Ski Trip Advice Needed

[jimborae]

Hi Guys,

this one is for all you skiers out there. I'm trying to organise a ski trip for my volleyball club & need some ideas on where to go and who to book through for a group trip.

These are the requisites:

1. Needs to be good skiing so as to be able to cater for all levels (some of us are very good, some of us will beginner/intermediate). Also high enough to try & ensure decent snow from the beginning of the season.
2. Needs to be cheap/reasonable cost.
3. Half decent apres ski (most will be in 20's & 30's) so good bars & restaurants rather than banging night clubs.
4. Ski chalets for up to 8 people and all in one packages are preferable.

So let me know where you think is good and any firms who do good group packages. As an idea of what I'm thinking I managed to go on a cheap trip to Meribel last year which I think cost around £550 but that was self catering. I've heard good things about Bulgaria but have never been and I haven't been to Austria for years so don't know what that's like. Chamonix i think is out due to cost but I'm open to be told otherwise.

Cheers


Jimbo

[GheeTsar]

When are you going? That makes ALL the difference to the price. The very best weeks are the first couple in January after New Year - these offer the best price vs snow IMO. You can pick up 5* catered chalets in Meribel for £550 for those weeks.

As for locations - well the 3 valleys is brilliant for skiing, but has a very pricey lift pass and pretty much everything else. I doubt Chamonix is much more. You can find cheap places to eat though - you just have to look hard. Also consider Val d'Isere/Tignes or La Plagne/Arc 2000 in France.

Avoid Andorra like the plague - sure the booze is near-free, but the ski resorts are dives and there's hardly any women - which makes them get vast quantities of (largely) unwanted attention and plenty of fights between the drunk men. The skiing is pretty poor too.

Here's an example of a reasonable deal, although you could do better:

http://www.igluski.com/val-thorens/c...5&Oid=48677780

[jimborae]

Hi mate, cheers for the reply. Dates aren't fixed so we could probably go any time I expect. Was in the 3 Valleys last year and absolutely loved it. Didn't think the lift pass price was too unreasonable, but we only had the pass for Meribel and we managed to find chepish places to eat & drink (Moterat where we were staying).

Thanks for the tip re Andorra and Tignes is definitely on the cards. Why are the 2 weeks after New Year so cheap??

Cheers

J

[Nye]

Google Chatel. It is very nice. My family all went there last winter and it was fab.

[jimborae]

Thanks Nye, just looked at it and yes it does look good!

[Andeh13]

Our university goes through a company called Ski Alpine and we have been to the Three valleys, Les Deuz Alps & val Thorens. The trip has always been very well organised & reasonably priced. All the resorts above were very good & we went in march to get the end of seasons deals, bit riskier with the snow but we have never had any problems.

Ski Alpine;
http://www.ski-alpine.co.uk/home.aspx

[Powderhound]

Just to throw an extra possibility in, there's a little-known (In the UK) ski area adjacent to Chamonix called Megeve, which you can get to with www.snowcoach.co.uk . Going by coach nets you an extra two days' skiing, and they take you to the further-flung parts of the area each day. The area also includes the Les Houches section of Chamonix, which contains the championship downhill piste with the jump over the road.

[Stompy]

Having been to Bulgaria last year, I would never go back again. We were in Borovets, which is supposedly one of the better resorts, but it was crap.

Snow conditions were poor, admittedly not their fault, but they did nothing to help it. They had some snow cannons but most were not used, and the ones that were they just left to build up the snow in a big pile in front of the cannon, which turned into a really hard icy mound. Most of the slopes they just closed.

The whole place reeked of corruption, you had to be very careful with where you changed your money, where you ate etc. All the bars, restaurants, etc would offer good deals on the outside but this would change once you were in. Nightclubs/bars became very seedy later on.

Also, the equipment hire was crap. The year before we had been to the SkiWelt in Austria (Soll) and standard equipment was new last season, or you could pay a premium to get this seasons equipment. This equipment in Bulgaria must have been a minimum of 5 years old, and on one day when I had reached the top of the gondola (a 30 minute ride because it was so slow), I went to put my boot in the ski and the binding snapped off. I am not a heavy guy! I discovered it was all corroded underneath. I had to argue with the (rather imposing) bloke at the hire place to get it sorted without paying. At the end of the week they practically forced you to give tips.

And to top it all off, on the last day we were offered a trip by Thomson to visit the capital city to kill time before our flight. Bad decision, Sofia is the most depressing place I have ever been in my life!

[jimborae]

Hi Stompy, thanks for the heads up re Bulgaria, guess we'll be giving that place a miss.

[Stompy]

Just read what I wrote and it looks like a proper rant! Can you guess I didnt like Bulgaria

To add, the SkiWelt area in Austria is well worth looking at.

http://www.skiwelt.at/en/winter

It's a loads of resorts that are all interconnected, and was very well maintained We're going back to Soll this year after realising our mistake by paying a bit less for Bulgaria.

Best prices we got were from Thomson Ski - they have an offer on for 2 for 1 lift passes, which is a big saving as the SkiWelt passes are £160. However, I just had a look and this ends today! They might bring in some other discount to compensate for it though so worth a look