J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by msej449

Euridyce, part of the EU Education organisation, publishes the dates for all school holidays and terms across Europe. This year's timetable is at

http://www.eurydice.org/portal/page/portal/Eurydice/showPresentation?pubid=087EN

It's always useful to refer to if you aren't constrained to school holidays, as the patter of holidays isn't consistent from year to year. However, you'll have to trawl through the Euridyce website at www.euridyce.org as the term/holiday timetable document always has a non-intuitive URL.

The webpage that lists Geneva Airport car hire is

http://www.gva.ch/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-72/

I recommend you get a basic cost using Budget, as they are the most 'honest' in terms of including everything in the quote. Snow chains are usually about 6-8CHF/Day extra. As mentioned, they allocate the specific car when you arrive, so buying ahead isn't an option. Anyway, is it worth the saving when a week's chain hire is only £30-£40?

Sometimes, it's also worth looking at www.sixt.ch rather than .com as they ocassionally have offers on the .ch site that aren't on the .com They also sometimes have minivans at quite competitive rates. But it varies.

My kids learnt to ski in Livigno. It's very high and should be fine (well at least better than anywhore lower) in Esater. Prices are cheap because it's Italy plus they are some sort of non-tax principality. Instruction is very friendly and cheerful Italians types who speak good English. Finally, the learner slopes are great, because there's a graded series of them with entirely separate to the main runs, so you don't get experienced skiers and boarders causing havoc among the novices.
The big downside is the transit time - 4 hours or more from Bergamo. Which also means an early start (like 4am!) on the return journey. However, I would say that if you prepare everyone, and take plenty of provisions and entertainment for the kids then it won't be so bad.
Overall, probably worth the transit hassle for guaranteed snow late in the season and good learner slopes.

Why wouldn't you buy them in a ski resort? Where you can actually use them for real, with skis, on snow, and take them back to where you bought them if they need tweaking ... Or are you planning to use them on a dry ski slope or snowdome ahead of your holiday?

All I'd say in reassurance is that the snow base is much better this year compared to last. I came back at the weekend from 13 days the Quatre Valées and 'though it was +2 to +6 daytime at 1500M, it was, and still is sub-zero at night. There was no sign of wearing through to the base when I left. However, I suspect that it will need more snow within the next 10 days if it's not to start degrading noticeably. The Avoriaz website says it's sub-zero daytime at 1800 and 170-210 cm of snow bottom-top so that looks good to me.

It can be a quandry. Socks may be OK, but in many ways, even if they work as advertised, they just substitute for winter tyres. Beyond a certain point you still need chains, even if you have socks/winter tyres. Problem is that while very thin-profile chains theoretically fit low-profile wheels, you hardly want to risk damaging your suspension/steering testing them out. Unfortunately, you may have to take the risk - if you have time in the UK, then you can probably minimise the risk by going to a specialist and getting the thinnest and lightest chains, and trying them out before you go. If you're rear-wheel-drive it may be fine, as there's no steering to mess up.

There's been an earlier thread on chains and winter tyres which I recommend you dig out.

I recommend you check your owner's manual and see if your particular wheels can even take snow chains first. Many English cars are fitted as standard with wheels that won't take chains, as the manufacturers assume we need wet-weather, low-profile wheels instead. The issue isn't with the diameter as the outside 'rolling radius' is the same whatever wheel/tyre you fit (if it wasn't, your speedo wouldn't work), it's with the width. Many lower-profile wheels intrude into the wheelarch too much to fit chains on the inside: they can foul the suspension and, on front-wheel drive cars, the steering.

Places to stay in rough order of cost are

Premier Classe
Formule-1
Campanile
Logis de France

Also take a look at the hotel websites for your target overnight stop: we did this for Besancon and came up with a very reasonable place in the middle of the town.