 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi All
Just wondering what others have found to be best (cost wise)
Arranging everything DIY , so flights, transfers, hotel, passes, etc - or buying a package with a tour operator and receiving a package including hotel, flights, transfers passes etc.
Ill not include time spent organisng everything, just the hard ££££.
Peter
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Depends on what you’re looking for and when you’re looking, but in general DIY is cheaper. But there’s often deals, my cheapest trip was a package.
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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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@PeterGroom,
There have been a lot of threads about this down the years . The bottom line is it depends.
Things like time of travel, numbers travelling, type of accommodation sought can make a big difference.
I have invariably found it better value when looking at school holidays and getting the flights early to DIY .
Going low season last minute sat-sat there are often packages that are far cheaper than you can put together DIY.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Depends on what you want. If it's a "standard" Saturday to Saturday one week holiday in a resort that's popular with tour operators then a package can work out cheapest, specially if you're booking last minute. If you're booking far enough ahead to get cheap flights then DIY usually wins for me. If the duration isn't 7 days then DIY will almost always be the best option.
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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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We pick the week we’re going away and then test out different scenarios, DIY or package. If we miss out on the early cheap flights or can’t drive then package is usually more reasonable.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I think @Valkyrie has hit the nail on the head.
I can never compete with package operators once they heavily discount to fill spaces.
The flights are the biggest factor of cost. The prices vary so much and can be the make or break of the deal.
However, accommodation providers (like me) can be much more flexible with arrival and departure days and can also fill empty spaces here and there with short stays. So this can also have a heavy impact on the cost of flights if you manage to avoid a Saturday!
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| T Bar wrote: |
@PeterGroom,
There have been a lot of threads about this down the years . The bottom line is it depends.
Things like time of travel, numbers travelling, type of accommodation sought can make a big difference.
I have invariably found it better value when looking at school holidays and getting the flights early to DIY .
Going low season last minute sat-sat there are often packages that are far cheaper than you can put together DIY. |
+1. Also depends what you want / need out of your holiday. If you are set on particular accommodation type DIY gives more options. Also if you need extra support like childcare, the Esprit (there are others) which have nursery and childcare all on site package becomes much easier to actually get all the elements.
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@NickyJ, a very good point - Esprit-like holidays with in built nannies must be better to go with the package.
Otherwise, the worst element is getting charter flights with tourists. [/snob]
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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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I always DIY for every holiday but that is because I use airmiles and free hotel nights.
Otherwise, out of school holidays. For BB15 I get 4x business class flights with airmiles for £75.
For hotels, I don't care what the star rating as long as it is 3*+ and reviews say it is clean.
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A major factor for me with tour operator is lack of options from local airport I have to drove 150 miles past my local one which has direct flights to Geneva to get to the nearest one which the tour operators use.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I've only DIY'd once -- the transfer from Turin to Cervinia cost more than the flights ! (car hire).
Since then I have always gone with a TO (for the convenience)
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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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It depends on a number of things. We used T/o package at the beginning but then switched to DIY. I find we can get it a bit cheaper DIY if we are organised enough and managed to book cheap flights. Transfers can be very expensive though. Also, with DIY, I find hotel is likely to give you nicer rooms when you book direct with them. And when I have checked T/O package last minute to compare, sometimes they can be cheaper if they are reduced at the lastminute.
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When you (are able to) book has a big impact.
If you're able to hurd your friends and get them to agree to go/dates/location early then you can DIY book accomodation and flights when things are cheap.
If you're unable to do all that so only end up looking to book for Feb half term in Jan then your DIY accomodation options will be limited to the ones everyone else thought were too shitty or too expensive and you could be looking at £250pp to fly Ryanair at a reasonable time. The TO prices (and it has to be said avilable options) will probably have dropped at that point though, as they know most people who are booking will have booked so anything they have left available could mean empty plane seats/hotel rooms they they've already comitted to.
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You know it makes sense.
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I always find DIY to be much cheaper, we ski as a family of four so cutting cost is a big factor. We fly Ryanair and hire a car, but there are lot of transfer companies if you don't want to drive. Air BnB or booking.com for a place to stay. We have an account with snowell which helps us to get a discount on the childrens skis. If it is better value than ski baggage we will hire our own skis there too.
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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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| Mjit wrote: |
If you're unable to do all that so only end up looking to book for Feb half term in Jan then your DIY accomodation options will be limited to the ones everyone else thought were too shitty or too expensive and you could be looking at £250pp to fly Ryanair at a reasonable time. . |
I would be shocked if you can find anything that cheap even now for half term.
We we booked our flights Gatwick to Salzburg in the summer BA prices for a family of 4 was £3500.
We were looking at Munich flights with a change and not great arrival / departure times to get down to that sort of price.
So I took a quick looks at Southampton to Geneva for half term and not enough seats to fly out on the Saturday but you can get out on the Sunday but not seats available to return the following weekend with them.
I know the flights we are on win BA going out in the morning has long since dropped off the available flight list as it was full.
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Poster: A snowHead
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DIY can be much cheaper if you have kids.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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One plus factor for DIY is that you have infinitely greater choice of resort and accommodation. British TOs use just a small range of accommodation in a very restricted list of resorts - especially if you want to go somewhere other than France or Austria. And if you combine that with driving, four can travel as cheaply as one! But yes, last minute discounted packages cannot be beaten for price. It depends.....
And in general the base TO price for self-catering accommodation assumes that every conceivable bed-space (and some in which you'd struggle to conceive) is occupied by a full fair-paying passenger.
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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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The big thing for me is making maximum use of time off. If you DIY and can leave after work on Friday and get back late Sunday you can have 9 days skiing for 5 days annual leave. A standard TO Sat - Sat only gives you 6 days skiing. 50% more for the same time off.
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@hughbedo, depends where you live.
No Friday evening flights from Scotland and Sunday evening ones back are a bit variable.
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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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Very true. I should have emphasised the "IF you can...". It is not easy to knock of work at 5pm and get a flight in a lot of the country.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The phrase "it depends" crops up a lot above
It's not just about price sometimes, I may be able to get a holiday cheaper via package, but it may not be what I want.
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@T Bar, often/usually an EDI-GVA at 06h30... not quite a full day ... and I haven’t really looked at the winte timetable but we’re on a 20h00 GVA-EDI on Thursday... that would get you a full day.
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| GlasgowCyclops wrote: |
For hotels, I don't care what the star rating as long as it is 3*+ and reviews say it is clean. |
So you don't care about the rating - as long as it's 4 star.
Isn't that a contradiction? 
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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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One good thing about TO is when weather goes wrong.....our first family ski trip, our flight to Innsbruck was delayed and then diverted to Munich because of heavy snow. The TO organised a coach to pick us up from Munich and drove us to Obergurgl, and we didn't arrive till 3am. It would have been v stressful trying to sort things out ourselves with a tired 6 years old!
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When looked at doing DIY again the oroblem was transfers...they cost a fortune.. and bear in mind that TO's only make approx 10%.... for that you get support in resort and transfers...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @T Bar, often/usually an EDI-GVA at 06h30... not quite a full day ... and I haven’t really looked at the winte timetable but we’re on a 20h00 GVA-EDI on Thursday... that would get you a full day. |
There is an early morning flight EDi-GVA but on a Saturday morning it still means you have to get from the airport to resort on changeover day landing in GVA at 10 ish which with GVA airport on a Saturday may it get you much skiing.
No evening flights back on a Sunday unfortunately.
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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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| yorkshirelad wrote: |
| When looked at doing DIY again the oroblem was transfers...they cost a fortune.. and bear in mind that TO's only make approx 10%.... for that you get support in resort and transfers... |
What they make is not even over the weeks, hence a number of us finding peak weeks significantly cheaper to DIY. Some weeks suspect they aren’t operating on any margin though.
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Have booked with Skisunweb a few times, very good deals as you get accommodation and lift pass for very good rates, You do have to drive out though.
