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First snowfall in the Alps – check out our Latest ski holiday offers now!
Bellevarde webcam 2688m, Val d’Isere, at 12.20 24th September It’s snowing! Webcams from several resorts are showing the first significant snowfall and we’re excited!
What better time to sign up for our Latest & Greatest newsletter so that you’re ready to snap up an awesome offer for your next ski holiday!
From now and throughout the winter we’ll be sending out our Latest and Greatest newsletters.
This is where you’ll find some of our top offers and promotions to get you out and on the slopes.
Our latest has just gone out today and you can find it here!
This week’s highlights include:
- 15% of Christmas in Serre Chevalier at the luxurious Chez Bear Ski Lodge
- Book for 8 and get 1 place free in Austria at Chalet Mur
- 40% off lift passes for spring skiing in the amazing Paradiski ski area
- Christmas in Magical Morzine with 25% off
and there’s much more – you can find these awesome offers here! Plus we have a massive range of winter promotions, which are regularly updated, on our promo pages on Chalets Direct!
Don’t miss out – sign up here to get your own regular mail-out!
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Snow is falling in the Alps!
Hot off the press from Johanna at Ice and Fire – the first snow is falling in Paradiski!October marks the beginning of the snow season in the Alps, and with it comes the age-old debate about how good this winter will be for snowfall.
This year, the 2024-25 season is off to an impressive start, with a dusting of fresh snow already on view across the La Plagne glacier. The photo you see here, taken on October 6th, showcases the view from the new webcam perched atop the Bellecote Glacier.
Locals often believe that snowfall before the Demontagnee festival bodes well for the season ahead. This local festival, taking place on October 19th in Bourg St Maurice, celebrates the return of cows from their summer pastures in the highlands back down to the valley farms, where they will rest for the winter.
Ice and Fire are Paradiski experts with two lovely chalets in Les Coches. Johanna has been at the helm for over 10 years, starting as a chalet host herself – so she knows what's needed to make your holiday a great one!
As the weather is turning wetter and colder, it's hard not to get excited about snow in the mountains! Have you booked your ski trip yet?
Keep an eye out for our Latest & Greatest newsletters which are going out regularly with great offers to get you on the slopes this winter. And of course don't forget about the Solutions Room – a creative and convenient way to find the perfect ski holiday, with ski companies reaching out directly based on your needs.
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First BIG snowfalls in the Alps – and we’re celebrating with a stylish giveaway!
Whatever else is happening in the world – the one thing guaranteed to bring cheer to the hearts of wintersports lovers is snow. And it's been snowing big time!
The Alps, from Alpe d'Huez to Zermatt, have seen wonderful fresh falls of the white stuff, and there's more to come!So to get this party started we've teamed up with our friends at Blenders Eyewear to give you a chance of winning a stylish winter fashion pack for you and a friend.
That's 5 pairs of Blenders for you and 5 for a friend!How to Enter:
- Post your best photo or video from your time on the mountain last season (or if you're out there now – lucky you – post a new photo/video) on Instagram with the hashtag #ChaletsDirectBlendersWelcometoWinter
- Follow @ChaletsDirect and @BlendersEyewear
- Tag a friend you want to share your prize with – and get them to follow @ChaletsDirect and @BlendersEyewear too!
Based and designed in San Diego, California, Blenders Eyewear comes in a range of vibrant styles for the slopes, the streets, and the beach! All their shades are made from an extremely lightweight and durable polycarbonate composite which ensures that frames won't warp or lose shape in either extreme hot or cold environments. All lenses are polycarbonate and feature 100% UV400 protection.
Check out the new line and learn more about the brand here.Read the full rules of the competition here.
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Find ski holidays for the holidays!
As winter approaches we know that the search will be on to find ski chalets, apartments, hotels for those all-important holiday dates!
Well we've got you covered. You can now go straight to dedicated areas to find ski holidays for Christmas, New Year, Half Term and Easter. From these pages you can get straight to search results and see exactly what's available and if you're looking for special offers you can find them there too!
Our Christmas ski holiday page also links to a useful article written for us by Heather of Ice and Fire in La Plagne with top tips on spending a family Christmas in the mountains.
For half term ski holidays you can click straight through and see what's still available for February 13th-20th – and again there are some special offers listed. It's filling up fast though so don't leave it too long to look and book.
New Year and Easter are also popular – there's little that can beat the feeling of skiing on January 1st, and with Easter in late March in 2016, it promises to be a great time to spend on the slopes!
