Skiing

[lfdown2]

If your group are beginners to intermediate you'll find Pas de La Casa or Livigno ideal wityh -plenty of night-life and both are tax free so a good bit cheaper than Austria or France.   

Our group now go to Chamonix each year flying to Geneva then hiring 2 cars and booking our own chalets.  Works out much cheaper.   

you been, any idea on sports bars?
wanna see nfl next sunday wondering whether to bring laptop

[Rois]

I didn't come across too many sports bars - there's one place I saw that showed UK soccer - seems to be wifi everywhere tho, lots of people with laptops.

I went to Cham for 5 nights, Thurs to Tues.  Flights were about £80 (£25 or so for my skis, so could have been cheaper).  Stayed in a "hotel" with a couple of friends - very very basic but it was €120 each for the five nights - we really got what we paid for (there was a noisy nightclub underneath but it was fantastically central).  Lift pass was €140 for four days - that was the Chamonix-only one, if you want to go to and do all the advanced skiing around Les Houches and on the Aigulle du Midi (nearest to Mont Blanc) then it's more expensive.  Miles upon miles of piste on the basic ski pass though.  Transfer was €50 return each, which was cheaper for us than hiring a car but a car would have been v useful as we needed to use the bus a lot.

Still I fell in love with the place and ended up wandering around looking in estate agent windows to see what I could set my sights on there in a few years. 

[new devil]

Watch your self...I broke my hand last year skiing and a friend broke her ankle and suffered whiplash yesterday

[Mhic Easmuint]

Thanks Rois, must look into it a bit further. 

[Puckoon]

Watch your self...I broke my hand last year skiing and a friend broke her ankle and suffered whiplash yesterday

the snow can be a little slippy, or is that the point?

in fairness i cracked 3 ribs in a freak accident myself. still love it though. lake tahoe is great right now.

[Minder]

Watch your self...I broke my hand last year skiing and a friend broke her ankle and suffered whiplash yesterday

Are you sure thats how you broke your hand? A heavy session of five knuckle shuffle perhaps?

[new devil]

Thats how i broke the left hand!

[Leg End]

I'm heading to chamonix in feb.. let me know how u get on and what it is like.. loads of details please... i cant wait

Came back last Tues there, spent five good nights in Cham.  It is prob the nicest resort I've been in, better than Val d'Isere even.  The skiing area is amazing with plenty for everyone - the problem was that it was really foggy on day 3 of my holiday so we had to come off the mountain early - it was just no fun skiing when you couldn't see more than four feet in front of you.  The weather on day 4 was worse so didn't get on the slopes at all but that was more a function of the lack of enthusiasm of my travelling companions. 
However, the resort more than made up for it.  The apres ski was great craic and there's plenty to see around the place.  The transfer from Geneva makes it a fantastic place to have a short ski break.  I'll def be back, this year again if possible. 

Have a number of good nightlife recommendations if you're interested though we went at probably the quietest time of the year, just after new year.

all recommendations welcome. i hear there's a casino... did u check it out.
just outta curiosity and so i know where to stay away from is there any of those special type of bars were women feel the urge to take their clothes off when u give them money  

[Aerlik]

Folks,
alot of the Slovenians and Croatians I work with rave on about the snow in those two countries.  But then the Croats think their country is heaven anyway.  If you ever get rich enough, try Hokkaido in Japan or slopes on the eastern side of the Japan Alps north of Niigata.  Bloody brilliant but bloody cold with very chilly Siberian winds bringing the wind chill factor to way below -20C.  I'm looking at a wee trip to NZ next July/August.  Get good insurance wherever you go.

[Rois]

all recommendations welcome. i hear there's a casino... did u check it out.
just outta curiosity and so i know where to stay away from is there any of those special type of bars were women feel the urge to take their clothes off when u give them money  

Didn't check out Casino but some of the lads we met tried to get in - you have to be well enough dressed because they were refused entry.

Yes, to answer your question, I believe there are some of those special types of bars - well there were posters on the walls of a few pubs advertising at least one night when this was happening in a certain bar in the town.  Not being remotely interested, I didn't pay much more attention.

For apres ski, head to Chambre Neuf in front of the train station about 5pm - there's a band playing in there every day and they're very good, the place is bunged with people just off the slopes.  Afterwards head to Chamonix Sud, Monkey Bar and the Munster Bar are part of the complex and are pretty good, although Munster Bar was disappointing when we were there.  Monkey Bar does great bar food.  At night time we ended up in La Terasse - again live music was the draw here. 

Oh I'm so jealous.  Def going again in March.

[Bensars]

Im so jealous. This is my  first time in 6 years not going ( Mrs Bensars due very shortly).

Girl i work with got a great deal to Tignes. £520 SC with full ski pack and passes.

Wish you all well.

[el_cuervo_fc]

Folks,
alot of the Slovenians and Croatians I work with rave on about the snow in those two countries.  But then the Croats think their country is heaven anyway.  If you ever get rich enough, try Hokkaido in Japan or slopes on the eastern side of the Japan Alps north of Niigata.  Bloody brilliant but bloody cold with very chilly Siberian winds bringing the wind chill factor to way below -20C.  I'm looking at a wee trip to NZ next July/August.  Get good insurance wherever you go.

I was in Slovenia Skiing a few times.  stayed in a wee place called bled.  The slopes are about 20 mins away and the prices are very cheap.  there's the likes of Kranjska Gora, there's world cup skiing events there ever year.

bled itself is very cheap.  3 pints for €5 cant be bad

[Radda bout yeee]

Just booked Chalet Anna in La Plagne 1800 - anyone ever been to this are and if so whats it like?

[sans pessimism]

the way our winters are going we'll all be headid to a piste in Kerry!!!

[seafoid]

Tignes has some very nice slopes. We went to Sainte Foy  nearby and it's good for beginners.

I reckon the ski resorts will be offering good value this year with all the economic shenanigans going on.