J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Thanks Brooksy,
Best of luck!

Dave Mac,
The Heitzmann certainly isn't cheap. The only reason we could afford it was because they did accommodation for one kid for free and Airtours did us one of those special kids ski for free deals plus free flights (unfortunately Airtours has been bought up now), so my younger daughter had a totally free ski holiday.

I had a look at their current prices, and Thomson have them at £616 per adult, for two adults in the cheap week starting 8th Jan 2011, including flights. They also seem to have some very interesting new 'modern' decor now:

http://www.thomsonski.co.uk/search/ac.4

I just hope their food is still very good.

Ally

Hi Brooksy,
I hope the news is good. Like you, I can't imagine ever being unable to ski again. Please let us know what happens.

Ally

Hi,
I haven't skied in many resorts, but the first place I skied after a gap of about 30 years was Zell am See in Austria. I thought it was really great for me, a nervous beginner/lower intermediate. The runs are tree-lined, wide, gentle and really easy for their grading - so that a red would have been no more than a hard blue in the other resorts I've been to since. And the views of the lake from up the mountain are fantastic.

And, it's only an hour from Salzburg airport.

We stayed in the Heitzmann hotel and had the best food I have ever had in my life. We still talk about those meals, 6 years later!

It is linked to the glacier resort of Kaprun so snow is guaranteed, although the queues for buses and gondolas etc. are also likely to be very long if the snow is bad in Zell.

Edit
I forgot to say that the mountain restaurants in Zell were amazing - log cabins with roaring fires serving excellent home made food on wooden platters. Whereas, the French mountain restaurants that we have been in have been more like plasticated self-service motorway cafes.

Ally

Thanks Snowbandit :D
That's very reassuring. Maybe it's just the rescue services who sometimes demand payment up front, whereas the medical people are okay as long as one is insured.

I am planning on double insuring again this year, and buying the French carre neige insurance with the lift pass, in the hope that they will trust their own insurers and not demand a pile of money off me should we be so unfortunate as to need rescuing.

Ally

snowb4ndit wrote:I have booked travel insurance the day before travel on a few ocasions and had no trouble claiming when my oh broke his collar bone. I am a little unclear as to what bandit is talking about.

Snowbandit,
Did your OH have to pay his medical expenses on the spot? And how long did it take to get the money back from the insurers?

I am still worrying about my overdraft facility. I have appealed it, but apparently it has to go to the underwriters (whoever they are!). It seems my bank cut it just because they got taken over by another bank - it wasn't anything that I did wrong. If I can't get it back I think I will be forced to take out a credit card.

Tony,
I'm sorry you haven't had the money for your skis yet. It's a good job it wasn't a really large claim for being rescued off the mountain, or medical care, or something. I hope you get it soon.

Ally

Well, I am sorry to be such a nuisance everyone, but I am still confused about what Bandit is saying. I don't understand the grounds her insurers used to deny her claim.

Bandit,
Were the insurers saying that your knee was a pre-existing condition that you had failed to report, or what?

Ally

ClipperJon,
£600 total per person sounds a pretty good price to me :D
It's about half what we had to pay in Courchevel Feb half-term for self-catering. I reckon you'd probably get something cheaper last minute, but then I wouldn't like a last minute holiday myself. I like to plan everything ahead.

What worries me about insurance, is that, as far as I know, you have to pay up front for whatever it is, and then you get the money back later from your insurers (assuming they agree to the claim). My bank has just cut my overdraft allowance right down to practically nothing, and I don't have a credit card, only a debit card, so I would have to have the money in my current account, just in case I had an accident or whatever.

What's the maximum anyone has ever had to pay out on the spot during the holiday for helicopter rescue or whatever?

Ally

Hi Eggman,
I'm glad my report is being useful :D

I'm sure someone was told not to buy boots in the summer because the shops run the stock down, and there won't be much of a choice. I would guess the shops buy new stock in the autumn. When I got mine there were a lot of boot sales on, but even then there was a shortage of stock across the country. You had to be lucky to get cheap boots on sale that fitted. I had to pay full price for mine.

Ally