J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by shazzo

On Inghams there seems to be some lovely hotels here, with fantastic facilities at very reasonable prices. We are good intermediates but are in to laid back cruising rather than adventerous off pisteing, is there enough variety here and at the Stubai glacier to keep us going for a week do you think?

PS We aren't bothered about nightlife and love empty slopes!!

cheers peeps, and a very Merry and white Christmas to one and all x

Hooray, I am quids in having booked Hopfgarten HB with Crystal back last January and prebooked lift passes and skis. It still doesn;t stop my hubby saying my advance booking of several ski holidays a year is an illness and I need treatment for it!!

The question now is should I book with Inghams now for next Jan or wait and see if Sterling strengthens against the euro? Can't see it happening myself, particulary as Ms Merkel and her government have seen the blindingly abvious light and are not planning on printing huge amounts of money!!

any thoughts anyone?!

I have done both. For DIY you need to be confident or your ability to organise, navigate and have some ability to communicate in the language of your country of choice, not everyone speaks english when you do DIY! It's defintely cheaper during peak season like half-term as the hotels and airlines don't load anywhere near as much. Off-peak though you can pick up some amazing deals with TOs. Last April we went to Sagnalonga with Firstchoice - a hotel at the top of the lift between Claviere and Sansicario - for £300 half-board, including flights and transfers, you really couldn't do that any cheaper yourself. I like to go TO and HB with the kids as it means they have to eat what they're given and so keeps the budget down! :twisted:

here's my tuppence worth on budget airlines and a little story on car hire.

I personally have had no problems with Ryanair, I know it's irritating having to do all the add-ons to get to a final price and for skiers we end up having to pay quite steep baggage charges, but it still generally works out cheaper, and if you're going on a city braks with just a small on board bag it's amazing value.

...and to the car hire. Last year I had booked Ryanair flights to Carcasonne to ski the Pyrenees but it was raining and apparently Carcasonne has no system to land planes in the rain (flew back from there and I could see why - it was a nissan hut in a field!). The flight was diverted to Perpignan and Ryanair did lay on buses to Carcasonne although it would take about an hour to turn up. I had a car booked with Europcar at Carcasonne but wondered if they would let me have one at Perpignan and take it back to Carcasonne. Off I toddled to the desk only to find my car was booked at Toulouse!!! Entirely my fault as I had orginally booked Easyjet flights to Toulouse that were cancelled but I forgot to change the car hire!! but no matter, the very nice lady gave me a car at Perpignan to take back to Carcasonne with no extra charge whatsoever. In stark contrast to people at the Avis desk next door who had no interest in the problem and told their customers they'd have to get on the bus.

I discovered long ago that "free" places for children on self-catering holidays are a complete rip off, the "under occupancy" supplements are huge as they class it as only 2 people occupying a 4 person apartment (don't ask how or why they do this it is just a complete con). It was always cheaper to pay the full adult price for the kids and then sometimes you even get a fourth person discount!!

Another bugbear I have is that "studio" apartments for 2 don't even have a proper bed! :evil:

ooh, I feel so much better after getting that off my chest!

Shazzo

I though the whole point of going skiing was the opportunity to wear the naffest clothes possible in all seriousness :lol:

A favourite lunch time game of ours is guess the nationality based on clothing. I find the austrians and germans take the prix de l'arc de triomphe in this, presuamble they take a functionality over appearance attitude, however I've just bought a lovely lime green jacket to compete with them this season - see if you can spot me when you come over Dave Mac!

However, no one beats the UK family when it comes to the "family sychronized dressing" category though, the best I saw were parents and two kids in all red, white and blue jumpsuits in Sestriere just before the Olympics - homing to be mistaken for, or asked to join, the GB team perhaps? :wink:

Shazzo

I am off to Hopfgarten on 27th Dec. I know it's part of the skiwelt and near Soll (no umlauts on this keyboard!) but does anyone know which is the corresponding area on the J2SKI snow reports. :?:

ta

Hi Dave

I would recommend Sansicario. The Olympic runs in Sansciario are fab and you also have access to Sauxe on and Sestriere on one side and Claviere and Montgenevre on the other.

We went at Easter last year and conditions were fab. We stayed at the Hotel Sangalonga with a package through through First Choice. It's half way up one of the mountains on the Claviere side - can only access it by skidoo or chairlift which I loved but may not suit everyone to be that cut off. There is a hotel by the telecabine in Sansicario but can't remember what it's called.

Would have gone back this year but have to take my son to Austria to practice his german before his GCSE!