 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Drive in a full vehicle - stock up in hypermarket/Aldi etc - stay self catering down valley. Take packed lunch and carry a hip flask. Simples. Of course that may make you miss some of the non-negotiables in a holiday. Alternatively play a game of blinking with TOs and book your catered chalet holiday the night before.
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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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haha, 1347pp
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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how ridiculous......typical torygraph detached from reality........I call budget £249 pp pw b&b in the hotel sayonara Sauze d'Olux 2011 proper budget and what a great trip it was booked last minute with Neilson
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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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Why do they make it sound so complicated? If I'd never been skiing and read that lot i'd just give up and stay at home.
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I thought the Club Med price looked good until I realised it was for 3/4 days 
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Thats about what the Times always prints. Holidays in exclusive 5 star chalets with first class travel and a days heli skiing included. A bargain at £3500.
Isn't that the way we`all do it 
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Been nearly a year since i read such a piece of crap. Oh well, it's that time of year.
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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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I did the skiing on a budget thing at Uni. We had a Uni ski club, roughly 30 members, coach travel, stayed 8-10 people in those tiny French shoebox apartments, begged, borrowed or stole gear, lived on crisps, cuppa soups and supermarket beer all week. The biggest expense was the lift pass. Approximate cost £250 per person all in but this was 25 years ago. It was a means to an end then, no way on earth I'd do that now, I like planes, ensuite hotel rooms, 3 course meals, glühwein and my own gear way too much. The Daily Torygraph has no idea about the real world.
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Sorry but I couldn't resist posting this again.
Did anyone remember the Sunday Times arcticle by Nick Rufford and Sean Newsome comparing a cheap and an expensive ski holiday (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/article821727.ece for those who can afford it) Though it was 10 years ago I think it is still relevant today. Basically one paid £350 for a ski holiday and one £1100. Suprise suprise they both ended up skiing on the same snow and guess who enjoyed it most?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| johnE wrote: |
Sorry but I couldn't resist posting this again.
Did anyone remember the Sunday Times arcticle by Nick Rufford and Sean Newsome comparing a cheap and an expensive ski holiday (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/article821727.ece for those who can afford it) Though it was 10 years ago I think it is still relevant today. Basically one paid £350 for a ski holiday and one £1100. Suprise suprise they both ended up skiing on the same snow and guess who enjoyed it most? |
Ha I am not surprised by that at all. And I don't necessarily think it just works on a 'students will rough it, I prefer my creature comforts' axis, as a lot of people would say.
With all the guests I have ever dealt with across a wide range of property types, hands down the enjoyment factor always comes down to the attitude they begin the holiday with...
HOWEVER an important caveat to that is that the hidden element of 'attitude' is preparedness. The people who knew what to expect from what they had paid for (and had done their homework to understand what precisely the TO or hotel they booked would deliver) were the ones who always felt best about the holiday they had. This was true even when things went badly wrong, because all components of their holiday experience were within the margins of what they felt they were due.
I always found it interesting how quickly people would turn from angry to amused in a tense situation, just by having their concerns or grievance listened to. I'm not sure that a £1100 holiday necessarily buys you a more sympathetic ear than a £350 holiday. Unfortunately that is just the luck of the draw.
And it certainly doesn't insure against megalomaniac resort managers who take a 'never concede anything, never move anyone' policy. I cannot tell you the extent to which I would lose the plot if faced with that after shelling out hard earned cash for one treasured week. It would be a substantial humour failure.
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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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AlexT speaks the truth. Far better to have an open mind then have expectations surpassed than fall for the "luxury at every turn" BS spouted by some TOs & indeed resorts. All the money in the world can't compensate for a snow drought, equally the mountain doesn't know whether you've spent £500 or £5000 on your holiday you still get to ski the same snow (private access to an A Star excepted).
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You know it makes sense.
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One of the best holidays we had was a mid recession budget week in Borovets.
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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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'hotel sayonara Sauze d'Olux'
Pretty sure I stayed there with my (now married so no longer a ski buddy!) mate in the early 90's. Basic, but clean, friendly and good grub.
Had 2 weeks booked with first week of half day lessons. Got to the hotel by middday so got extra half days skiing, started snowing next day and dumped about 2 metres. The sun then shone for the rest of the holiday. Without doubt the best holiday (of any sort) I've ever had!
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Poster: A snowHead
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BA flight to Salzburg (bought sensibly in advance) £139
Car hire (shared between 4) £30 pp
Stay in a landhaus for 4 nights £100 pp
Hike / skin for turns £0
Somehow thought that would be cheaper than it turned out to be, although I guess the major factor is the difference between TO flight and BA flight.
