 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all,
Long time lurker, first time poster. First I'd like to say hi to everyone and thanks for providing a wealth of advice and information.
Having been born and bred in South Africa, winter sports for me consisted mainly of waching rugby and ... well.. err... watching a bit of rugby. I moved to the UK 5 years ago and finally came to grasp the concept of cold  (listen, when your winter average is ~20C, a winter in this country is an extreme shock!). So anyway, I got dragged of to Bansko last season and truly loved it - I instantly fell in love and realised that I've now discovered what I want to do with the rest of my life  .
So my question is this - I've gone skiing once every season since my first time (read: twice  ) and I practically live at my local dryslope at the Alpine Centre in Southampton. I'd love to ski more, like every day but thats a bit unrealistic right now due to financial restriction so to all you pro's, how do I ski on the cheap?
I've realised that build-it-yourself holidays can be a lot cheaper than your average Crystal/Thompson deals, but I havent a clue where to start. To those of you who manage frequent cheap trips away, where do you go and how do you ge tthere etc. etc. Ideally I'm trying to put together 3 - 4 trips this season (whole week and/or long weekends) and I'd like to know peoples thoughts on price, like can it be done for £300-£400 all inc?
Thoughts on a postcard, and thanks in advance.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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lumpy_bd, Hi fella, welcome to snowHeads
At least one of our number has jacked his job and is off to the Alps for a full season this year. That should do you. Or you could get a job in resort, or get cheap flights as soon as they get released by the cheapo airlines and try to match up accomodation on t'internet. That last one is probably the best way for us normal folks.
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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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Just wait till the January low season and pick up a last minute bargain from a tour operator such as Crystal /Thomson.
That will be cheaper than DIY.
Provided you are not mob-handed, you should easily find somewhere suitable at £300-400.
A smaller resort with a cheap lift pass should suit. You will also know what the snow is like if you leave it late.
If you have only skied Eastern Europe and enjoyed that, then there will plenty there for you.
Stick to last minute bargains and cover as much as possible until you find you have preferences for particular types of ski holiday.
'The world is your lobster' as Arthur Daley would say.
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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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lumpy_bd, Last minute bargains are the way to go....we've been building up the number of weeks skiing per year incrementally since we started (now up to 5) and for the first few years we did it all by means of last minute bargains....we can afford a bit more now so are a bit more choosy. Beware though...TO's will try to sell you bargains to resorts which are the least popular....limited skiing, limited life or worst of all limited snow! Make sure you've done your research, know where the snow is (or more importantly isn't) and go armed with a copy of Where to Ski so you can check out the resort stats on the spot. You need to act fast when you find a bargain...if you dither someone else will buy it! Be prepared to spend endless hours on the internet seeking out the best deals....small companies not available through the main travel agents are great sources of good value deals.
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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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homphomp, thanks for that. Could you recomend a few small companies to for me to get started on?
Ta.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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lumpy_bd, for last minute packaged deals igluski can often be good place to look.
I'd advocate the DIY option to get lots of trips in. I did 4 last year, and I intend to do more this year (3 booked up so far)
My suggestions for cheap/frequent trips:
* Obviously avoid peak times (Feb half term, Easter). It's cheaper, slopes are emptier, and accomodation more flexible to go at other times.
* The flights are cheapest mid-week - e.g. We've just bought some flights for December to Milan (for Zermatt) from Ryanair for £0.05 each way (ok - £25 return including all the taxes). So I often go for long weekends (e.g Thu->Mon)
* The transfer can put the cost up of DIY. Find resorts that are close to or have train stations - e.g. you can get a £5 train from Salzburg (Ryanair) direct to Zell am See (train station is about 400m from the nearest ski-lift); or where there are good busses - e.g. daily busses from Grenoble (Ryanair) to Alpe d'Huez. Alternatively get a group of 4 of you and hire a car.
* Accomodation can be very cheap, especially outside the main season. In Kaprun in May we had a nice self-catering apartment (2 en-suite double rooms, kitchen & living room ) for about £11 per person per day.
* Consider avoiding traditional ski airports, especially at the weekends (e.g. Geneva is rarely cheap), but places like Munich, Milan and Venice are all shortish drive from major ski areas. http://j2ski.com/ is useful for fiding airports and resorts.
Typically a long weekend (e.g. 5 days, and normally skiing on both arrival and departure day) ends up costing us: flights: £40 car-hire: £40 ski-pass £100, accomodation: £120). Which is £300 including ski-pass (which almost all TO in Europe don't include).
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As a specific fully costed DIY example in peak-ish season:
Thu 12th-Mon 16th Jan: Ryanair. Stansted<->Salzburg £92 return including all taxes
Double room: €25 pppn (£15 per person per night). So £60.
