 Poster: A snowHead
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I can honestly say I've never had any of these TO transfer nightmares, and always had a rep on the coach to give out lift passes, etc. Maybe I've just been lucky...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Also, the point about welcome meetings. Why do people hate them so? Without them I'd never meet any people to ski with let alone to socialise with...
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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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queen bodecia, I think you have been lucky. It's a while since I've used a TO package, but in the days when there wasn't much choice, had many instances of sitting on transfer coaches waiting for incoming flights, rubbish reps who seem to only be interested in sellng stuff to a captive (or not very savvy.....) audience, but can never be found if a question or problem arises, and more than once have been 'dropped off' in some deserted town square to wait for a taxi or minibus. Most memorably, in a blizzard, at 8.00 pm, having arrived at the airport at 4.00 pm! FWIW, the better experiences have been with smaller TOs, Equity is one that springs to mind.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I've experienced the '2 stage' transfer thing with privately arranged transfers; in each case, the 2nd vehicle was waiting for us just off the direct route, so no significant hold up.
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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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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| Also, the point about welcome meetings. Why do people hate them so? Without them I'd never meet any people to ski with let alone to socialise with... |
We went to the welcome meeting on our first TO trip, and that was it, but we were not looking for company. What I dislike about them is that they are clearly seen by the TO principally as an opportunity to sell me stuff I don't want or can get for myself if I do (probably cheaper and more efficiently). I also have an aversion to being forced to acknowledge that I am just one of a herd of punters, same as last week, same as next week. I appreciate that this is also the case if I go DIY, but it is not so obvious (and it's cheaper).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Fair enough. Must admit, I don't tend to sign up for anything during the welcome meetings that isn't either very cheap or free, but it's a very good opportunity for me to meet up with people. Maybe I have been lucky with the TO thing, I have five Crystal experiences with no problems to report so far. Admittedly the reps tend to vary in efficiency, but the same is true of any organisation. Picking up a privately booked hire car at an airport is an experience that springs to mind...
My main choice factor is often price and Crystal seem to undercut their rivals by a fair amount. As I'm getting satisfactory service, then I'm happy to continue...
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queen bodecia, Neilson once held the welcome meeting before we'd even arrived in the resort. Needless to say there were no reps from our reosrt on the coach.
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We used TOs for many years, mainly to N.America because they were cheaper during school hols than DIY, but also in Europe when we used to go in a large group. We never had a major problem, but every time there would be a few little (sometimes not so little) irritations which needed many phone calls to sort out and occasionally led to us having to pay meore than we had expected. DIY is certainly simpler, as well as cheaper, but I can see the advantage of a TO group for a sociable single skier.
We used a TO (Neilson) for an 'activity' hol in Greece last autumn, and it couldn't have worked better. No flogging of stuff on the (short and reasonably prompt) transfer or at the welome meeting, necessary to explain the activity options and so on, all very well organised and it lived up to the brochure/web site. We couldn't possibly have organised a hol like that DIY. If they run their ski hols in the same way, I'd have little problem in using them (except that they'd be too pricey at half term).
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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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richmond, small point but DIY is not always cheaper and never has been for me. I've just booked for next season through Crystal, £578 for one week, half board, flight and transfer. I contacted the chosen hotel directly just to see if it was cheaper to book direct with them and they quoted €490 for the hotel alone. Admittedly a better exchange rate might help, but I'd never find a flight and solo transfer for under £200...
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| richmond, small point but DIY is not always cheaper and never has been for me. I've just booked for next season through Crystal, £578 for one week, half board, flight and transfer. I contacted the chosen hotel directly just to see if it was cheaper to book direct with them and they quoted €490 for the hotel alone. Admittedly a better exchange rate might help, but I'd never find a flight and solo transfer for under £200... |
Ah, but that's not quite DIY. Trying to dodge into the same hotel is never going to be a that good a deal, as the TO's have them tied into contract prices. A DIYer would pick a smaller, family run type of accom or Self catered, off the TO radar.
I've usually found that DIY is cheaper than full brochure price with a TO and it gives greater
flexibility of travel times. A special offer type deal with a TO often beats DIYing. I've mixed it up over the years.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| queen bodecia wrote: |
| richmond, small point but DIY is not always cheaper and never has been for me. |
I realise that it depends on timing, and possibly on the accomodation you want. We are stuck with half term, and in Europe it's much cheaper to DIY then, partly because there are no reliable last minutes and partly because if you book accom privately, they tend to have a high, middle and low season without the huge price hike of HT. Also we tend to go to smaller hotels than TOs generally use, of the type mentioned by Mollerski which seem to be better value. When we skied in N.America, that was always in the Easter hols, and then it was cheaper to use a TO, provided we took the kids out of school a couple of days early, as the transatlantic airline surcharges at that time are huge.
I'm off on Sunday to Tignes with daughter, 4 days for £199 chalet board, including transfer, with a small TO (Mountain Sun, since you ask) and BA airmiles flights, pretty good deal (I hope).
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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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Mollerski, richmond, fair enough. I'm not flexible at all any more. My ski buddies decide where we're going and when and providing I can get that week off work, I try and book the same thing...
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[quote="queen bodecia"]Mollerski, I'm not flexible at all any more. ...quote]
Yoga may help. 
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Poster: A snowHead
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That sounds more like a dairy dessert to me. Snigger...
