Easter family holiday costs??

A snowHead

Costing out for a family of four for Easter in France, self catering. I'm getting a price of between £3K and £3.6K which is a TO price. This includes lift passes, equipment hire, transfers etc. So everything except for food. We'd fly from a regional airport in the UK so that adds a supplement.

What's the opinion on this cost? Too much for what I'm getting or about right all things considered.

I can't drive to the alps so DIY flights/accommodation are my other option or possibly look for cheaper resorts (currently looking at either Flaine or La Plagne).

Some general thoughts on this would be helpful be before I book. At the moment I just don't know if I'm not being rational with the costs. It does seem to me that lift passes and equipment hire (2 x Boots 3 x Skis plus 1 x Ski carriage) come to almost £1K which is pretty much a fixed cost so what I'm playing with is the usual flights/accomodation/transfers.

Anyone want to give me a reality check?

A snowHead

Your passes and equpment will come to about £1000

You accomodation Self Catering should come to betewwn £600 and £1300

Your flights and transfers shouldn't be more than £800 for the four of you but you could probably get for a lot less.

So you could do it cheaper as a DIY. Perhaps save up to a thosuand pounds

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

Just a thought - have you considered week after Easter which I would guess should be a cheaper week?
E.g. where I am schools break up on 31/3/10 and don't return 'til 19/4/10.
Easter weekend is 2/4/10-5/4/10 so you could have 10/4/10-17/4/10.

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garethjomo, not sure wherejohnnyh, is flying from but flights at easter with easyjet from Newcastle are currently about £900 return for 4 people so your £800 figure is a bit low, but maybe still cheaper from London airports

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

johnnyh, seems a bit steep, our Easter holiday, 2 adults, 2 kids, DIY to Nassfeld Austria, self catering £1850 inc lift passes, 2 x ski carriage, 2 x kid ski renatals, 1 x kid ski school. Just add food and water. But that's a bit of a steal, between £2200 - £2400 should be generally achievable.

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Just checked and my Feb Half Term 09 trip was £3.6k for flights, car hire, accomodation, lift passes, and equipment hire for seven adults.

Half term is notoriously more expensive than Easter, and we had approximately twice as many people (offsetting for the fact that children's lift passes and gear is generally cheaper).

Hence, you're getting ripped off I would say.

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

OK, it's looking bad then. I've not booked yet, so still have my options open. Just had a look at flights only and they are coming in at £375 per person so that's £1500 before I get off the ground. Add in the equipment at around £1000 I'm down 2.5k and I'm still at the airport. If I budget a transfer at £400, I'm going to struggle with accommodation at £600 and that takes me back to my TO price.

garethjomo, I wish you were right on the transfers and flights but as I say a very quick look and I'm hitting £1500 for flights alone, from Exeter.

I can get Easyjet from Bristol which gives me flights for around £950 but then Bristol is another couple of hours from me, so not ideal but food for thought.

OK will still work through this, but appreciate your input on me getting ripped off by all and sundry.

After all it is free

Les gets have a family offer with big discounts on lift passes if you book s/c through the tourist office. We got an apt for 9 Inc lift passes for £1100. It's low though and that's the risk.

Hamish, am stuck with the easter week I'm afraid, but fair point on different dates offering considerably different costs.

paulio, agree that £3.5K feels like a half-term level of price, but I'm struggling on saving significantly.

Without trying to sound flash saving a couple of hundred pounds probably isn't worth it for the extra DIY hassle (for me). I would DIY if the saving were close to a thousand pounds but to save less but find myself driving extra miles/hours to a different airport or struggling with hire cars/transfers won't be a good start - I'm not an experienced DIY ski traveller and I'm easily overwhelmed by quite how many things I need to organise and arrange just to get the family and I onto the piste.

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michael stocking, yes, I'd worry about Les Gets that late in the season. Actually I'm worrying about that late in the season anyway, but I don't want to add the no snow stress to this as well! But damn good price at £1100.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

johnnyh, £3.5k feels like a half-term level of price for about twice as many people.

