Ski weekends from London (as in literally 2-3 days) ideas needed

A snowHead

Thanks to work I won't be able to have a proper ski holiday this year. Not even one. So in desperation I'm hatching ski weekend plans from London - any tips / comments welcome

1) Bourg St Maurice and onto Val d'I
Take the Eurostar Friday night and back Monday morning, change in Paris (Austerliz ) for the French ski train (22.30)
Arrive Bourg Saturday 7.30 am
Leave Bourg Sunday 21.00, back in London at 930 am Monday morning and straight into work
Betwene GBP 120-200 for all train travel
2 whole days skiing but here's my problem

I need Val d'I/Tignes/ Les Arcs accommodation for 1 night - Saturday for 1 or 2 people and so far haven't found anything within reasonable budget range

Any ideas? Please help a desperate girl here!

2) Brides les B and onto Courcheval etc
Same Eurostar, French ski train set up as above

Same problem - 1 night B&B in any ski resorts within reasonable transfer distance?

3) Tips in BY AIR versions of the above - as in any ski resort within 1 hour transfer of an airport served by evening flights

snowHead

Many thanks

A snowHead

trustpuppy, welcome to snowHeads

Can't help with your first 2 specifics but...

I have used these twice before and would do so again... www.skiweekends.com but they all involve taking a day off. Saying that the company have a hotel in Brides le B, so may be able to offer you a night there if you wanted to make your own way.

Personally, to do a cheapish weekend without taking a Fri/Mon off I would first look at Ryanair stansted/salzburg as there are good evening flights (usually reasonably priced) and loads of resorts within about an hour of Salzburg.

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

trustpuppy we done plenty of out fri afternoon/eve and back sunday eve from london airports and as long as you dont mind getting pretty tired it's ok! In fact it can feel like you get a lot out of a weekend Smile

Downside is that it can be expensive when you look at cost per day of skiing.

Accomodation has never been an issue if travelling outside peak season and for a trip of this length you'd need a hire car which makes accomodation position less critical.

Ideally fly into Geneva for loads of choice of resorts close to airport, Chamonix or any other place near Mont Blanc or the Grand Massif or Portes Du Soleil all within easy reach by car. Others we've tried include flying into Milan Malpensa for access to Val D'Aosta, Lyon for Alp D'Huez or Les Deux Alpes, Verona/Brescia for Passo Tonnale, Milan/Bergamo for the infamous Foppollo or Nice for Val D'Allos or Isola.

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trustpuppy, you could try Ryan air Turin flight too. i think there's a late departure Saturday evening, return late Sunday night =10.30 ish. Milky Way, Bardonecchia, Aosta and Serre Chevalier all within reasonable transfer time. Ski Sat, all day Sunday, return to airport.

brian

trustpuppy, welcome to

s.

This thread might help:

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=29999

You'll need to Register first of course.

Echoing the suggestions above - I've done the following:

Ryanair to Turin - then Cervinia or Aosta Valley. Weekend accommodation more easily available.

Ryanair to Friedrichshafen - then St Anton / Lech (or maybe Ischgl). Tough to get weekend accommodation but we haven't yet had to sleep under the stars

Flight to Lyon or Geneva and then Chamonix for the weekend. (or from Lyon to Alp D'Huez / Les Deux Alpes).

Hiring a car is a v. good idea and not too expensive.

An important part of the ski weekend concept is to charge the different costs to different cards and NEVER add up the total.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks one and all for a super quick welcome and ideas
Looks like my skiing situation is not as dire as I feared - can't take time off Dec through mid April
I think it's the autumn weather - I thought I could smell the snow in the air last night (OK one too many g&ts) and then it dawned on me that no skiing till next winter and I flipped

Except I can't drive so no cars for me

After all it is free

trustpuppy, welcome! snowHead

I'd like to try the train sometime.
We get the late flight from City to Geneva with Swiss. Leave work at 6ish (book your flights early if poss, as the Friday night gets expensive quite fast). Drive/transfer to Chamonix (or wherever). Get there about 1am.

Saturday - woohoo!
Sunday - woohoo!

Sunday night either drive back to Geneva, stay in Airport Hotel (less fun, more sleep) or early night in resort for 4 a.m. wakeup on Monday Sad

Back on the 07.00 flight, sleep onboard, in work in central London for 9

You have to go from City to do this, as the others take too long to get from and to.

I must say that if you can wangle just one extra day it makes a big difference....

trustpuppy, There are plenty of reasonably priced hotels in Brides les Bains and Bourg St Maurice. I have had 1 or 2 night bookings in both.

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trustpuppy, There is a shuttle minibus from Salzburg to Obertauern that costs €39 return (or did last season). That is only an hour away and it was a brilliant service with no hanging around. I think there are similar shuttles to other close-by resorts.

Another thing to consider is that loads from here will be still skiing after mid April. If you can take the last week of April off, join 80-100 others from here at the end of season bash. It is open to all.

snow reports

How about a flight to sion then onto verbier?

Chamonix from Geneva is the quickest and easiest.

You know it makes sense.

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

A snowHead

You can save the cost of a rental car by flying to Zurich or Munich. The trains to Engelberg and Garmisch run till late.

