[Closed] Cheap skiing locations for Christmas?

Les Arcs/La Plagne, cheaper parts of 3 Valleys (Les Menuires, Mottaret). Flaine is also very good.

All of those are reasonably snow sure and have nice blues and reds that link well into wee days/afternoons out. Some treeline skiing is nice at that time of year as it helps with visibility in a white-out. And ski-in-ski out accommodation is great for minimising parental hassle.

Book your ski hire online in advance, you should get a great deal, at least 40% off.

Just designed and built this site - they seem very good prices, especially as the cost includes transfers, hire etc... and lovely (English) couple too.
[url= http://www.skiandsnowboardslovakia.com/index.php ]Ski and Snowboard Slovakia[/url]

Done a couple of seasons in Montgenevre on the France/Italy border. Great little resort. Not too rowdy, really nice atmosphere and quite quaint (no major high rise). Can get busy with a lot of Italians but if you want to head off for some quiet stuff then Claviere is easily accessible and has some lovely runs (was the backcountry haunt of me and a few others for an entire season). The resort has just had some major work done routing all traffic underneath the resort to quieten things down a lot (trucks passing through to avoid the heavy toll charge on the tunnel).

Skiing is good, with a nice mix of blue and red runs on both sides of the valley. New lifts have been installed opening up more runs and areas (think its 200kms now). They have just put in a new snowpark too with permenant half pipe.

Extension pass is available for the entire of the Milky Way (Montgenevre, Claviere, Sestriere, Sauze D'Oulx and Sansicario). Pass also covers you for a free days riding at Serre Chevalier and Les 2 Alpes.

There are a few operators there (Equity Ski and Crystal are the only ones that spring to mind at the moment though).

Thanks all, a few leads to follow up.

Cheers

Forgot to mention. Another endorsement for Flaine (did a season there too). Undeniably one of the ugliest resorts ever but excellent riding to be had and with the full area pass theres 700kms of piste to be going at including some absolute gems (think very long and fast reds/blues).

Resort sits in a big snowbowl so can seem a little claustrophobic. Its fairly quiet with not a great deal of nightlife but has some decent restaurants. Crystal have a huge hotel there called the Totem which is quite nice (where I worked).

My only gripe was some of the older lifts were exceedingly slow but the majority of these might have gone by now as its a few years since I was last there. However the fantastic snow conditions and immense runs really made up for it. I could live with a slow 4 man chairlift if it meant I was getting fresh powder runs 😀

Creg what did you do in the Totem? I worked in the Crystal office in Chamonix, we used to come over to Flaine when it was snowing heavily as a lot of our lifts closed and the off-piste in Flaine lasts all day!

Atomiser - if you do look at Ski Slovakia, tell 'em Mike from Mixd recommended them.

🙂

Ta

Mastiles - will do. Had a look - seems very nice.

Shandy - I was a kitchen porter in the 2004-2005 season, Johnathan and George were running the place...and I think Nick was there too. Was transferred over to Flaine from Courchevel. They were gonna send some other lad but he didnt want to go so I took his place as a favour to him...then he quit anyway. Plus Courchevel was not my cup of tea...too much money/snobbery/arseyness for my liking.

Ended up leaving in March though after smashing my knee up good and proper.

All day pow sessions in Flaine...ah the memories. I loved the section off the Serpentine, served by a slow 4 man chairlift. Guaranteed powder, just had to make sure to avoid the crevasses...made for some fun back country freestyle though jumping over those.

Had a look - seems very nice.

George is quite a character. I remember him doing some impressive pole dancing in a club one night, he is very agile for a big lad!

I wouldn't have fancied Courchevel much either, its a wee bit like Val d'Isere but without the riding to make it worthwhile. I traveled about a fiar bit doing accounts. I remember going over to the Totem to teach 100 nannies how to do their accounts. They were hopeless. The 10 guys who were staffing the kitchen seemed to be enjoying the training course, they are very accommodating those nannies.

Yeah George was certainly entertaining at times, could be good fun but there were a few times he made life for us kitchen folk quite hard work.

I never really spoke to the nannies a great deal. Used to see them stumbling in pissed at 6am whenever I was on night porter duty. They would usually give a quick hello and then zig zag their way to bed. Used to always amaze me when they were vertical and taking care of kids a few hours later!

I kept in touch with a few from that hotel but gradually I have lost contact with them. Sam (think he was something like housekeeping manager) who started at Totem then got moved to Courchevel randomly turned up on the campsite i was working on later that year.

Did you ever do the long run down to Les Carroz? I got it early one morning and it was empty. Such a classic run. Another good one was from Flaine down to Morillon through the tunnel by the radar station. Really good fun long run that had some really fast sections through the trees.

Aviemore's really cheap for Xmas skiing.

So are Glencoe, Glenshee, Nevis Range and the Lecht