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We're taking tennis raquets...

You know it makes sense.

michael stocking, I'm sure it'll be fine, it's just a long time to wait and be looking at the webcams everyday.

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

A snowHead

johnnyh, It is not difficult to get a DIY holiday a fair bit cheaper than you seem to paying, I have just looked at some prices for Nendaz in Switzerland.
April 3-10 appartments seem to be about 600-750CHF and will be pretty good. Lift pass for family of four at family rates 814-1046 CHF depending on wheher you want the pass to include the Verbier Mont Fort area or not.
You can get flights from Bristol at a not excessive rate and get either a swiss transfer rail ticket for a family which is reaonable or car hire which is a bit pricier but adds flexibility. All up without ski hire <£2000, The appartments will be far nicer than most tour operator ones to La Plagne or Flaine as well. Snow reliability is very good.

A snowHead

You can do it cheaper, but I think you might have to consider other resorts.

E.g. Mayrhofen (village is low but skiing is high) 3/4/10-10/4/10
LHR-Munich £580 + ?£30? ski carriage = £510 (might have to play with flight times and costs a bit)
Tx by 4 seasons minibus (assuming 2 kids are between 5-14) Euro 196 + (2*38 )) = £250 ish (http://www.tirol-taxi.at/airporttransfer/english/four_seasons_travel_booking_request.html) (or by rail if you feel up to it is cheaper)
Apartment e.g. aparthotel Ederfeld 50m2 room = 770Euro + (7*2*15 for kids) = £900 ish (http://www.ederfeld.at/tcms/cms/english/cat_3/cId_10)
Ski pass = 2*217 + 2*173.5 = 781 Euro = £700 ish (don't know how old kids are so may be less)
ski hire = 2*70 + 52 = 192 Euro = £174 ish (http://www.rentski.info/topskiuk.htm)

total = about £2650 + food
(apologies if I've got sums wrong)

You may find that it might not be that much more expensive to stay in a hotel by the time you factor in the odd meal out when it's too tiring to cook Smile

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

johnnyh, how old are the kids, this can make a difference with lift passes, Zermatt for example offers free lift passes for up to 9 year olds.

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T Bar and Hamish, both very tempting inteneries and I will definately look into them as an option. Thank you both for coming up with those.

masmith, children are 12 and 9 so in the older one's case I'm paying adult price with the TO!! I guess he does fill a seat on the plane, but even so, 12 is a bit young in my opinion.

My worry with Austria would be late season snow - but I'll do some research on that. Would really like to go back there and since the children have never been it would tck another life experience box.

Thanks for the suggestions . . .

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I've paid £425 each for half term for 2 of us (daughter and me) for 2 x Easyjet Gatwick to Zurich (inc skis), Swiss Rail Transfers (free for kids), apartment for 2 for week in Laax. Lift passes will be £310. Not sure whether there are Zurich flights from the west but should be pretty snowsure there.

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Colin B, T Bar, so with the rail transfer does that take you direct to the resort or is it a taxi ride from the destination station? I presume these can be booked online?

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

johnnyh, the Swiss Transfer tickets include all travel from airport to resort, last leg may be by bus if the resort does not have a railway station. They are great value, especially if you have kids, as the kids (up to age 15 I think) travel free with parents. Tickets are approx £60 return

After all it is free

I have easter free in my studio apartment in Tignes if it is of any use...............

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johnnyh,

brian

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Return flights from Cardiff to Geneva on 3rd April would cost just under £700 with bags. Which is what i based my figure on

I've done some research based on the above and I have concluded that I must be very thick and stupid because I'm still struggling to get anything close to a decent price for the holiday I'm looking at.

I accept around £1000 for lift passes and various equipment costs.
I can get Easyjet flights to Geneva for around £950.

That leaves me with less than £1K for accomodation and transfers which as far as I can see isn't looking very likely. Which is starting to make the orginal holiday price not so bad.