I've also gone top end - boutique hotel in Chamonix over Christmas. Fairly serious dolla, but beautiful rooms, awesome sheets, great food and a fabulous bar (sadly no longer being run as a hotel).
The two things are just different, aren't they? AlexT is correct that, as with any customer relationship, delivering in line with expectation is the name of the game. It confuses me that there are those who might expect £1000 treatment / amenities on a £350 holiday - that's just odd isn't it?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Yep - on my aforementioned Sauze trip, one couple 'couldn't stay in this hotel' - as the rep pointed out, it was a 2* and that's what they'd paid for....
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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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Plebs, are all missing the decisive angle on this. I got taught to ski by the Army supplemented by my father taking me on dodgy cheap Aviemore ski holidays when younger. I once spent a weekend skiing in Scotland living in a snow hole when I was a Uni (hitched up to Scotland in an empty bulk whiskey tanker - going home, hitched back down in a full one) so I know about the 'budget' end of the sport. What you all fail to grasp is that the addition of a high maintenance girlfriend (or ‘HMGF’) makes the Torygraph ‘cheaper’ holidays not only understandable but fully rational. We are talking really serious withholding of favours by the HMGF if minimum standards are not reached – this is what the Torygraph understands. When they say ‘budget’ they are assuming that the HMGF's 'option' is not an option – I, for one, am with them all the way!
I also find the idea that cost plays no part in the snow that you ski:
"Suprise suprise they both ended up skiing on the same snow and guess who enjoyed it most?"
amusing. (apart from the rather surprising intervention of Cilla Black) reality check - expenditure involving heliskiing (= money) means that you don't have to ski on the same snow. Same applies to Skidoo crews and the wastes of Canada.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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What we plebs all fail to grasp is why anyone would have "a HMGF who withholds favours when minimum standards are not reached"! Sorry, which century are we in now?
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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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| Quote: |
| HMGF who withholds favours when minimum standards are not reached.... |
Or even the Low Maintenance Wife (LMW) who is perfectly at home in a mountain refuge or tent  ?
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[quote="RattytheSnowRat"]Plebs, are all missing the decisive angle on this. I got taught to ski by the Army supplemented by my father taking me on dodgy cheap Aviemore ski holidays when younger. I once spent a weekend skiing in Scotland living in a snow hole when I was a Uni (hitched up to Scotland in an empty bulk whiskey tanker - going home, hitched back down in a full one) so I know about the 'budget' end of the sport. What you all fail to grasp is that the addition of a high maintenance girlfriend (or ‘HMGF’) makes the Torygraph ‘cheaper’ holidays not only understandable but fully rational. We are talking really serious withholding of favours by the HMGF if minimum standards are not reached – this is what the Torygraph understands. When they say ‘budget’ they are assuming that the HMGF's 'option' is not an option – I, for one, am with them all the way!
+1
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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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Jude1, the 21st century - where women have raised this practice to the level of an art form. This is not a class distinction, the finest practioners can be found in every class of society. Indeed, as part of the social elevation of single ladies, the practice knows no peer. I am not passing judgment - this is simply an observation of the facts of life. Or the potential absence of the 'facts of life', if you will.
briand6868, tried, m8, tried. patricksh, summed it up well. You know the really sad part of that scenario. I have a number of m8's who ski at a good level with HMFG's who either don't ski or ski badly. Due to the potential HMW/HMGF backlash, the wimps have all chickened out of a 'lads' week on the piste, It's not that they couldn't do it, they are just all terrified of the price that will be extracted in compensation for the 'abandoning' of the HMWs/HMGFs, regardless of the fact that we all know the ladies in question will have a whale of a time in our absence. Buggered if you do, buggered… well just buggered every which way really.
My lovely, lovely GF - who is in no way HM, at all, no sir, really, honest – has a habit that has to be seen in action to be believed. She can walk into any shop and without looking at the price tag immediately track down the most expensive item in the place which she will pronounce is her favourite item and superior to all other items the establishment has to offer. She even manages to do it in places where she cannot read the labels or speak the language, especially ski stores in expensive, foreign resorts. Apparently she also used to do it as child. Other than putting up with me and olympic standard nagging, it is the only talent she possesses.
mountainaddict, m8, I dream - literally sometimes - of an LMGF/W - one that gets divison of tasks/responsibilites and does not think that just because they cannot do something (e.g. hammer a nail) that it 'doesn't count' and that you still have to hoover half the damn house (she wants a cleaner but doesn't want to pay what they are asking) {sigh}
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