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Package ski holidays vs. independent. Where’s the value?

Wednesday, 10. 7. 2009  –  Category: Skiing, Snowboarding

I stumbled upon a presentation by Crystal Ski, the largest ski holiday operator here in the UK, which gives some interesting stats on the 2008/09 ski season from a business perspective.
The report itself is well worth a peruse if you’re interested in the UK ski travel industry (i.e. UK skiers/snowboarders travelling outside of the UK), [...]

Snowboard luggage airline costs

Tuesday, 09. 30. 2008  –  Category: Skiing, Snowboarding

About this time last year I posted up a link to a piece of research into the costs charged by each of the major airlines flying from the UK to ski airports in Europe for checking in your skis or snowboard.
Well, APH have updated their research and things have changed! RyanAir now costs a [...]

Serre Chevalier snowboarding holiday

Sunday, 02. 17. 2008  –  Category: Snowboarding

An awesome week snowboarding in Serre Chevalier last week. Finally getting round to post about it. Here goes.

After a few large group trips, this was going to a small, hardcore, flat out snowboarding trip with just 3 of us in total.
Day one started at 3am in South London with taxi followed by bus [...]

Cheap airlines, expensive snowboard baggage

Tuesday, 12. 11. 2007  –  Category: Uncategorized

Just got back from a couple of consecutive weekend trips to Cervinia, flying Ryanair. The flights were dirt cheap at about £20 return from Stansted to Turin give or take, but to take my snowboard added £31, more than doubling the price, though still reasonable value I suppose.
It would be handy if all airlines [...]

Val Thorens late season trip

Saturday, 03. 24. 2007  –  Category: Snowboarding

I’ve decided to go to Val Thorens for what will be my final snowboarding jaunt this season. Planning a week from the Easter weekend. Have been once before, so have an idea roughly where I want to stay. This map has been really useful.
Val Thorens town map
The plan is to stay [...]

Les Arcs weekend break

Sunday, 03. 18. 2007  –  Category: Snowboarding

Well, technically not a full weekend, but have just come back from a day on the slopes at Les Arcs.
After months of hassle with lastminute.com trying to sort the tickets out, we booked onto a Eurostar from London to Bourg Saint Maurice leaving on Friday evening arriving 6:30am Saturday, before heading back to London at [...]

Ripped off by lastminute.com?

Thursday, 03. 8. 2007  –  Category: Uncategorized

Check out this Ryan Air ad published in the Guardian newspaper yesterday:

If you can’t quite read the image, the ad says:
Robbed by lastminute.com?
If you buy a Ryanair ticket through an online agent you’re being ripped off…

Snowboard quotes of the day

Wednesday, 02. 7. 2007  –  Category: Snowboarding

1. “Go big or go home”
2. “F##k you lastminute.com” - more to come on this one

Snowboard insurance

Tuesday, 01. 9. 2007  –  Category: Snowboarding

I tend to deal with travel insurance annually, rather than each time I go away. It really takes the hassle factor out, and as I’m fairly lazy with such things, suits me down to the ground.
I’m onto the third year now, but it occurred to me the other day that my initial policy may [...]

Zermatt weather and webcams

Tuesday, 11. 7. 2006  –  Category: Snowboarding

I’ve got a snowboarding weekend in Zermatt coming up in a couple of weeks. The season has barely started so I’ve been keeping a close watch on the snow forecasts and the web cams.
I thought I’d share these with you in case anyone else is heading over, and give me easy access to the [...]

Chalet food delivery service

Thursday, 10. 26. 2006  –  Category: Uncategorized

I tend to do a lot more self-catering snowboard holidays than catered. This obviously means spending time and money in the local supermarché and boulangerie etc…
Another new service I stumbled upon at the Ski and Snowboard Show was an English company that allow you to pre-order your food with them before you leave for [...]

Protect your snowboard’s edges

Monday, 08. 28. 2006  –  Category: Uncategorized

Been doing some reading about snowboard edges. Thinking about tuning up before the next trip. Don’t want some nice newly sharpened edges being ruined whilst the board is in transit. Read a good tip for protecting them at Snowboard Club UK:

Protect your snowboard’s edges

Monday, 08. 28. 2006  –  Category: Uncategorized

Been doing some reading about snowboard edges. Thinking about tuning up before the next trip. Don’t want some nice newly sharpened edges being ruined whilst the board is in transit. Read a good tip for protecting them at Snowboard Club UK:

Finding cheap flights to ski resorts

Saturday, 04. 15. 2006  –  Category: Uncategorized

Getting enough snowboarding in in a season is down to a few factors:

Getting your mates up for it.
Having the necessary funds.
Getting time off work.

If 1 is a problem, you can always get some new friends or go on your own. I’m wrestling with my conscience about this one at the moment as all my lot [...]