[Closed] W-T-F : ski hire in france ££££ !

I went earlier this year with UCPA.com.... very cheap and no way nasty!

UCPA - isn't that all pissed up 20 year-olds looking for group sex in a dormitory ?

😉

(did they hire you skis direct from there?)

'Fraid it's fing expensive this year. Lift pass £400 for two, skis £200 for two, lunch on the slopes £50 - £70 for two.

France is now very, very expensive.

Bob

lunch on the slopes - mars bar & nutri-grain, no ?

Might treat the Mrs to a shared can of coke though (alternate days maybe)

Val D'Isere pass is 200euro!

scaredypants - Member
lunch on the slopes - mars bar & nutri-grain, no ?

Peasant 😆

Bugger got two trips to the alps to pay for this year (one boarding one biking) - oh well, could be worse! Best get saving though.

scaredypants - Member
lunch on the slopes - mars bar & nutri-grain, no ?

Peasant [:lol:]

It'll be a king-size mars, if that helps 8)

scaredypants - Member

scaredypants - Member
lunch on the slopes - mars bar & nutri-grain, no ?

Peasant [:lol:]

It'll be a king-size mars, if that helps

Well, it'll save you £50 per day. Even a coupla drinks were £15 - £20 this year 😯

Did you go to a supermarket out there boblo - what are the prices like there?

hire stuff is about 25% cheaper if you book in advance.

Self catering is the way to go. get a hire car and stock up at the local LARGE super marche and avoid the small Casino or Champion corner shops.

Beer an d wine is still very cheap in the super/hyper markets. Stock up for the week. Make packed lunches. Can cut costs.

But the best thing to do is to go to a small, obscure resort like Praz Sur Arley and pints are only €4 🙂 and you can eat out for €30 a head for two courses and a load of vin de maison.

grumm - Member
Did you go to a supermarket out there boblo - what are the prices like there?

We were 50 meters from the Spar at the top of Val D'Isere. Rarely came out having spent less than €30 regardless of what we bought 🙁

I'm not really complaining, we always have a choice. It's just markedly more than previous years. I was looking to go to the 3 Valleys at Christmas at the last minute, very heavily booked (conditions encouraging everyone).

The costs were huge, even last minute. Trips I've paid ~£400 p/p for before were double if not triple that. Happy to pay big money to go to the US or Canada at Christmas for the relative snow guarantee. I won't pay that for France.

I go over at least monthly on non skiing duties and we've seen our household bills triple over the past 10 years....

Bob

If there is 2 of you have a look at [url= http://www.ski-republic.com ]Ski Republic[/url], there is one in merbiel and it may work out a little cheaper. I used them last year and the kit was pretty good as well.

Going to Val Thorens next week.

E544 for a family lift pass and E214 for ski hire for 4.

Lessons hellishly expensive on top, all in all a very dear do!

[i]anyone been this year & have tales of joy for me ?[/i]

I've been and it was great! Is that joyful enough?

(Can't help with ski hire as I have my own. Sorry)

i went to la plagne and the food and that was ridiculously expensive, partly because that's what it's like at such places and partly due to the exchange rate. nothing like as much as up there ^^^ though, we were looking at more like £15/person for lunches. still ridiculous, though.

good times, of course!

I was in Val D'Isere in Jan, excellent fun. You can get lunch for more reasonable prices if you look around - the restaurant at the bottom of the Solaise chair did a nice baguette sarnie and big plate of frites for about seven quid, which is not shocking.

As for beer - ouch. Again, happy hours in most of the bars if you look around. Mind you that only meant it was only £5 a pint...

oh yeah, the other thing i discovered was the boulangerie in belle plagne village that did amazing minipizzas for a more palatable €3 so well worth planning a descent to get one to be eaten on the gondola back up. as IHN says, there is (slightly better) value to be had.

Just paid for our holiday in Val D'Isere, we are taking our own boards but a family lift pass will be €800, will probably have to manage without lessons as again for 5 mornings we are looking at €900 for the four of us, will have to look for a cheeper resort for next years trip

Any recomendations

[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=ytejq8&outx=600&quality=70 [/img]

Tracey

tracey, that picture is class - makes me wish i was on the slopes! i love the comprehensive boarding contingent as well!

Cant wait to get on the slopes, not looking forward to the cost, might have to get Abigale a longer board if she keeps growing, another cost, and there is no second hand market for kids stuff

[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=ytejq7&outx=600&quality=70 [/img]

Tracey

Tracey - Recomendations for cheaper resort or for Val D'Isere?

Italy is much cheaper than france. As for Val D, drop me a mail if you like, I'll let you know what/where was good/bad indifferent (esp on boards, there's bits that aren't brilliantly board friendly)

Tracy it's a bit of a bargain snow wise but have a look the the very south alps.

Best

Juan

Went boarding yesterday in Limone Piemonte, Italy.

€22 for day pass, empty slopes, loads of snow and powder, Huge plate of susage caserole, rice, bread and a beer €10!

Why do people go to France?

Whats more the Sterling is gaining sternght, now 1.11 Toursits, 1.15 Median to the Euro and despite the drop of .5% on the interest rate its still getting stronger. Could be back to 1.2 towards mid end of Feb.

http://www.winterhighland.info/publicreports/index.php?50,1273

No exchange rate problems here.

