{"id":1117,"date":"2014-12-08T23:49:14","date_gmt":"2014-12-08T22:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2016-10-31T10:47:32","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T09:47:32","slug":"cheap-luxury-chalet-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/cheap-luxury-chalet-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"How To >> “Savile Row skiing, Skid Row prices”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m\u00a0often asked, so here are\u00a0my Top 5 ways to get “Luxury ski holidays on the Cheap”:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Find\u00a0an exact<\/em> fit<\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The best way to keep the price down is to book a chalet which sleeps exactly<\/em> the number in your group.\u00a0 Under-occupancy costs can feel like wasted money, so get your numbers exact from the start of your chalet search.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How?\u00a0 Get everyone to give you their deposit at the start, <\/span><\/strong>before<\/span><\/b><\/em> you begin your search.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 It\u2019s depressingly common for the poor group organiser to spend a week finding the perfect 30 person ski pad, only for a third of those who were \u201cdefinitely in\u201d when you all talked it over in the pub, to say they can\u2019t (i) get time off work, (ii) afford it (iii) convince their partner, etc. when the time comes to pay\/book (meaning the group leader has to start their search all over again, for a 20<\/em> person chalet).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

NB:\u00a0 For the inevitable late-bookers (some people will\u00a0only commit when\u00a0they see all their mates are going) go for a \u201cchalet-hotel\u201d, so your main party can book together early and get their group discount, but the stragglers can still tag along later (although they\u2019ll pay a little more if not booking\u00a0with the group).<\/span><\/p>\n

More tips on organising a group here\u00a0 sno.co.uk\/ski\/group-ski-trip\/<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dakota<\/a>

<\/span> Dakota Lodge, Morzine<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

2. Do \u201cBaltic Bling\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It may not be the country you\u2019d\u00a0first\u00a0think of, but for really\u00a0cheap<\/em> 5-star ski holidays\u00a0go browse the Bulgarian hotel packages, where gems like the Winter Palace<\/a><\/span> in Borovets and the Premier Luxury Mountain Resort<\/a><\/span> in Bansko have the luxury bells and whistles, but with a \u201cHoliday Inn\u201d price tag.\u00a0 If your heart’s set on\u00a0the Alps, some up-market self-catering in France (see sno.co.uk\/cheap-ski\/cheap-luxury-ski-holidays\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>) will also give\u00a0the Balkans\u00a0a run for their money.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Winter<\/a>

<\/span> Winter Palace, Borovets<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

3. Go high<\/em>-end, but low<\/em>-season<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re flexible in terms of dates, you\u2019re probably in the best position for the luxury bargain-of-the-century.\u00a0 Chalet Marco Polo<\/a> <\/span>in Val d\u2019Isere competes among the very finest, for the title of the best ski chalet in the world (it did actually win the title of \u201cbest ski chalet in the France\u201d this year) and, while a week there is an eye watering \u00a35k per person during half-term (yes, that’s an \u00a380k booking for 1 week), you can stay there for only \u00a31k per person if you\u00a0book it for the end of January.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chalet<\/a>

<\/span> Chalet Marco Polo, Val d’Isere<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

4. If you must<\/em> do peak-dates, drive!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the hiked price during the school holiday dates like Xmas<\/a><\/u><\/span>, New Year<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Feb Half Term<\/span><\/a><\/span> and Easter<\/a><\/u><\/span> is down to the scarcity of flights.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t recommend waiting for a late deal on those Peak Dates dates but, if you can drive and you don\u2019t mind where you stay, there are often some great last minute ski deals to be had, which include the ferry for your car.<\/span><\/p>\n

How?\u00a0 On a last-minute<\/a><\/span> page like ours, change the Airport to either \u201cSelf-Drive\u201d, and in the Advanced search section choose Minimum Rating \u201cmin 4 star\u201d \u00a0and Accom-Type \u201cChalet\u201d to see some of the cheapest catered chalet ski holidays which are either luxury or almost luxury.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top tip:\u00a0 sort by \u201cStar Rating\u201d to see the 5 and 4.5 star chalets first.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"driving<\/a>

<\/span> Driving to the Alps<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

5. Take your own chalet boy\/girl<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Self-catering chalets can be unbelievably cheap, so <\/span>become your own tour operator<\/span><\/b>, by taking your own chalet host along for the trip.\u00a0 If anyone in your group knows someone who\u2019s “done a season” as a chalet host, they\u2019ll be able to easily put together a week\u2019s menu and shopping list.\u00a0 For the price of a spare bed and seat in the car down to the alps, they can be given a free ski holiday by you guys, in return for doing the cooking.\u00a0 Failing that, simply take it in turns to each cater for the rest of the group for one day in the week.\u00a0 If you drive there instead of fly, you can benefit from cheap supermarket food prices too (i.e. so you\u2019re not shopping up in resort, where even supermarkets are more expensive).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Examples of just how cheap it can be:\u00a0 sno.co.uk\/ski-chalets\/self-catering-ski-chalets\/<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/u><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"self<\/a>

<\/span> Book a self-catered luxury chalet<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

6. Upgrade Yourself!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This one might sound a little like cheating, but it’s my personal favourite because it puts you<\/em> in charge of where the extra money is spent. Basically you don’t book a luxury<\/em> ski chalet at all… You book a cheap<\/em> ski chalet but keep the extra budget aside, to stock it with all of your favourite treats<\/strong>. Have a basket from Fortnums <\/a><\/span>delivered before you arrive, so that your teas and biccies and chocs and phizz are exactly to your own taste!\u00a0 If each of your party is saving hundreds of pounds by booking a cheaper package, make sure each of you picks a different hamper from this mouth-watering list.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how high-end your catered chalet experience feels, when you breakfast like a king and lunch like a lord…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you compare e.g. booking a \u00a32k per person lux operator like Scott Dunn, with an \u00a3800 cheap catered chalet, you can even treat yourself to the latest Moncler <\/a><\/span>jacket, so you’ll look the part when opening up the hamper, and have something very groovy to wear home.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Fortnums<\/a>

<\/span> A Fortnums Hamper can make any chalet feel 5 Star<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Have\u00a0more tips for cheap luxury skiing?\u00a0\u00a0Tell us\u00a0in the comments and please do Share.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m\u00a0often asked, so here are\u00a0my Top 5 ways to get “Luxury ski holidays on the Cheap”: 1. Find\u00a0an exact fit The best way to keep the price down is to book a chalet which sleeps exactly the number in your group.\u00a0 Under-occupancy costs can feel like wasted money, so get your numbers exact from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ski-holidays","has-post-title","no-post-date","has-post-category","no-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5538,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/5538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}