Is it just me?

smartski wrote:

Ignoring hire, lift pass, lessons and uk costs as these are all optional/personal; or at least can be arranged whether you are with a T/O or self org.

I've ignored lunch cost as well for the moment. Personally I find the size of breakfast & eve meal negates the need for much lunch.

Has anyone any good/direct DIY comparables?

Tony,
I was following Smartski's format, which I thought was pretty sensible. I mean, we all have to pay for the lift passes, so I don't reckon they're worth mentioning, unless you can get a deal like 2 passes for the price of one, or something with a TO.

snowy0000 wrote:Hi AllyG
Unfortunately it is per person, :cry: but Chalet is first class. It caters for 14 but only 11 are going so we have to pay an extra over :twisted:

We have buns and cake, wine etc and we can ski back to the chalet but prefer to go straight to the pub.

We can only go in School holidays as our youngest is 15, but our eldest is 19 and at uni, hopefully it won't be to long before eldest is wanting to pay for himself :shock:

Oh dear, about the price. Have you thought about advertising the free places in the chalet - or do you only want to share with friends and family?

At least your eldest is willing to ski with you. My younger daughter is off ski-ing with her uni before Christmas, and I don't know whether she'll have time to go ski-ing with me on another holiday :cry:

Sometimes lift passes aren't an absoloute killer.
For instance last year we stayed in Les Houches.
A family lift pass is 2 adults and 1 child then additional children (max 4) are free.
And children are classed as up to 18.
As Les Hlouches wasn't enough skiing for a week for us we bought passes fror the other areas. Again same family pass, except the age limit was 15.
At no point whatsoever were we asked for proof of age of the children or proof of family link. And we bought tickets in Les Houches, Argentiere and La Flegere.
A Les Houches family pass for 6 days Costs €527.30 for next season.

Obviously not everyone's cup of tea as not a massive area, but brilliamt for a family wantng to try out skiing and thinking of doing DIY.
And it's a stunning ski are with trees to ski through and the Kandahar world cup run as well.

Dids,
You certainly got a bargain on your family pass for Les Houche!

But I think that's maybe one of the reasons Smartski didn't include the cost of lift passes - they're too complex!

I mean, I looked up the area of Les Houche and apparently it's only got 55Km of piste. So, while this would be great for a beginner, or an early intermediate, most people would be wanting a larger area than this, like you did.

So, if we were to include the cost of lift passes in our pricing on this thread we'd have to research the Km of piste covered by each pass (and there could be several for different parts of a huge area), and how the prices vary according to your age/family group/loyalty discount, and possibly even what sort of lifts you're getting for your money - like whether they're very old slow drag lifts or super fast cable cars etc. etc.

And another thing we'd have to think about would be the number of free lifts for beginners, or whether there are special beginners passes, or pedestrian passes so that people could meet up for lunch.

Plus, passes vary in price according to whether they're peak season or not, and sometimes they include a day away in another resort.

Hi All

Thought I'd weigh in on this one:

3rd week Jan (so out of school hols) to VDI
Ski in / out accomodation (and that's not subjective - been there and done it)
Chalet board including tea/cakes, cocktails and aperitifs before dinner, choice of two whites and two reds, brekkie and (perhaps crucially) help yourself to leftover bread/meat/cheese/fruit etc for a packed lunch (like other posters I'm not a big lunch eater in the mountains)
Private transfers to/from Geneva
BOGOF on ski hire
BOGOHP on FULL AREA lift pass
Free Ski Guiding (if the test case in Meribel doesn't scupper that)

Booked early as we knew what we wanted, booked for 8 so got a deal

BUT

paid £750 pp from Inghams

now that's cheap by anyone's standards in one of the biggest/best ski areas in the world

so the TOs can be cheap

I won't be "herded like cattle" with my private transfers - though I've never felt that
I have flights at a sensible time from the airport I want (which I can reach in minutes for pennies thanks to Newcastle's Metro)
I dont have to worry about things like chains/tyres/high viz etc for the car
Somebody else does the cooking
Somebody else does the cleaning


All in all - for me and my group, this is a no brainer compared to DIY of pretty much any sort but certainly than going self catering (yuk!)

Just my thoughts anyway

Sounds great.
Don't get me wrong. DIY is at the moment a neccessity.
I would much rather go in a group, no cooking, no cleanng, no snow chains etc, etc....
I just find whilst needs must I can do it cheaper because we've been tied to the school holidays.

I have no desire to tell anyone the best way to take a holiday, but if someone asks for advice or experiences and I have any to offer I will.

AllyG wrote:

Dave Mac wrote:
Free flights.
return train fare 52 Eu.
Hitched up the mountain, got a lift back.
b&b, 24 Eu/night. 168 Eu
Lift pass 36 Eu, (One sixth of a season pass.)
Total: 251 Eu, about £200.

Dave Mac,
That sounds pretty cheap to me :thumbup:

If anyone is looking for a cheap catered chalet (no flights or anything included) for January, Bonjour have built a new one called Pere Marie in Le Pre, les Arcs, and it's only £299 all through January and £399 for the 3rd February. I didn't pick it for the group holiday because the location isn't suitable for beginners.

I'll have a butchers at that one Ally, thanks :)

Dids1 wrote:Sounds great.
Don't get me wrong. DIY is at the moment a neccessity.
I would much rather go in a group, no cooking, no cleanng, no snow chains etc, etc....
I just find whilst needs must I can do it cheaper because we've been tied to the school holidays.

I have no desire to tell anyone the best way to take a holiday, but if someone asks for advice or experiences and I have any to offer I will.

Which is all that anyone could ever want from these pages :-)

Commiserations on the school holiday tie-in - we have no sprogs so are free and easy on dates, we've lost some great peeps from our group due to holidays - we simply don't want to pay those prices when we don't have to so have to go at different times to friends with kids and/or who are teachers