J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Timeforabeer

Little ski, hire a car. With Satnav.

Or, as the rest have said, use the English language sites of the train companies, or as jonG says use RailEurope, which is all in English, and pay online with complete confidence, as many thousands of folks do, I know it;s all a bit daunting but put a little trust in yourself and a very well-proven system, and it will all happen.

We always hire a car at Geneva, I hate transfer services. We drove to Val last year - traffic was bad, with no major pile-up just SWOT and took almost 4 hours. Another thing re hire cars - if you get it on the French side, watch out for them not doing ANYTHING to winterise the car; we had a frozen diesel issue, and had to leave the thing in Val and get a taxi back. Also, you need a Swiss motorway sticker thing...

On the Swiss side, they winterise and put snow tyres on - es la lei - but also it's often more expensive than on the French side (but then, the sticker is taken care of..). Try the www.carrentals.co.uk web crawler - it's great watching the price of the rental falling as it crawls more sites...

eamorese - if you book equipment online, you CAN change when you get to the store, don;t worry. And it IS a lot cheaper.

Thanks AllyG, Tony_H and msej449 especially. My thoughts are - have a look at Logis, I hadn't thought of that as a resource, and if not Campanile. This is all subject to BA strike going ahead and us having to drive... Eurotunnel booked as a contingency...

Thanks Allie, I did take a peek on the Accor site and there's bags of choice.

I'm sure this has been covered on other threads but 1. I am profoundly lazy and 2. I need to get booking... so... any decent hotels anyone can recommend ideally between Dijon/Lyon? Priorities are; chance of a decent night's sleep, acceptable restaurant, not too far off motorway, ideally in/around small town so we can have a bit of a stroll around, and good value.

Thanks!

Dale - there is a company called Alpine Child Care which is s flat-fee by the hour service that operates in French Alps. Use them for two hours, pay for two hours, no set up etc as with UK service like Sitters... they use only English-speaking (and mostly English, from what I've heard) nannies. Hope that;s of use.

Snapzzz, re your child: I've done two trips with my young kids (3 and 5 when they started) and it is UTTERLY essential that you are happy with the school/care your daughter gets, no matter what her age. She has to be happy and confident, and then you can relax and enjoy your experience too. I've not been to Arinsal but it has a reputation for English-speaking instructors. Ski instruction comes in two guises; groups, of between 6 and 12, where you all learn together and probably do two hours every day at set times, and private, where it's just you (or you and family) where you will pay more but probably learn faster. If you go for the former, find one that offers small group sizes, and SPECIFIES what 'small' means.

Getting all of you into your gear each morning, remembering everything, and into boots and then skis can be a stressful time.

So I would REALLY recommend you all find the nearest snow-dome (Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes, Manchester, and I think Castleford and one in Scotland) and book a beginner lesson and just run through all the things you will do, to get everyone happy with putting boots on, handling skis, walking in boots, and the basics of how to stand, and how to stop.

Back to the ski school/care in-resort; she will not be in the same group as you unless she is, say, 15+. If you think she will be comfortable with a few other kids doing the same thing, then book your lessons at the same time she is having lessons so you can have time together before or after them. If you think she will not want to be away from you at all, book private; one instructor for all three of you should be OK, but they may charge an extra amount to teach more than two.

Finally, although all this sounds daunting, in reality - while it is all new to you - it will be fine.Just remember - 35% of people who went on a ski trip from the UK last year classed themselves as beginners. We all start somewhere; and it's a fantastic holiday.