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The Ski Blog from Chalets Direct offers help and advice for booking ski or snowboard holidays in the Credit Crunch
New blog provides money-saving tips for winter holidaymakers when booking ski and snowboard breaks.
The recently launched Ski Blog from Chalets Direct aims to provide sound advice and information for people looking for ski and snowboard holidays. The blog went live in late August and has been incorporated into the Chalets Direct Interactive area, which gives holidaymakers a range of tools for searching and researching ski holiday options.
Topics that have been covered so far include Skiing in the Credit Crunch . This two-part post covers ways to save money when booking equipment, tips on prepaid currency cards and suggestions for off peak and mid-week travel. The advice is timely with many skiers and snowboarders now searching for this winter’s holidays but feeling the financial pinch. The blog also points users to the Promotions area where new offers and holiday deals are listed daily.
Another useful area of The Ski Blog deals with ski and snowboard instruction and has useful pointers for what to look for when booking ski holidays for beginners. It advises doing research and preparation beforehand to maximise the holiday experience. The What Makes a Great…ski lesson post includes input from the British Alpine Ski Schools, and draws on their research into ski teaching methodology.
According to a spokesperson for Chalets Direct:
“We hope that the Ski Blog will become a useful place for visitors to find out about skiing, snowboarding, summer holidays, things that are happening in the industry, and general advice on holidays in mountain resorts.
We want to build a resource, so that people everywhere, from novice to expert, can tap into the experience and knowledge of other skiers or boarders.”
The Ski Blog can be found by going to www.chaletsdirect.com and clicking on the link to the blog. The direct address for the Ski Blog is http://skiblog.chaletsdirect.com
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Skiing in the Credit Crunch – part 2
Back in June we posted our first Skiing in the Credit Crunch article. Now that autumn's here and the annual ski holiday is much more in the forefront of people's minds, we thought we'd give you some more ideas on how to get out on the slopes for less.
Travel money: Prepaid currency cards are now big news for travellers. Over the last few months more and more of these have hit the market, from mainstream banks like Lloyds TSB to the Post Office and Tesco. The principle is simple, you get one of these cards, load it up with euros or dollars, and then use it like any other credit or debit card when you're away. Withdrawals from foreign cash machines are cheaper than using your normal debit card, if you lose it you can get a replacement without risking having any cash stolen, and quite often they can be topped up online – like a pay as you go mobile.
There are now quite a lot to choose from. Some have set-up fees, or monthly fees, some will charge more than others for withdrawals, so it pays to shop around. They will usually take at least a week to 10 days to organise so don't leave it till the last minute.
Dynamic Currency Conversion: Nowadays it is not unusual to be given the option to pay in local currency or sterling when paying by credit card abroad. Always choose the local currency. This new process is called Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). The retailer or ATM invites you to pay in sterling and then does the exchange rate at an unfavourable rate, which costs you money. Research by Caxton FX, a foreign currency dealer and supplier of the very competitive Caxton fx Prepaid card, has shown that during last ski season "around £30,000 was wasted at just five of the most popular ski resorts in Europe through DCC."
Buy Equipment in the UK: With the strength of the euro against the pound you're unlikely to find good equipment deals in your ski resort. If you're looking to get your own kit then buying at home before you go will usually be cheaper. If you know exactly the make and model of ski/board you want you can always check out prices at home or away, Snow and Rock for example will give you a good idea of the UK price. And if you really know what you're looking for Ebay is also a useful place to look.
Rent in Advance: If you're renting your equipment it really pays to shop around, and booking in advance can give you some good discounts. Intersport, who operate in France, Switzerland and Austria, are offering good incentives for advance booking, Ski Set (France only) give at least 20% off for online bookings. It's also worth looking at the websites of the resort shops – many will also be offering good deals if you book direct with them.
Off Season Holidays: If you don't have to go in February (when half terms for the whole of Europe fall in the same 2 weeks), then look at prices outside peak times. January is often overlooked but can quite often have the best conditions, quiet pistes and cheaper deals on flights and ferries. The week before Christmas is also a good time for bargains. With a late Easter next year there could also be some good offers for March.
