Here is the chalet:
http://www.skibonjour.com/chalet-tigneslesbrevieres.cfm
This is how the owners describe the chalet:
Ski Bonjour - The Ultimate Chalet Experience!
free-standing Savoyarde style chalet sleeping 39
good sized bedrooms, quality carpets and fittings
15 en-suite, twin, double and family rooms
flat-screen UK TV in all rooms and free Wi-Fi
just 3 minutes walk to lifts and slopes
The deal I have arranged for us with the Bonjour company
The owners are being very generous with us. They have agreed to hold the entire chalet for us, for one month, whilst I see how many J2Skiers would like to come on the holiday. If at the end of the month we have a total of 28 J2Skiers and their friends and family then we will have the entire chalet to ourselves. If we have more than this then there will be some form of discount to be shared equally between us, but I am not going to personally benefit from this at all. In order to achieve this excellent deal I have paid a deposit of £400 myself. As long as at least 2 of us eventually go on the holiday then I will not lose my deposit. And I am definitely going!
There is no penalty for us if we do not have enough bookings to fill the chalet by 1st May. Those who have paid their deposits and subsequently pay the balance, will go on the holiday. Bonjour will let out the spare rooms to other holidaymakers.
I will phone the owners with the numbers of who is going, so no-one else will have to contact the Bonjour company until they are ready to pay their deposit. I will not be handling any of the money myself. But I will sort out anyone's queries myself. The less other people contact Bonjour then the greater our discount will eventually be.
All those who want to go have to pay a deposit of £100 by the 1st May and the balance by the 21st October, as laid out in the following e-mail I received from them:
Dear Alison
We confirm that you have made the following booking with a £400 deposit which will hold the chalet for exclusive use until 1st May 2012.
You will need a minimum of 28 guests at £399 per person to secure exclusive use.
You will be able to move to a different week if necessary, subject to availability.
You have booked the Chalet Bonjour-Bonjour in Tignes for week commencing Sun 13 Jan 2013.
Your booking reference is 001090. Please quote this on all correspondence.
The outstanding balance for your holiday is payable on the 21/10/2012, 12 weeks before the start of your holiday. Please note that if you do not pay your balance by this date any discounts may be recharged.
Please check and sign the booking form below to confirm you have agreed to Ski Bonjour's terms & conditions and return it within 7 days. If at the same time you could fill in the guest details it would be very much apreciated. You may pay the balance by cheque or alternatively if you prefer by internet banking (see details below). Also please note that although we do not recharge the bank's surcharge of 3% on credit card payments for deposits we do have to recharge it on any final payments paid by credit cards.
I will contact you a few weeks before departure to discuss extra information we will require to organise your holiday. This will include information such as dietary requirements, expected time of arrival, ski pass, ski lessons, ski hire and holiday insurance details.
For rooms allocated please see the guest list details below.
All bedrooms must be vacated by 9.30am on departure day. Guests wishing to ski on that day may leave their bags until 4.15pm at the latest but, due to lack of space in the chalets, are kindly requested to leave at or before that time. It will be possible to change in the chalet before then. When possible, a shower may be available, but this cannot be guaranteed and will depend on the arrival times of the incoming guests and whether or not the chalet is full for the forthcoming week. In any case, we ask that the chalet is fully vacated by 4.15pm to enable incoming guests to enjoy their afternoon tea.
Your rooms will be ready from 2pm on the day of your arrival. For those who arrive earlier and wish to ski on the Sunday we will find somewhere for you to change and somewhere to store your luggage. If you arrive in time you are welcome to join us for breakfast. However please note that on change over morning's chalet staff will be preoccupied with leaving guests and preparing your rooms. If no one is there to greet you please ring the door bell and be patient. If you are arriving on any other day staff may not be in the chalet from 11am to 4:30 pm.
We will all do our best to make sure you have a ski holiday to remember. Please phone me any time if you require help with any other items.
Yours sincerely
Becky Coates
Room charges
A balcony costs an extra £20 per person per week.
Third and fourth adults sharing a suitable room get a £100 discount per person. So if 4 adults share a room it will cost them £349 per person, and if 3 adults share a room it will cost them £366 per person.
Children aged 13 and under only pay £199 as long as they are sharing a family room with 2 adults (and this can be one or two children).
Sole occupation of a room – This will incur an extra charge of £200 per person.
There are 15 rooms and accommodation for 39 people if all the quad rooms etc. are filled. However, for our purposes Bonjour will count the chalet as fully occupied if we have 28 people paying the full charge.
Transfers
The chalet will arrange transfers to and from Geneva airport for a cost of £30 each way as long as your flight arrives at Geneva before 13-30 on Sunday and departs after 11 a.m the following Sunday.
There is also a public bus:
http://www.altibus.com/
This takes about 3 hours to travel between Geneva and Les Brévières, and for this season costs 62 euros one way, or 106 euros return.
