 Poster: A snowHead
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I just had an email from Mark Warner reminding me that this is the time of year that they start discounting trips. Now I am not a great fan of package trips, preferring to DIY however we have had two good last minute trips at significantly reduced prices with MW when we had not planned ahead and I thought it was worth posting as there may be some Snowheads out there looking for a last minute deal.
In my (humble) opinion the good things about Mark Warner are:
1. Good for families, they seem to have creche facilities in each hotel.
2. The two hotels we stayed in were both OK and in good positions (Schweizerhof - Nasserein nr St Anton very good, highly recommended, some distance from lifts but there is a bus) (Hotel Val D'Isere, great position in centre of town but hotel a bit tired / scruffy - still OK if you get it at a good price).
3. Transfers are on Sunday rather than Saturday thus avoiding some Gatwick / Geneva hassles
4. Food and drink is reasonably good and plenty of it.
Not so good things:
4. Hotels are full of other Brits.
5. Hotels are full of other peoples kids (see 1 above)
6. Its a package trip
7. Only flights, no option for self drive / snow train / Eurostar etc
So if you are looking for a deal check out their web site.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Not particularly about these particular offers - but Mark Warner in general.
Mark Warner now seem to be asking a fierce heap of money for their holidays. Figures like £1200 for a week ! To me that is well over the top for a glorified chalet holiday.
That is more than Club Med ask and Club Med offer tuition, equipment, lift pass and all sorts of other bits and pieces ( though see Alpe d Huez/ Club Med thread for the drawbacks)
Are Mark Warners inflating prices to make discounts look good ?
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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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In my experience MW make money from well off punters that want their little bubbins looked after whilst they ski off for the day. Money is generally not an issue. I have seen more bad parenting on a MW holiday than in a week of working on the local council estate. The discounts generally only kick in when all the childcare places have been filled.
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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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We took our teenage daughter to Courmayeur with MW in February 2005. The cost was not excessive, but it was for the parents rather like a glorified chalet holiday, although on a rather larger and more overpowering scale. The staff were very good, all youngsters working under a local manager. Our double room was very small and the hot water was in short supply. Daughter's room was fine.
We didn't see as much as we had expected of kids being allowed to roam wild, probably because most were teenagers, but evening meals were rather noisy due mainly to the adults all crammed together in rather a small dining room. Food was OK except for the (free) wine, but a little too British for a holiday in Italy.
The result was that the parents didn't have such a good time, but daughter had a wonderful time.
One of the reasons for going with MW was the ski guiding which meant that my OH could ski with one group while daughter and I skied with another group. No other TO does this and it worked very well. Another reason was for two of us to ski the Vallee Blanche, but that's another story altogether.
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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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Derek Jackson, is that the one in the add on bit of Courmayeur across the main raod (Dolonne?), which has a bubble up to Plain Checroiut (?) coming out of it? We went there about 100 years ago. I seem to remember our room as being quite a decent size. The food was pretty ropey.
It sticks in my memory for two reasons.
We were joined each evening for dinner by a staff member. One evening we got talking about Verbier where we'd stayed last year, and mentioned that our TO rep had been a grade A poo-poo, going through the chalet girls like a dose of salts, arrogant little lady's front bottom, and so on (usual TO rep attributes). The girl sudenly looked rather pained and excused herself. A couple of days later, we saw her canoodling with the very TO rep.
One night the old lady and I were awakened by a large naked bloke in our room (a new one for me if not for her). He'd broken a glass on his bathroom floor and was sober enough to relaise that staying in there was a bad idea, had gone to use his mate's bog and ended up in our room. He used the bog, nicked a towel, made his excuses and left. He looked fairly embarrassed the next morning, and apologised, giving the old lady the opportunity to use the 'I didn't recognise you with your clothes on' line.
How we laughed.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Derek Jackson, there are lots of TOs who offer ski hosting and you don't have to pay a Mark Warner premium.
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richmond - it was the Cristallo and was about 10 minutes walk from the gondola. I think they must have changed 'hotels'. Fortunately we missed the night-time entertainment!
David - Yes, we are learning this, but there are not many TOs who offer three different groups at different levels. My problem was to find someone (outside France for reasons beyond my control) who would provide guiding at different levels. With these constraints the options are fewer.
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