Ski Transfer Finder Blog

A recent article in the Independent ‘Bargain of the week: Travel overland to ski’ claimed that you could halve the cost of transport to the Alps by driving, rather than flying. We think this article takes a too simplistic view and misses some essential opportunity costs.

The article took an example of a family of four heading from Scotland to the Portes du Soleil area (on the Franco-Swiss border, south of Lake Geneva), flying from Edinburgh to Geneva on easyJet’s noon flight on 18 February and returning on the same plane a week later. Before you read the calculations, consider a few more things:

• stress involoved in driving 18 hours
• risk of accident because of snow and ice on road
• car breakdown risk
• additional cost of overnight stay and time it takes to organise
• loss of two additional day holidays – just for driving

Now read the articel and judge yourself:

Assuming they pay by credit card, take their own skis and a 20kg suitcase each, air fares would total £1,287.

They would also need to arrange travel to (and possibly parking at) Edinburgh airport.

Transfers from Geneva airport to Portes du Soleil could cost even more: the website morznet.com, for the leading resort of Morzine warns: Your flight may cost you only £50 but your transfer to resort could set you back €300-€400.” The total is likely to be about £1,700.

“Driving from Edinburgh to Portes du Soleil is 1,079 miles each way and should take 18 hours. Assuming a return crossing on Eurotunnel for £106, an overnight stop in each direction (£100 each way), £324 for fuel and £110 in motorway tolls, the total driving cost is likely to be approximately £740″.

Before you settle on driving, bear in mind other direct costs, including en-route meals and tyre-chain rental, plus two other factors: wear and tear on the car, and the much higher risks of driving compared with flying.

Now we all agree – you have a choice, drive or fly & airport transfer, convenience or stress.

Reports confirm that skiers sloping off to Switzerland will face much higher ski holiday prices this season. This is mostly down to the strong Swiss Franc but also down to increases in commodity prices and petrol cost, affecting airport transfer operators the most.

Some studies show that prices had risen by more than 26% in Switzerland, caused by a combination of a plunging pound against the Swiss franc and higher resort charges. Switzerland has never been know as the cheapest option. Luckily ski holiday makers have a choice of ski chalets, apartments, hotels and airport transfers.

Looking at ski costs at resorts in 10 countries, including Canada and the United States, the report found Adelboden in Switzerland was the most expensive of the European resorts.

The best bargains for Britons are likely to be found in Bulgaria, according to a ski resort report from Post Office. The cost of six-day ski prices and basic commodities, such as eating out and drinks, was as high as £654 in Adelboden but as low as £263 at Bansko in Bulgaria. Skiers on a budget have great value resorts to choose from if they head east to Bulgaria and Slovenia or west to Andorra. Italy is also looking good for those skiers who prefer skiing in one of the long-established favourites.

The North American resorts were the most expensive – with Killington in Vermont costing £683 and Banff in Alberta, Canada, costing £674. Post Office Travel Money head Sarah Munro said: “With more pressure on the pocket than ever before, resort costs are likely to be a key factor in determining resort choice this year

There are other ways of saving money on ski holidays such as hire in resort rather buy ski equipment, go self-catering – it’s cheaper to eat in and do some online research, find out the best value bars and restaurants before you go.

Mid-January or late- March are usually the least expensive times for a ski holiday. This also applies to Switzerland. Check for any Swiss resort lift pass deals before you go. There are large variations between ski resorts.

EasyJet launches Ski Pachage

The easyJet Holidays website has launched its first ever range of ski packages. The new offerings include several major European snowfields, including Tignes, Val D’Isere, Meribel Valley, Chamonix and Les Arcs, with a choice of 126 accommodation options. Flights are offered to Geneva from 11 UK departure airports and to Grenoble from seven.

New Year’s Eve Ski Travel Deals

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Who cares when you’ve booked to see in the new year on the slopes. Thomson has a week-long ski break, departing on 31 December, just in time to celebrate in scenic style at the resort of Passo Tonale, in Italy’s Dolomites. The deal includes Thomson flights from Gatwick or Bristol to Turin, with transfers and half-board at the Grand Hotel Paradiso for £745 per person.

Winter sport equipment carrying cost up

Over the past few years there’s been a marked shift in the cost of carrying winter sports equipment abroad. Research conducted for Travelsupermarket shows that since last year the cost of carrying ski or snowboard gear on a flight has increased by as much as £15 per set of equipment for a return journey. Thomson shows the greatest increase in ski carriage prices up from £25 return to £40 return. Surely a case for ski hire, as it is also a lot less hassle.

