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Thinking of planning a European ski trip. need some insight and all the tips.

Sheena

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
We were talking about planning a family European ski trip sometime in the next year or two. Its been a hot minute since I have planned a vacation, and even much longer since I have set foot in Europe as a 20 year old. So I would love to hear pros and cons of planning out things independently vs. something like Club Med (my husband thinks it would be cheesy and not what we really want). I just want easy-ish and ways to include things like lessons/guides, etc. Also, hoping to keep it as reasonably priced as possible. Airfare will be expensive regardless, unless things change.
 

Chuyi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Reasonably priced will depend on exchange rate (right now pretty good). I would recommend Club med. not cheezy. Some of the resorts r high end. kids ski school + all meals +après r included. Try 2 avoid European school holidays. The resort usually helps u book the transfer from airport. Probably easier to get ski lessons in English (lots of brits)
Independently, rentals run from Saturday - Saturday. Be careful some rentals don't include sheets+towels. U would likely have 2 drive 2 ur destination or take a bus as most resorts r not close to an international airport. Hotels tend to offer half board. Lift tkts r cheap.
Unless u pick Switzerland starting Nov 2023 non EU citizens from visa waiver countries (including US) will have to file ETIAS which is valid for 3 yrs or until expiration of passport whichever comes 1st. https://etias.com/etias-application
IMHO the food is better in Europe but snow is better in Utah. If u r going 2 spend money on plane tkts, sightseeing in Europe is much more interesting than a ski resort. the fall is cheaper & less crowded.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
Personally … I loved the Club Med in Val Thorens. Everything is included and that includes all transfers to and from the airport, meals, alcohol, & full day instruction with a nice long lunch break. It also includes ski gear. We brought our own boots but used their skis and pokes. They had very good equipment and it was well tuned. The instruction was a combination of lessons and guided ski excursions around Les Trois Vallées. If you did want to bring your own ski gear, do not let them book your flight. They use Lufthansa and they charge $$$$$ to transport skis!

It was a beautiful resort -very luxurious- but there is not much of a village there. Courchevel has the village but it is also much more expensive.

with the kids, you may prefer more of a village vibe, but the all inclusive ski day will exhaust them for sure!
 

elemmac

Angel Diva
I'll weigh in on the non-all-inclusive style European trips...

The 3 times I've skied in Europe I've stayed in small, family-run hotels/inns that offer half-board (breakfast, dinner and an afternoon snack/tea/coffee). I like the personal relationships you form over the course of a week with your host/hostess, I'm not sure you can get the same type of experience in a Club Med-style resort. This local culture experience is something that I really enjoy about traveling abroad, so it's a priority for me. I really enjoyed half board (rather than all meals included) to be able to eat lunch on the mountain, in town, and just explore more of the local food scene.

There are lots of private shuttles you can hire to go to/from the airport for reasonable cost. I've also experienced renting a car, and taking trains....there are also busses, depending on where you decide to go. The ski areas I've been to all had some type of public transportation to get around the town(s) (most notably, the Ski Arlberg area has a pretty amazing bus system that's really easy to use).

A friend of mine used a travel agent to book a trip to Zermatt a few years ago, and was really happy with the experience. I recall the cost of his trip was very reasonable in comparison to booking your own (possibly cheaper, because travel agents can have connections to deals not otherwise available). I don't know who he went through, but I'm sure a quick Google search will come up with ski related options. You can have them book as much as you want them to. This might be a happy medium between booking your own trip and an all-inclusive Club Med.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Agree with @elemmac ! Many ski trips to Europe (9?) and mostly stayed in family run inns with half board. Where are you thinking of going? Also, watch out for school vacations (half term I think it’s called). Goes on for 3 weeks.
 

Sheena

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks ladies! I knew there would be some good feedback here! I am not sure we can swing it next year but right now my kids are 10, 10 and 12.

