 Poster: A snowHead
|
Going by coach to the Alps always seems to get a bit of negative press on here so I thought I'd start a thread outlining the positives for a change and offering some tips for a good journey.
I travel by coach at least once every year. One trip is always a school trip but I also organise my own trips at Easter. I know that as soon as i get on the coach I can relax and end up being dropped right outside my accomodation the following day. When travelling without the school kids we always start off with a few glasses of bubbly or Bucks Fizz. We all bring some different foodstuffs with us and have a bit of a party atmosphere for the first part of the journey up to Dover. We tend to leave Friday evening for a ferry crossing in the early hours of Saturday morning.
We always go on the ferry which gives us a chance to stretch our legs, go to the bar etc.
When we get back on the coach we are usually ready for a few hours sleep. ALWAYS TAKE A FULL SIZE PILLOW WITH YOU. If I'm sharing a pair of seats with someone we swap over so each person gets a few hours to sleep against the window.
We usually stop somewhere for Breakfast around 9.30. Then get back on the coach and watch a film (we always bring some brand new films). Few hours down the road we'll stop for lunch. Another film. Then get dropped off right outside my accomodation with all my bags (with no extra charge for my skis and boot bag!)
Repeat the process on the way back. Usually with an extra days skiing before we leave!
The coach usually costs us around £5,500. We never fill it to capacity so we can take extra luggage if we want. Last time there were 43 of us on the coach. It cost us £127 return each to be picked up across the road from my house and dropped off across the road from accomodation. In the past we have left Friday morning and had 8 days skiing but we usually have 7.
With the cost of skiing rising I dont understand why more people dont travel by coach or arrange their own coach trip. I've always found them fairly easy to fill with a bit of advertising on Facebook etc. (although it is probably easier because I work in a school and we all have holidays the same time)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
|
Don't, whatever you do, have a life threatening hangover on the day of your coach journey. That was the most miserable experience of my life.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
|
Tip # 1 - Fly
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| Quote: |
life threatening hangover
|
I love that phrase 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
I struggle with a 3 hour transfer never mind trying to sleep on a coach. Might be fine if you're under 6ft, or get the whole back row to yourself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Don't, whatever you do, have a life threatening hangover on the day of your coach journey. That was the most miserable experience of my life. |
Hair of the dog, drink through it  If you're lucky you may even pass out for the whole journey.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Take bottled water (but don't drink so much that you have to pee all the time), have clothes easy to add and subtract layers (heating can be a bit up and down), take Syndol to help you sleep, don't wear tight shoes (your feet will swell), take Stugeron if you get travel sick (also helps you sleep, but dries your mouth, hence the water).
Have some easy snacks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
el nombre, + 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Never mind the coach bit, it's the getting 43 people to agree on a week / resort / accomodation that's the real challenge
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| rob@rar wrote: |
| Don't, whatever you do, have a life threatening hangover on the day of your coach journey. That was the most miserable experience of my life. |
Don't think it gets any better without the hangover, at least it's a distraction 
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
I do a lot of my skiing trips by coach... it's good, because there's virtually no restriction on baggage! Admittedly, the journeys can be a bit painful, especially at 6'4". My advice would be to take some kind of video player so that if you can't sleep, you can keep yourself entertained!
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Do a run, cycle ride or swim 50 lengths on morning of outward journey - will help you to sleep better. Ski on morning of return.
Don't forget your Ipod.
Although having tried plane, coach and train for skiing holidays I would say take the train.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
If you get it right it's the combination of cheap price, convenience and 2 days extra ski time which can make coach travel a winner. Getting on a coach (as we did several times) at Dover, then next seeing your bags sitting in the snow 30 metres from your chalet, has a lot to commend it and doing ski holidays on tight budgets with kids everybody voted to spend money on 2 days more ski passes than on flights and transfers. With money no object we'd have done it another way.
I only did a train once - overnight sleeper to Aime la Plagne then cheap local bus up the mountain. That was terrific as we were two adults, travelling light, with backpacks. Wouldn't have enjoyed it with kids or with more baggage (as it had to share your bunk, pretty well and we'd had to cross Paris between stations). And as for sitting up in a train all night for 3 times the price of a cheap flight. WTF is that all about?
I like the idea of using trains but that option would be so much more user friendly if it was not so expensive, if you could book in advance, and if it was easier to find out about schedules. Am currently battling with getting offspring from Genoa to Albertville or Geneva on 23 or 24 December. Even a personal visit to the railway office in Geneva last week didn't solve that one because the schedules change in early December. Our place in France is near Albertville - but try to get a TGV from UK to Albertville. It's just all such a faff.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Vallium!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
lots of it, maybe something a little stronger!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
| Dr John wrote: |
| Tip # 1 - Fly |
This is the best tip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
| lightningdan wrote: |
| Dr John wrote: |
| Tip # 1 - Fly |
This is the best tip. |
THE very best tip is do what I did, and move to somewhere an hour's drive from the slopes 
I've been on a coach journey a couple of times during my University days in Nottingham. It was 24 hours each way, but I found it OK due to the excitement mounting on the way there, and the exhaustion after a week's skiing and partying on the way back.
