Alpe D'Huez 2010

glanman

A group of 4 thinking of going here next year. Have done Austria twice, this is year three.

With skis and sticks free, boots, full pass and full school all in, its working out at €810 on top flight early Jan. Seems like good price but accom sounds very basic. http://topflight.ie/france/alpe-d-huez/belambra-les-bergers-apartments-3--/744/hotel.html


Thoughts and suggestions very much appreciated!

Overflow

Sorry, I hate these bloody tour operators!

So they say the ski hire is thrown in free?. Hahaha what BS. Thats just a marketing gimmic to sell it. The cost of ski hire in Alpe D'Huez is about €90-€100, so your holiday should have cost you €910, but your getting the ski's thrown in for 'free' !!

I did a quick search around to get some prices and to book everything seperately on my own it would cost me approx €750 for everything, flights, ski hire, passes, lessons and thats with a nicer apartment too. That apartment you linked sounds very basic, its probably one of those apartments thats basically one room with a curtain 'partition' seperating the living area from the bedroom, ive seen rooms like that before.

In my opinion this is your 3rd time skiing so you know what its all about, i would book everything seperately myself and for a bit more money than i calculated you could have a much nicer and bigger apartment.

Tour operators make it look like your getting a deal, but at the end of the day they have to make money some how for being the man in the middle. The only time you might get a money saving deal is last minute deals when they have packages they have not sold and need to recoup some of their losses. Screw them and you be the man in the middle and save yourself some money and stay in a place of your choosing, half the time you wont know where you'll end up with tour operators!

Static M.e.

Its very rare I use a Ski operator because you can usually find a better deal by booking everything separately.

However I think it depends on the group and how much work you want / willing to do, some groups are really into the social nights out with Pub Crawls, Table Quizs and other activites. All of which is fine by the way and can be a whole lot of fun!

All in all €810 isnt a bad price for doing very little work.

glanman

Thanks for the replys guys.

I was talking with one of the sales staff yesterday to get more info and the accom does sound ridiculously cramped for 4. From what I got off her accom in France is very different to those in Austria(pensions in Soll and Westendorf) as its a lot smaller and less well planned.

How does one go about booking each thing individually? Should we book accom and flights now and then do the rest when we get out there(ski hire, lift passes, transfers etc)?

To be honest with the tour operator social side of things in the two years we have gone we have never gone to one event so that isn't a concern.

dan_d

Hey.We went to Alpe D'huez last year. Booked a chalet through a private owner who owns a few chalets dotted around the village. She was British, really nice and provided us with breakfast and dinner (we were a big group). The chalet was great. Anyway, we flew with Ryanair (can't remember to where, sorry!!) and she organised that 2 village taxis would pick us up and bring us back to the airport. I think that was 75eur each between 16 of us, and it's a good 2 hr trip each way. The classes and ski gear were all booked seperately...just google ski schools in Alpe D'Huez and ski rental in A d'H, and see what's the best value.I'll try and find out the name of who we booked the house with, but I know we just found it by searching through results for accommodation in Alpe d;Huez on the interent, til we found a good deal. It's a bit more effort but it's worth it. I'd be wary of flying Ryanair to ski though - if you've got boots or helmets they are pretty fussy about not bringing them on board, even in hand luggage. They will stop you for it. And they do have huge prices on checking in skis or anything like that.Otherwise good luck and enjoy!

Overflow

I would say you should book your accomodation firstly, then sort out your flights and transfers from the airport. You can usually find a lot of travel info on the resort websites as regards to closest airports, buses and taxi services etc.

I wouldnt worry about the Ski passes and Ski hire till you get there, i always just fix that on the morning after i arrive. You could just leave booking the ski lessons till you got there aswell but you might be better off contacting one of the Ski schools listed on the Alpe D'huez website and booking yourselves in advance, just in case they are very busy.

With regards to accommodation a quick google search turned up the following:
http://www.homelidays.com/EN-Holidays-Rental/fr_rhonealpes_38-isere_fr/alpe-d-huez_r3.asp

http://www.j2ski.com/ski_resorts/France/Alpe_d_Huez_ski_chalets.html

There may also be links to other accommodation directly on the Alpe D'Huez resort website.

I think Ryanair fly to Grenoble airport which is about 60km from the resort, another airport is Lyon. They are both serviced by buses and taxis to the resort.

You will be able to book most things online, other than that you may have to make 1 or 2 phone calls or emails are just fine. Dont be put of by the thought of organizing it all yourself, its actually very easy and when you have done it once, it will be no bother the next time. You will save some money and get to stay where you want to stay.

