J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by baillie353

Hello and welcome to J2Ski! It's great to see your interest in getting your first time skiing.

Destinations for first time; personally i'd recommend a French resort. Generally cheaper than other resorts in Austria, Italy and the like from my own experience and tends to be a bigger attraction to British skiers.

Specifically, I'd imagine perhaps the Meribel valley (Middle valley of the well known 3 Valleys) could be well suited to your needs.
Plenty skiable terrain for both basic beginners and plenty out there for more experienced riders.
Again; the pricing in Meribel is actually pretty decent I found from my trip there in January this year.
The transfer time from the airport (can't remember which one!) to the resort itself was around 2 hours, which isn't all that bad! Especially when you've got good company on the bus!

As for lessons etc, i'd recommend trying to book some lessons before you go on your holiday, on perhaps a dry slope or a near-by indoor ski slope if you have easy access to such facilities - just to get a grip of the basics, find your feet and from there you can devlope on your own. I've never had a lesson in a ski resort before so I can't comment on any average prices.

Hopefully the other ski-creatures on here will throw in their own 2 cents worth!

Nice to hear from you and good luck!

Austria.. For 5 months..
Got myself a wee job as a ski representative :)

As much as the Skype idea sounds really good and all, but as Tino pointed out - it does have its drawbacks with not working very well for some people.

I've settled more for the MSN + Webcam option, MSN is very reliable and gives the same experience at the end of the day.. and it's entirely free.. Win win really!

Let's just hope the hotel has wifi.. If not, then i'll be looking into these internet anywhere contracts from the phone companies! Only like £5/month which seems reasonable - provided it actually works in Austria!

Ian Wickham wrote:Valmorel :thumbup:

.. I like this guy! :thumbup:

Excellent Tony - naturally there are places we all can avoid - and the much needed details of the beer is greatly appreciated!
Thank you :)

Valmorel! My first ski holiday was here - I took some lessons at an indoor ski arena near me before I left but Valmorel is definetly beginner friendly - Certainly some nice runs there and beautiful scenery to accompany the skiing.
The apres ski activities are certainly not limited either with two night clubs and many bars/restaurants.
I really ejoyed my holiday to Valmorel - no issues with the resort whatsoever :)

Hey again guys! Some of you may be aware i'm heading to Austria for a full season to work there - resort is yet to be confirmed but I was wondering from those of you who have experienced skiing Austrian resorts at all - what is it like in general? I've been Googling around and looking on here to find some details on what Austria is like but to no avail.

I look foward to reading some experiences out in Austria!

Thanks guys!

That's a nice story Dave Mac - Congratulations on building such a life - sounds awesome!
I am hopeful that one day I can get a pair of skis under my girlfriends feet and she takes well to it.. I'll get there!

And thank you Tino - I am familiar with Saturn electrical store, they have huge ones in Germany - been many times!

And Dave Mac - I can speak and understand fluent German - my mum is German and every year since I was as young as I can remember we have visited family over there and from that I have picked up so much and I also studied it in school to prove it on paper getting an A at Higher.

At the interview they also tested my German abilities by handing me a piece of paper with two paragraphs written on it in German and I had to translate.
The interviewer didn't know any German herself but she did have the same text translated in English infront of her and I managed the first paragraph just rolling it off the tounge and I could make out 3/4 of the second paragraph.
My weak points in German are reading and writing - I can do it, but not as well as what I can speak it and naturally, I don't know every single word in German so there were some words in the text that made the sentence but I couldn't translate.

I did turn and say to her that I couldn't translate some of it and told her why - speaking being my fluent side and she totally understood and was happy with my performance :)