Savoie, somewhere cheap and with good skiing?

Tony_H wrote:

bald-eagleman wrote:Some peoples idea of cheap is the same as others ideas of expensive. Guess it depends on how much spare cash you have! Me...expensive is anything more than £700 all in.

£700 - travel, accommodation, all food and drink, lift passes. £700? Show me, thats not possible, unless you eat Lentils and sleep in bus shelters.

Val d'isere in January with Inghams: £600 each for chalet board inc 4 course meals (canapes and aperitifs) and travel from Newcastle. 2 for 1 on lift passes means lift pass approx £100 each. 2 for 1 on ski hire at ski republic = approx £50 each

So thats me done for £750 Tony - and that's in France that you always say is far too expensive (oh and Newcastle is expensive to fly from, much less if we lived in the south)

Admittedly I will have one night of having to eat out and the odd beer but mostly will have duty free in chalet / free wine (choice of 2 reds and 2 whites this year in Inghams chalets)

Thats cheaper than I've paid in previous years in France/Italy/Austria and Switzerland for similar (slightly less as you don't usually get 4 courses or a choice of wine and a free lift pass in the Espace Killy is unheard of)

I think there's bargains to be had if one shops around (and has a mate who's atravel agent!) - again if we could fly from gatwick we'd be able to go even cheaper. Snow train isnt an option when it takes a day to get to Kent in the first place

andyoneil wrote:

Tony_H wrote:

bald-eagleman wrote:Some peoples idea of cheap is the same as others ideas of expensive. Guess it depends on how much spare cash you have! Me...expensive is anything more than £700 all in.

£700 - travel, accommodation, all food and drink, lift passes. £700? Show me, thats not possible, unless you eat Lentils and sleep in bus shelters.

Val d'isere in January with Inghams: £600 each for chalet board inc 4 course meals (canapes and aperitifs) and travel from Newcastle. 2 for 1 on lift passes means lift pass approx £100 each. 2 for 1 on ski hire at ski republic = approx £50 each

So thats me done for £750 Tony - and that's in France that you always say is far too expensive (oh and Newcastle is expensive to fly from, much less if we lived in the south)

Admittedly I will have one night of having to eat out and the odd beer but mostly will have duty free in chalet / free wine (choice of 2 reds and 2 whites this year in Inghams chalets)

Thats cheaper than I've paid in previous years in France/Italy/Austria and Switzerland for similar (slightly less as you don't usually get 4 courses or a choice of wine and a free lift pass in the Espace Killy is unheard of)

I think there's bargains to be had if one shops around (and has a mate who's atravel agent!) - again if we could fly from gatwick we'd be able to go even cheaper. Snow train isnt an option when it takes a day to get to Kent in the first place

Yep thats not a bad price for Val, although I've seen cheaper in recent years to the same area. Good deal on lift pass though for sure.
I've not paid that much for a ski holiday including lift passes except for the one time we went to St Moritz, but that was 4 star and also included all your drinks and lunches and any lessons/hosting you wanted.
2010 we paid £510 for 4 star chalet in ADH including lift passes, LGW
2012 we've paid £589 for a 4.5 star chalet hotel in St Anton, lift pass is £190, STN which I think is a really good deal.
I've paid £260 for a chalet in Verbier, LGW flights in 2008, and £550 in St Anton Jan 2009 including lift passes on BOGOF which was also great value.
My point being here is that, yes, there are bargains to be had if you look for them.

I'm currently mulling over a half board hotel in Folgarida for £360 ex MAN, or a catered chalet in ADH for £460 ex LGW. But the wife keeps telling me to be patient and we'll get something for half of that. Probably right as well.

Deffo deals to be had then - but getting to LGW costs me money and time as the flights dont match up well so its a night before job

With transfer times like that New England and eastern Canada are nearly as quick for me!