Now I'm a bit older, wiser and the party days are largely in the past, I'm not sure I'd find it so agreeable, and have always flown or self-driven (from my former home in Kent) instead.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
|
Whitters, agree that the return journey has to be taken into consideration. It's not fun coming home at the best of times but, as someone else has mentioned, knowing you have an excruciating return journey ahead of you can put a real downer on the last couple of days.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
| Quote: |
The coach usually costs us around £5,500.
|
Does that include driver accom in resort?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I really feel for my Brother in Law he takes a coach twice a year to Bormio for the school ski trip, I have been offered free trips in the past but the thought of coach all the way to Bormio does not appeal 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| clarky999 wrote: |
| Quote: |
I like the idea of using trains but that option would be so much more user friendly if it was not so expensive, if you could book in advance, and if it was easier to find out about schedules. Am currently battling with getting offspring from Genoa to Albertville or Geneva on 23 or 24 December. Even a personal visit to the railway office in Geneva last week didn't solve that one because the schedules change in early December. Our place in France is near Albertville - but try to get a TGV from UK to Albertville. It's just all such a faff.
|
I love the idea of the snowtrains too, but there's no way in hell that I'd pay more for it than a flight.
Worse coach journey I've ever had was coming back from a summer job in the Aosta Valley, where I was basically doing kayak instruction for school groups. My manager managed to blag me and my kayak onto one of the school's coach on their return leg. They had been a bloody nightmare all week already,noisy rude inner-city chavtastic little , and then to top it all the teachers made the damn ADHD/retard kid sit next to me for the whole bloody journey so I could 'keep an eye on him' for them. Drivers were ladies' front bottoms too because they'd been caught trying to flog weed to some of the other instructors and knew they were going to get fired once they got back. Not pleasant, and 'cos of the kids I couldn't even drink to relieve the monotony of constant crap childrens films on the tv all the time.
Saying that I'm not sure lugging my boat through the Italian public transport system to Milan airport would have been much more fun |
I like this message, it contains many subjects I find amusing. Crap coach travel,chavs,retards and cnuts!! well done clarky999 made me smile.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
clarky999, how was the weed?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip no. 1 Mama Mia
2. St. Trinians
3. Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging
4. High School Musical
Repeat tips 1 - 4 on loop.
Aaaarrrggghhh!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
|
|
clarky999, who was the summer job with? my lad did the Summer in Aosta this year
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
Lizzard,
Yes. Last coach trip the coach was £4,500. £300 for ferry and an apartment for the drivers for £400 and we gave them some money for food etc (which they probably spent on beer)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You know it makes sense.
|
Coaching it again this year, New Years Day of all times, have learned my lesson from last year and will take it easy the night before 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
|
|
Tip # 2 - Take a plane
|
|
|
|
|
|
Poster: A snowHead
|
|
I take a small coach - just seats the 5 of us
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
|
Rohypnol. You might be a bit groggy for the first day of skiing, but the mountain air will wear it off nicely. Plus, if you do get lucky on the coach, you've got diminished responsibility in case of any "complications" in court. I don't get why people waste the stuff on others, it has plenty of self-medicating applications - especially if there's kids on the coach 
|
|
|
|
|
|
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?
|
| Quote: |
| Tips for a good coach journey |
Don't.
|
|
|
|
|
|
You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
| livetoski wrote: |
| clarky999, who was the summer job with? my lad did the Summer in Aosta this year |
Acorn Adventure. Really fun summer, and some ace kayaking on the Dora Baltea (which flowed right past the centre), unfortunately I had to leave after two months as the pay was abysmal (75 euros cash a week + £15 into the bank, for six 10/12 hour days) and I needed to get some money saved up for ski trips the following winter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
|
|
This thread does not fill me with confidence...taking a coach to Val T with the uni at Easter... I pray to God that I don't have a hangover on the way back!
|
|
|
|
|
|
You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
|
|
Boris, Yup, works for me too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tip # 3 - Engage some form of airborne transport
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Most of the responses on here are typical of the type of people that dominate this forum. My way or the highway opinions. Which is why I rarely post. I don't mind genuine wit but some posters just don't have it. I have flown several times. I have driven and I've taken a coach to the alps. All for different circumstances. This wasn't intended to be any kind of debate between flying and coaches merely offering some advice for people going on coaches.
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| garethjomo wrote: |
| Most of the responses on here are typical of the type of people that dominate this forum. My way or the highway opinions. Which is why I rarely post. I don't mind genuine wit but some posters just don't have it. I have flown several times. I have driven and I've taken a coach to the alps. All for different circumstances. This wasn't intended to be any kind of debate between flying and coaches merely offering some advice for people going on coaches. |
Nobody forces you to post dude. It's half the fun of  You know you'll get a ton of boring answers and then some fun ones too.
I actually really like coach travel. When I'm in the UK that's how I tend to get around.
For longer trips you need some patience, all those people upsetting you above ^ don't have any, get over it!
Sadly I tend not to like the people on coaches. Having said that Greyhound Buses in Canada can be hilarious...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
, and then to top it all the teachers made the damn ADHD/retard kid sit next to me for the whole bloody journey so I could 'keep an eye on him' for them. Drivers were ladies' front bottoms too because they'd been caught trying to flog weed to some of the other instructors and knew they were going to get fired once they got back. Not pleasant, and 'cos of the kids I couldn't even drink to relieve the monotony of constant crap childrens films on the tv all the time.
