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I need some help organising a big group to Paradiski

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
This is my first post, so hello!

I've been tasked with organising our group snow holiday this year. There are 15 of us, and we're on a budget, about £500 a person, for everything except food. We really want to go to the Paradiski area. I've actually found a brilliant place in Les 2 Alpes, but I've got some reservations about the skiing/boarding there. I've heard terrible things about the morning queues. Also, it really don't seem like the piste network is that huge, will it last us a week?

Has anyone stayed as a big group in any of the usual apartments in Les Arcs 1800 or 1600? Or the same in Belle Plagne or Plagne Central. There are plenty of 8 person rooms which we could get a couple of, but from the sound of things, they put a bed in any space they can and really cram you in...

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Will
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We need to know when the trip is planned for - in early Dec your budget is realistic. The rest of the year significantly more difficult. By "everything except food" does that include lift passes, equipment hire etc?

LDA is a perfectly good ski resort. The ski area is plenty for even experienced skiiers for a week.

If your budget includes lift passes then you can expect to be crammed in anywhere they can put you, unless you are going to Bulgaria.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
haha, I keep forgetting to let people know the date!

We'd be aiming to go in mid to late January.

I really don't mind cramming into a few apartments. The way I see it working is to have 3 rooms. Two with 6 and one with 3. That way we can use the living area of just one apartment and not disturb anyone.
But I just want to make sure they are of a reasonably quality, size. The photos are deceiving.

Ideally, I'd love to go to Belle Plagne, Plagne Central, Arc 1800 or 1600. I've stayed in Belle Plagne before, but it was around 8 years ago, so my memory is hazy. I remember it being pretty lively, but not to the level of Arc 1800.
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will.b, we do need to know what you expect your £500 to cover as Monium has asked Also, 15 people crammed into 1 living area sounds ambitious....unless you like playing sardines! The living area, on your budget, is likely to be the sleeping area for 2 folk on a sofa bed.

Have you considered UCPA http://www.action-outdoors.co.uk if you do a search on here you will pick up a £10 off offer as well
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will.b, try this as well - run by a snowhead http://www.ice-fire.co.uk/index.php/ski-holiday-price-and-availability you could take a whole chalet with your numbers if you were 14 not 15 for £392 per person
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Sorry, the £500 would need to cover transfers, passes, hire and accommodation. I'm not saying we would all squeeze into one living space. The way most of the apartment I can find seem to work is bedrooms and sofa beds. So we'd spread ourselves across 2 or 3 apartments.
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Edit; got it that you need the full works included in the £500...

I can give you some advice for Les Arcs. You won't find much in your price range in Arc 1600 unless you look at the UCPA. It sounds like you want something fairly lively though, and Arc 1600 isn't that, there are only a couple of bars and it has a chilled out village feel to it.

Arc 1800 is obviously a lot more lively; and its where all the student groups go so there are some bargains if you can find them. Have a look at the Routier and Thuria apartments, and also Residence Charvet & Villards.

Some of the tour ops may be able to sort you out with a bundled deal; Crystal for instance do a Ski Plus option which is flight, transfer, accommodation, local lift pass and ski hire (note that this only includes skis/board, not boots). Check the link below.

http://www.crystalski.co.uk/ski-packages/france/

Self catering options are at the bottom so scroll down to find some around your price range, looks like departure time is limited to 12th Jan to stay within £500.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
15 is a reasnoble size group and about as big as I would do. For big groups (over 30 or so) I would always approach one of the tour operators that specialise in big groups.

£500 per person is a very tight budget and I seriously doubt you can do Les Arcs or La Plagne for that price. The lift pass alone would eat a significant proportion of that.

Large self catering apartments and chalets are actually very hard come by, but I did once manage to find one of the chalets in the trees to Arc 1600 for 12 people. There was plenty of room but 2 people had to walkoutside to bed at night. You will need to spend a long time on research, but a visit to the resorts web sites will help. For parties of 10 or so I usually spend a whole day researching the options for accomodation alone. As a guide the cheepest aprtment for 6 that pops out of a quick sewarch is a 75 m2 one in Bourg st Maurice in Early January for 435 euro (http://www.alpes-horizon.com/en/holidays/accommodation--bourg-saint-maurice/4-rooms-1-bedroom-bourg-saint-maurice-la-residence--RES420%20R.html).

Remember that not all accomodation vacancies have been declared yet, many of the apartments are not released for booking until September. Like getting Olympics tickets you have to keep revisiting the letting agencies on a weekly basis until you find what you want. A series of smaller apartments in the same block may be better than two larger ones a few km apart. Try phoning or emailing the tourist office

Rough estimates of budget might be:

Train London - Bourg st Maurice (just a guess) £200
Getting to London (assuming you live somewhere near the centre of the UK) £50
Accomodation (adding overheads such as tax, linen, cleaning etc) £100
Lift pass (8 days Les Arcs only) £235

A six day lift pass may save £60, but who wants to sit in a ski resort and not going skiing. I have assumed that everyone has their own equipment and does not require lessons or drink.

