Latest posts for the topic "The best tour operator and why?"

The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:23:38 GMT

There are loads of them out there, and they all claim to be the best. Mark Warner, Crystal, Neilson, Esprite etc And they all claim to be number 1, have won awards in this, and been voted the best in that. So with a lot of competition out there to some of the same resorts, I just want to know through people personal experiences if they have gone with certain operators for a reason, or just booked the first one they saw. From the big operators to the smaller ones, and the reasons behind them. What's good, what's bad etc

Thanks for your input.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:36:55 GMT

A lot of this is simply down to personal experience and preference imho. Also it will depend on anything which requires specialist knowledge.

I suspect that the first 5 or 6 people will all give you different answers as to which TO they may use and will say that the ones the people above have listed are no good because they had a bad experience. I usually use Crystals. Suffice to say, they have always been OK for me, and given me good service. They are happy to tailor a trip slightly to my requirements and because I cannot do that online, they will still apply the web discount to my booking. They have a good range of resorts and accommodation and will often have deals going for lift passes etc.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:53:22 GMT

I've had great holidays with Inghams, Crystal and Neilson.
I've travelled more often with Neilson because their holiday comes out a smidge cheaper and they offer ski guiding in most resorts on more than 1 day.
I've been lucky to have never had a real problem whilst on holiday so I've never needed to test what any of them would be like in a crisis.
It comes down to which company is available in the resort I want to go to? If more than 1, which is cheapest?

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:09:36 GMT

I've used most of them over the years but there's only one we keep going back to. Skiworld, lots of reasons for that but the overriding one is he professionalism of their staff both here an in resort.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:15:31 GMT

None of them complete waste of space ....... Only DIY now

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:17:55 GMT

Depends on what type of holiday you like, and what you have previously experienced, and what you are prepared to pay.

If it is chalet holidays, then it will most likely to be one of the small specialists, or a number of them. Some of these you might never have heard of, but have hugely loyal customers, but don't bribe journos with free holidays so as to win awards.

IMHO it will certainly not be any of the mass market ones who have poor staff / guest ratios.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:53:45 GMT

TH tours of market deeping. Never let us down with any holiday and always guarantees snow!!!!!

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:56:45 GMT

I don't think you can say there is a best one, as has been said they all do different things better than others.
For example, for a chalet I'd never use crystal again and found ski world much better.
Inghams have been consistently ok.
Nielsen were ok, didn't do anything special,

I'd guess the likes of ski Olympic or one of the more specialist ones would be more worthy of this crown.

I found skitotal excellent but have only been once with them.

Trying crystal again this season but half board so we won't have to suffer their dreadful food.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:25:53 GMT

Ian Wickham wrote:None of them complete waste of space ....... Only DIY now

Got to agree with the old fella :-)

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:54:41 GMT

Iceman wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:None of them complete waste of space ....... Only DIY now

Got to agree with the old fella :-)

Definitely best for you as you change your mind often & booking with a TO would cramp your style :lol:

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 22:56:36 GMT

Sure is my friend. Imagine having to make a decision and stick to it. No thanks, i do that every day in work ;-)

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:08:20 GMT

I prefer DIY these days, and since first skiing in 1973, I've seen tour ops come and go (anyone else remember Swans or Ski Plan?).

However, I was impressed with Mark Warner and Inghams, Crystal and Neilson are adequate, less impressed with Skiworld (dreadful experience in a clubhotel in Courchevel a few years ago). Ages since I've been with Thomsons.

If going tout op this season, I think I'd opt for one of the smaller, specialist operators where you pay the premium for a more personal service.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:17:41 GMT

Ski Miquel consistently get great reports.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 08:40:36 GMT

Been Neilson last 2 hold - first chalet board, cracking host, good food. Second, hotel run by them, really enthusiastic staff if a little young, but can't fault it, again, good food.

Trying Skiworld for the first time this season.

Only been with Crystal in the past, they were....okay....can't really say much more than that. And have done DIY.

As other posters say, it's really down to personal taste - what you want out of the holiday, the actual experience you have at the time, amongst other factors.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:16:58 GMT

Expectations is key for me.