As an example, last year, La Plagne 'lift pass' alone with Inghams was £200 for a week. Skisunweb was only £279pp for a week of SC accommodation and 6 day lift pass. Add to that driving cost, tolls, but take out ski carriage and more expensive accommodation.
https://www.sunweb.co.uk
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You know it makes sense.
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| Markhandford wrote: |
Have booked with Skisunweb a few times, very good deals as you get accommodation and lift pass for very good rates, You do have to drive out though.
As an example, last year, La Plagne 'lift pass' alone with Inghams was £200 for a week. Skisunweb was only £279pp for a week of SC accommodation and 6 day lift pass. Add to that driving cost, tolls, but take out ski carriage and more expensive accommodation.
https://www.sunweb.co.uk |
You need to sort out your own transport yes, but you don't HAVE to drive.
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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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Hi All
Thanks so much for all the replies and comments. Plenty to go on in all that. Many thanks
Peter 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Like many others Ive done both and you have to check all factors. DIY if cheaper if you go to small resorts, self cater and drive a car full of people. Also I have done packages with Crystal and Esprit which have worked out cheaper (the transfers are the killer if you fly) DIY is also more flexible if you want to choose the elements of your trip. So this year I have gone for a Catered Chalet (as that's the accommodation I fancied for a change) plus booked my own train tickets (via Paris is cheaper) and asked them to arrange transfers.
Is it cheaper than a total package holiday with flights/train, yes I think so, and I got a far wider choice of accommodation and travel.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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DIY is usually cheaper if you can be flexible about travel dates and locations, but sometimes transfers are the stickler.
However, the cancellation protection afforded from an ATOL registered tour operator is an often overlooked positive.
My last chance at convincing my other half that ski holidays are superior to any other ended in disaster last year, when the 'beast from the east' grounded all flights out of Dublin for 4 days and my mission critical escape to Alpbach was over before it even begun. Out of pocket for the hotel and return flight, and a hard lesson learned! I'm now limited to a lads trip once a year for the rest of my existence 
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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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@DonardFlump, you didn't have good enough insurance?
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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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@DonardFlump, When Monarch ailines went out of busness I was happy to disccover that I had paid by credit card. The credit card company coughed up. I hadn't actually booked any accommodation so was not out of pocket.
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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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@DonardFlump, why would you out the flight cost if the plane never got off the ground?
(I can understand the hotel cost, but as others mentioned, insurance should cover it)
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Aer Lingus flight out to Munich and Ryanair home, Ryanair wouldn't pay out as it wasn't their fault and their flight was on time. I went for a bronze travel insurance policy which I found out afterwards does not cover natural events, a mistake I'll never make again.
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@DonardFlump, ah. Yes.
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| DonardFlump wrote: |
| Aer Lingus flight out to Munich and Ryanair home, Ryanair wouldn't pay out as it wasn't their fault and their flight was on time. I went for a bronze travel insurance policy which I found out afterwards does not cover natural events, a mistake I'll never make again. |
How much was the Ryanair flight though? And what percentage of the overall cost of the holiday?
That is to say, it's a relatively small hit and a rare one.
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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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Wow, thanks for the SkiSunWeb suggestion! It works out remarkably cheap. I just discovered that a holiday I booked DIY to Italy for late Jan would have been a lot cheaper that way. Something to remember for next time.
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On the cheap New Year from Scotland thread:
£500 per person for New Year in a chalet in Val d'Isere
£375 ex Manchester 22 December in chalet in LDA
You'll never beat these prices DIY, but you have to be flexible in where you end up
I always DIY at New Year cos I decide where I'm going early, but my brother and wife turned up in Selva a couple of years ago having got Chalet for £500 per person with Crystal.
Sometimes TO is cheaper anyway, we booked our annual boys' bash this year to Canazei in a chalet with Crystal ex Edinburgh for about £600 for the week. Flights, transfers meals and wine. There is no way I could DIY that for less.
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FAQ
