J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by msej449

If you're on O2 then you can get a £1.99/day Euro Bundle. It only gets charged if you use data roaming etc. So you can avoid it if you're careful. I just factor it in to the cost of the holiday, although I appreciate that if it's for the season, you might more actively go into non-roaming mode.

First check to see if your car's spec' allows you to fit chains at all. Most performance versions of even mainstream models can't take chains - it should be in the Owner's Manual or ask your garage. On my A3, my car's factory 18" wheels and optional 19" wheels couldn't take chains, only the 17" wheels. The usual reason a wheel size can't take chains is because there's not enough clearance between the wheel and the suspension/steering/brakes etc. for the chain mechanism to rotate, especially if its a bit loose. Don't trust a retailer who says "They're always conservative - It should be OK ..." or "Try it out first." - it's what your manufacturer certifies which is key here.

On our little Peugeot, the factory wheels can take chains. So we had the choice of whether to go for winter tyres or not, independently of whether to use chains or not. In the end, we opted for winter tyres and then some cheap chains just in case conditions were really bad, but we've only once been in snow where the winter tyres couldn't cope. That was when we had to pick up a member of the group from the station in the late evening, and had to get out of the apartment block after it had been snowing all day.

Two problems if you don't have winter tyres: in Alpine areas most of the other cars will have them and drive accordingly (my scariest drive wasn't across snowy mountain roads but in the commuter traffic 'round Lake Geneva in slush when everyone else was doing the usual 100Kph+); and they're hopeless in alternating tarmac/snow conditions - you can't be putting them on/taking them off every couple of hundred metres and you really can't drive more than 30Kph on tarmac.

If you opt for winter tyres but your wheels can't take chains, then you have a bit of a dilemma: Ideally, you'd have your winter tyres on a separate set of winter wheels (so you can still fit chains - either because you need to and/or have been told to by the police). But then this is getting expensive and you may feel that the risk of the latter scenario is so low that the extra cost is n't justified.

However, bear in mind that there are benefits to winter tyres, even in the UK, given the compounds used in winter tyres start to give them the advantage as temperatures drop below 7°C. Although last winter's average UK temperature was only 5.5°C this drops significantly for morning/evening rush hours and as you move northwards. For regular commuters in the rush hours, you may see the benefits for over 100 days/year. Plus, of course, you summer tyres last longer if they're unused across the winter. The big difference is in reduced stopping distance in the cold, even on dry tarmac. The snow-oriented features (mainly tread design) are an added bonus.

If you have an Audi, BMW or Mercedes, all these manufacturers do winter packages where you get the tyres 'free' with a set of wheels, so this can help narrow the cost gap. And they also store your unused wheels+tyres for you.

Swiss have just announced that they will start trialling flights between London City (LCY) and Sion (SIR) in Switzerland February 2017. Sion airport is in the valley below Crans-Montana and Nendaz; only 30 minutes from Verbier; and the nearest to Zermatt etc. Although there's not a station at the airport, transfers to the mainline Sion station should be very short. I've flown to/from Sion on a charter from Gatwick to Verbier and it's a lot nearer than Geneva, and much quieter. My understanding is that the withdrawal of the Swiss Air Force from their base at Sion Airport lifts restrictions that made reliable commercial schedules difficult. This means that it's now worth the airport investing in the latest all-weather radar, provided the demand is there. Historically, it didn't have a good reputation, even for charter flights, as the older radar didn't allow for poor weather landings/take-offs. As yet, this is just a shortish press release, and the Swiss website doesn't have Sion registered. I assume more details will emerge later in the year.

A lot of questionable advice/advertising above. - No. I am not advertising anything, just being specific. Our apartment wouldn't be suitable and I get no financial inducement from the Agency that I cited.

I get annoyed at the mantra that Switzerland is expensive but France is cheap: Courcheval 1850 on-piste in a hotel in half term is no more typical than the Branson Chalet in Verbier at £125K/week. Choose a low altitude resort anywhere and it'll look cost-competitive but that reflects the risk that you may have no snow. I've heard colleagues complain that Switzerland is expensive and then it turns out they're off to Vail or Banff because they can't find anywhere suitable in France in half term. And so on.

My point was that self-catering extends the range of options available. And I also said that looking at an Agency is something you could try in France, Austria or Italy. If you do that and still find that the package tour operator is cheaper, fine ....

The problem with answering these questions is that you'll get a very random range of recommendations, reflecting the preferences of the people involved. What I was trying to do was to suggest that along with looing at Tour Operators offers (which can be very good value, don't get me wrong) you also choose one or two places and look at a couple of agency websites to see what self-catered booked direct might cost. But I appreciate that not everyone is keen on having to self-build their holiday flights, car hire and accomodation etc.

I'd echo self-catering. We've done both as a family, and now always self-cater, more because you get a private space that you can spread out and relax in, although cost savings can be substantial compared to a hotel/chalet. I'd just book the apartment direct from a local agency. Or the local Tourist Office can also be very helpful and may have places on their books that aren't on the web. We have a flat in the Swiss Alps which goes for about £1,000/week peak school holidays, 2 bedrooms. You'd probably want somewhere with 3 bedrooms at least, which is around CHF 3,600/week (£2,571). Be aware that in France, rooms tend to be smaller e.g. our 68m2 2-bedroom place in Switzerland would probably be 3-bedrooms in France, at the cost of living space. Our Agency rental pages is

http://www.carron-immobilier.ch/en/rent

Put in Property Category = Rent and No. Rooms = 4 (in CH, the living room is counted as a room, so 3 bedrooms is 4 rooms). This'll give you an idea of prices in a satellite village of a big ski area. But obviously, you could do the same for places in France, Austria or Italy.

If Geneva is anything to go by, the point is that it's basically a cartel - there are only a fixed set of Agencies physiaclly operating at the terminal itself. I've found that if you shop around between them then you'll find one that's reasonable and everything is listed at the booking stage - as you're booking direct. I've never had any problems booking this way.

Intermediaries like Holiday Autos collect your requirements and do the work for you, and claim also to get B2B rates unavailable to the public. The problem I've found with intermediaries is (a) they sometimes come back saying that they can't find the spec' you've asked for (so you end up spending as much time to-ing and fro-ing as you would have just trying out 3-4 Agencies direct) or (b) your spec' magically changes to something that they can supply or (c) the people who are actually supplying you with the car try to double-charge you.

So I opt to pay the premium and book via the agencies direct. But I do know that the Intermediaries can sometimes get good discounts.

It's snowed heavily in the 4 Valleys today and provided a very useful top-up, with falls down to 500m. We had three 'waves' of sometimes heavy snow and fog, so opted to snowshoe today, rather than ski. Conditions previously were OK but somewhat 'cruddy' on north-facing slopes and tending to tapioca below 1800m by late afternoon on south-facing. So it's a big improvement. Temperature on the balcony at 1500m is currently about 2C, compared to 6-7C at the same time yesterday.

Tip: If you're going to Switzerland, get the free MeteoSwiss app and put your destination in. I've found the forecast to be very accurate most of the time and the animated radar gives you a good idea of the approaching weather. Everyone else uses their data collection anyway, so you might as well go to the source.

But slightly puzzling - I rented from Hertz in Geneva Airport last November and they said that all their hire cars were winterised after a certain date in autumn. They used to have a small subset that weren't, for people who just wanted a run-around for the Geneva area, but they gave that up a while ago, not least because Geneva gets snow from time to time. Don't all the main Agencies at the airport offer winterised as standard now? I think you can get cheaper rentals from the French side because some there still quote non-W (and non-vignette, and non-chain) prices.