 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all
So for reasons out of my control, we may be forced to have our ski trip next year during the dreaded February half-term.
We usually go away mid-late Jan or mid march, so are blessed with reasonably quiet slopes and little to no lift queues. The thought of going away during HT sends shudders down my spine and my mind goes through all the HT threads on here with people having nightmares with packed roads and airports, resorts and ski high prices.
I know this is subjective, but is HT skiing as bad as what the picture I've got in my head? Any ski holiday is better than no ski holiday....but does anyone have any tips for making it more manageable? We are probably going to be avoiding France so I think that should help somewhat and looking at Italy or Austria.
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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 honestly do wonder when i read those HT threads, its not been my experience.
Granted I don't travel on the Saturdays and StG doesn't really have mass tour operator but i enjoy it
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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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| Fridge03 wrote: |
Hi all
So for reasons out of my control, we may be forced to have our ski trip next year during the dreaded February half-term.
We usually go away mid-late Jan or mid march, so are blessed with reasonably quiet slopes and little to no lift queues. The thought of going away during HT sends shudders down my spine and my mind goes through all the HT threads on here with people having nightmares with packed roads and airports, resorts and ski high prices.
I know this is subjective, but is HT skiing as bad as what the picture I've got in my head? Any ski holiday is better than no ski holiday....but does anyone have any tips for making it more manageable? We are probably going to be avoiding France so I think that should help somewhat and looking at Italy or Austria. |
downsides are overstated IMO
Snow is generally good at least!
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| jedster wrote: |
| Fridge03 wrote: |
Hi all
So for reasons out of my control, we may be forced to have our ski trip next year during the dreaded February half-term.
We usually go away mid-late Jan or mid march, so are blessed with reasonably quiet slopes and little to no lift queues. The thought of going away during HT sends shudders down my spine and my mind goes through all the HT threads on here with people having nightmares with packed roads and airports, resorts and ski high prices.
I know this is subjective, but is HT skiing as bad as what the picture I've got in my head? Any ski holiday is better than no ski holiday....but does anyone have any tips for making it more manageable? We are probably going to be avoiding France so I think that should help somewhat and looking at Italy or Austria. |
downsides are overstated IMO
Snow is generally good at least! |
+2
Often from people who either don't go at half term, or last went 20yrs ago when lift infrastructure was very different.
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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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Fridge03, I'm rather with Jonny996 on this, though admittedly I am talking about 20+ years ago.
With 2 school age kids, we had to go half term.
We went to Le Praz (Courchevel 1300) and Montchavin (La Plagne) with Ski Esprit, then Val d'Isere with Mark Warner.
Never felt overwhelmed or overcrowded.
I wonder if the Half Term Hell is maybe a bit over-hyped.
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I'm sure it's fine most of time, just if you have a choice why would you choose to gamble? Weather events that get exascerpated by sheer volume of travellers/transferees on the roads seem to me to be the biggest risk followed by, in the more popular resorts, overcrowded pistes.
Lift lines and resto availability etc are probably more minor factors.
Caveat: Not all places are the same. Some of the locals' resorts around the Inn valley are probably blissfully empty on any weekday even while Merihell is swamped.
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Dolomites, particularly if you stay off the Sella Ronda route was ok when we went one half term.
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We often travel at half-term and agree with other posts. We tend to stay in La Tania and ski Meribel / VT early and then Courchevel in the afternoons
as it is quieter.
If going to France / flying into Geneva we have found doing a Friday night flight and then an early morning transfer to resort helpful - avoids traffic.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks for the thoughts all! Most helpful and its certainly helping to reduce the worries!
We will probably drive down anyway in the van and park up for the night for a sleep, so not too worried about the airport situation. And we do generally stay away from the "beaten track" and find the smaller, more niche restaurants, bars etc.
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@Fridge03, we did it once.
As others have said the horror can be overdone. Our overnight drive down was definitely slower/glitchier south of Lyon but the ride into resort after a supermarket stop perfectly reasonable. Some of the usual Paradiski bottlenecks were particularly bad but with a positive mindset and a bit of patience it wasn't a killer. Usual rules (ski through lunch, avoid ski school meeting time, ski later in the afternoon) applies. As we always do we skied second Saturday which is always quieter and headed out of resort early evening. Always shocking, amazing, to see the queues coming at that time of day. Miles and miles of queues.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Agree with everyone saying half term isn’t too bad.
That said, heading to Andorra during U.K. half term shouldn’t be too bad. Local half term is later in the month. There’s no half term in Spain anyway. It is the same week as Toulouse half term which is the closest big city but there’s not stacks of French visitors usually.