For those of you who stayed in inns /family run inns are there private baths? I think with 3 kids it could be hard with shared facilities.
 

elemmac

Angel Diva
@Sheena - The ones I’ve stayed in have all had private baths. The last one, we stayed in a “family suite” which was basically two bedrooms (one with a small living area), an entry way and 1.5 baths…it was ideal for our group of 3 adults. But I could see something like that working out well for a family with kids. For a frame of reference this is the place I stayed this past Feb. (I had to use Google Translate, I’m not sure if they have an English version of the site): https://www.hubertus-lech.com/zimmer-preise/

I’ll note that I’ve only skied in Austria…so other countries may vary in what the “normal” is.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Thanks ladies! I knew there would be some good feedback here! I am not sure we can swing it next year but right now my kids are 10, 10 and 12.

For those of you who stayed in inns /family run inns are there private baths? I think with 3 kids it could be hard with shared facilities.
Yes, always private baths ! I’ve skied in Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy.
 

Cantabrigienne

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Agree with the others that Club Med ski holidays are not cheesy, but OTOH if you pick the right (smaller family-run) hotel, it's often not much more work - once you're picked your hotel, they will likely refer you onto a ski school & ski rental place. Also: there are many ski hotels that offer up a comparably all-inclusive package, including childcare. If you are struggling to find a travel agent who is really helpful with European ski holidays, you could always use a UK ski tour operator like Iglu.

The biggest plus of arranging your own holiday is that if airfares are the biggest component, you can start your planning based on where you find the best deal for flights. If you book with Club Med, you will then be constrained by having to find a flight to a specific airport.

Also, going independent allows you to cater to the specific needs of your family - do you have fussy eaters or need more room to spread out, so that it makes more sense to rent an apt? Will your kids be okay joining in with tons of group activities? (Keep in mind that many hotels have attached holiday apartments or even have studios in the hotel itself so it's not even an either-or option.)

Flying to Europe for a week may actually work out cheaper than flying to any of the big name destination resorts in North America, not least because hotels are better value, lift passes are cheaper, and ski school is also cheaper. If you have either an Epic or Ikon pass, there's quite a few places that are included btw - although they tend to be the big-name expensive resorts.

As you may have seen from the news this year, Europe had an even worse start to the ski season than the East Coast resorts (temps in the 60s etc, no snow) although things reverted to ~normal during Feb & March. You'll need to keep that in mind in terms of resort choice - which places will still be attractive/fun places to be even if the snow isn't great.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
I’ve also stayed in a British run chalet in France three times.. once in Tignes and twice in Chamonix.
 

Moleski

Certified Ski Diva
Les Deux Alpes is where I go most - isn't the prettiest resort but snow sure and great for improving. Next door is La Grave, v famous off-piste destination. If u go to LDA, look for my friend and coach, Charlotte Swift (Easiski) who provides lessons in English and is a general font of knowledge about all things les Deux Alpes and skiing. Also several good ski schools with some English instructors. National racing teams train there over the summer months as there is a glacier at 3600m.
I'm Irish and ski in Europe every year. Now book own hotel or apartment and arrange separate transfers and flights. Have been all over the Alpes and Pyrennees in last 30 years. Italy is generally cheaper but brilliant food. Apres ski lively and ski resorts prettiest in Austria; in my experience, half board often excellent with great food and lovely Austrian courtesy to boot. Austrian hotels tend to have spa / wellness facilities as standard and some resorts eg Bad Hofgastein and Bad Gastein have large thermal spas in the town. France has great village to village skiing in the big areas like the Porte de Soleil, the Grand Massif and the Trois Vallees; again great food with fondue and tartiflette etc. Switzerland lovely but v expensive. Andorra (Soldeu) lively with great apres and loads of English speaking instructors; had a cheap n cheerful reputation in the past but now has very good high end hotels if thats ur thing. There is a brilliant resort in Spain called Baqueira-Beret where King Juan Carlos had his chalet - fab variety of skiing and great food tho again, not the prettiest. I haven't been to Scandinavia yet but hope to go at some stage. I'm not sure if you have kids - my sister has 4 and she always looks v closely at proximity of slopes to accommodation and whether u need to take a bus in the morning as it adds to the general stress. Also tries to pre-book ski and boot lockers on the mountain or beside the lifts for easier perambulating around the resort. If ski instruction is the most important thing, there are large English speaking setups in Morzine, Val D'Isere, Tignes and probably more but easily checked online. Morzine also has good availability of childminders and short tf from Geneva. Avoid French schools in Feb as lift queues horrendous. I'm not any kind of authority on off-piste but know that St Anton.in Austria is well respected destination. Europe hosts 1000s of British every year and English widely spoken in most resorts, though ski schools can be tricky so best to check - my 12 yo nephew ended up only English speaker in his class this year. You're going to have a great time!
 

