J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Daved,
I'm looking at dates - not chalets - not really :D

I just thought if we checked a couple of the chalets out we could see how the prices change throughout the season, and get an idea of when we want to go.

All we need really, early on, is the date we want to go.

So - are there are particular months you can't go, for any reason?

Felthorpe,
I think that Nelly can't go during the whole of January :cry:

It is very hard on those that can only go during school holidays, and I don't like excluding anyone, but as you say prices are far higher during the school holidays.

Here are some more chalet prices, with Ski Olympic for the chalet Graciosa in La Plagne, for 2013. For this chalet the first week in February 2013 seems to be the same price as January. I'm not recommending this chalet, I'm just using it as an example. The prices include catered accommodation, flights and transfers, and ski hosting.

A friend of mine has been with Ski Olympic and she thinks they're very good. This is a ski in/ski out chalet hotel above Plagne Centre. It's more functional than pretty, and it sleeps 46 people. It does Sunday to Sunday booking.

I reckon the prices are around £100 p.p. higher than we're paying for the Bonjour-Bonjour chalet in Tignes Les Brevieres, but I haven't phoned them yet to see how much group discount they offer.

http://www.skiolympic.co.uk/ski-snowboard-holidays-la-plagne-paradiski-chalet_graciosa

December 9 Sold Out
December 16 £595
December 23 £775
December 30 £1075
January 6 £685
January 13 £675
January 20 £675
January 27 £675
February 3 £665
February 10 £835
February 17 £1135
February 24 £705
March 3 £705
March 10 £705
March 17 £685
March 24 £685
March 31 £945
April 7 £845
April 14 £665

Snapzzz wrote:Thinking about it i don't think i would have to make March a priority for me in 2014. Seeing as its quite aways off i could do any month and organise my family trips around that.

Thanks Snapzzz :D
It might be a good idea to make the date a starting point. As far as I can remember all anyone has said about this is that Nelly says she can't manage January and I'd prefer the beginning of February.

Once we have a date we could all pencil it in for our advance diaries, or in our heads, and remember not to book anything else at this time.

I'm assuming that the people who don't want to go in our school holidays will again outnumber those poor people who have to go in school holidays.

Dids1 wrote: :thumbup:
I think you are putting yourself forward as organiser again Ally!

Oh dear :shock:

I suppose it's getting to be a habit now :lol:

NellyPS wrote:What about one of these http://www.mountainsunltd.com/ - they are flexible with the dates, so you can go for as long as you like, the price also includes transfers from Geneva so you would just have to arrange your own flight/train.

Although the ones in France may be a bit on the small side (apart from the one in Tignes which doesn't sound like its on the list).

Nelly - I know all about the one in Tignes Les Boisses, because that's where I was just over a week ago :lol:

Their special out of season deals are amazingly cheap - which is why I went :D

My daughter and I paid £169 each for 3 days ski-ing with them, including transfers to and from Geneva, 3 nights and 3 days of breakfast, lunch (if you wanted it), tea and supper, 3 days lift passes for the whole Espace Killy, and ski and boot hire. The only extra we had to pay was the return flights to and from Geneva for £100.

And as you all probably know by now, we were incredibly lucky and we masses of snow, and sunshine, and practically the whole resort to ourselves with no lift queues :D

I did think of this chalet, Les Melezes, for the 2013 group holiday, but I discounted it because I didn't think it was of a high enough quality for the rest of the group. I mean, I don't mind the facts that they had duck tape covering the worn out stairs, we could hardly shut the bathroom door, the food wasn't very good etc. The staff were very kind and helpful, the skis seemed practically brand new, and we were only there for the ski-ing.

I don't know what their other chalets are like, but I'm sure they'd be worth considering (and they might be a bit 'posher').

That's why I said we need to discuss budgets. I'm sure some people are like me and they don't care much about the quality of the accommodation or the food, but to other people these things are very important.

Dids - I'm not expecting anyone to book this 2014 holiday just yet - but it's a very pleasant way of occupying the time until we can all go ski-ing again and we might actually make some useful progress towards organizing the 2014 holiday :D

I have rung Skiworld, as suggested by Andyhull (who has organized lots of group ski holidays).

They were very helpful. I explained that I was only making a general enquiry for 2014. This is what they said:

1. They will normally only hold a chalet for the exclusive use of a group for one week whilst the group sorts out how many people want to go.

2. Their deposits are £150 per person.

3. They will accept group sizes starting from 7 in the group. For a group size of 15 there may be 2 free places depending on the date and the chalet.

4. Their chalets are in the main resorts/villages - not the little villages like Monchavin.

5. They sell package holidays which include flights. However, when I pushed the poor guy on this he said that they would allow flights to be from different U.K. airports (regional ones would cost slightly more), and they would even allow the direct Eurostar (to suitable resorts), OR no flights at all for certain people, with a discount for this.

6. They would accept individual payments from group members - most people apparently do it by bank transfer - as we have done for the 2013 group holiday.

7. They will accept name changes free of charge up to 10 weeks before the holiday. Between 10 and 4 weeks before the holiday there will be a charge of £35 per name, and less than 4 weeks before the holiday the charge will be £50 per name.

I asked him for a general price and he said around £600 for early February to include flights, transfers, and the catered chalet.

Looking on their website for 2013 they do deals on certain dates/to certain chalets, like 2 lift passes for one etc.

I thought they seemed fairly flexible and willing to be helpful - which is encouraging :D

So - it means another group decision. Do we book a chalet directly with the owner (like we have for the 2013 holiday) or do we use a TO like Skiworld?

Well, if it was a choice between ugly or slush, I think I would pick ugly :lol:

However, it's not really that simple, because we might be able to find a pretty, interesting village amongst all the ugliness of a snow-sure resort - like Daved's Monchavin in La Plagne or Did's Samoens next to Flaine.

Dids - does Samoens get slushy in the main season?

Felthorpe - do you reckon Alpe d'Huez deserves to go on the potential list of resorts?

Ian Wickham wrote:

AllyG wrote:Ian - See previous page for full details :D

Sorry Ally, I missed that post ...... I think you will see a lot more peps on 2014 adventure :thumbup:

Thanks Ian :D

I am still hoping that more people will decide to come with us on the 2013 holiday. I know a lot of people like to leave it much later before making up their minds about where to ski, and as long as there is still space in the chalet they will be very welcome to join us :D

Strangely enough, when I first spoke to the owners of Bonjour about us possibly staying in their chalet, I said I had about 15 people interested in the holiday (at that point) and I was expecting about 10 people to actually go on the holiday. So my guess was pretty accurate.

It was Bonjour's idea to reserve us the whole chalet (with 15 rooms) for a month. And it has worked out pretty well, really, because we've had first choice on the rooms we've each picked for ourselves. And we've booked 7 rooms, almost half the chalet. It was surprising really, how many people wanted a room to themselves and were willing to pay the supplement for this.

Edit
Now we're on a new page again, I'd like to remind people that the details for this holiday are on the first page, and if you'd like to come with us would you please send me a pm or post on here - thanks :D