Ski Holiday for a beginner, worth it or not?
Discussion
We went for a week last year in Bulgaria. One of the cheapest holidays we have done.
Cost just under £1100 for 2 of us for a week:
Half Board
Ski, boot and Helmet Rental
Lift Pass
Lessons every day
I had only ever tried it once up in Avimore and my GF back in school and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Would definitely recommend it but make sure you get lessons.
We booked through Balkan holidays, I'd never heard of them but her uncle has used them several times a year for snowboarding trips.
Cost just under £1100 for 2 of us for a week:
Half Board
Ski, boot and Helmet Rental
Lift Pass
Lessons every day
I had only ever tried it once up in Avimore and my GF back in school and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Would definitely recommend it but make sure you get lessons.
We booked through Balkan holidays, I'd never heard of them but her uncle has used them several times a year for snowboarding trips.
I did a few seasons, got a job back in the UK, met a woman, she'd never been before.
I thought her how to snowboard and now we go twice a year without fault and in a couple of years we'll do another season, but together.
f
king do it, all the advice here has been spot on.
You can deffo do it cheaper than 1000pp though. I'm going away on 14 dec to la plagne for 650pp. Pm me if you want to know details.
I thought her how to snowboard and now we go twice a year without fault and in a couple of years we'll do another season, but together.
f
king do it, all the advice here has been spot on.You can deffo do it cheaper than 1000pp though. I'm going away on 14 dec to la plagne for 650pp. Pm me if you want to know details.
Update on this.
I agreed to go and we are going on Dec 28th for a week. I have been having lessons at the local dry slope for the past 2 months and have been really enjoying it actually.
Price worked out at £750ish each for everything but food.
We plan on trying to be sensible with the food budget as it'll be sky high if we eat out all the time.
Thanks for all the encouragement to do it, I am really looking forward to going now. Our ski membership at the dry slope lasts a whole year, so we may even keep it up as a regular thing afterwards if it all goes well, so it is something nice for us to do.
Cheers all!
I agreed to go and we are going on Dec 28th for a week. I have been having lessons at the local dry slope for the past 2 months and have been really enjoying it actually.
Price worked out at £750ish each for everything but food.
We plan on trying to be sensible with the food budget as it'll be sky high if we eat out all the time.
Thanks for all the encouragement to do it, I am really looking forward to going now. Our ski membership at the dry slope lasts a whole year, so we may even keep it up as a regular thing afterwards if it all goes well, so it is something nice for us to do.
Cheers all!
gman88667733 said:
Update on this.
I agreed to go and we are going on Dec 28th for a week. I have been having lessons at the local dry slope for the past 2 months and have been really enjoying it actually.
Price worked out at £750ish each for everything but food.
We plan on trying to be sensible with the food budget as it'll be sky high if we eat out all the time.
Thanks for all the encouragement to do it, I am really looking forward to going now. Our ski membership at the dry slope lasts a whole year, so we may even keep it up as a regular thing afterwards if it all goes well, so it is something nice for us to do.
Cheers all!
Good stuff, keep it up.I agreed to go and we are going on Dec 28th for a week. I have been having lessons at the local dry slope for the past 2 months and have been really enjoying it actually.
Price worked out at £750ish each for everything but food.
We plan on trying to be sensible with the food budget as it'll be sky high if we eat out all the time.
Thanks for all the encouragement to do it, I am really looking forward to going now. Our ski membership at the dry slope lasts a whole year, so we may even keep it up as a regular thing afterwards if it all goes well, so it is something nice for us to do.
Cheers all!
Skiing is easy(ish) to get to reasonable intermediate - there is then a huge jump, I think, up to the first expert level with it getting exponentially more difficult.
That said, once the investment has been made, the ability to jump into anything and blitz it with pure feel and release without having to worry about the technical side of things as it becomes instinctive, is like no other feeling on this planet of ours.
mustdash said:
As others have said - do it!
I was in a similar position to you at about the same age - my girlfriend at the time kind of forced me to go. The first 3 days, I hated it (and conversely, her!). The last 3 days, I loved it. So much so that I have been at least once every year since, all over the Northern Hemisphere. I've also managed to spend a season in Canada 7 years ago obtaining my CSIA instructor qualifications (to whoever said you can't be an instructor at 21 - utter rubbish - there were 18 year olds on my course who qualified as level 2 ski or board instructors and race or freestyle coaches allowing them to teach in every country in the World apart from France, and, 7 years later, are now CSIA level 4 coaches and instructor assessors and ski all over the world!).
