J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by acarr

I forgot to add that a self-catering apartment will be cheaper than a hotel, although more hassle in some ways. A lot of French resorts have self-catering accommodation. Also I don't know which resort you were quoted for - the famous mega-resorts will be more expensive, but as a family you won't need lots of mileage so could consider smaller places which might be cheaper. Is it important for you to book now? You could wait a bit until the season gets going and see where the snow is good. Some of my friends take their families to Andorra and seem to get on well there.

That seems like an awful lot for dates outside the school holidays. Have you considered Italy? The Aosta region is a short transfer from Turin. We went to Pila this year and were very struck by how much cheaper it was than our previous trips to Austria and Switzerland. Also, you can buy a coffee or hot chocolate in a piste-side cafe without needing a second mortgage! That's just my tuppence-worth. Hopefully you'll get advice from people on here who are much more experienced than me. As it's summer, it might be a bit quiet so if you don't hear anything you could consider re-posting in September when people's thoughts turn to skiing again. -)

I'm all in favour of open competition - more choice of ski schools for customers and it keeps a lid on prices. Of course every case needs to be judged on its own merits. Maybe the French are protecting French interests here, I don't know. However, I will say that this year I witnessed some very poor instruction by English instructors working for different ski schools, in particular the ones in charge of teenage school groups. These instructors looked to be hardly much older than the teenagers they were in charge of. I'm sure they all had the necessary qualifications to teach but there was a general lack of attention to the skier's code, with these groups yahooing around the mountain regardless of other people. I had quite a few "near misses", including a youngster skiing over the back of my skis due to his mis-timed turn. We also saw several collisions at speed, simply caused by these youngsters skiing out of control. One young lady barrelled into a queue of people waiting for a lift. Her instructor was far behind her. I'm just saying that maybe some ski schools are being tempted to employ some fairly "green" instructors, due to the amount of demand for lessons. Perhaps in some cases, standards are not quite as high as they should be.

There's a bus service from Cluses. We used it to get to Les Carroz. Cheaper than a taxi but I'm not sure how regular or frequently it runs.

Wouldn't accept my answers either. I design questionnaires for a living, but as you are inexperienced I won't crack down on you about the poor design of your questions. HOWEVER, I would say that the number one rule when running an online survey is that before you launch it to your respondents you should test it out to make sure it works. You have failed to capture information from at least 3 people who were willing to complete your survey, all because you didn't take the trouble to iron out the bugs.

I agree with Bald-eagleman. We were there this year during the week of 20-27 March. Very slushy at resort level. Most runs are above the resort so you can avoid the worst slush until the end of the day. Some runs were very icy and stayed icy all day, others softened up nicely. Spring weather is so unpredictable you can still get late snow falling even after weeks of blue skies. For a spring ski trip I think Pila is a good bet. Good Friday falls on 14 April next year so the resort will be very busy at the end of your week as the Italians will be on holiday. Residents of Aosta tend to get the cable car up to Pila, some to ski and some to pose in their ski gear while sunbathing on the cafe terraces.

I hope this works. This should be a link to my Facebook photo album. Should just be Pila, if I've done it right. Hopefully not the rest of our family snaps! Oh and most of the pictures were taken early in the week i.e. before the Italian easter holidays, and early in the morning, so the slopes do look empty. Not the case on Good Friday.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10205830421948477.1073741828.1495381430&type=1&l=3c3c802b07

billip1 wrote:Have you made your views about the ski school known to Crystal ? It'd be interesting to hear what response they offer.

Other than the resort reps, who helped me convert to private lessons, I haven't said anything to Crystal yet. I wondered whether my particular experience was unusual or if I was being picky? Maybe this is normal in Italy - we haven't skied there before.