Go Mid-Week: If you're not tied to a Saturday to Saturday holiday, look at bucking the trend and taking advantage of quieter roads, and cheaper flights and ferry prices during the week. Many Chalets Direct holiday providers can offer flexible stays with arrivals and departures on different days of the week. It also means that you can ski on the Saturday when everyone is packing up and going, and you've got the pistes to yourself.
With planning and some forethought, you can make savings on your ski holidays.
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What makes a great…ski lesson?
Sunday morning – the first day of your ski holiday. After an epic battle to get equipment, lift passes and children sorted out in time, you finally get to your ski school meeting point. You obediently join your group, with about 11 others, receive a short greeting from your instructor and head off to the cable car. You spend the next 2 hours in a long snake behind said instructor, getting cursory comments every now and then which you hope will improve your technique and make you ski like a god. Despite doing this day after day, you don't feel any better about your skiing at the end of it than when you started. Sound familiar?
Sadly a lot of us experience the above scenario - we'd like to improve but the time and money invested in lessons doesn't bring about results. So we end up thinking that maybe we're not fit/adventurous/sporty enough, maybe skiing or snowboarding is something that we'll never be good at. We resign ourselves to getting down the mountain in our own fashion – and it doesn't really matter if we're not great at it, we only do it for one or two weeks a year after all.
Ski and snowboard lessons should be something that you want to keep going back to. They should help you learn how to handle difficult situations – steeper slopes, ice, heavy bumpy snow, off piste, white-out conditions, jumps. Nobody can get better at doing these without practice and guidance.
Hugh Monney is the Director of BASS, the British Alpine Ski School, which has schools in several resorts in France and in St Moritz in Switzerland. Hugh has spent many years developing the teaching techniques used by the BASS schools. The BASS approach is holistic - taking into account the psychological as well as the physical aspects of learning to ski and snowboard.
"Our teachers are skilful, experienced and sympathetic. We like to help people solve their problems and discover how to have fun, and we know how to make it happen."
Group sizes are kept small, with a maximum of 6 people, and BASS insists that humour is a key ingredient for success – "a caring, humourous approach makes the lesson a pleasure for everyone involved. The effectiveness of the sessions are dramatically increased by this important aspect of communication" says Hugh.
BASS also promises that teaching is only in English and that a shared mother tongue "is a must if teachers are to help people make the best progress and understand the subtleties of these great sports."
Getting good instruction can improve your ski holiday by leaps and bounds, and a good instructor should be able to tailor his teaching to suit your way of learning. Coming out of a lesson feeling that you aren't really that good says more about the instructor than your ability – even if you're never going to be Herman Maier, an instructor should be able to get you to work on something that will improve the overall effect.
So don't give up on lessons but do shop around and make sure that you get the right kind of instruction for you. Points to bear in mind are:
- Group sizes – make sure you know what the maximum group size should be, and is this guaranteed by the ski school, or do they make exceptions in busy periods?
- Ability levels – how are levels assessed by the ski school, and what happens if you're in a group which is going too fast or too slow for comfort?
- Group lessons may not be the best solution for you – no matter how good the teacher a group lesson will usually have to be at the pace of the slowest. If you worry about being bored or holding people up, or if you don't feel comfortable learning in a group scenario, then private lessons may be the better option.
Learning new techniques is fun. Learning how to stay in control brings with it a tremendous sense of achievement and knowing that you can tackle any slope, in all sorts of conditions, does wonders for your self-confidence. Skiing and snowboarding aren't mysterious dark arts whose secrets are only imparted to a select few – so next time you're the 12th person in line behind the instructor, it may be time to change the instructor.
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RSS feeds from Chalets Direct
Now there’s another way to get the latest Chalets Direct news direct to your desktop.
Two RSS feeds are available – one for the Ski Blog, and one which shows a selection of our Promotions. The promotions feed is updated every week. There are currently close to 300 promos and special offers available on Chalets Direct, with some very tempting ski holiday offers for this winter including free flights and free child places on holidays in La Tania in the Three Valleys, free lift passes in Les Gets, and bonus group discounts in St Anton.
