Suggestion for the best of the best!

Tony_H wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:

andyhull wrote:I think the most I've ever paid for ski carriage is £20 both ways.
I'd never go back to hiring skis, unless I fancied renting a pair of powder skis for a day.

Some of the budget airlines are £60 round trip :shock:

Your favourites are £100 for ski carriage.
This is why I for one don't use them and as many people take package holidays they get £30 return ski carriage.
Monarch, Thomson, jet2, Thomas cook etc who provide a high proportion of uk ski flights all charge pretty much around the £30 return mark.


I was also wondering how the figure of depreciation on skis could be calculated to £27 a year. Any ideas?

Who are they Easy,BA -)
As for depreciation it never really bothers me that much I ski them till I am bored with them or when I can afford another pair at a reasonable price :thumbup:

Ryanair £100
BA you can get away without paying if you're clever with packing.
I've never used easyjet for a ski trip so don't know,

I'm going to compile an up to date cost for ski carriage across the airlines that fly from the uk and post it on here sometime soon as this will help.
Ski club of gb did this recently but their prices are not accurate for some reason.

Tony_H wrote:Ryanair £100
BA you can get away without paying if you're clever with packing.
I've never used easyjet for a ski trip so don't know,

I'm going to compile an up to date cost for ski carriage across the airlines that fly from the uk and post it on here sometime soon as this will help.
Ski club of gb did this recently but their prices are not accurate for some reason.

Please control your language Tony :D

What is ski depreciation?

It's not like a car where you trade them in or sell when you buy a new pair!

As for ski carriage, fly Swiss - free carriage!

As for the best resort in Austria: the combination of St Anton/Lech/Zurs is hard to beat; Solden is a little way behind, Saalbach would be my next choice and Obergurgl some way behind that. Looking forward to seeing how the new Ski Juwel area measures up.

Ian Wickham wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:

andyhull wrote:I think the most I've ever paid for ski carriage is £20 both ways.
I'd never go back to hiring skis, unless I fancied renting a pair of powder skis for a day.

Some of the budget airlines are £60 round trip :shock:

Your favourites are £100 for ski carriage.
This is why I for one don't use them and as many people take package holidays they get £30 return ski carriage.
Monarch, Thomson, jet2, Thomas cook etc who provide a high proportion of uk ski flights all charge pretty much around the £30 return mark.


I was also wondering how the figure of depreciation on skis could be calculated to £27 a year. Any ideas?

Who are they Easy,BA -)
As for depreciation it never really bothers me that much I ski them till I am bored with them or when I can afford another pair at a reasonable price :thumbup:

I find it best not to be too dogmatic about about the transportation costs. I already own a great pair of skis. They do everything I ask of them both on- and off-piste except in deep powder where I would like a little more 'float'. However, if circumstances dictate, I am happy to leave them at home and hire in resort.

This year I got a good deal with Crystal and was happy to pay £30 for return ski-carriage. Last year we got 'super-cheap' flights with Ryanair, but I wasn't prepared to pay £80 to take my own skis. Here's why. Ski-hire in Italy is pretty reasonable in pretty much any resort, but by shopping around on-line I got a pair of 'performance' skis for £55 for 6 days. No-brainer -) . I couldn't tell the difference between them and my own. (I was too busy having fun. :) )

If I had been going to St. Anton (or Tignes, or Alpe d'Huez etc) then I would not have been able to hire such good skis for so little money and I would have then considered paying Ryanair's 'ransom'. It all gets factored in to the overall cost of the holiday anyway. Most of us will have a budget to keep to. I know I certainly do and if the overall cost of the holiday comes in on budget, then I don't waste any of my time worrying about what proportion of that budget was spent on ski-carriage.

As for depreciation; I can't get my head around that one at all. I got my skis at a great price from (the now sadly defunct Ski-Bilek). They have already paid for themselves and whether I get £5 or £50 for them on e-bay is of no consequence to me. They are not for sale, by the way. :lol:

As a note on ski carriage, I priced up holidays with Crystal this year and found that if taking skis it's cheaper to book the ski carriage and area lift pass option than the two separately. If taking 2 pairs of skis, especially in a double ski bag, is only a fraction more than paying for one pass and carriage plus an additional lift pass and if they weigh it you should be covered (having paid for 2).

With KLM you can take a ski bag up to 23 kg as your only checked bag (or 1 ski bag plus a suitcase if travelling as a couple) for free, plus 12 kg each hand luggage. However I think ski carriage on top of a suitcase is quite expensive.

You do need to let them know at least 48h in advance that you have oversize luggage (which a ski bag is classed as) otherwise they can refuse to take it (in Ts&Cs on the website). We almost fell foul of this last month as I'd forgotten the 48h bit and rang the day before. It didn't go through the system immediately and had an anxious couple of hours before I got conformation all was OK. Ski hire for 2 of us for a fortnight would not have been cheap, even in Italy!

Good point, and something i have done the past couple of trips with Crystal when booking as it gets you a discount on the combined lift pass and ski carriage cost.

I know some of the resorts around Innsbruck, recommendations for good snow depends on season. Laste season you might want to go to resorts which are out of the sun (e.g. Axamer Lizum). Or very high. I do not understand the point about 'expert', but probably it means plenty very long steep black runs, perhaps with quite a few moguls down the sides (like the big one at Mayerhofen)? Or it could mean you generally stick to powder skiing? Kuhtai has some pretty demanding runs and plenty powder (usually), and is near Innsbruck. It is high. If you are happy with a small resorts with a run for genuine experts (not just a so-called 'black' to amuse tourists but one which needs a sign at the botton of the lift saying "Falling means danger of death") you could do worse than Hafelekar in Innsbruck itself. In the same area there are couple of other very steep runs, albeit not graded black (not graded at all). Snow quality depends on whether there is fresh powder. It is called Nordkette. You do not hear much about it because it is too small, but also rather too difficult, for general tourist use. Popular with locals.

I was chatting to a ski teacher today on the piste who was saying how great Ischgl is with plenty of options at all levels of difficulty. But my own favoured resorts are pretty with gentle slopes and a few easy so-called blacks, and mainly blues and reds, so no point in recommending those.