2011/2012 ski season for small ski travel companies

For 2011/2, however, the big tour operators have slashed capacity and packages based on hotels, so small, specialist firms, offering high service levels and a smaller selection of resorts, are already cleaning up.

In light of the recent tragedy, which saw a British Skier lose their life on the piste over the Christmas period, I cannot reiterate enough the significance of health and safety practices for all skiers out on the slopes. Whether you are a novice or an extremely experienced skier, a lack of awareness of your surroundings and failure to follow piste protocol and regulations can lead to serious accidents, and in the worst-case scenario fatality. This is a fact. The following short guide may seem to most of us a matter of common sense, but as proved by yearly statistics and detailed study into ski injuries, one often ignored. 

Basic Safety Tips

Always wear the correct ski safety equipment including a proper ski helmet and ski boots (Make sure they are appropriate and in acceptable condition). 

Always concentrate whilst getting on or off any kind of ski lift – paying particular attention to preventing any loose clothing, skis and poles getting caught up or stuck. 

Make sure to ski off to the side when getting off any kind of lift (seems obvious, but the number of times skiers are hit by the following lift and its accompanying skiers is remarkably high). 

Always check your piste map to be certain that it is one that matches your ability/standard etc.

Make sure to check that there is in fact a lift back to where you want to be (seems obvious to us all I know, but this again is often overlooked by many skiers, you would be surprised). 

On the piste always remain in control avoiding other skiers and objects and make sure you are able to stop (remember those skiers ahead of you always have right of way).

Don’t drink too much alcohol when stopping for lunch. Whilst on the slopes it is always safer to drink as carefully as you would do if you were actually driving. 

Inevitably, the reporting of serious ski injuries can give the impression that skiing is a dangerous sport, and that is probably what a large number of people think. In truth, the figures show that compared with other high-energy sports, it isn’t.  So if you are new to skiing or thinking of trying it please don’t be put off by any notions of danger. It’s simple, if you follow the above advice you will have a thoroughly exciting and fun time. Enjoy!

General Transfer Pricing

Transfer deals and discounts offered by transfer operators depend on many things. Airport transfer prices normally depend on your destination, day of the week and your group size. You may also be charged for extras and high-end, luxury services. Each airport to ski resort transfer combination has a different variable cost such as airport fees,  driver hours,  road tolls,  petrol, wear & tear etc. The cost per person normally reduces with the number of people travelling on the same transfer.

Typically discounts available:

• Low season discounts for periods such as early December, January and end of season.
• Early booking discounts, typically 5-10%
• On-line booking discounts, typically 5-10%
• Mid week transfers deals for airport transfers between Monday and Friday, sometimes up to 50%
• Discounts for early morning and late night off-peak transfers

You can also normally negotiate additional discounts for larger groups or discounts for multiple transfer journeys.

Our advice, shop around and find the best deal directly from a reliable provider. Dealing with transfer providers directly cuts out the middlemen and you be able to get the best deal possible.

ski transfer twitter

Most of us will have to find a very cheap ski holiday deal this year. Much is published in the national press on which are the best ski resorts, where to get the best deals and what country offers the best value? You can’t help thinking that each season the papers just trying to find a new take on some old stories, plugging the same old ski resorts and the same old ski travel operators, regardless? This year the ‘flavour of the month’ seems to be Austria. Sure, you will find good value deals in Austria, but you will also find very limited capacity, longer walks to ski lifts and less frequent flights to nearby gateway airports than to France and Italy for example.

Forget the latest recommendations of nation newspaper travel sections. Most journalists get paid by travel operators and ski resorts to write their articles. Most writers also do far too little research to speak with any authority on how to get cheap ski holidays. Don’t rely on the journalists, do your own research. If you want to, you can get a good deal in most ski domains.  The trick is to look a little harder for flights, ski accommodation and ski transfers and keep down what you pay without compromising too much on what you get.

Sure, the top French ski resorts such as Courchevel and Val d’Isère can be very expensive. Yes, Swiss ski resorts that can be regarded as a bargain, are hard to come by. However you can’t just assume that ski holidays are cheaper in Austria, Italy or Bulgaria. There are bargains to be had anywhere in the Alps as well as in resorts which are part of major domain and have reliable snow records. You just have to look for it.

French resorts have dominated the British ski holiday market for two decades. But many British skiers just end up in the best know, often most expensive resorts such as Val D’Isere, Chamonix and Meribel. Why not explore alternatives?  Take Tignes for example where you will get the same skiing as Val D’Isere (both resorts share the Espace Killy ski area), but you will pay less for your accommodation in Tignes.