The RSS feeds mean that you can get the latest news delivered to you – all you need to do is to subscribe to the feeds and they will update automatically each time something changes.
You can subscribe using an online reader such as the Google or Yahoo readers, or use one which can be downloaded. You may even find you already have a reader without even realising it – the latest versions of Outlook and Internet Explorer now have inbuilt RSS capabilities.
But if you’re starting to look for this winter’s ski holiday keep an eye on the Promotions area – this is where you can find some great ideas, maybe a champagne week in Paradiski, a girls only ski clinic week, special mini breaks for Christmas and much more.
You can browse through all the promotions available or search for offers for specific dates or areas.
So with the temperatures starting to turn autumnal, the countdown to winter has begun.
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Chalets Direct launches Interactive Area for Skiers and Snowboarders
The leading ski website offers more ways of finding accommodation for independent travellers
September is traditionally the time when people start getting serious about booking their ski holiday. In response to this, the leading ski website Chalets Direct has grouped together a variety of services to form a new interactive area for people looking for ski and snowboard breaks. Called simply Chalets Direct Interactive, the new section provides holidaymakers with more tools to find their ski accommodation, in addition to traditional searching and browsing. Visitors can also use the interactive area to find and research holidays.
Chalets Direct Interactive includes message boards, resort reviews, a ski blog and The Solutions Room, where users can post up their holiday requirements and wait for offers to come back to them. The site also provides a Promotions area where visitors can view promotions and special offers for specific dates or resorts. The aim is to give independent skiers and snowboarders a better choice when looking for their winter holiday and to provide more ways of getting results.
Some key features of the interactive area include the Solutions Room, a unique bulletin board where people looking for holiday accommodation can say what they're looking for. Chalets Direct members can then reply to them to either match their requirements or propose alternatives. Launched in 1999, the Solutions Room has proved a useful tool for both holidaymakers and advertisers. A post made in the morning will usually have attracted several replies within a few hours, by the evening there will often be more than 20 proposals for the enquirer to choose from. Further development of the Solutions Room is currently taking place and enhanced features will be introduced later this autumn.
The Resort News and Reviews area means visitors can see what others are saying about resorts. This section is also an area to get news “as it happens” – with current bulletins about weather and snow conditions or upcoming events.
The Ski Blog, launched this summer, is a general discussion area focusing on ski industry events and news, with useful advice and hints for booking holidays in the mountains. The What Makes a great…Beginners Week post for example, gives helpful hints for first time skiers and snowboarders.
Chalets Direct Interactive also has a jobs board and Q & A area for people wanting to do a ski season or a long term let.
The interactive features can be found by clicking on the home page of www.chaletsdirect.com
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What makes a great….Apres Ski Bar?
For many people the après ski bar is as important a feature of their ski holiday as the skiing itself.
Snow Party by Charlie AdamIt's traditional, it prolongs the feelgood effects of the physical exercise, it's a reward after a day in the great outdoors. It's getting together with like-minded people with whom you really have something in common, it's powder discussions and piste talks, it's like walking into your local, where everyone remembers you and says hello. It's meeting and making new friends, it's an exercise in pulling power but there's no shame if you crash and burn.
It's a key ingredient for a memorable holiday - years afterwards ski areas may blur into one great mountain panorama, but that time you danced on the tables in ski boots will stand out as a massive fun-filled frivolous highlight.
Obviously apres ski bars will vary across national borders but from Courchevel to Colorado the main elements will be the same. And those elements will be the same if you're 25 or 65 – it's just the proportions that will change.
The key ingredients that will get punters strolling in at 4pm and rolling out at 8pm or later are service, value and music. A simple formula which works time and time again. Adding in extras like mountain views can help but are not essential – since ski resorts began some of the most memorable bars have mushroomed in basement, windowless venues – which are cheaper to lease but require more imagination to establish the ambiance.
Friendly service is essential – at the risk of sounding controversial this is possibly why the Austrians are generally much better at apres ski than the French. We need smiling faces who are happy to have our business and will not look down on us if we are not the best skiers on the mountain. We also need the service to be good.
