How much do you pay for your week in the snow?

A snowHead

I usually go in January or March and pay between £300-£450 for flights from Belfast and H/B accommadation.

Because leave is restricitive I am thinking about a Chrimbo trip this year. From a scan on the web all prices are £700+. Is this the norm? Any nice deals out there. For a good deal I would easyjet it to London although a bit more hastle

A snowHead

Best I have found is Hotel Giovanni in Livigno 2* H/B flights from BFS for £484.00

I have been in the hotel before it is basic, but right beside the lifts

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Jan £300-400 chalet board
Half Term £500-650 chalet board
Easter £450 -600 Chalet board

Price varies on the standard of the chalet.

These are not late booking prices. Never been at chrimbo.

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For Christmas leave it late. The last two years I've booked 2 to 5 days before going, and paid less than half brochure price. There's usually plenty of availability in the big French resorts, though I can't guarantee there'd be any Belfast flights left - would flying from Manchester/London be an option?

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Dave Burt,

Belfast flight are the restrictive part. If there was a great deal I would consider flying out of London/ Manchester/ Anywhere

Who the hell pays £1000 for flights and hotel? The net is full of deals for 1K Puzzled

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to exotic locations, 10 days, £2k.

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flicksta,

Each??

The most I have paid was £900 for 10 days in the Chateau Lake Louise. Incl flights from Belfast-Heathrow-Calgary. With Lakeside room.

After all it is free

Dave Burt,

That sounds OK, but alot of the brochure prices are 800-1000 for just flights and hotel#

Someone must pay those prices Puzzled

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Dave Burt, I also had a trip tha worked out at a grand. Cheap flights, transfers, accomodation, lift passes, but the bar bill.....WOW

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flicksta,

Do you ski in Europe as well??

I don't like to pay for over the odds as it's being on the mountain that really gives me the buzz. If I've skied enough during the day I should be so tired that I won't care how crap my £300 hotel room looks wink

You know it makes sense.

I count on £100 per person per night once I've paid for lift pass, beer, food, everything.

It can go down (Circa £88 for a week in rob@rars lovely apartment) and it can go up (circa £140 for the two week trip to whsitler - ouch!)

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

johnboy, Around Christmas it is but it depends on the standard of hotel I guess. I paid £750 to go to a 4/5 star hotel, half board in Bad Gastein last Christmas/New Year for a week, but it was a nice hotel! We're paying £650 each to go to Ischgl in March next year staying in a 4 star near a lift, half board, I tried the DIY option but it wasn't any cheaper and the hotel wasn't as good.

If you want a decent hotel at a 'reasonable' price then the Hotel Neuhaus in Mayrhofen was pretty good when we visited in February last year. Excellent food and the Hintertux glacier up the road is snow sure. Crystal are currently offering a week over Christmas at around £770 after internet discount. We paid around £600 for a week in late Feb. at this hotel in 2005.

Out of interest, I checked the hotel prices that we went to this New Year for 2007 and the prices do seem a lot higher.

A snowHead

The most I've paid for flights and accom is £235. But the food and booze kinda push the totals up hehehe

A snowHead

I think it worked out around £420 each per week for party of 6 over 2 week hol last year. All in!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Usually?

Season pass 500AUD

accom per week 330AUD

Food - depends what i eat...
Drink - ditto....

I usually ski 50-70 days on that season pass = 10AUD daily or less...

so an average week costs me around 500AUD plus drinks plus petrol to get there...
weekends cost a bit more...

some weeks/weekends I crash on friends floor - petrol then costs more and alcohol HEAPS more(chocolate too) but the accom is cheap!

Cham - I found beds for 13.50euro/night plus surcharge to use kitchen...
transfers 50 euro each
flights - not too much...(i flew around visiting but I think my friend paid 50-60pounds return or so from edinburgh)

Livigno was 350 euro pp twin share for flights and apartment... and I had the BEST ski instructor!!!!

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Xmas/New Year is always more expensive but the week leading up to Xmas can be dirt cheap for packages. You can get away with homebrewing a trip to the US for not much of premium over what you'd pay at other times but there aren't usually great deals in Europe until the very last minute when TOs realised they've been too greedy - I remember Millenium New Year prices being slashed in half a couple of weeks before.

The question I always ask is how much would it cost me to buy these extra days holiday I am committed to/getting as bank holidays over Xmas? Then its potentially worth paying that much more to ski. Plus I get to miss the cr*p TV, get first tracks on NY Day rather than a hangover etc.

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cathy, yes, I think I'd have to spend £10-12000 all in if I wanted 2 weeks Stateside skiing for my family. So it's Europe for now.

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After all it is free

rob@rar.org.uk, it'd be 6 bods (3 kids and 3 big kids), admittedly preferably in a not too shabby joint. Last time we went to colorado it was just for 2 (we left the cat at home wink

). Any suggestions? Very Happy

slikedges, your best bet would be to rent an apartment direct - they have really nice ones with own tub etc. And book your own flights. Dunno how much that would cost but must be cheaper than staying in hotel. Alternatively Banff is quite a bit cheaper than Whistler or Big White & has nice hotels. Don't know about the States at all. Our £4k was with us not splashing out on slap-up meals every night or drinking lots.

