J2Ski Forum Posts and Replies by Ian Wickham

ise wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:

daved wrote:"You might struggle with DIY anywhere TO's are in control,"

The point I was making is popular resorts for example St Anton are controlled by the various TO's, although it is not a resort that I have had experience of it is heavily promoted by the TO's so accommodation
is brought up heavily in the resort, making it harder not impossible for the independent traveller to book quality accommodation. There is always accommodation available my point still is that you have to search a little bit harder to find it. 8)

It's not very hard, most of Europe don't use tour operators, they just pick the phone up and book. I suspect the problems people from the UK experience are more to do with language than anything else.

Dids1 wrote:Well, we went, she skied with a wrist support and was fine.
Just a bit of pain when she had to pole, but all in all - fine.

Thanks for the messages which I didn't have time to respond to before we went.
I took heed of them - including not wrapping her in cotton wool.
Certainly not something I could ever be accused of!

daved wrote:It definitely is cheaper to book yourself if you want that rare commodity in the tour operators brochure, a single room!
the only thing that makes life difficult is the cost of transfers

daved wrote:"You might struggle with DIY anywhere TO's are in control,"

daved wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:

You might struggle with DIY anywhere TO's are in control, flights are easy to book it is accommodation which is the problem, there are still some good old boys who have not sold out yet but you will have to search for them.
On the other hand as TonyH was saying that the TO's were pulling out of some resorts so accommodation may be more readily available :lol: :lol:

Totally disagree ,,I have had no trouble sorting out accommodation privately all over the continent...its only us Brits that don't do it and rely on tour operators

Snow Time wrote:225 cm of snow left on the upper slopes of the Lecht - I think they must mean peat, not snow!

I understand your point regarding investment, but just because snow cannot be guaranteed, it does not make Scotland a poor place to go skiing.

With pretty good 7 day snow and weather forecasts available online, anyone in the UK can be in the Cairngorms within about 11 hours (or only 6 hours from Manchester). This makes a long weekend or even a week's short notice holiday in Aviemore perfectly feasible.

snowb4ndit wrote:

Tony_H wrote:Lech or St Anton. I have to say the skiing there was utterly brilliant and I would recommend it to anyone. I stayed in St Anton, there are some ski in/out places, more in Lech but Lech seems to be full of people full of self importance and the skiing is better in St Anton. The snow in Lech is legendary though.

I'm seriously thinking about St Anton, I loved everything about the place. The problem is that it's so pricey. I booked with a TO last time, fantastic location but the prices seemed to have shot up. Have you any tips on going DIY?