Value for money is important – it means people will buy 2, 3 or even more rounds rather than have one drink and walk out – a killer for any apres ski atmosphere! Value doesn't always mean the cheapest prices – and canny bar owners have already worked this out. Get the mixture right and people will want to stay, and it won't matter if prices are slightly more than the empty bar down the road. Happy Hours, ski videos, the weekly race sponsored by the bar - all these elements give people another reason to walk in and hang out.
Music – a very subjective area, but crucial when it comes to creating an atmosphere. The success of scores of apres bars has been based on the quality of their music. Many bars will have resident bands - cool ski bums with guitars who can knock out popular tunes that everyone can sing along to. Music doesn't always need to be familiar – the Austrians (again) have made it cool to like oompah bands – at least after a few steins of beer with schnapps chasers. This is possibly another area where the French are at a disadvantage - Edith Piaf and the greatest hits of Jacques Brel will never be great background music.
A great apres ski bar will not make up for lack of snow, terrible accommodation, or splitting up with your girlfriend because she can get downhill faster than you, however the apres ski experience can certainly be the cherry on the top – and make a good ski holiday a truly great one.
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Chalets Direct Interactive Goes Live!
Chalets Direct has now launched our Interactive area where users can get sociable!
We have always encouraged user interaction – we created the Solutions Room in autumn 1999, and since then have added more and more areas where visitors can talk to each other, such as the Ski & Board Jobs forum and the Resort Reviews section.
So now we have decided to group all these features under one heading to make it easier for visitors to get around. Our latest addition, The Ski Blog, is also part of this area.
So what’s it all about?
Well the Solutions Room is a unique bulletin board where people looking for holiday accommodation can post up what they’re looking for. Chalets Direct members can then reply to them to either match their requirements or propose alternatives. As I write,our developers are working on further enhancements of the Solutions Room which will make it more efficient for both types of users – so watch this space.
The Resort News & Reviews section is for you to post up reviews of your favourite resorts. If you had a great time there let everyone know about it and tell us why it was so good. You can post reviews in various categories, including the resort, the ski area and summer holidays. You can also post about the weather and snow conditions, which was used extensively last winter, when snow depths were exceptional. Reviewers can also put up a photo to go with their post, so we had a great gallery of snow pictures stretching from Colorado to Bansko!
Other features in the interactive area are the Ski & Board Jobs message board and the Long Stay Q&A, so if you’re looking to spend more than a week or two in the mountains these could be interesting for you.
For jobseekers take a look at the positions on offer, or post up what you’ve got to offer an employer. And for the Long Stay Q&A, if you’re looking for accommodation or need some help you may well find an answer here.
And of course there is the Ski Blog – which we hope will provide interesting information and give you a chance to give us your feedback.
So as autumn arrives, Chalets Direct is looking forward to another great winter season!
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What makes a great….Beginners’ Week
Your first ever ski or snowboard holiday is an introduction to a sport that will keep you coming back for life. Wintersports holidays are fun, outdoor experiences which you can share with friends and family, you can meet new people, explore fabulous mountain landscapes and enjoy breathtaking scenery.
If you’re tempted to go on a wintersports holiday – and you’ve never tried any of the sports before – then there are a few things to bear in mind. Similarly if you’re an experienced skier and are hoping to take beginners with you the next time you visit the mountains, there could be a number of issues to consider which could either make or break the holiday.
A failed ski holiday – where the beginners in the party hate every minute and just don’t get the whole skiing/snowboarding thing – can result in simmering resentment at best, divorce/relationship breakdown at worst!
So how do you make sure that a wintersports novice loves their first week and is desperate to come back for more? Just what makes a great Beginners’ Week?
Preparation is key. If you are new to skiing and snowboarding then doing your homework can make your first steps a lot easier.This homework doesn’t just include looking at resorts and deciding which one to try, there is much more that can be done which will save you time in the long run. Here’s a few tips and tricks:
1. Physical preparation: If you spend 50 weeks a year behind a desk at sea level, your body is going to get a big shock when it is suddenly required to be physical at altitude.
