J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by bald-eagleman

I would go for Geneva. bags of airlines go there and there are lots of places open to you from there. Aosta Valley, Chamonix, 3V, Morzine, La Clusaz, as well as some Swiss resorts. The list is almost endless. There are lots of transfer co at the airport all geared for the ski trade. For instance the Aostaexpess/morzine express co ( there are bags of others too) do MorZine for 30 Euros each way door to door, 48 Euros to La Thuile. Pick non school hols if poss and you can get great deals. I tend to use Trip advisor and or the TO's to get a feel/cost of the Hotels and book independantly. Savings can be high but do your homework because the TO are on such small margins they may be able to do better than you as they bulk buy
Good Luck...or come with the J2Ski mob to where ever we go! -)

And I suppose that if the Sauze Hotel gets booked people could always book elsewhere and still ski and apres with us

Good thing about that area is you can get to Geneva reasonably cheap most days of the week via Swiss Air from Heathrow...(other carriers are available!)which includes ski carriage. There are a couple of transfer companies that do reasonable deals to the Aosta Valley but I have used Aosta Express, (other carriers are available!)a door to door service for about 50 Euros each way. Full weeks Lift pass which covers La Thuile, La Rosiere also gives 2 days in Pila, Courmayeur or any other of the Aosta resorts.

I have skied La Thuile twice now and stayed at the Planibel both times. However I have never been to Champoluc. La Thuile is connected to La Rosiere (France) and together offer about 160 Kms of good skiing. It is VERY quiet and at last years half term the pistes were virtually deserted compared with French resorts and other Alpine resorts.The skiing is varied from testing blacks (B3 the steepest in the Alps)to really cruisy blues. The trip to France is now easy but you have to ski a reasonably difficult red to get home. There is also a LONG (2-3 km) button to get back. The resort is typically Italian very laid back with mostly wide pistes. The exceptions are the return to the village, red 4 is easiest but red 6 is narrow and can be busy at the end of the day. All the blues are easy, the reds vary but you would prob enjoy Reds 9 and 10.

The planibel is ...umm ...different. Its sort of 1980's, the food is pretty good but the rooms are a little dated. They DO all have baths though which is great with a glass of wine at the end of a long day.

Would I go back...Def it is on my "best" list along with "Serre Che"

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxvwHLQG3MM or PM me for more detail

May be going on sat, would have liked Friday but am still in Lanzarote!! -)

I guess one of your problems is because you are tied to the school hols. The very nature of the beast means inflated prices at these times. Book flights early, try Swiss Air or BA etc as well as Easyjet and Ryan Air and I would aim for Geneva as there are literally stacks of places within easy reach from there. Meribel, Morzine, Chamonix as well as Aosta valley are all within 1 and half hours. Thought of going by train from Paris to Sauze or something like that. If you are in a public schhol that finishes early at Xmas why not do 10-20 Dec, it is usually cheaper then but ensure you get somewhere with a good snow record ...Montgenevre opens 29th nov and gets good early snow. I am sure you will find somewhere all in for your price but it does show what a good deal schools usually get as they include 4 hours of instruction per day...try adding that to any deal you get!!(everyone needs extra lessons unless they are Olympic standard!)

Just think, if we all put in a couple of quid it could be ours -)

AllyG wrote: In spite of having several very keen cameramen on the group holiday to Folgarida no-one managed to film me actually at the moment of falling over, although someone did manage to catch me a few seconds after!

As I have now retired i am pretty sure you will have a few more coming to Sauze in Jan . Will confirm Friday...ish