Of the things many people forget to budget for in ski holidays are getting to and parking at the UK airport and the high cost of transfers from the airpport to the resort.

The L2A is plenty big enougth for a weeks skiing.
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will.b wrote:
Sorry, the £500 would need to cover transfers, passes, hire and accommodation. I'm not saying we would all squeeze into one living space. The way most of the apartment I can find seem to work is bedrooms and sofa beds. So we'd spread ourselves across 2 or 3 apartments.


Including flight or not?

Costs will break down (minimums below)

Flight £100
Transfers £50
Lift pass £200
Ski/board hire £80

That leaves you £80 per person for 6 nights accommodation.

If you include flights in your budget, you need to talk to your group about budget and expectations. Or you are going to all need to squeeze into one living space.

Suggest you look here: http://www.skiweekends.com/index.aspx and you might, just, find something that is going to be a better option than cramming 15 people into a 2 bedroom apartment and being evicted on arrival because they don't want the place trashed by far too many people staying there.
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Thanks for all the suggestions and information. The £500 doesn't include flights. Our group is half london, half leeds, so the prices are different obviously. So including flights we're looking at around £600.

I found hire for £69 for beginner stuff, which is most of the rest of the group. There are 3 of us though who don't need anything though.

How are the queue's in Les 2 Alpes? That's what's really putting me off going there.
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I keep forgetting to menti0n all the assumptions. I assume that all the party have annual insurance cover that includes winter sports.
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Still a really tight budget - have a look at UCPA (through Action Outdoors) though even that, far cheaper than most of the competition, might be a bit more than £600 each.

I don't think the queues in L2Alpes are any worse than anywhere else - especially in mid January, which is a really good time to go. And the apres ski there will be a heap more lively than some of the alternatives.

If some of your group are beginners they'll need lessons, which are included in UCPA, which also run lessons to suit people right up to real expert level.

£50 per person transfers is pretty low - could be a fair bit more, to some resorts, even in shared mini bus.
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LDA is in a valley and most of the skiing is up the mountain so you need to get a cable car up to the slopes and there is a queue at this point, but only in the morning and once you are on the slopes everyone spreads out and the queues are no different from normal, The skiing there is great as is the apres ski - very friendly place.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
will.b, with such a lot of you its definitely worth trying the major tour operators (especially as you're looking for a complete deal). They're not always the cheapest, and not always the best way to go, but in terms of making things easier and (more to the point) offering bulk discounts or bundled deals, you may find it easie to get to what you want. Typically group bookings above 10 people qualify for a discount on the list price, and if you ask them to bundle in a lift pass and ski hire deal you may find further savings. Crystal as I noted earlier with that link are a good one, as are the major TOs such as Neilson, Skiworld, Total Ski, Espirit, DirectSki who all offer their own variations of bundled deals. Its maybe worth looking through their website then giving them a call, some of them have dedicated group booking lines.

As I say, its not guaranteed to be the best way but it sounds from your scenario that it may make things much easier for you. £600 in January should be doable, although the quality and size of accommodation may be more on the "compact and bijou" spectrum.

As for your question about the queue in L2A; I've only been once in 2005 and, well, it was horrendous with 1 hour times from back of the queue to top of the mountain. That said I haven't been back since and plenty of people have only good things to say about the resort, so maybe someone else with more local knowledge can give their advice.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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will.b, You said " I'm not saying we would all squeeze into one living space" but you had previously said "That way we can use the living area of just one apartment and not disturb anyone", hence my comment about sardines!
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
It would seem possible to meet your requirements with apartment packages with Crystal from both leeds and from london for the week commencing 12 jan. Seems to be around 350-380 for flights accom and transfers and you can pickukp a local lifepass plus basic ski kit for about 200. Maybe give them a call?
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kioksor, the lift pass is over 200 euros. Not sure where you can rent kit for £30 for a week, even in LDA.
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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?
will.b, Paradiski will be quite expensive for eating and drinking - L2A probably a bit cheaper. You will add a great deal to your basic price unless you plan carefully to cook a lot for yourselves and maybe to buy beer in a supermarket rather than a bar. One of the BIG money saving advantages of UCPA is it includes full board - 3 meals a day.
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pam w, Bourg st Maurice is not that expensive.
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holidayloverxx wrote:
will.b, You said " I'm not saying we would all squeeze into one living space" but you had previously said "That way we can use the living area of just one apartment and not disturb anyone", hence my comment about sardines!