A snowHead

trustpuppy, anotehr suggestion - Ryanair to Friedrichshafen, pre-book the direct shuttle to Laax. Laax web site has a booking system on which you can book accommodation for any number of nights. Transfer touted as 100 minutes

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

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Your work/life balance is clearly pish. Resign.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Welcome to snowHeads trustpuppy

I'm a big fan of the train as a means of getting to the Alps.
With the shorter joutney times from St.Pancras starting 14th November, you can feasibly leave London on a 6PM train, grab a takeaway from one of the restaurants opposite Gare d'Austerlitz and make the connection. If the Metro / cab journey goes well, you might even get to eat-in Laughing

Bourg St Maurice is an extra hour down the track from Moutiers so that's an hour later arriving on Saturday morning and an hour earlier leaving on Sunday night. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things but it all counts when you're trying to squeeze as much as possible into a weekend.
So I think a good bet might be Moutiers -> La Tania as it's barely 30 minutes from the station.

Another suggestion I'd make is to take the first class couchette, at least on the way down. Personally, I find I'm too excited to sleep properly on the way there, without the added comfort (which is quite considerable for such a small price difference.). On the way back I can sleep anywhere Wink

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

you could try the evening ryanair flight to salzburg, then train to zell am see and book a hotel room there for two nights ( i did this a few years ago for £12 a night though the hotel was a bit adams familyish!) then ski sat and sun train back to salzburg about 5 pm ish then late plane back to stanstead ....job done!

After all it is free

I've noticed Crystal have started including 3 and 4 night stays in their special offers-some of them don't look too badly priced in Jan and they fly from Gatwick only(a shame for me as it would mean an extra 1/2 day hol to get there) thurs night out and sunday night coming back-so you'd get 3 days skiing in-if their lakes and mountains low season offers are anything to go by there might be some bargains to be had for anyone that can get a friday off at short notice.

admin,

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Welcome to snowHead

s trustpuppy.

If you work in central London then I'm with the flights from City Airport option (Air France tend to be cheaper than Swiss).

There's a 19:50 flight to Geneva that will get you installed in an apartment in Chamonix, Flaine (etc), Megeve (etc) or Morzine (etc) (and probably a heap of other places) by midnight local time. Get the first flight back of a morning and you'll land at City Airport between 8:00 and 8:30. I normally make it back into the office just after 9:00.

The beauty of City Airport is that it's very quick to get to and through. I can leave the office at normal time on Thursday and be back in for just after 9:00. We generally have to allow an extra 2 hours for getting to / through Heathrow or Gatwick - longer for Luton or Stanstead.

Thursday night out / Monday morning back gives you three full days skiing for 1 days leave.

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trustpuppy, have a look at this post. Please bear in mind it's intended as a list of the more snow-sure places near enough the specified airport to allow day of arrival skiing - mid-season, the choice from each airport is far greater. One of the great advantages of Salzburg and Turin over Geneva is cost of flights.

snow reports

Chamonix has an incredibly quick transfer time if you hire a car (and OK if you use one of the mini bus transfer serices but for a w/e you won;t want to waste the time). The Vagabond has cheap bunk rooms v close to the centre of town, or try the Au Bon Coin 2* right in the centre and also dirt cheap - both cheap enough that if they had a 2 night min you could just pay or a night you didn't use. Enjoy.

trustpuppy, have a think about Austria, if you can get to Stansted for a 18.30 Ryan Air flight, you can get 2 whole days skiing in. Failing that, there is a Ryan Air flight at 6.30am, lands at 9.30am or before. Transfers are €40 to Ski Amade and take 45 mins. You can be on the slopes by lunch at the latest. Then there is a return flight at 21.30 arriving in London at around 22.30. So you can ski the whole 2nd day too. Smile

You know it makes sense.

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

Righto, since I too have a work life balance that is far too skewed to work I try and go independently for weekend trips twice or three times a season. I recommend Bad Gastein/Bad Hofgastein. I hit its deserted slopes twice in March earlier this year on both occasions experiencing
fantastic pow wow. It is perfect for a weekend as the flights are ideal (leaving 6.30 pm from Stansted, arriving at around 9.00 pm in
Salzburg on the Friday, then coming back again at 21.55 on the Sunday at about £100 return), there is a great airport transfer company
(rainer-reisen) who pick you up from the airport and drive you directly to the Chalet (about one hour) for about €40 per person
return, and the accommodation (at Pension St Leonhard - see below) is cheap (at about €30 per night including breakfast) and
conveniently located about 3 min walk to the main gondala up the Stuberknogel.

Bad Gastein is in the Gastein Valley and is linked to the resort of Bad Hofgastein (by free bus and lifts). Other resorts in the valley
accessible by free bus are Dorfgastein and Sportgastein:
http://en.winter.skigastein.com/

Flights (inc. Tax): - 1830 Ryanair (Stansted) - Salzburg

Returning on Sunday - 2155 Ryanair (Salzburg) - £58.07

Accommodation:
Pension St Leonhard - http://www.pension-leonhard.at/index1024e.htm
The prices are around €30 per person per night incl. breakfast.

Transfers:
http://www.rainer-reisen.at/
about €40 return to and from Salzburg airport (1 hour)

Good luck

A snowHead

A snowHead

chivdog, Thanks - that looks a good trip, I may well try that myself this year. You did hand-luggage-only for that price with RA I guess, but even so - nice prices, and I like the sound of those deserted slopes.

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

red 27, Not sure if you noticed the date on the earlier posts, but this topic is 3 years old!

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Ski weekends from London (as in literally 2-3 days) ideas needed

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