Family Ski Holiday Christmas 2017 - Recommendations

SusanC10

Looking for Recommendations for a Family Ski Holiday over the Christmas Holidays - to be away for either Christmas Eve/Day or New Years. 7/10 days. Can fly from either Dublin or Belfast.

2 Adults & 2 Kids aged 11 & 8. Both kids and myself complete novices and have never been skiing. Husband has been a few times but not for 15+ years !

Looking for Recommendations on Location and where to book (websites/companies).

shrapnel222

SusanC10 wrote: »

Looking for Recommendations for a Family Ski Holiday over the Christmas Holidays - to be away for either Christmas Eve/Day or New Years. 7/10 days. Can fly from either Dublin or Belfast.

2 Adults & 2 Kids aged 11 & 8. Both kids and myself complete novices and have never been skiing. Husband has been a few times but not for 15+ years !

Looking for Recommendations on Location and where to book (websites/companies).

snow at Xmas is a bit of a gamble tbh, not that much of it around, so the few resorts which are already open for skiing can be very expensive

omicron

shrapnel222 wrote: »

snow at Xmas is a bit of a gamble tbh, not that much of it around, so the few resorts which are already open for skiing can be very expensive

It's true that snow is a gamble that early in the season, but every mid sized up resort opens for Christmas, even if they have to rely on man-made snow.

Every school holiday week is expensive for skiing, however Christmas week is usually a good bit cheaper than the New year week.
Most holidays go Saturday to Saturday so this year the week of 23rd December should be cheaper than the 30th December although that might depend on different countries school holidays.
If you want a package deal the only options from Dublin are topflight/directski (same thing) or Crystal ski, Crystal generally have a better selection. From Belfast there's Crystal.co.uk and also some of the other english tour operators e.g. Inghams. Generally you wont get any bargains with the tour operators for peak season weeks except at last minute.

If you want to book everything individually it can be fairly complicated.
Theres regular flights from Dublin to the following airports which are in reasonable distance of good skiing:
French Alps:
Geneva (Swiss and Aer lingus)
Lyon (Aer lingus)
Grenoble (Ryanair, usually not good value compared to lyon, saturday only)
Chambery (charter only)

Italy:
Turin (Ryanair, saturday only)
Milan (Bergamo - ryanair, Malpenso and Linate - Aer Lingus)
Verona (Aer lingus)
Venice (Aer lingus or ryanair to treviso)

Austrian alps:
Munich (aer lingus, lufthansa, transavia)
Salzburg (Ryanair, aer lingus, saturday only)
Innsbruck (charter only)
Memmingen (ryanair, saturday only)

Pyrenees:
Barcelona (aer lingus, ryanair)
Toulouse (aer lingus)

From Belfast easyjet often have cheap flights to geneva.


Cheapest way from airport to resort is usually car hire for a group, but you need winter tyres in most countries and snow chains also.

For accommodation sites such as booking.com have both self catering apartments and hotels usually. Self catering is common and cheap in France, but eating out etc is very expensive, hotels are more common and better value in Austria and Italy.

If you haven't skiied before/in a long time I wouldn't recommend splashing out big money to go to the biggest and highest resorts as you wont really get the benefit of them.

Best option would probably be somewhere like Andorra (Soldeu/El tartar/Arinsal) booked as a package to save a lot of hassle. High resorts, good snowmaking, usually reliable at Christmas. Lift passes ski hire and lessons all add up so might be worth booking these seperately (tour ops often make a huge margin on ski hire compared to sites like intersport or ski republic), and getting a few lessons on the (usually free) baby slopes before splashing out for the full lift pass.
Eating out etc usually pretty cheap in Andorra, lessons are good value also.

kerry4sam

Thread moved to where it would be better suited.

Thanks,
kerry4sam

hawkwind23

SusanC10 wrote: »

Looking for Recommendations for a Family Ski Holiday over the Christmas Holidays - to be away for either Christmas Eve/Day or New Years. 7/10 days. Can fly from either Dublin or Belfast.

2 Adults & 2 Kids aged 11 & 8. Both kids and myself complete novices and have never been skiing. Husband has been a few times but not for 15+ years !

Looking for Recommendations on Location and where to book (websites/companies).

My advice is to use a package 1st time , it can be a faffy esp with the kids and language barriers.
Here is an example leaving Belfast on the 26th Dec

http://www.travel-solutions.co.uk/tour/pamporovo-3-snezhanka-hotel-with-ski-pack-/480/

Everything included and you know exactly what its going to cost minus drinks and lunch.

Xmas can be hit and miss with conditions though but i wouldnt worry as they make snow so youll be skiing , all you would miss is the "xmas card" scenery.

Pick a few options and narrow it down and plenty of folk here can help from there

cormee

I'm not going to bore everyone on this forum again, by going through why Morzine is a great destination, but it is. Look through previous posts for details, or Google it. I'd highly recommend it.

Although, Morzine is quite low, that early in the season you may not be guaranteed great conditions.

SusanC10

Thanks everyone.

We've had a bit of a re-think and also a family occasion has now been planned at Christmas so now it's looking like the last week in January.

Have had a look online and am looking at Claviere in Italy with Crystal Ski all-inclusive. Anyone been there ? And in late January ?

Thanks again for all the replies.

SusanC10

Still looking at Claviere, Italy with Crystal Ski for end of January - has anyone been there?

maddness

I have skied in Claviere when staying in Sauze and it's a nice resort and looks good for what you are looking for.

vicwatson

Vermont USA