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slikedges, sell the little kids; teach the cat how to open a tin of Whiskers; buy a small place in the Alps. It's a recipe for happiness Wink

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cathy, yes, finding a large comfortable apartment to rent, and driving, is how we do it so cheaply in Europe Very Happy

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Just booked to Schladming in January for £480 Half Board........... not too bad ?

This year we paid £250 per head per adult for chalet board in a fellow snowhead's lovely chalet in Le Seignus (Chalet Vallons) £150 each for our children, plus around £45 each for easyjet flights to Nice (the transfers were included in the chalet price). With lift passes for the adults and ski school and equipment hire for the boys it came in at around £1250 for the four of us for the week! wink

Excellent value and a fab holiday! Of course it's frighteningly easy to spend lots, lots more but this suited us great and as a first family ski holida, was perfect Very Happy

You know it makes sense.

Johnboy

You've got easyjet from Belfast to Geneva. surely thats a great start to a DIY Holiday

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

'Fraid we plan on pushing the boat out a bit now. Swiss TOs don't "do" ski hols (I wonder why Wink

) and since actually getting skiing isn't a concern, our ski weeks are basically our hols for the year. The last 5 years we've spent in a friend's apartment in C1650 (dirt cheap) but s/c. Last year we also had a week with Scott Dunn, and the fact we didn't have to lift a finger, no "oh god we've got to go food shopping", actually made it a much more restful holiday mentally. So this year we've sworn we're not going to accept less that a certain standard which involves NO S/C!!!, deffo en-suite bathrooms, ski in ski out (max 50m to slopes) and any accommodation has to have some sort of wellness available. Set those criteria and the cost inevitably goes up. Another problem for us, especially with chalets, is actually fitting the numbers coming to the chalet accommodation available (with the criteria). This year we have a solo male and a solo female with us who have never met so it's hardly fair to ask them to share a room with one another, and then you end up with empty bed supplements unless we can find another solo male and another solo female (not unhopeful) - which again pushes up the cost per person Confused

A snowHead

S/c doesn't have to mean cooking and (much worse) shopping; eating out is always an option. I prefer that to being tied to a hotel restaurant or chalet cooking, so we always go b&b or s/c. It's probably not th echeapest option, although you don't have to push the boat out every night, but it's the most enjoyable.

We paid a very reasonable £1600 for 4 of us (all travel and chalet board, no booze) for a week in a very comfortable chalet (en suites, well furnished) in Courchevel 1650 over Xmas, but that was through a friend of a friend's work colleague's gibbon's window cleaner's aunt or something. We paid about £2500 for 4 of us (all travel and B&B) in a very comfortable B&B hotel in Kitzbuhel over Feb half term. I don't know how much dinner each night added to that; probably less than £500. Passes on top of those costs.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks RobW. Haven't decided yet if we're going back to Big White - would really like to but can't really afford to! We'll wait a bit longer before deciding - but bearing in mind it would be useful to decide before Sept.

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I've booked Xmas last minute a couple of times:

Xmas, 1 week, Pension (B&B) Kitzbuhel £135 (booked about 24 hrs before leaving)
Xmas, 1 week, B&B, Sauze d'Oulx about £300 (booked about 48 hrs before leaving)
New Year, 9 days, HB, Niederau £345 (booked about 48 hrs before leaving)

Each time founds through companies on teletext. Best to be flexible on airport (I think I went from Manchester for each of these)

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

The best deal I ever got was £25 to Turin and B&B for £18 a night for a long w/e. The second best deal I ever got was Val D last minute for abour 350 CC. But there's always the joker factor, how much did you spend at the bar. This year's Eosb came close !!

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Hard to say, I've had a week for 4 S/C in a large apartment for £850, but had to fly from Manchester. Thing is all the remaining costs are pretty much static, lift pass, ski hire, car hire/transfer, so it's difficult to cut the cost too much. For next year, we have to make a decision whether to go for xmas, and risk not arriving on Christmas Eve until it's too late for the shops, or leaving it till Boxing Day. Hubby has to be at work on the Saturday morning, and is unlikely to find anyone to work for him on that day.

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After all it is free

I have to admit, I do like the shopping and cooking experience, as it is sometimes so different from home. Nice patissierie for dessert, and a trip to the boucherie in the village is so much differnet to picking up a plastic wrapped package of meat in Tesco's . Not forgetting the fresh goats cheese form the local farm-you should try it!!!! I did draw the line at letting hubby buy the meat for the dinner from the horse butcher in Gap though.

Helen Beaumont, you should give the old nag a try. Very flavoursome. Food shopping in France is definitely more fun than here, but it's still a pain, especially when you're knackered from a day on the slopes.

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richmond, got it down to a fine art now though!!! Coq au Vin needs a good couple of hours cooking. Into the oven in the casserole, and then off to the bar for a couple of hours. The food I've had on chalets was so bad, I'd rather cook my own. I have found a 'Chef at Home' service in Serre Chevalier which I will leave details of in my apartment for next Winter, and there is also a shopping service called Chalet food.

Help!!

How much do you pay for your week in the snow?

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