The best tour operator and why?

There are loads of them out there, and they all claim to be the best. Mark Warner, Crystal, Neilson, Esprite etc And they all claim to be number 1, have won awards in this, and been voted the best in that. So with a lot of competition out there to some of the same resorts, I just want to know through people personal experiences if they have gone with certain operators for a reason, or just booked the first one they saw. From the big operators to the smaller ones, and the reasons behind them. What's good, what's bad etc

Thanks for your input.

A lot of this is simply down to personal experience and preference imho. Also it will depend on anything which requires specialist knowledge.

I suspect that the first 5 or 6 people will all give you different answers as to which TO they may use and will say that the ones the people above have listed are no good because they had a bad experience. I usually use Crystals. Suffice to say, they have always been OK for me, and given me good service. They are happy to tailor a trip slightly to my requirements and because I cannot do that online, they will still apply the web discount to my booking. They have a good range of resorts and accommodation and will often have deals going for lift passes etc.

I've had great holidays with Inghams, Crystal and Neilson.
I've travelled more often with Neilson because their holiday comes out a smidge cheaper and they offer ski guiding in most resorts on more than 1 day.
I've been lucky to have never had a real problem whilst on holiday so I've never needed to test what any of them would be like in a crisis.
It comes down to which company is available in the resort I want to go to? If more than 1, which is cheapest?

I've used most of them over the years but there's only one we keep going back to. Skiworld, lots of reasons for that but the overriding one is he professionalism of their staff both here an in resort.

None of them complete waste of space ....... Only DIY now

Depends on what type of holiday you like, and what you have previously experienced, and what you are prepared to pay.

If it is chalet holidays, then it will most likely to be one of the small specialists, or a number of them. Some of these you might never have heard of, but have hugely loyal customers, but don't bribe journos with free holidays so as to win awards.

IMHO it will certainly not be any of the mass market ones who have poor staff / guest ratios.

TH tours of market deeping. Never let us down with any holiday and always guarantees snow!!!!!

I don't think you can say there is a best one, as has been said they all do different things better than others.
For example, for a chalet I'd never use crystal again and found ski world much better.
Inghams have been consistently ok.
Nielsen were ok, didn't do anything special,


I'd guess the likes of ski Olympic or one of the more specialist ones would be more worthy of this crown.

I found skitotal excellent but have only been once with them.

Trying crystal again this season but half board so we won't have to suffer their dreadful food.