So why not holiday in style and spend it on the slopes!
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Chalets Direct’s Latest & Greatest – ski holiday offers in your inbox
From now on and all through the winter season you can catch up with some of the best ski holiday offers and promotions by subscribing to our Latest & Greatest newsletter.
We send out the bulletins every two weeks approximately and we pick out a nice selection of tempting offers to cover different ski areas in different countries. These latest & greatest ski offers are picked from our selection on our promotions listing – take a look there are currently over 800 promotions available so there's bound to be something to suit you!
Here's just a few to get you excited!
Les Arcs – Paradiski – Pre-Christmas getaway
The week before Christmas can be a great time to get on the slopes. Resorts are quiet but are starting to gear up for the festive rush. There's a feeling of excitement and anticipation in the air and best of all the slopes can be your's – with just locals and a few others with inside knowledge enjoying the calm before the storm. It's also when a lot of chalet companies are offering great prices! Alpine Motion, for example in Les Arcs, are offering a week catered for just £250pp.
So why not escape the Christmas shopping and give yourself the gift of some fresh mountain air and exercise in the great outdoors!
Les Menuires – 3 Valleys – Harrods teddies and Laurent Perrier champagne
Another one which caught our eye this week is from Three Valleys company Powder n Shine.Be pampered and have your Christmas dinner cooked for you by a Michelin-trained chef! Not only that there are Harrods teddy bears for the kids and champagne for the adults.
Xmas in the mountains can be magical so why not spoil yourself and the family this year!
Chamonix – Les Houches – Christmas reductions and free lift pass
With fabulous views and just 3 minutes from a ski lift, Chalet Chamarel is an ideal venue for your Christmas ski holiday.This year they're offering 10% off for the festive week and a free Mont Blanc pass for your group. The chalet sleeps 10/12.
Morzine – Portes du Soleil – Gourmet food, hot tub, free transfers and £500 off
Morzine is a fun, pretty, traditional alpine village and a great starting point to explore the extensive Portes du Soleil circuit which straddles France and Switzerland. SKP Morzine are offering a whopping £500 off their Christmas package price, which includes delicious food, and will throw in free airport transfers to boot.Fancy sitting in the hot tub on Christmas day enjoying stunning mountain views? Don't mind if I do …
La Rosiere – January Sales come early
January can be the best month to ski. No crowds, good snow and great prices! It's also the ideal antidote for that post-festive jaded feeling and will set you up for 2015.At Hotel La Roz in La Rosiere, January sale prices are already available. 7 nights half board accommodation for their remining January weeks is just £250pp - and includes airport transfers!
So that's just a few tempting offers which will help make your ski holiday planning a little easier. For hundreds more suggestions take a look at all the offers and sign up for the Latest & Greatest to get these awesome promotions emailed to you all through the season!
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New extreme sports movie service coming soon!
A brand new service for all extreme sports movie fans will be launching soon.
Vaporvue will provide on-demand, HD, internet streaming media designed to give subscribers unlimited access to the world’s most exciting sports movies whenever and wherever they are . Covering all kinds of our favourite sports from skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, surfing and more, Vaporvue offers a Netflix-style subscription-based service which you can watch online on all kinds of devices.
Surfing filmmaker Ira Opper will launch the service on June 21, 2014. “Subscribers will be able to access Vaporvue on their computer, smart phone, tablet and TV,” said Opper, CEO of Opper Sports Productions. “You can watch what you want, when you want.”
Featured content will include movies, documentaries and TV series on surfing, skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, outdoor, moto and other extreme sports. Vaporvue will also include a wide spectrum of related adventure, travel, fitness, yoga and the how-tos of extreme sports. “We’re going to provide the most comprehensive, diverse library of professionally produced extreme sports content on the web,” said Ira Opper. “That’s our goal.”
Opper is one of the pioneering filmmakers credited with documenting “extreme sports” on cable TV. He will again test the cutting edge of sports filmography when he launches this innovative website catering to the extreme sports enthusiast.
“Vaporvue offers a massive selection of content,” said Matt Warshaw, author of the Encyclopedia of Surfing. “It’s lightning-fast, and 500 times easier to use than my toaster.”