I have used this particular taxi service myself, so I can vouch for it, although I wouldn't like to say it is the cheapest:
http://www.lemantransfers.com/index/info/Home/1
In my experience I have found that you need at least 3 people to share a taxi to beat the altibus price, although the taxi is quicker than the bus. I have been in a mini-bus several times from Geneva to Tignes and it took about 2 1/2 hours, although I'm sure it would take quite a while longer than this if there was heavy traffic.
A taxi for 3 people costs around 240 euros one way between Geneva and Tignes.
An 8 seater mini-bus costs around 280 euros one way.
Flights
Flights from the U.K to Geneva cost around £100 return at the moment, and slightly more if you're bringing ski/snowboard gear with you.
For Swiss flights from London Heathrow to Geneva return for these dates I obtained a price of £110 which includes all luggage and skis/snowboards. However, prices change continuously and are usually cheaper if flights are booked early.
EasyJet from Gatwick to Geneva was slightly cheaper without skis/snowboards but £132 when these (and luggage) were included.
There are other airports closer to Tignes than Geneva, but the chalet website advises that transfers are easier to obtain between Tignes and Geneva.
Trains
The nearest station is Bourg-St-Maurice which is about half an hour's drive from the chalet. Altibus is currently charging 15 euros return.
I usually get the Eurostar direct train from London to Bourg, but unfortunately this runs during Friday night and during the day on Saturday going out, and back during the day on Saturday and Saturday night. Trains on Sunday are much more difficult. So I am considering going out on the day train on Saturday, staying in a hotel in Bourg over Saturday night, and getting to the chalet early on Sunday so that I can ski on Sunday. And I will probably do the same coming back so that I can ski for 8 days and get the train back on Monday.
Train tickets can be bought here:
http://www.raileurope.co.uk/
Last year I paid £189 return (using my Ski Club of GB discount) to take the direct day train out and the direct night train back buying the more expensive seats on the night train.
The Eurostar direct ski train tickets usually come on sale towards the end of July. The other Eurostar tickets can't be bought more than 4 months in advance, and the TGV (French fast train) tickets can't be bought more than 90 days in advance.
Self-drive
The costs for self-drive, per car, vary somewhere between £200-£400 according to the route (because of the motorway tolls) and whether you go via a ferry or the chunnel, and the fuel consumption rate of your car.
Ski area
There are 150 Km of piste in Tignes itself, and another 150 Km of piste in the linked resort of Val d'Isere. The two areas together are known as the Espace Killy.
Lift pass prices
The prices for the Espace Killy for the 2011/2012 season are here:
http://www.tignes.co.uk/TP-Hiver1112.pdf
The adult (ages 14-64) price for 6 days = 226 euros
The child (ages 5-13) and senior (ages 65-74) price for 6 days = 181 euros.
Dining out in the resort
There are several restaurants for dining out in Les Brévières, as described here:
http://tigneslesbrevieres.co.uk/#/dining-out/4545567012
Les Brévières
This is the lowest of the Tignes villages, at 1550m. It is also the most attractive village, with an ancient church.
Ski hosting
Bonjour will provide us with 5 days of free ski hosting
The cost of the holiday
These costings will vary slightly from person to person.
Basic chalet price = £399
Flights = £100
Transfers = £60
Espace Killy lift pass = £200
Total = £759 (unless you need to hire skis and boots which will probably cost somewhere around another £100)
J2Skiers on my list to go
I have only recently booked the chalet, and I haven't asked anyone to pay their deposit yet. These are the people on my list at the moment. There are also 3 more who would like to come but aren't sure yet if it will be possible for them.
As of now (Saturday 31st March) we have 6 J2Skiers which, with their friends and family, makes a total of 12-14 people.
It would be very nice if, by 1st May, we could have 28!
Me – AllyG
Far Queue
Catp
Daved
Felthorpe
Marra
Facebook group
I have made a Facebook group for those going on this holiday, so that I can post information for everybody to read and discuss without having to send multiple e-mails or private messages.
This will also enable us to help each with other with queries about flights etc.
And it will mean that we can get to know each other better before we go on the holiday.
The advantages of going on a J2Ski holiday
1. Solo skiers – it means you avoid paying the solo charge of £200 extra per person as long as you are prepared to share with a J2Skier of your choice – assuming someone is willing to share with you! And talking to people in the new Facebook group should help you to find a compatible J2Skier
2. Find compatible ski/board buddies – as above, you can talk to other J2Skiers going on the holiday and find people you would like to ski/board with.
3. Share transport – Those going by car may be interested in car sharing, hence saving costs.
4. Help and advice – we can do our best to help and advise each other with common issues.
5. It saves researching a holiday yourself – this is a really lovely chalet and it is very good value. It has excellent reviews on Trip Advisor and a very good friend of mine stayed here and she said the chalet and the Bonjour staff were fantastic!
