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Week End Ski Breaks - Skiing Holidays And Cake For Tea
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Cheap air fares are still cheap and more and more people in the UK are opting for week end ski breaks to tie in with their busy work schedules. There are several options with France being the most popular destination, travelling from London by either air to Geneva or overnight sleeper bus direct to the Three Valleys.
Week end ski breaks are the new ski travel package. Gone are the days when skiers had no choice but to book a holiday months before they wanted to go, plump for the Saturday to Saturday snarl up at Geneva Airport, and find there was no snow in their resort. Now it's freedom from Thursday to Monday, plenty of elbow room at the airport, and three days of power skiing, or maybe even powder skiing, in some of the world's best ski areas.
France especially has had a great start and is all set for a bumper season. Not only are the snow conditions superb but the airfares out of the UK are holding steady on last year in spite of rumoured oil price hikes. And skiers are not just coming out by air on short ski breaks. IgluSki are offering a three day ski break by sleeper bus, leaving London's Victoria station on a Thursday evening, three full days piste bashing in Meribel, and back on Saturday night for a mere £149 including bed and breakfast!
And believe me, the bus is a great way to get there with no check-in, no baggage reclaim or extra payments for skis. Take a couple of Nytol, and what I really like, wake up on Saturday morning to be greeted by the panorama of snow covered Alps as the bus cruises up through the valleys.
The flying option means less time travelling but is more expensive. Smart skiers who are doing week end ski breaks three or four times a winter park their kit in the resort, so they don't have baggage hassle. It's quite difficult to find early morning flights, so if you're not too worried about the expense, the best option is a Thursday lunch time flight that gets you from London to Geneva, with car hire at the airport and an evening arrival at a pre booked catered chalet within an hour or so of the airport.
Popular resorts are Morzine in the Portes du Soleil and Chamonix at a pinch. At least this way you can get a really good night's sleep, and draw back the curtains to reveal the pink tinged peaks as the sun rises. The best airport to fly out of around London is City Airport as there are no crowds, the baggage check-in is almost a pleasure and you don't have to worry about car parking. From here to Geneva both Swissair and BA do flights at around £100.
The catered chalet will cost anything from £60 to £80 a night half board, and some will even come and pick you up from Geneva for an extra charge. They may even include a ski guiding service - and there will certainly be cake for tea...
Go to our Short
Breaks page
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