Ira Opper began producing extreme sports for ESPN in 1982 and had his own prime time ESPN series by 1985. He has traveled the globe in his quest to capture the extreme sports lifestyle. He has produced more than 200 extreme sports television shows, documentaries and movies. Today Opper Sports Productions is a recognized brand name in the industry, and will contribute vastly to the library of content at Vaporvue.com.
Find Vaporvue at www.vaporvue.com. The movie service has a free, 7-day trial, and is available for $9.99 a month. It’s just the thing to get you in the mood for your next mountain trip!
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Win tickets for the London Ski Show!
This year's London Ski Show promises to be bigger and better than ever – and we've got 10 pairs of adults tickets and 4 sets of family tickets to give away in our Ski Slick Limerick competition.
Where, When, What
From the 30th October the Ski and Snowboard Show is back in London for an even bigger and better 2013 extravaganza. With its iconic, exciting activities and amazing giveaways its set to be this year's biggest and best show yet.
The Ski and Snowboard Show will also be landing in Manchester this year for the ultimate winter themed day out from the 25th to 27th October at EventCity.
Both London and Manchester shows are set to feature a host of activities that will provide enough entertainment for adults and children, with activities for the whole family to enjoy.
A Winter Wonderland in London:
London will become a winter wonderland this year as ice rinks, ski slopes, tubing, curling and learning comes to Earls Court for the coolest day out. Along with fantastic activities, guests are given the chance to chill out at the many apres ski style bars with alpine food and wine tasting.
Whether you are an advanced ski / snowboarder or just a beginner, the Ski and Snowboard Show will have more than 250 stands, including the top brands to kit yourself out for the next ski season ahead. Experts from around the world will be there ready and raring to tell you the latest travel ideas and tips for the upcoming holiday season.
Ski and snowboard lessons for kids!
As well as endless activities for the little ones including inflatable kid's slides and real huskies and reindeer to pet, children are offered exclusive ski lessons available from ages 4 and up as well as snowboard lessons for ages 7 and up. On top of this, children under 11 are getting in for free!
The Ski and Snowboard show is the ultimate destination this October as the UK's largest winter sports show comes back with a bang.
The London Show will take place from the 30th October to the 3rd November at Earls Court 2. More information can be found at http://www.skiandsnowboard.co.uk/london/.
The Manchester Show will take place from the 25th to 27th October in EventCity. More information can be found at http://www.skiandsnowboard.co.uk/manchester/
Win tickets for the London Ski Show – compose a Ski Slick Limerick:
Chalets Direct has 10 pairs of adult tickets and 4 family tickets to give away to keen skiers and snowboarders wanting to visit the London show.
How to enter:
- All you need to do is to get creative and compose a limerick beginning with the line:
There was a keen skier/boarder* called Joe …
(*You can choose skier or boarder – whichever you prefer)Just a reminder that the format of the limerick is 5 lines; lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme, and lines 3 and 4 also rhyme. They are usually humourous. For examples and inspiration take a look at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/limerick-examples.html
- Send your limerick to news@chaletsdirect.com – please put Ski Slick Limerick in the subject line.
Please state your preference of tickets ie. adult or family in your email. Winners will be notified by email! - Closing date is 18th October – so get your poetic thinking caps on!
For competition rules please see here.
- All you need to do is to get creative and compose a limerick beginning with the line:
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The Solutions Room – a unique way to find your next alpine holiday!
The big hits in music of 1999 were from newcomers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Eminem. The big hit to appear in the ski world that year was the Solutions Room from Chalets Direct. Like Britney, Christina and Eminem, the Solutions Room is still around – more mature and sophisticated, and still rocking!
What is it exactly?
Just in case you haven't heard about the Solutions Room, and what it does, here's a quick synopsis.
It's based on a forum idea – you ask a question and people come back to you with answers. This forum however has lots of magic going on under the surface.
If you're not sure when, where and who you're having your holiday with, the Solutions Room is a great place to put out feelers and see what options come back.
Similarly if you're absolutely sure where, when and with whom, the Solutions Room can get you targeted responses to your questions.Why is it different?
It's what goes on under the bonnet that makes it sexy (or at least we like to think so!). Your request is instantly matched to all the people we know who can help. So if you're looking for a catered chalet in Morzine for Xmas, all our Morzine catered chalet operators who still have availability for Xmas will be notified.If you're thinking sometime in January but not sure about dates and don't really mind where, the same thing happens – lots of notifications head out to our members who could fit the bill.