Moleski

Certified Ski Diva
Bens bus do great value bookable transfers from Geneva, lyon and grenoble to a variety of resorts. Grenoble is a very handy airport for some resorts but incredibly crowded and busy in high season. Have u thought of flying to UK or Dublin and booking package hol from there with Crystal, Ingham, many others. Often total is cheaper than price of hotel alone and can add skis, boots, etc., Ski school then tends to be in English. Check Snowheads site for resort info, which hotels and ski schools / instructors to target, which are the best shops to hire skis, slope info etc. V friendly site. Also useful is ski club of great Britain. Some info is members only but some is open access. Useful bcos emphasis on European resorts. Will add if think of Nythi g else
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
Agree with Ski Club of Great Britain and Ingram.... English friends highly recommend.... or (think I mentioned before) staying in a catered chalet is a great value and fun!
 

Eera

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
ooo, only just saw this.

First off, I'm a big Club Med fan; yes, the night shows can be a bit ordinary, but the kids have fun and frankly if you want absolutely zero hassle they are the way to go.

Saying that, this year I self-organised a trip to Europe simply because my family have crap taste in food and don't appreciate the high-end, wonderful dishes that Club Med do; and the kids don't want to have lessons anymore. These are the reasons I've always gone with them so it didn't add up paying their prices when everyone would be happy with frozen pizza (le sigh).

I organised a four week Europe trip with 2 weeks skiing, overall in about 2 weeks: it was very little stress. I'd emphasis the points already given: avoid the school holidays and if you can arrive out of season (basically avoiding new years, mid-February and Easter), then there are lots of options and it's relatively cheap as there's so much competition for your Euro. Compared to Canada the private lettings through Stayz are cheap as chips as well.

Also be aware of the weird Sat-Sat or Sun-Sun thing with a lot of resorts, I found that a lot of transfers from the airport didn't actually operate outside of these days and had to get a private transfer in the end. I was also surprised at things like having to hire the bed linen separately from the apartment; apparently stuff like that is common.

Happy to give indicative prices and stuff if you want that detail.
 

Moleski

Certified Ski Diva
Also Air BnB and Vrbo. Some resorts eg Les Deux Alpes do accommodation via tourist office, bookable online. Public transport can be cheap transport option, available on weekdays, as booking and timetables available online, e.g. French rail SNCF, bus company Transalitude. Some resorts have train stations eg Sauze D'Oulx in Italy, Bad Hofgastein in Austria. Some have satellite town close by eg Bourg D'Oisans near Les Deux Alpes and Alpe d'Huez and u can travel there on public transport and get fairly cheap taxi up to resprt. It can be cheaper to stay overnight in airport hotel and get public transport than to book private transfer, though latter admittedly much more convenient. Many resorts have excellent tourist office websites which are available in English and explain transport options v well. Towels, sheets etc comment absolutely true - I arrived on Saturday this year and had neither until rental agency opened monday but could have pre-booked so that all in apartment on arrival doh! Look at dates of travel and altitude of resort - later in season, u need a snow sure destination. Supermarkets in French resorts have improved dramatically over the last 5 years and u can eat very well. Previous poster is quite right.
 

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