You know it makes sense.

johnnyh,
I dont know how much you intend to pay for equipment but the likft passes I have quoted are about £600 assuming the children are between 15 and 18 if they are younger the lift pass is less and the Printze area which still probably gives you as much skiing as Flaine is less still so £1000 on lift pass and equipment sounds unlikely.

For easily booked appartments a lot cheaper than you seem to be getting see here:(I wouldn't go for the cheapest)

http://www.interhome.ch/holiday-rentals/Switzerland/Valais/Nendaz/search-result.aspx?partnerID=CH230012&lCode=EN-CH&cCode=CH&rID=3&regionCode=10&pID=1105&placeCode=01961&dtCheckIn=2010-04-03&duration=7&nbrPersons=4&nbrPersonsMax=5&pSize=10&sortField=20

PS here are the ski pass rates for the full area, tot up the family rates for each adult and child or youth multipl, by approx 0.6 to convert to pounds
http://www.nendaz.ch/tourism/vallees-mont-fort-rates-winter.html

PPS I have managed to find cheaper places than Interhome in the pas t jsut as good with a little searching, you can also try their web site for other resorts in Switzerland

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

johnnyh, I don't actually think that price is too bad - but I wonder whether you are looking at pretty basic accommodation (and equipment hire). How big is the apartment you're being offered? I think you might not necessarily be able to to get a lot cheaper, but maybe better VFM. Some of the Swiss/Austrian suggestions sound well worth a look. In French tems, whilst our own apartment is only at 1550m (and has been fine early April, most years) I don't think Flaine is necessarily a particularly good bet in terms of "late season". Sure, the top is higher, but the main Flaine bowl is only around 1600m and you have to come down to that level all the time - and most of the GM is lower. There may be better alternatives at that kind of altitude. For example, sticking to France for a moment, at a similar altitude to Flaine you could rent a very nice 2 bedroom 45 sq metre piste-side apartment for about 550 euros in Les Saisies. Cheaper lift passes, a reasonable size ski domaine, something a bit different. Or, if you really want to go higher and snowsure (which makes sense) you'd need to look at somewhere like Val Thorens where there's a lot of higher altitude skiing.

Where are you flying from? The Easter flight prices do look quite high.

And don't underestimate how much feeding yourselves could cost you at resort prices. If you have an apartment convenient to return to for lunch, that could save a couple of hundred euro during the week.

A snowHead

Isn't it worth going into say Geneva, Innsbruck or some other decent city the day before (good Friday and maybe coming back either a day early or couple of days late?. For Innsbruck on skyscanner that would be the difference of paying 1056 for a family of 4 on a sat / sat to 376 fr/ fr. Ok you would have an overnight city break but if you travelled onto the resort first thing you would still get your 6 full days ski-ing in.

A snowHead

I've booked for Laax through Interhome too, a small studio though only big enough for 2. They may have larger ones. eng_ch on here has an apartment in Laax.

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

pam w, thanks for your input - I'm going to ponder it today. The accommodation for Flaine was pretty good, so in some senses the cost was reasonable value for money. It's just that I read so often on here that people get a weeks skiing in for a family of four for in the region of £2 - £2.5K and I felt like I was paying a little too much without putting in the research. If I dig around and can't find an alternative I'll be happy. My problem is getting fixated on this product and then not being able to rationalise the cost.

The options people are pointing out on here all seem very compelling. Nevertheless, having spent a couple of hours last night researching them I've still struggled with something which I could say saved significant amounts of money (£1K ?) and still gave me the holiday I'm looking for.

Ideally I'm flying from Exeter - which is still a couple of hours drive away. I checked flights from London and they are significantly cheaper (for example £500 for four to Munich) but driving to London costs me an extra day of time and in the region of £150 of fuel plus probably an overnight in a cheap hotel. Therefore I'm inclined to the Exeter/Bristol airports.

Agree about snow at Flaine and to be honest I'm choosing there for "family friendly" skiing and the apartment as much as anything.