Pension Gschaider (+43 6542 72852) - "3*, includes breakfast, right on ski run, <500m from train station, next to ski lifts"
Assuming you take the early flight you'll arrive by 11:30 on Thursday. And can ski all day Fri-Mon (4.5 days skiing)
Lift pass is €150 for 5 days (£110) (includes Kaprun as well)
Transfer (Salzburg<->Zell by train) is £10 return (+£1 each way for tram across Salzburg)
Total cost: £295 (including ski-pass, accomodation and all travel) for 4.5 days skiing
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lumpy_bd, If you can find some friends to share a studio with you can get some really great prices - like £60 each for accommodation - lift passes for here (Alpe d'Huez) are 186 euros for the week (for a full pass which includes loads of free activities), flights are now dirt cheap into Grenoble (public transport from there about 20 euros for the return trip). The best way to bring the price down is to share accommodation say between 4 of you. Give me a shout if I can help.
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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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Most people who DIY do so for the conveience not the cost IMO.
Cheap flight will help but transfers etc all add up so any holiday for £400 pw is good going. Doing this quite comfortably is
likely to be £750 all-in for 4 days
You can try and cram into studio aprts but might go off that idea very quickly but that only works per week anyway
Get it out of your system and do a season. That will be the cheapest deal you will get.
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JT, It need not cost £750. My example anbove for £300 included everything but food & drink (+getting to Stansted). And you'd be paying for some food & drink anyway if you stayed in the UK.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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kamikaze,
Ok, but I said all-in, how much would you do on food and drink on holiday...? 100eu a day..?
Ski-hire..? new sunglasses ..?
Of course if you can really count the pennies then you can chip bits oft it but goiing cheap don't always work out cheap
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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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One of the tricks is to get flights early on when they're first released and cheaper, I got a couple of return flights from Southampton Airport to Bern for £70.44 each including taxes by travelling out and back on a monday rather than a saturday which costs more, now they'd be about £94, transfer to the resort of Wengen and back will cost about £35 and take about 2.5 hours (a car would only take just over an hour but it's not worth it just for me ) I get a cheap rate at my favorite hotel The Alpenrose but you could stay cheaply in the same resort at other hotels from just over £40 per night on a half board (Dinner bed and breakfast ) basis even in high season, a six day ski pass costs arround £130 for the whole region covering 215 km approx of pistes so a week of skiing including flights, transfers and ski pass could be done even now for £500 with say just over £120 for ski and boot hire for 6 days, depending on how much you like to drink and how hungry you are at lunch you'd need to allow £10 to £30 a day I usually average out at somewhere between £10 and £15 per day, this is in Switzerland, not exactly known for its cheapness and a week all in should still leave you change from £750 with good skiing and good food.
If you went self catering and ate in you could save up to a couple of hundred pounds a head but you will have to cook all your own food, likewise you could save a lot at lunchtime by taking snacks up the mountain in the morning but you won't have the enjoyment of other people looking after you
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lumpy_bd, not ignoring your request for some info but my favourites list of ski companies is at the office and I'm not! Search for holidays when I should be working...moi?? Will let you have the web sites for some of our favourites as soon as I get back.
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You know it makes sense.
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lumpy_bd
I have done a long weekend in Flaine for £273 per head for 4 driving in a car all in (including beers, passes, skis) Not comfortable, but OK for a cheap trip with mates and a lot of fun. Renting an apartment for the week, drive through Friday night, skis Saturday - Tuesday, sleep off the hangover and drive home Weds. In work Thursday fresh as a... OK it is a bit of a schlepp and we fly now but it costs a lot more.
Last minute sounds good to me.
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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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I did a booking to Alpe d'Huez last feb through Neilson. Hol was £235 per person for a week inc transfers, add lift pass and food and whole hol came to less than £500.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Wanted to ski on the cheap, trip booked in january £21.00 b & B(30 euros a night) at same hotel being used for pre season bash. Return flights & car parking at the airport £120 other costs wll be bus tranfers from Grenoble and some food beer and a lift pass 7 days cheap skiing in Les Deux Alps all done DIY and booked in 2 hours start to finish. Flights were cheaper as going Thursday to Thursday.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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lumpy_bd, Here you are then, these are some of the companies that we've got the best bargain deals from (some better than others on the service front but all had amazing deals at one time or another!)
Ski France admin has a deal with these too, we got free ski carriage on top of the deal, look in the snowShops
Skitopia great value all in deals including beer, kit hire and lift passes but a limited range of resorts
Snowcoach do flights as well as coach travel, their ski safari programmes are fun if you are looking for some like minded people to ski with
Tops Travel this is the holiday arm of a company that specialises in school parties. You can pick up some fabulous deals when they are filling up the last few rooms in a hotel full of kids. Don't be put off - they are good at making sure that the kids and other holiday makers don't clash but you are likely to be with loads of kids and teachers for at least part of each day (and the kids tend to scoff all the cake if you're late for afternoon tea!!)
Don't forget to use teletext, iglu etc to look for bargains...find their cheapest deals, then see if you can find the named hotel using a search engine to see if you can find the TO, then book direct online....you will save another £25+ per person by doing the booking yourself rather than going through an agent (sorry Iglu...but if you're on a budget you've got to save every penny!)
And pick your booking time carefully....prices are highest at the weekend, we've found the best bargains on Tues/Weds as these are slow booking days. Bide your time, don't buy in a panic and check back daily as cancellations come on the market and then sell again quickly.
Good luck....happy hunting!
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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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There's also companies like Oakhall...
www.oakhall.co.uk
Which do low price holidays.
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