Can I talk Mrs W into ski trip number three MMMMMM, I wonder :D

andyoneil wrote:Deffo deals to be had then - but getting to LGW costs me money and time as the flights dont match up well so its a night before job

With transfer times like that New England and eastern Canada are nearly as quick for me!

LGW is my least favourite airport in the world, especially now I am doing transfers to and from it a lot! I hate the drive there, theres always holds ups getting there, if a flights going to be delayed its a Gatwick one, its like Croydon Airport ie full of chavs eating MacDonalds as a treat, and it takes ages to walk from the plane to arrivals. Plus the queues are border control are the worst there are, and the baggage carousels take ages to notify you where you bags are coming in......
Other than that, its great as there are no supplements!

Hi All,

On the cost side ....my trips come in at around the following...

Return Flights (Easyjet Luton to Geneva ) £65 approx

Car Hire ( Autoeurope - between £90 - £160 + fuel, which is about another 35 euro's on top )

Lift Pass - Les Arcs/Peisey-Vallandry around £200 ( if using a full week's pass ).

The last thing on the list is food and beer tokens which I normally budget around £200 for the week.

So for a weeks skiing, food and beer I am looking at about £500 ( this is slightly lower than the sums above added as there is usually 4 of us going so the car and fuel are split four ways.

Also on the plus side I/we have no apartment costs as I own the apartment, but for a family or group of friends etc if you accounted around £100 per person for hotel/apartment cost for your trip it's still not a bad price......( and I do tend to let my hair down a bit when large amounts of Genepi are on offer ).

jon.

jonG wrote:Hi All,

On the cost side ....my trips come in at around the following...

Return Flights (Easyjet Luton to Geneva ) £65 approx

Car Hire ( Autoeurope - between £90 - £160 + fuel, which is about another 35 euro's on top )

Lift Pass - Les Arcs/Peisey-Vallandry around £200 ( if using a full week's pass ).

The last thing on the list is food and beer tokens which I normally budget around £200 for the week.

So for a weeks skiing, food and beer I am looking at about £500 ( this is slightly lower than the sums above added as there is usually 4 of us going so the car and fuel are split four ways.

Also on the plus side I/we have no apartment costs as I own the apartment, but for a family or group of friends etc if you accounted around £100 per person for hotel/apartment cost for your trip it's still not a bad price......( and I do tend to let my hair down a bit when large amounts of Genepi are on offer ).

jon.

Not attempting to wee on your chips Jon, but I looked at pricing this up myself last year, as a mate suggested we look at going to Les Arcs:

£65 return flights? Thats only the very cheapest headline price without any bags or skis. Random search saturday to saturday ex Luton inc 1 bag and pair of skis comes out to £160. Thats picking the more reasonable flight times both ways but equates to £52.99 out and £37.99 back, plus £19 for your bag and £50 for skis.

I priced up a weeks car hire from Geneva for a car big enough to carry 4 plus luggage etc and its between £250 and £350 a week, ex fuel. Plus snowchains is more. Allow £100pp for a car for 4 I reckon minimum.

Cheap week for an apartment in Les Arcs is 800 euros for 4 people in a shoebox, thats £200 each, but probably more for most at peak times.

Lift pass: £230

If you're going self catering, you'll probably have breakfast in the apartment for a couple of quid each by visiting the boulangerie and getting some ham/cheese/jam at the supermarche, lunch on the slopes allow £15, and maybe dinner out allow £30 inc wine/beer. Plus 2-3 beers apres at £7 a go, another £21 and you're looking at roughly £70 a day pp so just under £500pp for a week just on food. Probably cut down on lunch and have a cheaper dinner or eat in, or pass on the apres beers and have a couple of tinnies in the apartment instead.....and you might be able to cut that in half at a push. L

By my calculations, thats
£160 flights
£100 car
£200 apartment
£230 lift pass
£200 food and drink on your budget, £500 on my calculations of French prices
Total: £890 on your food budget, £1190 on mine. Probably somewhere in between, making it £1000pp

Tony, you have way too much free time on your hands!