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Pinched from another thread. A piece by Simon Calder, the Independant travel columnist who experienced a stay with Crystal in Morzine recently. 
This was the moment that crystalised the extraordinarily sloppy operation that Crystal runs at a hotel which it sells at sky-high prices. It was impossible to tell if the mug I was still clutching had been damaged in the fall because most of the hotel's stock of mugs are chipped. And perhaps my lack of care when walking into the restaurant arose because all week until that moment the floor had resembled that of a Students' Union bar after a busy Saturday night – you know, the sort of place where you lift your feet with a sticky rasp from the adhesive cocktail of drinks smeared on the surface.
On one sense it is our fault; guests are messy. The trouble with family hotels is that drinks get spilled, food gets scattered, and tantrums get thrown. And that's just the adults. But I have never previously stayed in a hotel where you could tell, at dinner, what the family who breakfasted at your table had enjoyed (or, in the case of the remains of a stale croissant under my chair one evening, evidently not enjoyed). Nor have I encountered a three-star hotel in France that is unable to provide cheese at the end of an evening meal (though one guest claims to have secured some, served grated in a bowl).
The staff are, to a man and woman, friendly and obliging. But the vast majority of those I have talked to are gap-year students making the most of a year off to earn as they learn to ski and snowboard. They are not hotel professionals, as recent posts on TripAdvisor testify. One disgruntled customer claims that the cleaning of rooms comprises only "beds straightened by iPod-wearing youth", while another asserts the hotel is "staffed by people more interested in their two hours of skiing per day than customer service".
Good luck to them; no one can blame the staff for taking full advantage of Crystal running an Alpine Fawlty Towers, dragging the company's reputation through the end-of-season slush.
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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.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Kuoni are good for Switzerland. No reps but rail transfers and decent hotels.
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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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Anotheer vote for Inghams here. I normally loathe the package experience and DIY my trips, but we've just come back from Zermatt with Inghams and the experience was faultless throughout. No excessive waiting anywhere, no hard sell from the reps, no silly credit card surcharges on the lift pass (OK, the exchange rate wasn't great but it saved a queue) and a great family run hotel.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Has anyne used Alpine tracks? 
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Never used Alpine Tracks but have used Inghams several times (to France and Canada) and have no complaints.
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Another vote for Ski Olympic, though we haven't used them for several years now, as we go to their own apartment. Our worst experience was with Inghams, though it was a one-off. Accommodation booked (Alpbach) as a catered chalet turned out not to have adequate cooking facilities so we were fed in the hotel restaurant belonging to the owners. Ghastly food - much worse than anything we had even in pretty cheap catered chalets - and one of the reasons why I am sceptical about those claims that food is always delicious in Austria! Super chalet host though, who fed us loads of free plonk, made lovely cakes (with his grandmother's own handwritten recipes) and was a good friend to my son, who stayed on in the resort to work for the season then promptly smashed his leg toboganning the following week. I was unimpressed with Ingham's completely unapologetic response to my complaints about the change - they clearly knew well beforehand that they weren't going to be able to run that place as a catered chalet and had we known that before we arrived we would have cancelled the booking as the "chalet experience" (we had a big family party which filled the whole chalet) was a vital part of our planning. Being shoved on a rather cramped table as poor relations in the corner of a crowded hotel restaurant and given poor food was disappointing.
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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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Bar one occassion, we've always gone with TOs mainly to get the free child places when the kids were littler. Like queen bodecia,,
we've never not had a rep on the coach. One year we went to BKK (can't remember who with), the 6 of us got on the coach followed by the rep and that was it! We were the only Brits in resort that week, it was wonderful. It was like having our own unofficial nanny, the rep only covered BKK and so was quite happy to do things like take the kids to ski school and pick them up again. Really nice girl and a great holiday.
This year in Courchevel the rep was actually the resort physio and was just filling in. She did a wonderful job, even gettign us a refund on our passes because we'd been sold the wrong ones - this without asking.
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| Quote: |
One year we went to BKK
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BKK?
We've done our share of TO Holidays. Worst experience was end of season chalet holiday with Crystal. The chalet hosts were demob happy and were allowed to keep any underspend on their weekly budget with predictable consequences for quality of food and wine. When they failed to show for breakfast one morning we nailed the resport rep, who to be fair arranged a champagne dinner for us in recompense. This was about 6 years ago, but speaking to some seasonnaires in Val d'Isere this Easter Crystal clearly doesn't enjoy a good reputation.
Never been disappointed by Ski Espirit & more recently Ski Total both of whom seem to be well managed outfits who seem to attract relatively high calibre staff. From personal observation, I think they try to place their best staff in their superior quality chalets, and if going for a chalet holiday I would avoid the Chalet Hotel type of accomodation and go for a more traditional chalet where it is easier to maintain quality.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Silverski for me, they have their own flights tied into their coaches, had one delay were we were waiting for a flight from Manchester, they use Grenoble which has some frustrating points but is better than Lyon, because of their flight times and transfers you get to ski in most of their resorts on the afternoon you arrive. Have used Ski World as well and not had a problem with their transfers only with check in at Lyon with gear but that isn't down to them.
You can go independent and get the chalet to pick you up, you get to choose your arrival (within reason) and departure times, we went for a late flight on the way back at 8pm from Geneva and manged to get an extra day on the snow 
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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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FAQ
