in previous posts.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yo, err, Bird. I used to do week long trips every year then about 6 years ago tried shorter trips, and haven't looked back since.
Much more fun doing two 3 day trips than one week - you see two different areas, look forward to two different holidays etc.
I normally go to Innsbruck. 12 minute bus ride from the airport.
Hotels are ridiculously cheap (38 Euros B&B) as is food and drink in the city, and tons of choices of resorts everyday within an hour of the city (by tram or train, or free bus).
It actually works out cheaper per day's skiing than most packages. For 3 nights, you get 3.5 days on the slopes (on a package it's 6 days' skiing for 7 nights).
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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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| Neil Neige wrote: |
Yo, err, Bird. I used to do week long trips every year then about 6 years ago tried shorter trips, and haven't looked back since.
Much more fun doing two 3 day trips than one week - you see two different areas, look forward to two different holidays etc.
I normally go to Innsbruck. 12 minute bus ride from the airport.
Hotels are ridiculously cheap (38 Euros B&B) as is food and drink in the city, and tons of choices of resorts everyday within an hour of the city (by tram or train, or free bus).
It actually works out cheaper per day's skiing than most packages. For 3 nights, you get 3.5 days on the slopes (on a package it's 6 days' skiing for 7 nights). |
depends which flights you choose for your package. You can quite easily get 7.5 days skiing instead of 6.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@mikeycharlton, 7.5 days is a little light. For a week's leave I'd expect 9 full days skiing.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@under a new name, Yes but if you go at easter you can get 10 days in for 4 days leave.
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@Neil Neige, Flying first thing in the morning (Friday) and returning late (Monday) I assume?
-Innsbruck definitely appeals.
- I'd rather hire a car for ease getting around the resorts.
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FAQ
, at Easter you can get 6 days for two days leave...
