do it yourself ski hol next season......help please

goppy wrote:anyone know anything about solden,transfer wise? just over hour from airport but cheapest transfer i found is £266!

Goppy, have a look at this website. It is a shuttle service to Obergurgl from Innsbruck. Have never used it myself. I think it does Solden as well. Am trying to do a DIY flying into Innsbruck as well. I am hoping it will work out cheaper as well as the TO doesn't offer much child discount whereas the hotels I have contacted seem to offer a much larger child discount.

http://www.oetztalerbus.at/home/home.aspx

Hope this helps.

Huwcyn wrote:Are you going to leave it at that, Tony?:D Aren't you going to tell all of us how you managed to arrange such cheap trips, AND not use budget airlines? Seems like a piece of genius!

Maybe you haven't counted in the cost of booze as Saffer did, or perhaps ski hire etc didn't feature in your calculations

You just need to know where to look online and when to book the right deal. We've been lucky enough to stumble over some cracking lift pass deals in recent seasons: 2 for 1, or in ADH we paid a tenner for the area lift pass!
Ally is right - we do not go half term in Feb, or any other time that involves skiing in crowds, queuing for lifts and having to share accommodation with children (hopefully). I take no pleasure from any of those features, and it seems to me very much as if those are 3 things you have to suffer as well as hugely inflated prices if you feel obliged to go during school holiday times. I do find it odd how people say "we had to go at Feb half term..." No one HAS to go at any other time than when it suits them with their own time off, unless they are teachers of course.
Mt calculations included ski carriage - we have our own gear and don't rent anything. They were all packaged trips, some with tour ops direct and some with agents who placed them with tour ops themselves but got better prices.
You can probably add £150 per person for lunches and a couple of beers a day, but the deals we had were catered chalets which included unlimited wine usually. If not, we just went to the supermarket and bought a few slabs of beer and kept them in the chalet.
I think you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time on the net looking and comparing, and then simply decide what you are prepared to spend.
Bottom line is people spend what they individually feel is a good price for a ski trip. I've done a couple of DIY trips for short breaks (Ryanair to Klagenfurt and 4 days in BKK, and then we drove down to Serre Che for Easter weekend another year) but I would absolutely not go DIY for a main weeks skiing holiday, not when you can find the kind of deals that there are about.

I suggest looking at companies like skiworld who offer excellent packages and value, and at times have deals for lift passes, or groups, etc.

I agree with Tony that self drive is only cheaper if you share the costs with another family 8)

Well we've done it! We've booked our flight to Innsbruck, and apartment in Seefeld for £1250ish to go next Feb half-term. Would have cost about £400 more with TO, plus our apartment is right on the central square in the town. Couldn't get any closer. Would have saved another £200 on the flight if we'd have booked when we first looked, 2 weeks earlier!

Goppy, we skied DIY in Whistler last year & looking to do the same to Lech next Feb half-term, mainly for costs and accomm. flexibility. Have found accomm. but flights to Innsbruck on Easyjet are getting expensive (£400 return). I wonder if it might not be cheaper to go package? Are you any further along in your planning?

Goppy

I'm doing Solden independently in January; I've used the Solden website for accommodation - huge choice at all prices. The tourist office sent me the various brochures (arrived just a day after ordering!) so you can have a detailed look. The Oetztaler shuttle from Innsbruck airport is one transfer option - and the bus/rail/bus via the Otztal railway station looks a decent back up option. Solden and Obergurgl are among the resorts that can be accessed this way.

I'm a confirmed independent traveller - gives me much more flexibility in length of stay. midweek travel, accommodation etc. And early/late flights mean you can get in an extra afternoon/morning on the slopes.

stressymum wrote:Goppy, we skied DIY in Whistler last year & looking to do the same to Lech next Feb half-term, mainly for costs and accomm. flexibility. Have found accomm. but flights to Innsbruck on Easyjet are getting expensive (£400 return). I wonder if it might not be cheaper to go package? Are you any further along in your planning?

The earlier you can book them the cheaper they are. I found they steadily climbed in price as time went on from when I first looked (Bristol to Innsbruck). When I looked at the beginning of March I could have got a flight for about £40.