I'll hunt around again based on all this feedback. Thanks very much everyone; I'll get something somehow! I just don't want to feel as though I'm throwing money away by being lazy and not researching all the options.

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johnnyh, when we used to do family packages - years ago now (most recently must have been about 12 years ago) I never managed to get under £500 a head - generally in low-end catered chalets, which we found good value. That's why I didn't think the price you quoted was too bad, though you will spend a fair bit on food, at current exchange rates. I don't know Flaine very well, because I've never stayed there, just done day-trips, but the accommodation isn't all on top of the slopes - presumably the apartment you've found is very well placed? Bristol/Geneva easyJet is around £150 a head on 3/10 April - I don't blame you for not wanting to drive to London. You could save a bit, but I don't see any way you'd save £1K on the price you've got - and you've done a fair bit of research, by the sound of it. There's no medals to be won sorting out a DIY holiday if it's not your thing.

Couldn't comment on Flaine for "family friendly" as never taken kids there - indeed, I'm not too sure what "family friendly" in brochure-speak is supposed to mean (other than "don't go bothering to look for lively nightclubs round here, we all go to bed by 9 pm"). Being near the ski school meeting place, and having nice friendly good quality tuition are obviously vital but there are good and bad locations in all resorts.

If the apartment and location in Flaine is good (what size is the apartment, not one of yer 23 square metre specials?) I wouldn't worry - get it booked, and then relax and look forward to it

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

pam w, I'm beginning to think your advice is spot on - just spent another couple of hours with no joy - I can locate flights to Geneva for around £700 - but once I add in the transfers (around £350) and accommodation costs / lift passes it's not exactly a compelling saving. And again, DIY means I have my own stress levels set on high from the word go.

The way I'm seeing this is I can't save a great deal on flights other than my Geneva one, I still need to factor in the transfer which means the best travel costs are still in the region of £1k.

Accommodation I may be able to play with but I'm not sure the saving will be more than a couple of hundred.

The other costs for equipment and lift passes are pretty standard and fixed. Going for basic skis x 3 and child boots x 2 helmets x 2 which seems to be a fairly consistent price of around £300 in all. Lift passes are coming in at a little short of £700 which give me the all in cost of close to £1K

Therefore unless I can get comparable accommodation for say £600 I'm not saving a great deal on my £3k price (which was Flaine) and for the time I've spent researching I'm thinking I could have gone and earned the difference!

Certainly bashing this through on a forum has helped me see that there is a glass half empty/half full approach to booking and the value of the holiday etc.

Like you pam w, I'm thinking £3k is £750 a head + food. Which is a lot. But looking around I'm not sure that I can do better especially with the flight costs being so high.

Oh well . . .

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johnnyh, possibly consider leaving until much nearer the time and booking a late TO deal? I'd be surprised if you cannot get s/c deal for sub £500 per head, which, allowing £1K for ski stuff means it's well within budget. You run the risk of not getting anything I guess, on the other hand you get to see where the snow is before you book.

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

johnnyh, Easter flights this year seem much more expensive than previous years. Last Easter I got my family of 4 inc ski carriage to Geneva from Manchester or Liverpool (can't remember) for £300 return with a free transfer thrown in at the other end. This year the flights + transfers were coming in at similiar prices to those you have found ie about a grand.

So I'm driving!!

After all it is free

masmith, yes, one option I have considered as well. Although my track record with last minute is pretty poor.

kitenski, thanks - I was beginning to think it was me and I was not selecting the right combination.

I really have struggled to get anything of value. I accept my regional location makes the choice more limited but even so, where are the 1p flights!??!

Seriously, I am consistently getting flights for four at over £1k. My only "cheap flight" was the EasyJet Geneva one at £700.

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johnnyh, I reckon £3k all in is the 'going' rate for a weeks holiday starting 10th April, but that is for chalet/hotel even when I found really cheap accom deals, the transfers + flights still put it up around £3k

What date are you looking to fly out?

Help!!

Easter family holiday costs??

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