 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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| greengriff wrote: |
| Bigtipper wrote: |
Single room?
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Is that a boiler cupboard? |
The showers never worked properly in the single rooms I got in the attic!
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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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| rayscoops wrote: |
https://emerging-europe.com/after-hours/emerging-europes-top-10-ski-resorts/
value for money |
I know this is moving the thread off topic, but is it actually good value though?
Some years ago I went to Bulgaria (a friend organised the trip through Crystal). I think it was about £400 for the holiday plus whatever the pass price was. That got us into a run-of-the-mill hotel where they had to bus you to and from the slopes daily. There was always a queue and a wait for the bus, and we'd skied every run in the resort on day 1. A couple of months later we did a half board in Les Arcs, which was around £500 plus the pass if I recall correctly. For that money it was ski in/out with access to a phenomenal amount of skiing; probably 5 to 10 times as much in groomed piste as compared to the Bulgarian resort (plus the pistes were much more varied and challenging), and a sh*t ton of off piste too, which even up to today, having visited Les Arcs maybe half a dozen times since then, I haven't really scratched the surface of. Plus which the flights and transfer took about half as long.
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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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| greengriff wrote: |
| I'm extremely sociable. I'd never have thought about skiing alone, but a few years back an email dropped into my inbox from Silverski about a last-minute cancellation they'd had for a single room in a chalet La Tania. So I stumped up the £300 they were asking, packed my stuff and got on the plane the following day. And I must say, as much as I missed the company, I really enjoyed skiing on my own, entirely without considering the needs of others (i.e. frequent hot chocolate stops for my wife, rests waiting for my slower/fatter mates, or whinges from the kids that they want to go back to the hotel). From time to time I'd like to do something like that again. |
You could do solo days on a group trip though. Best of both worlds.
I've done the odd solo day and I agree it can be quite refreshing.
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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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Yeah. Although some of the people I go group skiing with I only see that one time each year, so it's good to spend time with them. And I'd never get away with doing a 'solo' day when away with the with and kids. And in all reality I wouldn't want to, as skiing is one of the few things that we all love doing. The answer for me would be doing a week of bum-basic, no frills, cheap as possible skiing in a big resort, as on my own I can cover some serious miles in a day.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| greengriff wrote: |
| rayscoops wrote: |
https://emerging-europe.com/after-hours/emerging-europes-top-10-ski-resorts/
value for money |
I know this is moving the thread off topic, but is it actually good value though?
Some years ago I went to Bulgaria (a friend organised the trip through Crystal). I think it was about £400 for the holiday plus whatever the pass price was. That got us into a run-of-the-mill hotel where they had to bus you to and from the slopes daily. There was always a queue and a wait for the bus, and we'd skied every run in the resort on day 1. A couple of months later we did a half board in Les Arcs, which was around £500 plus the pass if I recall correctly. For that money it was ski in/out with access to a phenomenal amount of skiing; probably 5 to 10 times as much in groomed piste as compared to the Bulgarian resort (plus the pistes were much more varied and challenging), and a sh*t ton of off piste too, which even up to today, having visited Les Arcs maybe half a dozen times since then, I haven't really scratched the surface of. Plus which the flights and transfer took about half as long. |
It's certainly horses for courses. When our kids where young we went to La Norma which was a lot cheaper than say the larger French resorts but perfect for us as the ground you cover with young children is far less and you can spend a lot of time just doing fun stuff like finding little jumps at the edge of the slope. But now the kids are older if it was a good standard adult group it wouldn't be adequate. Equally some people want good Après which would make it a non starter also. So yeah, value is a personal subjective thing aswell an objective monetary thing.
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| Scooter in Seattle wrote: |
| I've had no trouble finding a great single room at hotels in Italy and Austria. Couldn't be easier and its a great way to go. |
Through AirBnb?
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I've had quite a number of solo diy ski holidays and usually start with the local tourist office websites. The Austrian ones are often particularly good and single rooms can frequently be found at sensible prices in guest houses and smaller hotels
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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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| nickH wrote: |
| I've had quite a number of solo diy ski holidays and usually start with the local tourist office websites. The Austrian ones are often particularly good and single rooms can frequently be found at sensible prices in guest houses and smaller hotels |
That's 100 per cent my experience too.
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@greengriff, yes but usually just by spending some time on the net and finding a place that meets my criteria and looks good.
I do prefer to deal directly with the innkeeper where possible.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| greengriff wrote: |
| I have to say, horrid as that sounds, it still sounds better than having to make similar arrangements oneself in the event of a problem. |
These discussions always remind me of the contrasting fortunes of TO vs. independent customers in the 2014 snowmaggedon event (much discussed on here at the time), when heavy snow fell across France and Switzerland on the transfer day between the Christmas and New Year weeks. Incoming passengers traveling with TOs had delayed flights, then spent hours on coaches attempting to get to resort before being dumped in in-equipped municipal halls in the middle of the night. The following day the coach drivers were out of hours and the coaches couldn’t get up the mountain roads, so in many cases they spent a further night in the emergency shelters with limited food and in some cases didn’t get to resort until the Tuesday. Independent travellers, on the other hand, quickly booked a hotel for the night at Geneva or pulled off and found hotels en route, before making their way to resort early the following morning with limited impact on their holiday.
I’m exaggerating of course, as their were many independent travellers who were also caught out and had to sleep in their cars, and of course plenty of TO customers who were lucky and did manage to get to resort before the roads became impassable. However it was clear that there were options open to an independent traveller that simply weren’t possible for a TO with hundreds of passengers. As an independent, you can decide for yourself that the roads look too bad and just book yourself into a hotel, and you can go off route to some B&B in the back of beyond with 1 room if you need to. A TO can’t generally afford to do that and also can’t magic 30 rooms in the same location to take their entire bus of passengers at the last minute. But the TO customers in that situation were generally lucky, or not. The independent customers had control of their own destiny.
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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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@Gämsbock, on the flip side… a great number of independent travellers never made it to the airport on the way home, had to forfeit their missed flights and pay through the nose to get next day flights home at short notice.
You pay your money, you take your chances.
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@dode, yeah, I did acknowledge it wasn’t all sunshine and roses on the independent side. However as an observer to that event, it was clear that TOs are limited in what they can do in such situations. Yes they will get you to resort/home eventually, but you have to accept their solution and timeframe which might not be as optimal as that which you could have arranged yourself. Again, I appreciate that it can go the other way in other scenarios - but I remain unconvinced that travelling with a TO is the catch-all / solve-all solution that some tout it to be.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Gämsbock, True. There isn’t a definitive. We all enjoy playing in the mountains in winter. Going with a TO means you have to tolerate their solutions when the proverbial hits the fan, but your wallet doesn’t.
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FAQ