Ahh, sorry, a miscommunication. I meant that we would get two apartments. In one we would use every bed spot available, and the other we would only need to use the bedrooms. This would leave the sofas and living space free for eating/drinking and not disturb anyone.

I've heard quite good things about Bourg. The 7 min on the train each day sounds fine. I've been looking into this today.

I'm having some luck with apartments in La Plagne, I'll let people know as if I pull it off, seems like I'd have accomplished something it may be useful for other big groups!
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Monium wrote:
kioksor, the lift pass is over 200 euros. Not sure where you can rent kit for £30 for a week, even in LDA.


its on offer from crystal.... 20% off or something

oh need to add, I dont work for them and have never travelled with them Very Happy
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Hi will.b,

Good luck with your planning - hope you manage to find somewhere that suits! If you are happy to share apts etc as you've written above you should get something pretty reasonably priced. Might be worth looking at Mountain Crush? http://mountaincrush.co.uk/

The problem with hitting your budget is that a 6 day La Plagne pass costs €222.50 which will make a massive dent in your budget. A few suggestions below and you can download all of the pass costs off our website here: http://www.ice-fire.co.uk/index.php/2012-06-12-13-05-52/lift-passes-prices-paradiski-la-plagne

If you have any complete beginners in your group don't buy them passes for the first day as they won't need them - walk to one of the free nursery slopes and learn on them.

Alternatively if you are getting lessons, look out for beginner lessons+pass+hire bundles which most of the ski schools offer. These represent a massive cost saving as the passes are restricted for the first few days - but are only available through ski schools.

In terms of dates consider 6th - 13th Jan week as many tour operators are offering free liftpass upgrade offers, giving you a Paradiski pass for the price of La Plagne.

Think about booking in one of the resort areas - Montalbert, Montchavin, Les Coches etc etc. These areas have restricted local passes which are ideal for skiiers/boarders with a week or less experience. You can, for example, buy 5 days of this and 1 day of La Plagne which reduces the lift pass cost significantly but the areas available are quite small.

To be honest, if I was you I would probably either up the budget a bit (£700 pp is probably doable with the sort of accom you're talking about), or look at a different area so that you can still benefit from all the skiing rather than restricting yourselves. The other thing worth considering is adding your food budget into the mix. A cheap no-frills catered chalet (think Crystal, First Choice etc) with flights and transfer inc often works out cheaper than adding flights, transfers, accom and food etc because in-resort supermarkets are expensive and big companies have economies of scale.

Happy planning!!
Heather
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
johnE wrote:

Train London - Bourg st Maurice (just a guess) £200
Getting to London (assuming you live somewhere near the centre of the UK) £50
Accomodation (adding overheads such as tax, linen, cleaning etc) £100
Lift pass (8 days Les Arcs only) £235


This is effectively what we're doing this year, around the same time too.

Train is £159 at the moment, and we're looking at around £350 for accom/pass/hire on top of that (not catered). Staying in Les Arcs 1800.
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Quote:

Train is £159 at the moment,

I thought the SNCF tickets did not become available until 3 months before travel.
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johnE, my mate's organised that bit, he's given me times and prices for a few options on Eurostar to B-s-M from Londontown. I'll ask him where he got it from.
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Hey all,

Thought I'd just update. I managed to find a deal that came in at < £600 all in. Flights, transfers, hire, passes and accommodation.

We're going with Off The Piste. They package up the transfers, accommodation and passes. We're staying in the Eden Arc apartments in Arc 1800. 3 rooms sleeping 6 each. This leaves us with one living room free so nobody will get disturbed. Off The Piste are also sorting our hire out for those that need it. £69 for beginner kit.

Flights come to around £60 for the Londoners in our group and £80 for the Yorkshire lot.

And now I can relax a little bit!

Thanks for all the advice and tips.

Will
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Monium, 50 pounds for transfers that 63 euros return. I assume this involves a bus or something as a minibus transfer would be at least 100 euros return per person.

Andy
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anderoo, Altibus do 50€ return and people like Bens Bus aren't too much more. Altibus is a coach, I guess Bens Bus are too.
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Our transfers were included yea. But if they weren't then Bens Bus seemed like a really good deal. I hadn't heard of Altibus.

I'm am thoroughly sick of chalet/accommodation searching websites now, haha. That's it for another year at least!
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I would recommend Les Coches , it is slap bang inthe middle of Paradiski ,but is not as expensive as Les Arcs or La Plagne , it has some great uplift and access to the whole paradiski area , it is a quaint little village with a few bars restaurants to keep you busy at night . I won a place in les Chalet de Wengen which is run by Lagrange , but i know that several of the owners run their own web sites on owners direct , just type in les coches .
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