J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Thanks Ian :D

Hmm... maybe Livigno might be too easy for some people here, in that case. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't really want to have to travel to another resort half-way through the week because I've got bored with the one I'm in.

Re-reading what I said above, it doesn't sound very polite. Sorry Tony :oops:

I should have qualified it by saying why I don't think Obergurgl would be suitable for Hugh and his family.

The main objection, I think, is that Obergurgl doesn't have any shops other than the basic functional ones - like for food and ski hire etc.

Courchevel has some of the best shops I've ever seen - selling fancy designer clothing, jewellery, and furniture etc. I don't know anything about that sort of clothing but I remember my teenage daughter raving about it. Unfortunately, as Bandit says, it's all too expensive to buy - but you can have a lot of fun just looking at it all and studying the very wealthy customers who are actually buying things.

Obergurgl village is just a long street lined with very expensive hotels and ski shops etc. The only bit of lively night life I ever heard about took place in the Nieder Hutte (a mountain restaurant) after ski-ing - where people danced on the tables etc.

My impression of the place was that it was a very 'comfy' place to be, mostly full of middle-class, middle-aged people with their young kids who wanted a relaxing holiday whilst knowing that their kids were safe. And my younger daughter, who was about 11 at the time, did have a nice time, and they did keep her 'safe' and happy during her lessons.

But Courchevel is a magical and exciting place to be, with fantastic ski-ing. I remember spending quite a while watching (from the piste) the millionaires flying in to the tiny airport (one of the most dangerous in the world) and trying to guess who they were (from the logos on their planes). It's a great place if you like trying to spot celebrities :D

There's enough to do in the 5 Courchevel villages without ski-ing at all. When I was on the train on the way there I was amazed to hear a dad talking to his daughter and her friend and discussing how many days they were actually going to ski for and how many days they were going to spend shopping and sight-seeing. It had never occurred to me before that someone might go on a ski holiday and deliberately NOT ski :shock:

Andy and Snapzzz,
I've never let my kids nag me. I always had a simple rule - if they kept nagging me then they definitely didn't get whatever it was they wanted.

Obviously they were allowed to tell me what they wanted (and make sure I'd heard and understood), but after that they had to wait for me to decide if/when/where they would get it.

My scheme worked pretty well because they knew I was more likely to get them whatever it was if they were kind/helpful/didn't get up to mischief etc. etc. :D

And if they tried nagging me in a shop then I just walked straight out and NEVER EVER bought them whatever it was.

Some of the things they wanted I decided I didn't want them to have, and I've never bought them (like my younger daughter wanted one of those blowtorches for cooking but I decided it was far too dangerous).

And other things I got them after several years (like a dog) when I thought they were old enough to look after it.

Strangely enough, they changed their minds themselves sometimes, about what they wanted, if I waited long enough. Like, I can remember when my younger daughter wanted me to paint her ceiling black :shock:

Thanks Ian :D
What do you mean by the pistes in Livigno are overgraded?

Thanks for that Ian :D

I didn't even know that Livigno was anywhere near St Moritz!

What did you think of Livigno? Do you think it's good enough to go on our list of potential group holiday resorts?

Tony,
Thanks for your help with this :D

I looked at the TO prices before I went for an independent chalet company.

As you say, the cheapest package holiday I could find with the mainstream operators was about £550 for the 12th/13th January 2013 which included catered chalet, flights, and transfers (but not lift passes).

Crystal, for example, have the chalet Pre du Lac for £556 (webprice) but they describe it as a 'lovely simple chalet' which I took to mean very basic (no hot tub or British telly in every bedroom!), and it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

Crystal also have a chalet I thought more promising - the chalet Glacier, in between Tignes Lavachet and Tignes le Lac, which sleeps 32 people and looks fairly attractive and costs £575.

However, when I enquired about it Crystal said they would charge a single occupancy fee of £539 (on top of the £575) :shock:

And, apparently this applies to all their chalets (unless they have a single room of course)! They only deduct £60 (for the airfare) from the normal price to calculate the single occupancy fee.

I knew from that survey I did that we were likely to have several J2Skiers that wanted a room to themselves, so that chalet was out of the running, and in fact it put me off Crystal altogether for our group holidays.

And then I looked at a few more TO's and chalet owners, before deciding that the chalet Bonjour-Bonjour in Les Brevieres was the best chalet I was likely to find, for that price :D

Tony, I'm afraid that British Airways flights from the City in London get into Geneva too late for anyone to catch the chalet transfer, because the earliest flight arrives at 15-55, and the transfer is only for flights arriving before 13-30. They may be more comfortable but they are also more expensive - at £141 plus £34 for extra ski luggage. EasyJet is much cheaper.

There are, however, plenty of BA flights from Heathrow arriving at Geneva in time, price around £122 plus the extra for ski carriage.

Maybe if we put St Moritz down on our list of potential resorts we should put a 'very expensive' warning next to it :D

Tony,
As far as I know you haven't been to either Courchevel or Obergurgl - whereas I have been to both :D