granty1987

i went to alpe d'huez a few years ago but last year i was in les deux alpes 3times (basically right beside it)
I wouldnt bother go with a TO, but for large groups it is handy on the organisational and social side. small privately owned chalets are usually well catered for and they would usually deal with everything you need on a one-to-one basis rather than a large one.
as stated above ryanair fly to grenoble which is brilliant! it is possible to get to the resort for as little as 5euro from the airport. simply get one of the transfer busses into grenoble bus station and there is another which will bring you out to the resorts, in total both buses take about 45-60mins each and at around 2.50 per trip its a steal!
When flying with ryanair they can get you with a lot of unnecessary additional options but on the occasion they do have special deals where the flight can be free, including taxes! if bringing skiis/boards share with friends.
regarding boots/helmets, iv found dublin fine with them but the security at grenoble arent keen on it, they said theyd destroy my helmet when i approached them about it if it was hand luggage but i chanced it and got away

oh and if your looking at accom, check out the resorts website[google it] and look at the accomidation section. in the start of jan last year i got a really well situated apartment in l2a for €80 split between 3 of us, 30 seconds from the main jandri lift

dan_d

Grenoble is where we flew to!:o Slipped my mind.....didn't know about the buses, definitely the better offer.
Anyway as it has been said, it seems off putting to book it all individually, but it is actually grand. The internet throws up a lot of info that makes your life easier for booking but you do need to spend a bit of time looking through everything available

loobylou

Been there a few years ago, appartments absolutely tiny. Also silly things like having to rent towels from them if you had'nt brought your own.
Agree with other posters, DIY is the only way to go for me, unless you wait until last minute for a very cheap TO deal (very common in early Jan btw).
My advice would be to book the flights first though, accomodation can always be found after.

glanman

Just tried to see flight costs to Grenoble on Ryanair from Dublin. No flights listed but the route exists??! Have they cancelled the route or something?

Aerlingus fly to lyon but not on saturdays, works out at roughly 250 pp

Overflow

glanman wrote: »

Just tried to see flight costs to Grenoble on Ryanair from Dublin. No flights listed but the route exists??! Have they cancelled the route or something?

Aerlingus fly to lyon but not on saturdays, works out at roughly 250 pp

Yeah i noticed that too, seems strange, they usually fly twice a week and saturday is one of those days which would be perfect for you. Maybe its too early and they haven't listed flights for those dates yet, ive seen that happen before. Definately would be the cheapest way to go.

Alternatives are to fly Aer Lingus as you said or get 2 Rynair flights, one to London Standsted first thing in the morning at 6:30 and then another flight from London Standsted to Grenoble, that might still work out a bit cheaper than Aer Lingus.

glanman

Getting connecting flights wouldnt work for me from Cork as there is only 45 mins between arriving and then leaving so not a hope of getting that. Is there anypoint emailing ryanair to see what the story with flights are?

Cork to Geneva is roughly €130 with aerlingus, how far is Geneva to Alp D'Huez?

Forgot to mention earlier that Cork is preferred departure point!!

granty1987

ryanair also fly to grenoble from kerry if thats any use to you!

Overflow

glanman wrote: »

Getting connecting flights wouldnt work for me from Cork as there is only 45 mins between arriving and then leaving so not a hope of getting that. Is there anypoint emailing ryanair to see what the story with flights are?

Cork to Geneva is roughly €130 with aerlingus, how far is Geneva to Alp D'Huez?

Forgot to mention earlier that Cork is preferred departure point!!

Geneva is about 2.5 hours from Alpe D'Huez but it appears its not really serviced by buses to the resort. You could book a taxi but it will be very expensive i would imagine!

I just found these flights on ebookers, €142 from Dub to Lyon with Swissair with one connection.
http://www.ebookers.ie/shop/airsearch?type=air&ar.type=roundTrip&ar.rt.leaveSlice.orig.key=DUB&ar.rt.leaveSlice.dest.key=LYS&ar.rt.leaveSlice.date=09%2F01%2F10&ar.rt.leaveSlice.time=Anytime&ar.rt.returnSlice.date=16%2F01%2F10&ar.rt.returnSlice.time=Anytime&ar.rt.numAdult=1&ar.rt.numSenior=0&ar.rt.numChild=0&ar.rt.child[0]=&ar.rt.child[1]=&ar.rt.child[2]=&ar.rt.child[3]=&ar.rt.child[4]=&ar.rt.child[5]=&ar.rt.child[6]=&ar.rt.child[7]=&_ar.rt.nonStop=0&_ar.rt.narrowSel=0&ar.rt.narrow=airlines&ar.rt.carriers[0]=&ar.rt.carriers[1]=&ar.rt.carriers[2]=&ar.rt.cabin=C&search=Search+Flights

You can book a bus with these guys, the price listed on the website is €48 return. Not sure how long it takes, but Lyon airport is not as close as Grenoble. I think this bus goes via Grenoble airport so may take a bit longer than usual.
http://satobus-alpes.altibus.com

If i was you i would try contact Ryanair about the Grenobles flights as they would be the cheapest and handiest location wise.

Overflow

Just noticed this when you try book those dates on Ryanair:

The travel dates requested are for our next schedule period and the fares/seats are yet not loaded for these dates

That may be the issue here?

glanman

Update for all, Just checked today and flights are up from dublin to Grenoble!

They are flying on Saturdays of January, 2 flights each day, didnt check other dates as I am only interested in January.

You can get return flights starting from €48 (excluding extras: baggage + other fees)

There are no Kerry Grenoble flights up yet, when were they last running? Kerry is only 1hour from me so I will check it out.

Dan d, did you find out who you booked the challet off? email or phone number would be great.