Used Crystal a fair bit - but would never stay in their own accomodation again.

Mark Warner were truly excellent last year and so were Total - but only when the pricing is added to the equation. And similarly Club Med - far more expensive and was it worth the extra over Ski Total????? Not sure!

But costings can be a smoke screen - twice as much doesn't necessarily give twice as good a holiday. Static overheads are similar re: travel and transport etc between the low budget and high budget operators.

And we all look for something different in a holiday - I will pay a premium for ski in/ski out, others are happy to walk or get on a bus to get to the lifts.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 09:34:41 GMT

as most people have said - it's very much personal preference etc and one bad rep/property/meal can tarnish a whole company (perhaps unfairly) forever more in that person's eyes

Personally I've used all the big "high street" TOs over the years with Nielsen/Crystal/Thomson/First Choice and Inghams all getting a look in at some point.

Of late I've settled with Inghams more often than not for a number of reasons:

Right Resorts
Right Accommodation (chalets usually)
Right Flights (Newcastle - the smaller chalet ops don't seem to comprehend that LGW and MCR are not the only choices which actually makes them expensive once I've factored in diesel, parking and overnight stay)
Found staff to be helpful in resort
Found staff at home base to be helpful too (MANY changes to initial booking this year)
Lastly and most importantly for me: they could not have been better when my wife was injured by an out of control idiot in VT years ago)

DIY doesn't work for me personally due to location etc (and I've seen this year that I'm going to VDI significantly cheaper than the Tignes trip)

Just my 100000000,0000000 Greek drachmas worth....

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:10:02 GMT

Tony_H wrote: Trying crystal again this season but half board so we won't have to suffer their dreadful food.

I'm a bit confused, Tony, as I always understood half board to mean breakfast and dinner! -)

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:14:18 GMT

Iceman wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:None of them complete waste of space ....... Only DIY now

Got to agree with the old fella :-)

I don't mind the fella , just good that you have come to your senses to understand that wickers is always right :lol:

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:39:47 GMT

Have used Crystal, as everyone else here seems to agree.... adequate. My OH was sure they had a taste magnet to suck all the flavour from their food as it looked good but tasted of very little!

We had a good experience with Alpine Elements and I would book with them again.

Have done DIY and it's OK but some of those apartments are little more than rabbit hutches and I don't like the door resting on my knees when I am on the loo! (and I am not 6ft 5)
:oops:

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:11:14 GMT

I worked for tour operators for 5 years and I DIY it now as a preference. I find renting a s/c apt is more a holiday home when booked privately and therefore has more mod cons. A chalet is often either hosted by the owner or at least overseen by the owner so again better equipped and a much higher standard (including service and customer care) than a tour operator chalet. Only my experiences and it depends on what your priorities are.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:54:16 GMT

Tony_H wrote:Ski Miquel consistently get great reports.

Couldn't agree more - and one of those great reports would be from me :D

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:59:27 GMT

Your AGE and experience counts for a lot Wickers. BTW Happy birthday yesterday -)

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:10:53 GMT

From the years when I did ski package holidays, Skiworld were the best organised. Inghams were mostly efficient, Neilson, clueless staff reduced me to tears and I made a "never again" vow, Virgin, ok but were masters of creative descriptions.
One Tour Op did go bust on me, I was away on the overnight Ski Train, made it back to Dover OK, but not to London destination. Made my own way home :), can't remember the co. name.

We discovered Interhome, who are great, and went DIY from then on, until we found a resort where we wanted to put roots down.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:22:18 GMT

LOTA wrote:

Tony_H wrote: Trying crystal again this season but half board so we won't have to suffer their dreadful food.

I'm a bit confused, Tony, as I always understood half board to mean breakfast and dinner! -)

Simples. Chalets are staffed by tour op who do the cooking, whereas hotels belong to the owners and tour op just put you up in it so they don't cook for you.

Massive difference

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:55:59 GMT

felthorpe wrote:Have used Crystal, as everyone else here seems to agree.... adequate.