Yep it’s obvious but true – working on your physical fitness is definitely going to help you get more out of your ski holiday. Unfortunately beginner skiers and snowboarders probably expend more energy than intermediates – the whole effort of standing up after a fall can be exhausting.So if you do lead a fairly sedentary lifestyle take a look at increasing your exercise levels from around six weeks before you go.
Both aerobic and anaerobic fitness are required for skiing and snowboarding. You don’t need to be able to run marathons but feeling confident that your body is not going to seize up with the slightest effort is going to be beneficial. Plus you will feel better for it!
For some great tips on getting fit for skiing see Graham Bell’s excellent features on the BBC website.2. Pre-Holiday Lessons: If you are not too far away from an artificial ski slope or an indoor snowdome then it’s definitely worth investing in a few lessons before you go.
The whole business of putting on strange boots and then clipping them onto a plank, or two, is very unfamiliar. A few sessions at your local ski centre before your holiday will help you conquer this weirdness. Having a chance to move around with them and take a few pratice turns down a slope will help enormously when you get onto the snow for real. Getting used to the equipment before you get there will help to relieve the stress of the first few days.The rate of improvement between beginners who’ve had pre-holiday lessons and those who haven’t can be remarkable – quite often these are the ones who will shine when they get onto the snow.
3. Ski and Snowboard School: Just as lessons before you go will prepare you, the only way to learn properly when you’re there is to take lessons – from a qualified professional. Don’t be tempted when one of your party who has been a couple of times before, says that he/she will show you the ropes – you run the risk of ruining your holiday and theirs’.
Ski schools, especially French ski schools, have had bad press it has to be said. We’re all aware of the archetypal French "follow me" ski instructor who has to be coaxed and flattered to impart his wisdom. Fortunately this is changing. Many ski schools now offer small group sizes and English speaking instructors. Maybe have a look at the resort website before you go and see how many ski schools are operating there – several ski schools in one resort will generally mean that there will be competition between them, so they have to be more proactive and customer focused.It’s also worth finding out what other options are available for beginners. Ski and snowboard school usually comprises 2-3h hour sessions at the same time each day over 4, 5 or 6 days. But there maybe more specialist or more tailored options. If you are group of beginners for example – maybe 4 or 5 of you all at the same level – it could be more fun to book private sessions for your group.
Whether you choose to ski or snowboard, look on lessons as an investment rather than an expense. As with all investments it’s worth investigating and researching. Look at the school’s website, email for information, even call them if you need. And make sure you book in advance so that you don’t get disappointed when you arrive.
A word of warning though – as ski schools are usually seasonal businesses their offices may not be manned year round. So if you call in July and don’t get an answer, emailing might be best.4. Choosing a resort: This is a tricky one, especially if you are a beginner and you are organising the holiday. How on earth would you know what makes a good beginners resort? Most ski resorts will have beginners facilities – ie gentle nursery slopes with gentle lifts so that beginners can practice their first turns without fear.
So what should a beginner look for in particular? In reality, all ski resorts want to attract skiers and boarders from beginner to expert, so they will make sure that there are green slopes (the easiest and gentlest), right through to black ones (the steepest), with usually a preponderance of blues and reds in between.The answer to what resort you should choose depends on what else you want out of your holiday. Let’s not forget that a ski/snowboard holiday is a whole package, the apres-ski can be as important as the skiing itself! So make sure that you and your group know what you all want.
If you’re looking for chocolate box chalets and horse-drawn sleighs then a purpose-built resort will not fit the bill. If you want lively bars and rocking clubs, make sure there is enough nightlife in your resort. If you want to be able to ski from the door then it’s likely that a high altitude resort will be the best bet. If you want good shopping and plenty of other things to do then look at going to a large resort where there will be more facilities.
If you’re still at a loss then ask someone else! Other skiers and boarders will always be happy to share their experience. Good online message boards where you can ask questions are the Snowheads Forums and of course our very own Solutions Room.
Skiing and snowboarding holidays are fun and rewarding experiences, so a little planning and preparation will go a long way!
