J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by AllyG

Ian,
I hope you have air conditioning, or you might melt while you're asleep!

All I want to know, is which is the best sat nav to buy. I want to be able to go by the verbal instructions. I don't fancy trying to look at a tiny little screen while I'm driving. They seem to cost around £100-200.

Ally

Thanks Ian I think I saw a garmin for sale with Halfords. I have never driven farther than Bristol from home, about 130 miles. But I think I might dare if I had a reliable sat nav.

Ally

Ian,
Which version of Tom Tom are you using? I'm thinking of buying one, and wondering whether the more expensive version with the traffic alerts is worth it. Do you think it would have helped with your enormous traffic jam?

Ally

Tony, that's not very kind of you.

Ian, the swimming pool looks great. I bet it's hot out there. My daughter said it was 37 degrees out there yesterday. She came back home today.

Sorry you had such a dreadful car journey.

Ally

Coop,
I have a friend who is a stockbroker, and he says 'don't backtrade'. I think one can apply this to life in general, including decisions about ski resorts.

The important thing is to make a decision, because otherwise it's a sure thing you won't get any ski-ing at all - good, bad or indifferent.

And then learn from your decision for next year. But don't waste time and energy wondering what would have happened had you gone somewhere else.

I don't regret going to Bulgaria, even though it had it's downside. For example, I think it really helped my younger daughter five years later when she was studying Russia and communism for her GCSE history, because she had been to a post communist country and seen some of the after effects of communism for herself. I think suffering a small amount of hardship on holiday can be educational for children.

Ally

Ian,
Coop says the cost doesn't really matter. What matters is that his wife and kids have a really good holiday. So probably Niederau is still a safe bet. As I said, I haven't been there, but I think it would be good for kids because the village is so small. They wouldn't have far to walk to get to the ski hire shop, or the lessons, and they wouldn't get lost. And since Niederau is low it's probably not as frightening as the high resorts in France, and prettier.

If I'd had more money when mine were small I think I'd probably have picked Niederau. Instead of that we went to Borovets in Bulgaria - total of £820 for 3 of us - flights, accommodation, ski hire, passes, and lessons. But we did have to put up with a longish icy walk (no shuttle buses) to the lessons (I fell over on the pavement and hurt my elbow carrying my daughters skis), no snow one day only puddles, a horrible instructor for my younger daughter who was only 9, very basic food, and blankets with holes in etc. etc.

As long as there is enough snow Niederau sounds perfect to me for beginners and families.

Ally

Hi Coop,
Are you sure you're a tax advisor? Is drinking a bottle of wine a valid excuse for making a numerical error of £1000? :lol:

I thought that was amazingly cheap, and I wondered how you'd got such a bargain.

I suppose that means you're paying £1600 for the flights and accommodation, and £1000 for the lessons, ski hire, and ski passes. I don't know exactly how much ski passes cost in Niederau, because they vary from resort to resort, but they're probably around 150 euros for an adult and 90 euros for a child. However, some of the tour operators do special deals for beginners. Last year Thomson had a package at £193 for an adult and £144 for a child. But you'd have to pay the normal rate.

So, I suppose you're paying about the correct rate.

We go at Feb half-term, and we can't do it for less than about £1000 per adult head, what with getting there (train), accommodation (self-catering), and ski hire, ski passes, and lessons all day.

Ally

Tony,
All the people I met were very nice and helpful. As I said before, my daughter's ski instructor was great. She was very young, and a fantastic skier, and really kind. My younger daughter and I were going up a chair lift to her lesson, and we made a mess of getting off the chair, and ended up rolling down a small slope and through the lift man's tape (the year we went there was very little snow anywhere, so they'd had to make snow ramps). And her teacher came along to help me as well as her. Of course it was rather embarassing for her, her whole class seeing her rolling down a slope all tangled up with her mother. But the teacher just laughed about it.

And my older daughter, the one who's not well, also collapsed on a slope somewhere with numb legs, when she was ski-ing with me, and we had several offers of help from people ski-ing past.

I would say that people were generally much more considerate than in other resorts I've been to. Yes, some of them clearly had far more money than me, but that didn't seem to bother them, or me.

Ally