Tours de Sport valued their costumers and wants to offer a
ski vacation trip they truly deserved! The company has come up with the best ten ski trip tips and advise to their dearly costumers to give them a
ski vacation without sacrificing the quality of the experience. Here are the first 5:
1. Don't go it alone. Get unbiased opinions and a volume discount.
The arrival of the Internet age has been both a boon and a
scourge to the intrepid ski vacationer trying to find the best deal on a
trip. While an unprecedented amount of information is available at the
click of the mouse button, the process of trying to wade through and
interpret all that is out there can be a thankless and maddening task.
Our suggestion is to make the Internet your friend in the process, not a
foe.
Work with a reputable tour operator that will:
a) Take the time to learn about your individual needs and give you honest assessments and recommendations for multiple resorts.
Do you really think the folks at Acme Ski Resort are going to tell you
that you would have a much better time at Amalgamated Mountain? Didn't
think so. Like a insurance broker, tour ops are not beholden to any one
company, or in this case, resort. They are free to make sure you end up
at resort that ensures you will have a memorable ski vacation. And, if
that resort happens to be one that they don't offer, they will point you
in the right direction.
b) Give you first-hand knowledge and insights from a
staff that has spent time on the mountains, seen the lodging
properties, and knows what is going on in the resort communities.
They will know which resorts offer kids ski free programs, where the
best nightlife can be found, and who has the longest intermediate
cruisers. This is stuff you should not have to waste your own time
finding by aimlessly surfing the web.
c) Most importantly, be able to offer discounts
that you would not otherwise get by setting up each component of your
trip by yourself. Tour ops normally send thousands of skiers each
season to the resorts they offer, and in turn the resorts and their
respective lodging communities give discounts for the volume that the
operator sends their way. These savings can then get passed on, and it's
a win-win situation for everyone.
2. Why fly when you can drive?
It's inescapable. When you consider any trip that
involves getting on an airplane, your transportation costs, in most
cases, will approach 30-40% of the total cost of your trip. Even with
gasoline at $3.50 per gallon, a tank or two of gas in each direction to
get your chosen ski resort will cost you way less than the $300 or
higher per person airfare, plus a rental car (which also uses that $3.50
per gallon gas) or ground transfers. Now listen, we are not trying to
talk you out of that dream trip to Park City or Sun Valley, but the
reality is that you can stretch your vacation budget a lot further by
hitting the interstate rather than the satellite parking lot at the
airport. Not to mention that you should pretty much be asking for the
seat next to you for your bags based on what the airlines charge for
them now. Another consideration is time. Unless your destination is more
than five hours from home, it will take you less time to drive.
3. Stay away from the Holidays.
This can be a difficult proposition if this is a family
trip, and the kids are only off from school during the December and/or
February break weeks. The cold reality however, is that those yield
managers know that you and a few hundred thousand other families are in
the same boat. Consequently, during the December and February school
break periods
rates are the highest that they get for
the entire ski season. Interestingly, our friends in Canada get a bit of
a break with their March break weeks as each province may have
different dates off during a given year. Now we don't advocate taking
your kids out of school to go skiing, but one trick we have seen lots of
families use is to pick a weekend where the kids may have a Friday or
Monday off for teacher planning or end or marking period, and then take
one extra day, and voila, a 4 night ski trip is born. Another option is
to take two or three long weekend trips, instead of one long week. In
fact, that idea merits its own number! Perhaps in our next list.
4. Book widweek vs. weekend.
Lodging and lift ticket rates are not calculated all that
differently than airfares. Resorts even have yield managers just like
airlines. It's all about DEMAND. When do people ski and board? Weekends
and Holidays mostly, and everyone knows this. To incent resort guests to
add a midweek night or two to a weekend stay, resorts usually set
midweek rates anywhere from 20-30% lower than weekend rates. What they
really love is for you to come and stay for 3-5 nights in the middle of
the week. Many lodging properties will give really nice discounts and in
some cases a free night when you go this route. Of course, the other
benefit of midweek travel is the utter lack of crowds. So, on the hill
during non-Holiday midweeks, it's you, your little family or group of
friends, the locals who have taken the day off, and the few other savvy
travelers who know that midweek is where it's at!
5. The further away the bed is fomr the slopes, the cheaper the rate.
This is a truism that is valid from Chamonix to
Killington to Vail to Whistler to Nagano. If you can ski up to your
door, you will pay for the privilege. What is surprising is how few ski
vacationers realize this fact. There are many instances where a
condominium that is less than a 200 yard walk to a lift will be over
$100 less a night than one located on a ski trail, and one that is a
mile away on a resort shuttle stop may be over $200-250 a night less
during high season. Bottom line here is to evaluate how important being
ski-in/ski-out really is to you. If you have small kids and you don't
want to be schlepping equipment back and forth to the hill each day,
then maybe it makes sense for you. Then again, there is also this
wonderful little thing called “overnight ski storage”, but I digress.
Read the next top list in the link: Money Savers Ski Vacation Trip Tips
HAVE A GREAT WINTER SEASON EVERYONE!!!!