I would say the following though:
Do NOT let your girlfriend give you lessons - it will be frustrating for the pair of you and lead to arguments. Get a local ski instructor - not only is there no emotional attachment, but they will know the mountain like the back of their hand, so be able to show you more of the ski area based on your ability.
Please, get / hire / use a helmet - I know of at least 3 people who can all legitimately claim a helmet saved their life (I am one of those 3 - mogul run + tiredness). Hire ones may not look 'cool', but better to look slightly uncool than be a vegetable / dead.
Get lessons before you go. Do it now so its a bit cheaper.
Look at YouTube videos of 'how to get ski fit, and start getting in to shape'. Skiing uses muscles that you may not normally use / puts your legs in positions you don't normally keep them in and can be really tiring. Tired legs = injury.
Pace the drinking - you will be at altitude, where alcohol can effect you much quicker than normal. I've made the mistake a few times of going too hard on the first night (free wine - got to be done) and then skiing with a raging hangover (hangover = possible injuries!)
If you're hiring boots - take the time to make sure they fit correctly, and if they don't send them back for another pair. Crap fitting boots were probably the biggest thing that nearly put me off skiing all together. Ski hire shops on changeover day can get rammed, with the staff wanting people out the door as quickly as possible - they should be snug with only a little ankle movement and you should not lose feeling in your toes (if you do, it's either really cold, or they're ill fitting / too tight)
Most of all - don't let the first few days put you off (everyone gets the '3 day burn', especially in their first week when they're struggling to pick it up). Persevere and you will love it!
Picking up on your point about the helmet. I go slow so youd think I wouldn't need one. Well if it wasnt for a helmet a ski lift would have easily punctured my head. Left a huge dent right in my helmet and a crack and a thumping headache. I really liked my helmet too needed a new one after that.I was in a similar position to you at about the same age - my girlfriend at the time kind of forced me to go. The first 3 days, I hated it (and conversely, her!). The last 3 days, I loved it. So much so that I have been at least once every year since, all over the Northern Hemisphere. I've also managed to spend a season in Canada 7 years ago obtaining my CSIA instructor qualifications (to whoever said you can't be an instructor at 21 - utter rubbish - there were 18 year olds on my course who qualified as level 2 ski or board instructors and race or freestyle coaches allowing them to teach in every country in the World apart from France, and, 7 years later, are now CSIA level 4 coaches and instructor assessors and ski all over the world!).
I would say the following though:
Do NOT let your girlfriend give you lessons - it will be frustrating for the pair of you and lead to arguments. Get a local ski instructor - not only is there no emotional attachment, but they will know the mountain like the back of their hand, so be able to show you more of the ski area based on your ability.
Please, get / hire / use a helmet - I know of at least 3 people who can all legitimately claim a helmet saved their life (I am one of those 3 - mogul run + tiredness). Hire ones may not look 'cool', but better to look slightly uncool than be a vegetable / dead.
Get lessons before you go. Do it now so its a bit cheaper.
Look at YouTube videos of 'how to get ski fit, and start getting in to shape'. Skiing uses muscles that you may not normally use / puts your legs in positions you don't normally keep them in and can be really tiring. Tired legs = injury.
Pace the drinking - you will be at altitude, where alcohol can effect you much quicker than normal. I've made the mistake a few times of going too hard on the first night (free wine - got to be done) and then skiing with a raging hangover (hangover = possible injuries!)
If you're hiring boots - take the time to make sure they fit correctly, and if they don't send them back for another pair. Crap fitting boots were probably the biggest thing that nearly put me off skiing all together. Ski hire shops on changeover day can get rammed, with the staff wanting people out the door as quickly as possible - they should be snug with only a little ankle movement and you should not lose feeling in your toes (if you do, it's either really cold, or they're ill fitting / too tight)
Most of all - don't let the first few days put you off (everyone gets the '3 day burn', especially in their first week when they're struggling to pick it up). Persevere and you will love it!
gman88667733 said:
Sainte-Foy Tarentaise. Fairly small place, but seems nice.
You will enjoy it - it's great fun.In my younger days I regularly took beginners skiing as part of my company's corporate entertainment.... those days have long gone! However I've done a lot of it over many years.
It does take a couple of days of falling on your behind every few minutes (which can be exhausting) before it all suddenly 'clicks'. But it sounds as if you're a long way down the road with your dry slope experience.