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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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If you decide on Austria then UK half-term clashes with the Dutch 15-22 Feb 25. It will be busier than normal and accommodation charges will rise according to demand. The choke points are likely to be Ski School Lessons, first lifts (partly to get to the former on time) and longer queues for lunch. Other than that, Austrian resorts operate pretty much within capacity.
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We went to Damuels (includes Mellau and Fachina on the pass) in Austria a couple of times during half term, no issues with queues/lift access etc. the only real problem is that the village is pretty small so can be difficult to get accommodation. We stayed at the Mittagspitze easy slope access and if you are lucky ski back right to the door.
Massively underrated area if you are prepared to put the effort in.
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You know it makes sense.
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We've done many a February half term over the last few years in France. Undoubtedly the roads are busier, accommodation prices higher and slopes more crowded. We've not gone to larger resorts (eg Val Thorens) to avoid all of that so have been to smaller bases that link into bigger areas (eg Morillon 1100 to access the whole Grand Massif) as we like mileage. The worst was a lift queue that look 30 mins to access Flaine - so it will always be exceptionally busy around key pinch points.
The last couple of years we've gone at Easter to Tignes and Val T and it's been a lot more sensible....but always potential slush issues or inaccessible pistes at lower levels.
Because of 2025 GCSE's we've had to go Feb again. Because we clash with Paris week too I've managed to find accommodation in Italy running Sunday to Sunday. I've heard Italy is a lot more quiet so it's a great time for us to see for ourselves! Oh, and our accommodation was about 400 Euros cheaper than usual.
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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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Norway is a good choice for half term. It can be a lot cheaper than the Alps, and it doesn't seem to suffer from overcrowding.
It's probably not a sensible option if you're driving though.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Italy. Fly to Turin and rent a car.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| HilbertSpace wrote: |
Norway is a good choice for half term. It can be a lot cheaper than the Alps, and it doesn't seem to suffer from overcrowding.
It's probably not a sensible option if you're driving though. |
Pretty short days in Norway at that time of year though!
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Fridge03,
Can only talk about Meribel & Tignes, but yes, the French half term weeks are noticeably busier on the roads, in the bars & restaurants, in ski school and at bottleneck lifts. Knowing the ski area helps avoiding the crowds, though.
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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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Having done trips everywhere from opening weeks through to closing weeks my experience is once you're into "high season" there's really not much difference. Yes, there are more people around school holiday weeks but that's made up of loads more children but fewer adults than a non-holiday week, so it takes longer to get into restaurants and lines at lifts that service ski school meet points can be longer but once you're on the hill and away from the slopes the ski schools use the slopes are actually slightly quieter - especially if you can just ski and aren't limited by having to get back to collect people from ski school.
So go for first lift/have a lie in and uplift later/use a lift that doesn't service a ski school meet point, and have either an early or late lunch and it will be much like any other "high season" week.
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Been to La Thuile, Sauze D'oulx and Sestriere, all in Feb half term and it has been fine. Out of the three La Thuile is our favourite. It can be extremely cold in Feb, but the snow has always been amazing, nice and cheap too. Not a huge amount of night life, but good restaurants in town and a few bars etc.
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@trmacc, Very good to hear as that's where we're going!
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We've been three times now and really like it,make sure you stop at Lo Riondet one day if you can.
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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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Thanks for the thoughts everyone. Looking like HT isn't too bad, especially if you can avoid France by the looks of it!
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When we needed to go at half term, we found that Switzerland worked as a destination and wasn't too crowded. Compared with France for that week, it was easy to find decently priced flights to Zurich (from where public transport can be reliably used to transfer to resort) but it took a little bit of looking to find self-catered accommodation. You just needed to check out menu prices before using restaurants.
Before that, when our daughter was still learning, we would go with Esprit who used Sunday flights so the usual changeover day traffic wasn't a problem. But they used their own chalets and lessons, so that solution might be more difficult to self book.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I've done HT to Tignes/ValDiz four times in the past 6 years by tour operator, excluding the lockout years obvs. The main aggro is getting to the resort on the first Saturday, and getting back to the airport on the final Saturday. For whatever reason, the flights themselves (from Brizzol/Exeter) have only been half full, and they are some of the first arrivals into Chambery so there aren't too many delays at immigration or baggage. You do have to wait for the inevitable late flight of Northerners though  , and that has as much effect on travel time up to resort as the traffic.
Last year we landed about 9am, we left the Mancs behind, and we were in resort by noon - too early to even check into the hotel. My sister & entourage booked Jet2 from Stansted and self drive. Their flight landed late (about 4pm), and it was nearly 10pm before they got into resort due traffic.
So it is possible to do HT relatively stress free, but if you get the timing wrong arrival/departure can all go to pot. On the slopes it's busy, but not too bad. Restaurants at lunchtime will be busy, and the higher profile ones will need pre-booking. We did get a cancellation at Peau de Vache though. 
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