J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Tony_H wrote: Ally, getting 10 people who have never met before to commit and pay a deposit for a holiday takes some doing, so well done to you.

Thanks Tony for your kind words of encouragement :D

There is still space in the chalet if anyone else wants to come with us.

Whilst I'm on this thread typing, I think it would be a good idea if I explained about the pricing for this holiday.

The final price we each have to pay is made up of the following elements:

1. The catered chalet.

a) The basic price for a shared room is £399 per person.

b) If you don't want to share your room with anyone else then there is a £200 supplement to pay on top of the basic £399, making it £599.

c) Third and fourth adults sharing a family room with two other adults get a £100 discount. So that 3 adults in a room will pay £366 each, and 4 adults in a room pay £349 each.

d) Children aged 13 and under only pay £199 if they share a family room with 2 adults (and this can be one or two children).

e) Infants under 2 only pay £50 but their parents have to provide their food.

f) Group discounts - Bonjour offer a free place for every 9 full paying adults, so we won't know how much of a discount we will eventually get because it will depend how many people come with us, but I would imagine it will be somewhere in the region of £20 to £36 per person.

g) Rooms with balconies cost an extra £20 p.p.p.w.

2. Transport.

a) Flights to Geneva. These are currently costing from around £70 return with EasyJet from Gatwick (depending on the flight time), unless you are bringing your own skis/snowboard for which they charge another £50. And Swiss are currently charging around £130 return from London, but don't charge for ski carriage. Regional airport prices seem fairly similar.

b) Train - the train timetable and prices haven't been released yet, but I would expect the train to cost around £100 - £150 more than flying. And unfortunately the direct Eurostar from London runs on a Saturday, so it will mean changing trains in Paris (or staying in Bourg-St-Maurice or Tignes overnight).

c) Self-drive. The costs for this vary probably between around £200-£400 depending on your route (because of the tolls), whether you go on the ferry or the chunnel, and the fuel consumption of your car.

3. Transfers

a) The chalet is offering a return transfer from Geneva for £60 for flights arriving at Geneva before 13-30 and leaving Geneva after 11-00 a.m. The transfer time is around 2 1/2 hours but they allow 3 hours because of picking up and dropping off at their other chalets.

b) There is a public bus from Geneva to Tignes Les Brevieres which costs around 100 euros return (currently about £80).

c) Taxis - an 8 seater mini-bus costs around 280 euros one way, and a 3 seater car is around 240 euros one way.

4. Lift passes

An Espace Killy (Tignes and Val d'Isere) pass for 6 days costs around £200.

5. Ski hire

Depending on the quality of skis and boots you hire, it will cost around £70 - £100. If you want Bonjour will organize it so that the ski hire company come to the chalet and fit you out with skis/boards in the chalet.

So - the total price for the holiday is variable but will be something like this:

Chalet = £399
Flights = £100
Transfers = £60
Lift pass = £200

Total = £759 (or around £859 if you hire skis and boots).

Hugh,
I never met any rude or aggressive fellow skiers in Courchevel :D

They were all really nice and helpful and polite - even in the lift queues! I did see some pretty pushy characters when we were in Val Thorens (at the other end of the 3 Valleys) but wherever they went to they didn't seem to be in Courchevel.

There tend to be quite a few very wealthy Russians there, but all the ones I met were also very courteous.

And I've been there twice for February half-term, usually the busiest week of the ski season, and the resort wasn't over crowded.

Courchevel even has magic carpets for beginners (3 I think) so they don't have to struggle walking uphill during their first lesson, and a load of easy green runs to progress to.

Be careful buying your lift passes, as there are several different ones for different areas, at various prices. The beginners lifts are generally free, and there's also a special beginner's pass which allows you on to the easier lifts. So it might be an idea to contact the ski school when you're booking lessons to ask them which pass they'd prefer you to buy.

And they do a family pass as well (with a discount), but I rather think if you get that one you all have to have one for the same area.

I am very careful with my money, and I was in lessons, so I only got the lift pass for Courchevel itself and upgraded to the 3 Valleys pass for the one day when I skied the entire 3 Valleys.

Hi Hugh,
I wouldn't bother going to the U.S.A. - if you can afford it I think you should take your family to Courchevel. It's my favourite resort out of all the ones I've been to (9 resorts I think).

Courchevel has everything :D

It's really beautiful, very well maintained, good snow history, part of the massive ski area of the 3 Valleys (600 Km piste), it's excellent for beginners, intermediates and advanced, and it's got loads of shops etc. (although I think your family will only be window shopping here) and the lift system is modern and very efficient. And it's got tree-lined pistes as well as the very high altitude areas.

The only downside to Courchevel that I've been able to discover is the price of a holiday there. We got around that by going self-catering and buying and eating our lunch in our apartment in the cheaper village of Courchevel 1550 (which is only a 5 minute ski below the main village of 1850 and directly connected by gondola and chairlift).

And they do amazing firework displays and night ski-ing down an easy green piste once a week. Oh yes- and there's a very long toboggan run which runs in the evening between 1850 and 1550.

Anyway - I wish you luck with your search and I hope you have a great family ski holiday, wherever you end up going :D

Thanks Pavel for your very useful tips :D

I undo my boots in restaurants at lunch time, to give my feet a rest, and also I find it makes walking down the stairs to the toilet much easier (mountain restaurants always seem to have the toilet in the basement!).

Ranchero_1979,
I am quite proud of myself for finding that article, based on Brodie's PhD thesis. I'm glad you found it interesting :D

I couldn't get the link to work and SwingBeep very kindly fixed it for me:

SwingBeep wrote:And there was me naively thinking I was the only one barmy enough to read scientific literature on skiing.

AllyG, unfortunately the link is broken.

http://www.sportnz.org.nz/Documents/Research/awarded-grants/Brodie%20%282009%29%20Optimisation%20of%20Performance%20in%20Alpine%20Skiing.pdf

Snapzzz,
You mean a real dog? That would be much worse to look after then the digital ones I was complaining about :shock:

And what would you do with the dog when you went ski-ing?

I have been with Mountain Sun to the chalet Les Melezes in Tignes three times now, and the last time was only 2 weeks ago :D

They also do summer activities where you can ski in the morning on the glacier and then go white water rafting etc.

These 3 day holidays are very good value and we always seem to have a great time :D

And they do have lots of different skis/boards to try out. When we were there at the end of October (for the ski and board camp) only the glacier was open and they took us there (and back) in their mini-buses because the free ski buses weren't running as it was out of season.

You have to buy your return flights to Geneva yourself and then the chalet staff do the transfers.

Icy,
If this became a sort of amusing wibbly blog for J2Skiers then I would find it quite interesting, because I like reading about what people have been doing :D

So - you want us to keep this wibble thread alive because you're fond of it - have I got that right?

It reminds me of when my kids were young and they had those dreadful virtual pet things (whatever they were called I've forgotten now) and they insisted that I 'virtually' fed them etc. whilst they were at school so they wouldn't die :lol:

Edit
I've remembered what those awful things were called - tamagotchi's - digital pets. And I was in BIG trouble if one died when I was supposed to be looking after it :lol: