Clubmed for cross country skiing

[Atousa]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking into planning a solo cross-country trip with Clubmed and would appreciate your help with a few questions I have:

1- I'm going from Toronto to trips in Europe, I'm at beginner level (with no downhill experience either) so I'm hoping I would meet some people there at my level that I could ski with. Is that in general a good idea? I've heard Clubmed trips are quite social so I was hoping finding people to ski with wont be an issue.

2- Is Clubmed the best place to look at for someone at beginner level looking to do a solo trip?

3- Any suggestions on which trip would be best to go on?

4- I would appreciate any other general comments from people who have gone on a ski trip with Clubmed.

Thanks!!!

 

[geargrrl]

Are you looking to do cross country (Nordic) skiing, or a cross country downhill ski trip?

 

[Atousa]

Are you looking to do cross country (Nordic) skiing, or a cross country downhill ski trip?

cross country (Nordic) skiing

 

[Eera]

Big Club Med fan here. Caveat - Japanese resorts, looked at the European ones but it got too exxy with a family in tow.

I've seen them advertise x-country but I've never actually seen it happen, certainly the resorts I was at didn't have significant trails as they were pretty compact - probably different in Europe by virtue of scale. Their reps are very helpful so give them a call and they can direct you which resorts would be best set-up for it.

Club Med is awesome for beginners simply as you get your lift pass and lessons as part of the deal, so if you've never done downhill don't worry - CM taught 3/4 of my family to ski from scratch. You'll be in classes with people of similar ability so no doubt will get to know those people - and there's always a good number of people in the bar once the lifts close (Shot Night made for an interesting lesson the next day). I do think it's more set up for families, but you do find a few solo travellers but they are very much in the minority. The good thing about that is that the prices drop off dramatically when it's not school holidays - though you've probably missed the good discounts at this point: you get up to 30% off if you book in January, right now you'll likely be paying a premium.

 

[Atousa]

Thank you so much for your response. I spoke to their rep and they recommended either of the two locations below since its less of a family set up:

https://www.clubmed.ca/r/saint-moritz-roi-soleil/y

https://www.clubmed.ca/r/pragelato-sestriere/w

Although they are both very expensive Saint Moritz is still a bit cheaper- ends up being $4.8k for one person including flights- this is for the week of December 22nd. Do you know if this would be a good location for me? I would rather go somewhere that has fewer families and younger crowd since I'm traveling alone.

Big Club Med fan here. Caveat - Japanese resorts, looked at the European ones but it got too exxy with a family in tow.

I've seen them advertise x-country but I've never actually seen it happen, certainly the resorts I was at didn't have significant trails as they were pretty compact - probably different in Europe by virtue of scale. Their reps are very helpful so give them a call and they can direct you which resorts would be best set-up for it.

Club Med is awesome for beginners simply as you get your lift pass and lessons as part of the deal, so if you've never done downhill don't worry - CM taught 3/4 of my family to ski from scratch. You'll be in classes with people of similar ability so no doubt will get to know those people - and there's always a good number of people in the bar once the lifts close (Shot Night made for an interesting lesson the next day). I do think it's more set up for families, but you do find a few solo travellers but they are very much in the minority. The good thing about that is that the prices drop off dramatically when it's not school holidays - though you've probably missed the good discounts at this point: you get up to 30% off if you book in January, right now you'll likely be paying a premium.

 

[Eera]

Thank you so much for your response. I spoke to their rep and they recommended either of the two locations below since its less of a family set up:

https://www.clubmed.ca/r/saint-moritz-roi-soleil/y

https://www.clubmed.ca/r/pragelato-sestriere/w

Although they are both very expensive Saint Moritz is still a bit cheaper- ends up being $4.8k for one person including flights- this is for the week of December 22nd. Do you know if this would be a good location for me? I would rather go somewhere that has fewer families and younger crowd since I'm traveling alone.

I haven't been to either of those: the ones I can talk about are Sahoro, Tomamu (Japan) and the various ones on Paradiski terrain in France: I'd let the rep guide you. I think St Moritz is one of their older resorts so isn't quite as flash as say, Panorama - but frankly it's a roof over your head and the service will be the same. One thing I'd check out though is the reviews particularly with respect to how many people are present who speak English (if you're not a speaker of the local language) as particular resorts can be more popular with certain nationalities and there can be a language barrier to socialising: the instructors and staff do go out of their way to sit with patrons in the bar and in the dining areas so will be more than happy to have a chat of an evening though.

I did notice that at one of the resorts you mention, while they do x-country lessons it's not inclusive like the downhill ones so you might need to check out how much they'll sting you for those; however, the nordic skis were free (all the places I've been ski hire is the main exclusion in the all-inclusive formula)

In terms on all inclusive, there's also Club MMV in Europe: haven't used this brand, just checked it out as it seemed a bit cheaper than Club Med.

 

[Atousa]

I haven't been to either of those: the ones I can talk about are Sahoro, Tomamu (Japan) and the various ones on Paradiski terrain in France: I'd let the rep guide you. I think St Moritz is one of their older resorts so isn't quite as flash as say, Panorama - but frankly it's a roof over your head and the service will be the same. One thing I'd check out though is the reviews particularly with respect to how many people are present who speak English (if you're not a speaker of the local language) as particular resorts can be more popular with certain nationalities and there can be a language barrier to socialising: the instructors and staff do go out of their way to sit with patrons in the bar and in the dining areas so will be more than happy to have a chat of an evening though.

I did notice that at one of the resorts you mention, while they do x-country lessons it's not inclusive like the downhill ones so you might need to check out how much they'll sting you for those; however, the nordic skis were free (all the places I've been ski hire is the main exclusion in the all-inclusive formula)

In terms on all inclusive, there's also Club MMV in Europe: haven't used this brand, just checked it out as it seemed a bit cheaper than Club Med.

Thank you so much! I'll look into MMV as well.