It's reasonably important not to tag along with experienced skiers who might take you on slopes that are too challenging. My advice is to take it easy and slow for the first couple of days. I am sure you're planning to do this anyway.
Have fun and do report back.
wrencho said:
Personally I would buy a helmet. They aren't expensive and you have the benefit of knowing it hasn't been crashed multiple times. Plus it's pretty grim to think about how much sweat is impregnated into it....
It’s pretty grim to realise how much of your own sweat has impregnated your own helmet, never mind a helmet that was worn last week, by someone else!Riding without one isn't worth the risk IMO, two of my good friends have suffered TBI's on snow... it's not worth the risk to yourself, and unfair on those around you if they have to deal with a horrendous situation that could have been avoided.
As far as buying one goes, it's well worth trying a bunch on rather than buying blind online, as all the brands fit and sit differently, it's difficult to make helmets universal to everyone's weird shaped heads, and all the brand sizing runs slightly differently.
Never buy a second hand helmet, you don't know it's history, and they are useless if they've taken a hard knock.. i've had a couple of concussions and binned the helmets after the fact, even if they look fine they are most likely compromised internally. MIPS are the ones to go for if you have the cheddar to spare.
As far as buying one goes, it's well worth trying a bunch on rather than buying blind online, as all the brands fit and sit differently, it's difficult to make helmets universal to everyone's weird shaped heads, and all the brand sizing runs slightly differently.
Never buy a second hand helmet, you don't know it's history, and they are useless if they've taken a hard knock.. i've had a couple of concussions and binned the helmets after the fact, even if they look fine they are most likely compromised internally. MIPS are the ones to go for if you have the cheddar to spare.
designforlife said:
Excellent, you are going at a good time too, just after xmas is usually fairly quiet on the slopes compared to the week before... I did Flaine on that week a few years ago and it was dead!
I really hope so, I have enjoyed my dry slope lessons more than I had anticipated! Obviously I'm still not at a fantastic level, but I can comfortably turn and ski down the slope and be under control (mostly...) So hopefully a solid week on the snow will fine tune that a bit.I went from dryslope lessons where i learnt to snowboard, to my first time on snow in Les Arcs many years ago.
The biggest thing you'll notice and have to account for is just how slippery actual snow is (sounds obvious but you'll feel it), once you get over that it's a lot easier to ride than dendix/snowflex and a fair bit more forgiving.
The biggest thing you'll notice and have to account for is just how slippery actual snow is (sounds obvious but you'll feel it), once you get over that it's a lot easier to ride than dendix/snowflex and a fair bit more forgiving.
gman88667733 said:
Sainte-Foy Tarentaise. Fairly small place, but seems nice.
I've never skied there, but passed it many times on the road from Bourg St Maurice to Val d'Isere. From the piste map it looks ideal for beginners - small, just a few lifts, and some nice blue runs down into the resort. As a beginner there is nothing worse than getting to the end of the day tired and having to do a steep, busy run down into the resort to get home - see the aforementioned Val d'Isere for that - my favourite resort, but the lower descents are not beginner friendly.
Have fun .... my wife has got to have a knee operation on 18/12 and our son has just started school, so if were were to go would be restricted to the Easter school holidays, which costs a relative fortune. I will be watching threads like this with a teeny bit of envy.
gman88667733 said:
I really hope so, I have enjoyed my dry slope lessons more than I had anticipated! Obviously I'm still not at a fantastic level, but I can comfortably turn and ski down the slope and be under control (mostly...) So hopefully a solid week on the snow will fine tune that a bit.
I suspect you are going to get the bug. Dry slope skiing is fun, but actually being in the mountains on snow is something else all together.
3 weeks until I head out. Really looking forward to it.
OP - how much would you normally spend on a holiday ?
You're lucky to have a family owned apartment to stay in ... surely they will have some equipment for you to borrow, can give basic lessons or recommend best value places too.
Deduct that from the cost of this trip and put it down as a early/late birthday / christmas gift to your GF if cost is an issue.
As an 'experience' if you consider all the pre/apres ski and non-ski activities; getting to know if the GF is really the one etc as well it should be well worth it
You're lucky to have a family owned apartment to stay in ... surely they will have some equipment for you to borrow, can give basic lessons or recommend best value places too.
Deduct that from the cost of this trip and put it down as a early/late birthday / christmas gift to your GF if cost is an issue.
As an 'experience' if you consider all the pre/apres ski and non-ski activities; getting to know if the GF is really the one etc as well it should be well worth it
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