Instead of Chamonix, you can visit the neighbour resort of St Gervais where your ski pass will cost you half the price and accommodation is cheaper too. St Gervais is connected to Megeve with the linked skiing areas of Rochebrune and Mont d’Arbois, from where you got much better views over the Mt Blanc than from Chamonix.  Both St Gervais and Megeve, one of France’s oldest and most chic ski resort, boasts a combination of rustic charm and sophisticated nightlife.

Why pay Meribel or Courchevel prices? Try Brides Les Bains, the historical Spa towns that doubles up as ski resorts with direct access to the world’s largest ski area. Brides Les Bains offers Trois Vallées skiing without the usual high prices of a major resort and also without the crowds. There is a high speed gondola which takes you to the resort of Meribel at 1450m in less than 25 min, right in the centre of   Trois Vallées.

At Ski Transfer  Finder we believe that you can go skiing on the cheap without taking a risk on you skiing experience. Pick a fringe resort that connects to a major ski resort. Book some self-catering ski accommodation from one of the many portals on the Internet. You will have no problems to find a cheap airport transfer from one of the many gateway airports served by one of the no thrills airlines. You wil be surprised how cheap your ski holiday could be.

This month,the main ski holiday booking season gets under way. What kind of ski season will we get, the key question troubling tour operators, ski accommodation owners and airport transfer providers. The past two seasons have been snow blessed but the underlying booking trends are not good. The last two seasons the UK ski travel market shrunk by 13% and 11% respectively. If that trend continues, 2010/11 will be the worst season this century, surely affecting big operators and small transfer providers alike.

Skiers will be still keen to ski, but will be less able to spend money on travel, hotels and equipment purchases. Where will they reduce spent? If recent trents are anything to go by, they will ski in local areas and lower level ski resorts rather than bigger and more distant resorts. In France’s record year, visits to the celebrated ski destinations of the Savoie fell, while skiing in the Vosges area and the Massif Central. British skiers can’t ski locally (some did so in Scotland) and the credit crunch helped reduce the number of people that can ski on credit cards. 2010/2011 probably won’t see less ski holiday makers but less spent.

Last year the headline-grabbing figure 40% ski holiday capacity reduction never materialised. The number of ski holidays available from the big tour operators fell by less than half that amount. As a result independent ski accommodation owners and transfer providers did not too bad last season. This season could see an upturn in demand. However, with both Christmas Day and New Year’s Day falling on Saturdays, disrupting the normal holiday pattern and posing fresh challenges to transfer and accommodation providers offering Saturday change-over. It’s never easy working in the ski travel industry.

New BA flight route from London City Airport to Chambery offers more choice to go skiing in the French resorts. I assume most seats will be business class, given the proximity to the  ‘City’ !!

There will be flights to Chambèry four times a week from 18 December until the end of March. Chambèry airport, which is in the Savoie region, offers easy access to resorts including those the Three Valleys, Espace Killy and Paradiski ski areas, with transfer times just over one hour to Courchevel and Valmorel.

I assume great news for private airport transfer providers, able to offer premium transfer services to some of the high-end ski resorts of Val D’Isere, Meribel and Courchevel. My guess it the rest of us will still have to fly no thrills Easyjet and Ryan.

Lets not complain, more capacity has to be a good thing, at least for Londoners. BA is now operating flights to three ski destination airports out of London City, Chambèry Geneva and you guessed correctly Zurich …. just in case you want to ski in Wengen or St Moritz.

Not sure if you guys have seen this press release about commission on ski passes and ski equipment hire. I am not surprised but it takes the biscuit to turn ripping off customers into a PR opportunity:

“…… The new “Fair Deal Price Policy” effectively means that Ski Power has given the commission the company earns on Ski Passes and Equipment Hire back to the customer at the point of sale for all its holidays throughout the 2010/11 season……

This move has allowed Ski Power to offer all its 2010/11 holidays at prices below that of the 2009/10 season – with guests being able to save as much as £200 per person year-on-year.  All that is asked is for guests to book their Ski Pass and Equipment hire through Ski Power……”

This makes me lough. I wonder how they are going to make their money back? Or may be on a less cynical note, may be the ski holiday industry start offering fair commission free deals, something we have done here on Ski Transfer Finder from day one.

Anyway, I truely hope that the current economical climate forces more ski holiday operators to do the same thing. Cut out the middlemen and commissions where possible including airport transfers, ski accommodation, ski hire and ski passes.

Taken us a while but now we go our own, shiny ski transfer finder blog