J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by skifun

Glad to hear you're covered.

If you do need surgery and it's possible to have it done in Andorra, it might be best to have the op there where they're used to carrying it out.

I have 2 friends who had the same injury in separate accidents (not on the same holiday or country). One of them was operated on, under insurance, in Switzerland, immediately. She recovered quickly and was back to normal soon.

The other one had immediate treatment in France but came back to the UK and waited more than six months for the NHS to treat her. This was some time ago, before the cuts to the NHS really started biting. She couldn't drive during that time and had minimal physio on the NHS - she hasn't ski-ed since (but I think that was more through fear than need).

If you have private medical cover in the UK though, then you'd be able to get quicker treatment here though.

I hope your leg is ok... but what on earth are you doing ski-ing without having checked first if you had proper insurance?

It would cost many thousands (perhaps into six figures) if you'd needed to be airlifted off the mountain.

Your partner needs to check whether they're covered too - especially if the snow cover is bad, making accidents more likely.

We'll be driving down from Calais and need somewhere to stay on the Saturday night - an hour or so from Meribel would be ideal - perhaps around Chambery?

Any recommendations? Would prefer a proper French family hotel rather than something like a Formule 1 - last year the one we stayed was rather grim and stank of cigarette smoke.

There's four of us and we could share a room.

Cheers! :)

[I wasnt aware of the tesco deal for crossings.....that might change things, thanks for the heads up. Whats the crack exactly?]

You'll find the info here:
[http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=148&bci=4294967191|Travel]

You need to allow yourself a few weeks to set it all up, so it's no good for a last-minute holiday. The other thing to bear in mind is the cost of tolls - it's about £100 each way to the Alps - and of course the cost of fuel - but if you're sharing the journey it doesn't work out too badly.

Plus if you have a car with you and don't mind a bit of a drive to the slopes, you can stay slightly outside a resort which is slightly cheaper.

We stayed at Brides-les-Bains a few times and caught the 20-minute gondola each morning and evening, which brings you out in Meribel with access to the whole of the 3 Valleys.

My reply was a bit of a generalisation - I suspect Tony you're not tied to school holidays though?

That's why it's cheaper and more convenient for us to go independently - especially if we drive down and use Tesco Deals to get the channel crossing for nothing.

Friends whose children have now flown the nest managed to get an amazing package deal a few weeks ago - but it was pre-half term.

Hi Karen,
You might like to know that we successfully sued Crystal in the small claims court some years ago when we booked a family chalet in Valmorel which stated in the brochure that it was non-smoking and another couple booked late from Teletext and smoked in the chalet for the entire holiday.
Our children were very small at the time and both have asthma - the reps were worse than useless when we complained and the company refused to offer any decent compensation.

We eventually got about a third of the cost of the holiday back by taking them to court - I suggest you do the same if you don't get a satisfactory response.

We haven't booked a package ski holiday since - going independently is generally cheaper, avoids the long waits for buses and hopeless reps, although admittedly you would have less protection if the airline goes bust for example.

Thanks for your replies. We had a fab time - ski-ed in Argentiere (Chamonix) on the first afternoon before heading over to Italy.

We then ski-ed in Pila, Courmayeur and La Thuile while we were away.

Pila was our favourite - quiet even during half-term week - Courmayeur was extremely busy and La Thuile very cold - I would only recommend going to La Thuile if the weather isn't freezing cold and windy.

Hello,

Grainau is very quiet and some distance from the lifts.

I'd suggest if you want to be near bars that you stay in Garmisch itself where there was a selection of restaurants and bars.

The resort is best if you have a car, as there didn't seem to be any accommodation near the lifts themselves.