J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Are you sure he's not an alpacca (looks a bit like a llama I believe)
:lol:

Ally

Neiltoo,
There was a very adventurous guy out with us last week at Tignes who was planning on boarding down the 'double M' (I think it's called) from the top of the funicular down to the bottom in Val Claret. Apparently it was sort of half open, in that you could ski or board it, but there was a stretch of mud you had to walk down.

So, I would think that run's bound to be fully open now, after the snow they've had.

Transfers do always seem to be the problem with DIY holidays, and even more so out of season. That's why we had to fly to Tignes, instead of going by train, because the direct train to Bourg St Maurice wasn't running yet, and although we could have got there by train, we would have had to change twice, and it would have cost us about £150 more each than flying and taking the Edge to Edge transfer from Geneva.

Have a good time,

Ally

Neiltoo,
Are you going to the Edge to Edge 'camp' as well, or out with someone else?

Ally

Correction to the above,
I'm sorry I didn't read the original post very carefully. I have now re-read it.

Dani.dulfu - are you and your friends intending to drive from Baia Mare in Romania to a ski resort in Austria? If that's what you are planning on doing then you will be able to go to loads of Austrian resorts that we can't normally get to, because we normally fly to Austria from the U.K. and are limited to resorts with easy transfers from the airport or train station.

And, if you are driving, presumably you will be looking for resorts in the eastern half of Austria closer to Romania. I'm very sorry but I don't know enough about these resorts, other than what I can see on the internet, like for example the resort of Schladming is in the eastern part of Austria and has cheap apartments available on europe-mountains.com

And I suppose you will be bringing skis and boots with you in two cars, so as you said, all you need is accommodation and lift passes.

Sorry I can't help, but maybe someone else here can be more useful.

Ally

I may be wrong, but I would say it's very hard to find anywhere under a grand total of around £500 per person, for flights, insurance, transfers, accommodation, skis and boot hire, and ski passes, unless you either get a fantastic last minute offer, or go early in December. And lessons make it more expensive again.

I should think it's very unlikely you could get flights for less than £100 return, transfers and accommodation for less than £200 each, skis and boots cost around £100 (unless maybe beginners ones are cheaper), and lift passes between £100 and £200 each.

And you need money to spend when you're on holiday - it's amazing how it all adds up.

Most ski holidays go Saturday to Saturday, although some do Sunday to Sunday. Saturday half-term is 13th February for us, and prices practically double for it. The cheapest week is usually the beginning of January, after the New Year, which will be Saturday January 2nd 2010, because most of the kids go back to school on Monday 4th January.

Students from my daughter's Uni went ski-ing at Val Thorens in early December, because it was so cheap, but I don't know what the total cost was.

Best of luck with finding a ski holiday you can afford, and I hope you have a great time,

Ally

AlistairS,
Have you really packed already, with 33 days to go?

I never pack until the last minute - say the last half hour before we leave. For one thing, I don't have enough ordinary clothes to pack 9 days worth in a suitcase (it takes us 2 extra days to go on holiday because we live so far away from St Pancras), unless I was to go around half naked for the following 32 days :lol:

I keep all my ski stuff in one particular drawer, so I know where it is, and all I do is make sure I've done all my normal washing, so that I know I will have enough clothes, and then it takes me about 10 minutes to pack.

The last thing I always pack is our passports, money and holiday paperwork (train tickets, insurance, apartment bookings etc.). I keep all the paperwork together in a large envelope in a drawer with the passports, and then it's a couple of seconds to put the passports in my pccket and the paperwork in my travel bag.

Have a good holiday! We went to Obergurgl a few years ago and it was great.

Ally

Hi Jonah,
It sounds as though you have a lot of homework to do before Christmas, studying the piste map! It'll be okay if you're with them, because you know the way, but not so good if you have to tell them which way to go, because you'll have to know the names of the lifts and pistes.

A couple of years ago, we got taken over the whole 3 valleys in one day by our instructor from Val Thorens, and I was totally bewildered by the number of lifts and pistes everywhere - I just followed him! And afterwards I asked him to mark our route on the piste map, so I knew where we'd been. I suppose you could mark out routes for people, on their piste maps.

Anyway, I hope it all goes well,

Ally

Hi Slamb,
I'm very sorry, but I'm tea-total, so I wasn't looking for any alcohol :lol: I did see some bars but they didn't look particularly attractive.

What I can tell you, though, is that it's very difficult to walk out of the airport and go anywhere. Our hotel was practically outside the airport, but there was a huge motorway between the airport and the hotel (and the rest of Geneva), which I suppose is why they do free transfers to the airport hotels.

But - it is very easy to get the train into the centre of Geneva. The train station is practically part of the airport - you just walk through a revolving door and you're in the station. And all the trains from there go into the centre of Geneva, where there are loads of restaurants, bars, cafes etc. The train only takes a few minutes, because the centre of Geneva is only a couple of miles from the airport. And we bought a day travel pass which only cost 7 Swiss Francs (1.6 to the pound) and works on the train, bus, and tram. We went into the centre on the train and came back on the bus, which I think was a bit slower.

So, if you reckon you have time, you could go into the centre to look for a drink. If you get held up a bit, I expect they'd wait for you, if you gave them a ring. We had to wait half an hour for some people who's plane didn't get in until 7-45.

We are planning on going next year, but it will be October half-term again.

Ally