 Poster: A snowHead
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Hello everybody
I'm investigating a weeks trip to Laax. Looking at the ski school website it appears to cost £300 for three four hour group lessons. I know it's Switzerland, but this seems like a lot! Some of our group are beginners so they'll need lessons all week. Am I missing something here, e.g. it includes equipment, or is it just expensive? Are there any other more reasonable ski schools in the resort, or is it a monopoly?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I went to Laax though didn't do any lessons. The resort is nearly entirely a monopoly in food, ski hire, hotels etc so is really overpriced, especially for the quality. I recall paying 20 quid for poor quality sausage and chips with a coke. It was absurdly expensive. Furthermore I went in April and they closed 2/3 of the lifts on a Monday because it was towards the end of the season and they didn't have many people there. I think this is unacceptable when you have paid for a weeks lift pass. Also the ski area is overestimated as a lot of the runs below the glacier are roads/cat tracks where as a skier you pole along at a slant.
Basically don't go to Laax. I went to Hinterglemm in the same season, stayed in a 4 star hotel with great food and spent the same as a week in Laax staying in a hostel with poor food and a poor ski area.
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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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Interesting. We're considering Austria too, and those added costs might swing it!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Flims Laax Falera is a great ski area. @madlondoner clearly didn't enjoy his time there, but I did. The ski area is not road and cat tracks at all, so no idea where that idea came from. In terms of pricing for food, there is lots and lots of self service restaurants where roughly 18chf will get you the dish of the day (roughly 12-13 GBP), drinks are expensive for sure. There are also some eye wateringly expensive but excellent restaurants, like the elephant, where you do need to check with the bank manager before you go in the door, but plenty of other options as well. It also has a simply excellent and really well invested in lift infrastructure. There are a number of ski schools in the area, so i'd suggest pricing around, for example...
http://skischuleflims.ch/EN/Rates/ all look ok to me, depending on how many people are in your group.
If you are going in January, I can also HIGHLY recommend Ivan Hunger...you'll find his site here...
http://www.beontrack.eu/ski-lessons-laax-switzerland
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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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I'd echo the thoughts of@coddlesangers. Went in 2010 as our second ski week and it was perfect for us. Lots of easy long runs and excellent steeper runs to progress to. As a ski area I'd highly recommend it, especially if some of your group are beginners/early intermediates. We had private lessons from the main ski school and they were excellent (instructor was a local chap called Christian - very patient and spoke flawless English).
It wasn't cheap, and the CHF has risen considerably against the £ since then, but certainly not rip-off prices. If you can afford it, give it a go.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Hmm. I have been a few times, though last time was 2011. I have never had lessons or hired skis there, and we stayed out of resort because long weekend accommodation was too expensive (this applies to many resorts). Whilst there were some very expensive restaurants, this wasn't most of them, and I had no trouble finding more reasonably priced ones. I don't recognise Madlondon's description of the ski area at all though! I think it's an intermediates paradise, with some really long interesting runs. I can't remember the cat tracks at all. There's one bit as you get near to base where the gradient is only gentle, but I can't remember ever having to pole it.
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There are a few decent long runs but to describe it as an intermediate's paradise seems a stretch! It's meant to be really good if you like the parks, but they aren't my thing. I did go in April at the tail end of the season and it was foggy and suffered from poor light a lot; maybe it is usually better.
Despite this I would still go somewhere else unless you really want to do the park. There are simply too many better resorts, with better ski areas and better value for money. The argument if you can afford it go would only apply if there were no alternatives; there are.
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.....
Last edited by After all it is free  on Fri 8-01-16 10:19; edited 1 time in total
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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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Indeed, looks terrible, stay away.
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Someone could show similar pictures for nearly every ski resort in Europe. Means nothing.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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You contend Laax is foggy. Here is a picture of Flims, taken last Feb by me of a non foggy Laax. You contend Switzerland is pricey. You are right. However, your idea that Flims is a "poor ski area" as per your first post in the thread is quite frankly, bollox. You will see from even a cursory glance that Flims/Laax is one of the biggest ski areas in Switzerland, with a heavily invested in infrastructure and a massive amount of excellent on and avy controlled off piste. You had a bad holiday, in poor foggy conditions. I can tell you from having been there a fair few times, that its not the resort, its you.
Don't take my word for it, try these guys...
http://worldskiawards.com/award/switzerland-best-ski-resort/2015
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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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This is the reputable ski awards where the hotel it is hosted in every year always wins best hotel in Austria and the resort it is hosted in - Kitzbuhel, always gets best resort in Austria.
I don't do off piste and I went in April so it could be fantastic for that. I actually went in the elephant restaurant and recall the food being really good.
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@madlondoner, fair enough, suspect we'll need to agree to disagree! 
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You know it makes sense.
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@madlondoner, I was firmly an intermediate when I went and I liked it sufficiently to go back twice. I do think it's suited to intermediates. I've never been in the parks. My trips were all in late Jan/early Feb, and I didn't have the issues with lack of terrain that you had on your trip and I don't what it is normally like late season. There was one trip where it was snowing heavily for one of the days - there was very poor vis up top, but that was no problem, we just lapped the tree runs. In that respect I found it a flexible resort.
I appreciate that you didn't have a good time on your one trip, but it happens like that sometimes, and is often down to specific conditions rather than resort. There are a couple of resorts I didn't have great trips at, because conditions were just rubbish and I couldn't do what I wanted to do. In my own head, there will always be a slightly negative association with those places, and I probably won't go back. But I don't go telling all snowheads that they are crap resorts, because I don't think my experience was typical. Your experience of Flims/Laax just doesn't match mine.
I'm not arguing that it's necessarily the best resort for the OP - particularly given the cost of lessons as posted, there probably are better places to go.
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