My experience of Crystal has been consistently inadequate, not enough suitable or well trained staff on the ground to do an adequate job. Because of their massive choice we've ended up going wit them on a few occasions but I would never use them again. Too many experiences that fall well below adequate.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 11:57:41 GMT

andyhull wrote:

felthorpe wrote:Have used Crystal, as everyone else here seems to agree.... adequate.

My experience of Crystal has been consistently inadequate, not enough suitable or well trained staff on the ground to do an adequate job. Because of their massive choice we've ended up going wit them on a few occasions but I would never use them again. Too many experiences that fall well below adequate.

I've only used them once and as a result would not use one of their chalets again.
Otherwise transfers and flights etc were absolutely fine.
I'm using them this year as they go to the resort and hotel I want to use, but being half board it is not staffed by Crystal staff which can only be a good thing.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:57:48 GMT

I went with Crystal last year. the only time I saw the rep was when he was skiing or having boarding lessons .Surely that's what the job is all about I wish i was young enough to do the same.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:59:33 GMT

:D Great first post PORTMAN, welcome to the forums, I think you might fit in quite well.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 15:03:41 GMT

Tony_H wrote:

LOTA wrote:

Tony_H wrote: Trying crystal again this season but half board so we won't have to suffer their dreadful food.

I'm a bit confused, Tony, as I always understood half board to mean breakfast and dinner! -)

Simples. Chalets are staffed by tour op who do the cooking, whereas hotels belong to the owners and tour op just put you up in it so they don't cook for you.

Massive difference

I know that Tone having been a veteran of more chalet and hotel hols since I can remember; if you'd said hotel it would have made more sense!!

Last time I went with Crystal it was to a hotel but only B&B, most flexible and enjoyable way to get around the resort and enjoy various restuarants and bars! :)

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:25:54 GMT

I am a bit reluctant on this, since in my early season days, reps were the subject of, errm, extended evening enterprises. On this basis, Inghams had by far, the best offer. Thomsons did come highly recommended....

Later, much much later, and by then, totally unconstrained from any non-value views on the subject, I discovered, for totally unrelated reasons, Inghams also seemed to have the best trained, and most knowledgeable individuals. That is not to say that there were some great individuals from other companies, ~ there were.

There was a northern company called Hards, but I would be forbidden, on this site, for drawing any inferences for ladies' preference for this company.

Sadly, Inghams management has undergone recent change, and it would appear there is a downward trend in demanded capabilities. There are still some great skiers working for many companies....

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 10:55:47 GMT

Dave Mac wrote:I am a bit reluctant on this, since in my early season days, reps were the subject of, errm, extended evening enterprises. On this basis, Inghams had by far, the best offer. Thomsons did come highly recommended....

Later, much much later, and by then, totally unconstrained from any non-value views on the subject, I discovered, for totally unrelated reasons, Inghams also seemed to have the best trained, and most knowledgeable individuals. That is not to say that there were some great individuals from other companies, ~ there were.

There was a northern company called Hards, but I would be forbidden, on this site, for drawing any inferences for ladies' preference for this company.

Sadly, Inghams management has undergone recent change, and it would appear there is a downward trend in demanded capabilities. There are still some great skiers working for many companies....

As I said earlier Inghams have been my favourite. They seem to employ reps who are generally interested in the skiing rather than just the boozing. I remember the trip where my wife tried skiing for the first time and the rep spent a good 20 mins at the welcome meeting pointing out things I should do on my own to then be able to take her back to once she was out of ski school for the day - most welcome in VDI as it was the first time I'd encountered the vagaries of its piste classification (the rep told me to keep the wife off Vert run if I wanted her to stick at this ski malarkey...)

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 14:57:10 GMT

I think it's wrong to suggest the reps from one company are all a certain type.
The crystal reps in our chalet weren't the slightest bit interested in serving the food properly, cooking it well, or ensuring the stock was kept up. They were however very keen on drinking heavily and maximising slope time. That does not suggest for one minute that all or ant other crystal reps are the same.

