 Poster: A snowHead
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Guys, any tips for my trip?
Mixed ability group flying to Geneva on Mon 2nd April for a week. Somewhere fairly high up I guess - we'd be happy with a longer transfer time if required.
The other thing that is concerning me is the dates! It seemed like a good idea to book those dates (cheap flights) but now I'm concerned that we wont get accommodation running Monday-Monday! Yikes - any ideas?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Brightside, First week of the Easter break, Mon-Mon could be tricky.
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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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Brightside, Yerrrrrrssssssssss - that's the big Easter holiday week. If I were you I'd choose a dinky little place with ski access to a bigger place - eg: Val d'Anniviers with a car. you could ski all the little areas there + easily get to Crans Montana for a day or 2 and Leukerbad for a day. Should be able to get somewhere to stay Mon-Mon if you do that. Alternatively stay in the valley near wherever you are. PM Pam W about Les Saisies - not fashionable but access to a bigger area. There are sure to be lots of others with good suggestions along in a minute. 
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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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Brightside,
If you are not hoping on skiing on the second monday you could try resorts for Monday-Sat nights inclusive, ski the sunday and then travel back to Geneva Sunday evening booking into a cheap hotel there.
I find Swiss resorts are a bit more used to non standard weeks if you email the tourist office your requirements they will send it around to the hotels/apppartments.
As to where lots of places the well known ones are Saas Fee, Zermatt, Verbier Nendaz.
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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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Brightside, try the Igloo in Morzine. I have stayed there for many Easter weekends (Arrival Thursday night, departure Monday night) so the Sat-Sat/Sun-Sun doesn't seem to apply so strongly.
No it's not high but why do you want high? No guarantee of anything other than thinner air.
Easter is not quite as high season as French holidays and is "quite" late this year so you might be lucky.
A few other thoughts; try La Musardiere in Morzine as I believe they were experimenting with "broken" weeks - i.e. Thursday to Tuesday. Not quite what you're looking for but maybe they have the flexibility. Oh and try the Alte Neve as I met the owner once and he said they always had weekend space - as they're a little out of town. Contact details all on www.morzine.com.
Note to self: secret of DIY holidays is ensuring all components are in place or readily available before booking. In higher season weeks most places do Sat-Sat or Sun-Sun. Grudging advance apologies for the egg-sucking lesson 
T Bar's suggestion is good. An alternative thought might be to find a really nice hotel for the Sunday dinner and have a slap up feast. As a concrete example you could ski Chamonix Monday to Sunday and stay at the delightful (even though they were full on Saturday, curses) Auberge de l'Orangerie at Passy. Stonking food and charmingly good value accommodation.
[[Moving swiftly off topic: We are delighted to receive any and all enquiries, but have been somewhat bemused by the number of people who want to pay by the night for 3 nights over New Year. New Year's eve is on a Sunday night. Seriously, why would anyone charge less than a full 2 week highest of high season booking? Are you mad? Do you think we are?]]
Back on topic: Brightside good luck. If I hear of anything else that might help, I'll let you know.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Stay in Switzerland. There should be more free spaces than in France. Book directly, asap, via the official resort websites. They have plenty of weekdays available. Try Zermatt.ch. Verbier.ch or Saasfee.ch. Good luck.
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Beginning of April is going to smack in the middle of the school hols - shame cos we have the Candide International happening that weekend in La Clusaz.
So flights aren't going to be too cheap, plus places will be booked up. How about avoiding the hols and go in March? Less kids around, more choice of instructors and more room to manoeuvre for beginners!
Easyjet outbound flights to Geneva are on offer from £11.99 at the moment on Monday 19th although the return ones haven't been released yet. Might be worth a gamble and booking one up now though! We offer a mon-mon stay, and I think you'll find other places will be flexible outside of holiday times.
"Live the mountains" - www.gravite.co.uk
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graviteski, isn't the problem they've booked the flights already without securing the accommodation?
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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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Yes, booked flights but no accomodation yet  I've got cheeky long weekend booked in March to Chamonix but my wife can't get any hols until April hence the reason for jumping on the cheap flights when we saw them available.
Some great suggestions here, thank you all - I really need to contribute more here if I can because I seem to do a lot of taking!
Anyway, I'll follow up a load of these suggestions over this weekend - but if anyone spots anything meantime, please give me a shout!
I'd prefer somewhere reasonably close to the lifts but if we have to drive then that's what we'll have to do. Done the car thing at Mammoth last year but that was planned - and totally awesome BTW.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Well, Saas Fee is looking like the favourite at the moment. There seems to be hotel availablity Monday to Monday for our dates & snow cover should be fine.
Any comments on the resort anyone? Resonable for the beginners in our party? Transfer - bus/train best?
Thanks
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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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Brightside, we've managed on several occasions to book Wed-Wed at Easter, not so many French visitors then, even though they will be on holiday. I think there is only Zone A on holiday that week, although of course UK schools are on holiday too. Check out some of the chalet and apartment rental sites (chaletsdirect.com, holidaylettings.co.uk, etc). You may get more luck there.
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brightside, here's what I thought of Saas Fee:
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewpost.php?p=110802
We were there over New Year a few years ago, so a completely different time of your. I'd rate it as pretty good for beginners - the nursery slopes are quite large and you can see cham ois at the top of one. There's some relatively easy skiing mid mountain, although the run back from the middle on the main area is a bit hairy and the glacier sports an enormous draglift. It's a very pretty village. We went with Inghams so transfer was by coach and arranged for us, I believe it would be relatively straightforward to do a train+bus transfer - the Swiss are good at such things. The train would take you to Sion or Brig (or something like that) and there'd be a connecting bus up the valley to Saas Fee.
I seem to remember someone saying they experienced their worst lift queues ever there one Easter tho'.
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