It's great for groups who want a luxury apartment all to themselves, or for a couple who want to meet others in a catered chalet. It can work if you've maybe left it a little late but want to slip in a quick ski next week, or if you've been given the responsibility of organising the big ski trip for next Easter and don't know where to start.
Why not try it out?
The ski season buzz is very definitely getting underway – with Ski Shows around the corner, an autumn chill in the air, and snow in the Alps at altitude. So if you're thinking of looking for a ski holiday give the Solutions Room a go – it's already worked for thousands, so there's a good chance it could work for you.
And just in case you've forgotten, we thought we'd share some Christina Aguilera to get you toe-tapping and hip-swaying. Have a great weekend!
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Honor Clissold retains GB Children’s Ski Title with Storming GS Win!
With a gold medal in Giant Slalom, where she was nearly three seconds ahead of the rest of the field, fourteen year old Honor Clissold from Richmond, North Yorkshire, defended her British Children’s Overall Ski Champion title in the face of tough opposition in Meribel last week.The three part competition was a challenging week for Honor, who is a member of the British Children’s Ski Team and trains with Team Evolution in St Johann, Austria. In her strongest discipline, the SuperG, she missed the gold medal by 0.2 of a second in what was supposed to be the training race. The Championship race, where she had planned a more attacking approach, was cancelled because of poor snow cover. Slalom is Honor’s weakest discipline, however she skied really well and in to third place in the tight technical course of the first run. The second, more open, course was less suited to her abilities so she finished the race in a disappointing sixth position.
On the final day of the championship, the Giant Slalom, which is the most important and technical of the three disciplines, the snow was hard-packed and icy. Several of the stronger skiers in the competition fell or made line errors and others chose a more cautious approach. Determined to retain her title, and putting everything she had learnt in training into practice, Honor skied a strong and fast line, not fazed by bumps and ruts, and finished the first run two seconds ahead of the field. With encouragement and guidance from Team Evolution coach Sega Fairweather, she held her nerve and repeated the performance in run two resulting in a clear win in both the Giant Slalom race and Overall Championship points.
Honor has now won three British Children’s titles as she was Children’s Champion in 2011 and was Children One Overall Champion in 2010; this season she also won three titles: the British, the English and the British Schoolgirl’s. And Honor had a third ‘hat trick’ on the international stage with three silver medals in Andorra in January.
Due to a change in FIS regulations, Honor has one more year in Children’s ski racing. This will be spent mainly working on technique, especially in slalom, and of course, defending her titles one last time. She comments: ‘I have really enjoyed ski-ing this year. My coaches have really helped make it happen and I am fired up to work hard and get results again hext season.’
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Enter our Panda Eyes Photo Contest to win Super Cool Ray-Bans!
It's one of those tell-tale signs of spring skiing and snowboarding.
Suntanned faces with clear, light strips of sunglasses or goggle lines – commonly known as Panda Eyes.
Caused by turning your face to the sun whilst wearing your protective eyewear, it's a classic ski/snowboard holiday souvenir, a seasonaire's status symbol, and a cool sign that you're an outdoorsy, mountain kind of guy/gal!At Chalets Direct we'd like to celebrate the spring and pay some respect to the Panda in you. We have 2 pairs of awesome Ray-Ban sunglasses to give away to the best Panda Eyes of 2012!
To enter, this is all you have to do:
1. Post a photo to our Competition area on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ChaletsDirect. You can submit your photo from 6.00am tomorrow, 30th March 2012, until midnight (British Summer Time) on 15th April 2012.
2. Get all your friends to vote for your photo. Voting opens at 1 minute past midnight (BST) on 16th April 2012 and closes at midnight on 22nd April 2012 (BST). Voting takes place on the Panda Eyes Contest area of our Facebook page. A vote from one of our fans will count for two votes – so get your friends to like us!
3. Our judges will then consider all the photos, count all the votes and make their final choice. We'll judge them according to popularity and quality.
The lucky winner will win not one but 2 pairs of Ray-Ban sunglasses – choose from classy gold-rimmed Aviators, cool black Wayfarers or bang on trend black New Wayfarers.
So what are you waiting for? To enter just go to: www.facebook.com/ChaletsDirect from tomorrow onwards!
Please Note: Chalets Direct is in no way recommending or advocating skiing, snowboarding or spending time outdoors in bright sunlight without adequate sun protection.
To see the full competition rules please go to: http://www.chaletsdirect.com/competition/panda-eyes-rules.htm