I have to say inghams seem to have a number of more "mature" reps who probably have a better knowledge of resorts etc and a wider experience all round.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 16:53:41 GMT

The Crystal Agent at Gatwick went down the checkin queue telling us that we all had to pay a "fuel supplement" to get on the flight. When we got to the checkin desk, the airline said this simply wasn't the case. Crystal had charged their agent with getting some extra payments in whatever way she could. When I went to other people in the queue to tell them, the rep threatened to get the airport security to arrest me. Welcome to Crystal corporate customer care. As you can imagine, I wouldn't recommend them. No doubt, Crystal would say they're not responsible for the specific actions of their agent. But it reflects the way they do business.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 17:40:18 GMT

We do a mix but mainly DIY, but when the Ash cloud struck we were away with ski world, excellent, coaches organised, and we were home only 12hrs late. :shock: Very nice chalet and very good staff.

Last year the other half and me went away (just the two of us) First time in 19 years with alpine elements, staff were ok, ski guide very good Chalet poor, but so were the other people in the chalet and that could have clouded my views.

This starting with a DIY :D

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:09:33 GMT

msej449 wrote:The Crystal Agent at Gatwick went down the checkin queue telling us that we all had to pay a "fuel supplement" to get on the flight. When we got to the checkin desk, the airline said this simply wasn't the case. Crystal had charged their agent with getting some extra payments in whatever way she could. When I went to other people in the queue to tell them, the rep threatened to get the airport security to arrest me. Welcome to Crystal corporate customer care. As you can imagine, I wouldn't recommend them.

This is an astonishing story ! And Crystal didn't care ?

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:57:13 GMT

msej449 wrote:The Crystal Agent at Gatwick went down the checkin queue telling us that we all had to pay a "fuel supplement" to get on the flight. When we got to the checkin desk, the airline said this simply wasn't the case. Crystal had charged their agent with getting some extra payments in whatever way she could. When I went to other people in the queue to tell them, the rep threatened to get the airport security to arrest me. Welcome to Crystal corporate customer care. As you can imagine, I wouldn't recommend them. No doubt, Crystal would say they're not responsible for the specific actions of their agent. But it reflects the way they do business.

We had a similar incident with the ski world repeat gatwick. 6am flight out to Innsbruck with monarch, and she went down the queue making people pay for ski carriage despite the airline not actually charging ski carriage back then. She also tried to get my group of 8 to pay for ski carriage even though we already had, because it hadn't been added to her printed list that we had booked skis. She was adamant we had to pay, and unfortunately I had to be quite blunt (that must come as a shock......) and basically tell her to do one and come back to me once shed checked with head office.......needless to day she couldn't at 4am on a Saturday morning. She thought she was onto a quick GBP180.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:06:50 GMT

I hope you complained. Or it just pointless?

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:22:39 GMT

I always carry full paperwork to show what I have and have not paid for. We have had queries like this before and a battle of the paperwork seems to do the trick.

Like when I paid for 3 x 2 bedded rooms in Andorra and they tried to put us in 2 x 3 bedded rooms. Could have been a bit embarassing deciding who was to share with who!! :oops:

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:14:03 GMT

I gave some constructive feedback to the head of Skiworld groups about the ski carriage Gestapo, which I know was passed on to management.
Basically pointing out that having someone totally devoid of interpersonal skills as the first Skiworld employee customers came into contact with was probably not good for business.
We'd had a similar experience to the above.
Since then we've had a good customer experience at check in.

Re:The best tour operator and why?

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:09:44 GMT

I've only ever used Thomsons but they are closely tied in with Crystal. My only problem was on my first trip with them when, being a novice, I had failed to navigate the booking procedure properly on the Thomson website, hence had not only booked myself a first time ski package, which included lessons, equipment and lift pass, but, not realising this, I'd also booked myself a separate lift pass and separate ski hire too (dumb, I know .. but it shouldn't be possible to do imho, at least without flagging up a query on the webpage). The reps in resort were pretty sympathetic but wouldn't sort it out there and then, and so on my return home I wrote a letter to Mr Big at Thomson, thanking him for a great holiday and then explaining that it was possible for the uninitiated to pay twice via their website. Within a few days a cheque for GBP 220 dropped on my mat. (I still think the website allows this to happen though !)