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Big White
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

We're currently planning on a week at Sun Peaks followed by a week at Big White next year, following Okanagan's good advice Very Happy

Frontier Ski use 3 hotels at Big White: the Chateau at Big White, the Inn at Big White and White Crystal Inn - all of which seem to be very similar in facilities, location and price and hence very difficult to differentiate between.

I'm probably veering towards the Chateau at present, just cos they have loft kitchenette rooms! Has anyone stayed at Big White & got any opinions on these hotels? snowHead
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Yep - they're all very close together, and a similar standard. Other than slight variations in room type the main differences are...

The Inn has a small swimming pool and a hot tub - the other two only have hot tubs (of which the White Crystal's is a bit more private and has views over the valley/mountains, whereas the Chateau has a view into (and from of course) Snowshoe Sam's (of which more later).

White Crystal is probably marginally the best located in terms of ski in/ski out, but not by enough to really sway a decision - it's on the flat section in the middle of the village - so easy for ticket office/ski school/tour meetups (worth doing first day to get your bearings) and gives you a choice of routes for that first run of the day. Also the easiest if you want to pop back in for anything during the day.

The Inn isn't quite ski in (you need to take your skis off to cross a road, and then put them back on again to slide round to the ski room door), in the way that the White Crystal is, and it's slightly lower on the hill so the obvious way out in the mornings is down to the bottom of the Plaza/Ridge chairs, and then either back up the Plaza (which takes you to the village) or up the ridge and ski down again, if you want to go to the village first thing, or to ski on the Bullet/Black Forest side of the mountain. The Chateau's on the village level, so easier from that point of view (ski in means a sharp left turn off the plaza lift at the end of the day, and a couple of steps uphill, or a small climb (only a few feet) with or without skis on.

White Crystal has the best bar of the three (but the best overall is Snowshoe Sam's for pub type atmosphere daytimes, music at night, and a nice restaurant upstairs. It's obligatory if you've never been there before for at least one of your group to have a gunbarrel coffee (which I'll not spoil by describing it for you!)
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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?

Thanks Okanagan, I was hoping you'd drop in! snowHead That's an excellent summary of the hotels although I'm not sure it's made my choice for me wink . I reckon they're all pretty good so will just pick either White Crystal or the Chateau. I've heard Snowshoe Sam's is good, looking forward to the gunbarrel coffee (I think!)
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Hurray - it's booked!! Laughing Laughing Why is it so exciting to actually book your hols?? snowHead

We're going for a week in Big White followed by a week in Sun Peaks - and how good are Ski Independence?! Bit different level of service/advice to your standard TO. The very helpful guy who was dealing with me, Gareth, had stayed in Big White & Sun Peaks last year and knew the hotels personally and was able to offer proper advice on their relative merits and happy to help with any other queries I had.

Black mark for Frontier Ski - when I rang up for a quote the price they gave me was way off the mark I had reckoned it to be. They were unable to particularly recommend any of the hotels. When I queried if the cost was correct and could they give a breakdown for the different elements, they gave me a much more realistic price and said the reason for this was because I had suggested flying out on Friday - and therefore transfer between the two resorts on Friday. The public shuttle only operates Monday/Wed so she had quoted me a private transfer. The difference in cost was £400 each - that's £800 for two of us to have a private transfer of about a 5 hour drive!!! Shocked I wanted to ask if the transfer was by private jet but restrained myself Little Angel

Frontier Ski actually turned out to be about £50 each cheaper than Ski Independence but I was put off using them cos of the service I'd received. (they would have been even more cheaper than this but Ski Ind give SCGB members 10% off, Frontier Ski only 5%) Perhaps just a new booking person who didn't know her stuff very well (I'd reckoned she added the cost of staying 7 nights in BW with 7 nights in SP, not thinking that the prices also includes the flight)

Anyone else have good/bad experiences with either Ski Independence or Frontier Ski?
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