Chalet Recommendation

Just spent a week here:

http://www.maison-jaune.com/index.php

And I can't recommend it highly enough. Our first chalet experience and it was outstandingly good!

Kate,
Thanks for the link. It does look very nice, but also very expensive!

The weeks they still have available cost about 1000 euros just for the chalet and the transfers from the airport. I would think that flights, lessons, ski hire, and ski passes would probably cost us around another £600 each.

I suppose I'm just too mean (and broke!) to pay those sort of prices. I generally try to go for the cheapest holiday I can in one of the best locations.

I'm glad you had a good time. Chamonix looks like a great ski resort. Maybe I will try and find some ultra cheap accommodation for a holiday there myself :D

Ally

It is expensive - we could only afford it because we got a half price week, and £100 flights!

However, having experienced it, I would still say it's worth the full price (not that we'll be able to pay that for a while!!)

Kate,
I wondered if you'd got it half price, but I wasn't going to be cheeky enough to suggest it :D

Thanks for telling us :D

Did you book it last minute? And if so, how did you manage to get cheap flights as well? Did you book the flights in advance?

Thanks,
Ally

We booked it back in the autumn - it was a special deal because it was only for 6 nights, and also pretty much the lowest week of the season too. We tagged on 2 nights in a very cheap hotel in Geneva and got 7 full days skiing as a result.

Flights were with Swiss, from London City airport - they don't charge for ski carriage, and again we booked them back in the autumn.

Ended up costing us £200 more than the self catering option - and we would have easily spent that on food & drink! We took 200 euros with us as spending money, and brought loads back - apart from a small lunch and a few glasses of vin chaud there was nothing we needed to buy!

Kate,
That doesn't sound too bad at all, quite a good deal in fact.

My daughter and I had 3 days ski-ing at Tignes on the glacier during October half-term, and that should have been only around £110 each for the chalet plus flights at £60 each with Easyjet, but we had to get a hotel room in Bristol before we left, and one in Geneva on the way back, and buy lunch and airport food and petrol etc. for the long drive to and from Bristol, and I ended up paying a total of around £1000 for the 2 of us, and it extended into a 6 day trip with only 3 days ski-ing.

It was great fun though, and we did have a good look around Geneva in the brilliant hot sunshine.

Which hotel did you book in Geneva? We were in the Ibis airport hotel at 114 Swiss Francs for a twin room for one night. It was perfectly comfortable, and did a free shuttle to the airport, but it wasn't anything special. The chalet people did a free transfer from Geneva to Tignes and back.

Ally

We were next door to the Ibis - we paid around the same as you I think, and it was fine. The Nash Airport Hotel I think it was....

Kate,
I forgot to say that the £1000 was total for everything. Use of the skis and boots, and the lift passes were covered by the £110 for the chalet, and we also paid extra, 90 euros I think, for a 3 hour private lesson for both of us. It was amazing how it all added up. Quite frightening really.

I expect your hotel was close to ours, although I didn't notice it. There were several there - the other side of that dual carriageway/motorway from the airport.

Ally