[img] http://www.winterhighland.info/pix/displayimage.php?photo_id=9355 [/img]

[img] http://www.winterhighland.info/pix/displayimage.php?photo_id=9361 [/img]

IHN

Other places than Val D'Isere, would have to to have snow at Easter as its the only time the girls match with school hols, been there for the last three years same chalet for two of them, girls really love it.
Lets hope the £ eventually starts to do well against the €

[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=ytejqe&outx=600&quality=70 [/img]

Tracey

i went with UPCA in chamonix last year, booked through action outdoors.

incredible value for money, price includes lift pass(+unlimited grand montet pass), board hire and 5 days really good guiding/tuition. My boarding came on massively, i went from reds runs on the first sunday to blacks and off-piste by the middle of the week.

accomodation is basic, dorms mostly but a few double rooms you can pay a bit extra for. food is really good and the atmosphere is really good. having to give it a miss this year but will be going with them again next year.

You think France is expnsive, I've just come back from Switzerland and my wallet feels like it's been mugged !

Lets hope the £ eventually starts to do well against the €

Just paid £240 for a week's lift pass for Zermatt in March.

46 euros for skis only (was 75 ish with boots) in Les Gets a couple of weeks back.... Go to the meribel website and search through the ski rental places they have links to on their site... Far cheaper if you book in advance.

we've found it more economical to pay in £ via our holiday company this side instead of over in euroland with euro dollars

SHHHHHHHH , Don't tell no-one , Like , whispers , nah , come closer,

Skiworld do last minute deals , Like if you booked Thursday for tomorrrow to go to Val Thorens £199. Flight , transfer, catered flat

Not too bad ,I hear you whisper.

Lean in a little more .. .. .Unlimited wine with your evening meal, cooked breakfasts, Tea and cakes on your arrival home , Leaving enough Euro's to bribe the Chalet staff to make up a small pack lunch + buy Pelforth Brun at the supermarche.

Keep it quite, I dont want my bargain ski hols ruined by everyone finding out.

And the website is almost in realtime, more or less , if its listed you can buy it , unlike IGLU etc

I went to Courmayeur in Italy in January, ski and boot hire £70 Lift pass £190 for 6 days, I didn't even consider the lessons at £40 a pop. Cheapest beer 5 euros and paid a hefty £17.50 for 2 beers and a cappuccino in a very ordinary bar in the town not even on the mountain.

We stayed in the chalet most nights after that,

But the slopes were fantastic and at times it was like having my own private pistes so I suppose you get what you pay for, it beats so called cheapo Borovets in Bulgaria where I went last year hands down.

Tracey

You could try Les Arcs/Villandry.

You could also consider staying somewhere a little away from the main resort - eg Brides les Bains has a gondola lift into Meribel.

Cheers will look at them

Tracey

just to update anyone who cared

Lunge's ski republic tip was bang-on. big shop, lots of nice skis in great condition and 2-for-1 !

Lets hope the £ eventually starts to do well against the €

lets not. the need for people to spend in the U.K. on home produced goods and to attract visitors to this country (due to the low pound) is more important than a cheaper skiing holiday.

I went to Tignes(ie Val D'Isere) this year. Horrendously expensive. 3 day lift pass was €114(full area), and ski and boot hire was originaly €30 per day, but got dicount voucher from where I stayed which reduced it a bit.

Very expensive place for sure(due partly to exchange obviously), but no beer or sandwich less than €6.

It was a complete spur of the moment thing, we'd booked nothing. Stayed 3 days instead of intended 5 because although snow was great, weather turned unbelievably foggy, and was hard to ski.

When I got home, saw the place we'd stayed offered 6 nights half board(which we had) + 6 days lift pass for €350. We'd payed most of that for our 3 days. I would go back though, it was awesome for 2 days.

Used SkiSet last year (www.skiset.co.uk) - They get you into local (good) rental shops with a pre-booking at decent rates. Just did a dummy booking for a pair of Bandit SC80's, no boots, 6 days (7th free) for €90 odd. Cheaper for later on in the season, natch. About 30% cheaper than walking in off the street in the resort.

Tracey - Your picture from above La Daille is going to cost me a fortune - I need to go NOW....

Recomendations.

Soldeu is an absolute gem of a resort, and certainly cheaper. I've been five times, and had brilliant conditions for the first three.

I'd certainly recomend it, if you can find somewhere late, and know the snow is good. I'd not go again now hoping for good snow, as it wasn't great last time, and not worth buying a lift pass the time before.

Not as large and grand as Val D'Isere by any stretch of the imagination, but it takes up 2/3 of a day to go over to Pas de la Casa for lunch and back. Excellent night life(ie everyone who runs the bars are Brits), and there's lots of live, very good music every night. It's a fairly small place, but you can eat in a different restaurant every night, never pay over the top, and have a very good meal in each one.

I'm off to La Tania next weekend for a week.

Flights £100
Catered Chalet £299
Ski Hire (Top notch ones) £70

The only bit that has gone up is the lift pass at £200 ish quid. To be honest I wouldnt have managed to get a similar holiday any cheaper 10 yeras ago.

IMO chalet holidays are the best value for money at the moment, with 3 meals a day and booze at night your expenses are minimal.

Forgot to add....

snowrental.net use Sport 2000 in France, and they are by far the cheapest website I have found.

funky - we got 2 prs of top rank skis for 120 euros (? about 55 quid a pair)

your basic holiday price beats the crap out of ours though (posho family holiday with esprit)