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Olympic Dreams
British Olympic medals are very much in the news at the moment. Who’d have thought that as I write Team GB is sitting third in the medal table! It’s great that Britain is achieving worldwide sporting success, to the extent that even the Aussies are whinging.
As a nation, we’ve always been pretty hard on our sportsmen. Tim Henman’s failure to win Wimbledon was a disappointment to us, despite the fact that he was in the world’s top ten for 10 years, and for much of those ten years tennis was dominated by two of the greatest players in history – Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
And the achievement of Alain Baxter, the only Brit to ever win an Olympic skiing medal, has been dismissed and forgotten
Alain Baxter finished third in the Slalom in the Salt Lake City games of 2002, and was awarded the bronze medal. A few days later he was stripped of the medal and banned for 3 months when it was found he had tested positive for a banned substance, lev-methamphetamine. Retracing his footsteps, Alain found that the substance had come from a Vicks inhaler he had purchased from a local pharmacy. Alain protested his innocence, on appeal the suspension was lifted, and it was recognised that he had inadvertently "taken" the drug. However the bronze medal was not returned.
Since then Alain has worked hard to regain his status. Superstars, the popular TV series, has brought him back into the public eye. In 2004 he was the series champion and demonstrated just what an all round athete he is – beating his opponents in diverse disciplines. He is an athlete we should be proud of, and it’s about time we recognised his skill and talent.
Now Alain is preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. In a bid to win sponsorship Alain has produced his own fund-raising calendar where you can certainly admire his "athleticism".
We did ask for a sneak preview but unfortunately for us his press office can’t release the photos until the calendar is released – so sorry girls, but he did make Page 3 in The Scottish Sun!
You can follow Alain’s story on his website. We would like to wish him all the best and look forward to seeing him on the podium in 2010.
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A Little History
On a trip to Chamonix towards the end of the winter season of 1999, two of the founders of Chalets Direct were looking at hotels in the Chamonix Valley. They were developing web marketing ideas for hotels – and had spent the day finding out about the web awareness of local accommodation providers.
Don’t forget, this was spring 1999, on the brink of the first dotcom boom. Very few businesses had websites, booking travel online was still pretty unheard of, Internet access available at the time was dial-up and narrow band – and not yet cheap.
They had covered the length and breadth of Chamonix itself and so headed out to Les Praz, a charming village just a few miles out of town. Here they stopped in front of the small village church – and that was when the Eureka moment happened – although they wouldn’t put it down to divine inspiration!
Why not create a portal for ski accommodation – and because not everyone can employ designers to make websites, let’s make it easy and affordable.
The idea was not to come between the accommodation provider and the holidaymaker, there was no need to be a travel agent or a tour operator.
It was simple, as seasoned skiers, the founders knew that a ski holiday was one of the most exciting things people could do – so rather than talk to a travel agent about it, why not let people talk directly to the people who were delivering that dream.
So www.chaletsdirect.com came into being – and somehow we always found it appropriate that the idea was born in a place which is at the heart of mountain sports, at the foot of Mont Blanc.
So nearly ten years later, whilst we have grown and expanded, weathered Internet booms and busts, the three founding members of Chalets Direct are still very much part of the company.
They are still exploring the mountains and getting a buzz from those blue sky days when they can.The ski dream is still the same – waking up on a fresh powder day, that first sharp intake of breath as you walk out of the lift with the world at your feet, the click of the bindings, the feel of the snow beneath your skis as you glide away and gravity starts to take hold. How can you beat that?
Why the Ski Blog?
Hopefully the Ski Blog will become a useful place for you to visit and to find out about skiing, snowboarding, summer holidays, things that are happening in the industry, and general advice on your holidays in the mountains.
It’s also our chance to discuss stuff which isn’t necessarily accommodation – so we can tell you about developments in Chalets Direct, and why we’re doing them.
We welcome your comments and feedback on posts, and if you have questions fire away. We would like to build a resource, so that people everywhere, from novice to expert, can tap into the experience and knowledge of other skiers or boarders.
If you would also like to be a guest blogger please contact us!
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