Never been skiing but need to organise for 10

[Thisismyusernamefornow]

A group of us are looking for a resort for January 2020.

Mixed abilities although believe majority are complete beginners. Age group 30-40!

Where do we start?

Hotel vs Chalet?

Somewhere fun and lively?

Please can anybody advise!

Thank you in advance.

Wow - thanks for such an enthusiastic response. This is all really interesting and I'm very excited.

I am thinking minimum of 4 nights.

It will be mainly singles but potential for couples.

If we book a chalet, I guess people could tag along at a nearby hotel if they decide to come along later.

I want to provide people with an idea of cost but I think our budget will be £1.5 k

Thanks again

I completely disagree about Val. There is a great bowl of greens on Bellevarde and lovely blues in the Madeleine area on Solaise. I skied as a beginner/ish there and was very happy with all sorts to do. Just download in the gondola which beginners won’t mind! It also has a chair on the village nursery slope which saves keep going up a drag. The only thing is if you are going early in season the transfer is hugely long and as beginners won’t need all that skiing then you could probably have just as much fun and spend less elsewhere. Fun place though.
I would absolutely second the advice about using an agent. I still use an agent (I like ski solutions who will put something all together for you exactly to spec). Even though I’ve been many times.

I would also say go for a week. Four nights will probably only give you 3 days skiing and the cost differential won’t be huge once you are there. If you were experienced and packing loads of skiing into a short break it’s a bit different but with beginners there will be a lot of faffing around in the first day or two!

Go high for more reliable snow

Definitely go for a week. A week package will give 6 potential days skiing: day 1 will be taken up with faffing around sorting out ski hire, lift passes, lessons etc (unless your agent prebooks all of this for you too ) and there will be a day in the week when the weather is bad/everyone is tired etc. A week will not cost you much more than 4 days either. And most packages are a week (but you can get shorter ones.)

I'd second Backinthebox's suggestion & go for Austria over France. Eating/ drinking tends to be cheaper, the apres ski is better & in my experience the ski tuition is streets ahead of France - too many bad experiences with Ecole Ski de France teachers being more intersted in posing on the slopes rather than doing any actual teaching!

Using one of the package agents will definitely work out best as well as you can just give them your budget & they'll do the rest - if you've never skiied before, working out which resort has the best setup for beginners can be hard without worrying about ski passes/ ski hire/ transfers etc.
Hope you enjoy your first ski holiday though!

For beginners and if all inclusive would be preferable(or you can do various board options), somewhere like Princesa Parc in Arinsal Andorra. Cheaper than most of the Alps resorts, good place for beginners, the hotel is pretty decent and has spa facilities also if it's all adults and only a short walk to more bars and restaurants if you want something more in the evening.

Ski passes are cheap, the ski school is English speaking with excellent instructors.

If you don't want to DIY, the likes of Crystal and Neilson offer it also. Probably would be sub £1k per person or thereabouts (quick DIY gave me £531 for weeks all inclusive pp, £80 a flight including baggage(used Gatwick), transfer £86, 6 day pass/lessons/ski boots/skis/helmet hire £305) works out at £1k per person almost exactly for the week

Hi,

There are definitely some all inclusive hotels in the Alps which would suit your group.
You would be looking at about £1300pp
This would include:
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Open Bar :-)
Lift Passes
Ski School or Ski guiding
Ski Hire
Flights and Transfers
La Plagne is a really nice resort and good for beginners as the runs are wide.

day 1 will be taken up with faffing around sorting out ski hire, lift passes, lessons etc

It’s really easy to sort out a guide (though ESF in the French ski resort you are going to) and lift passes (online) ahead of arrival in the resort, and it’s infinitely preferable to do so. Ski and boot hire doesn’t take long, and you can do this on arrival if you get to the resort by 3 or 4pm.

MariaNovella are you on commission for ESF Guides? If there is one thing that has put me off booking a holiday where we need instruction for some of the group in recent years (and let’s face it, the OP’s group will need an instructor, not a guide) it’s been ESF. Last week when I was in France it was the Parisian holidays so lots of kids, and the largest number of small kids in one group I counted was 23. That’s not a plus, it’s a liability. I’d recommend ANY ski school anywhere in Europe before ESF. I also qualified my ‘...1st day faffing...’ comment with the recommendation to book it all in advance through an agent.

Club med!
Honestly the best thing you can do for a group that needs tution and wants a fun time
The price (which will start at around £1200) includes
BA flights, private minibus transfers, hotel room, all your meals, snacks and drinks, lift pass and lessons

We normally do chalet holidays but Club med are extraordinarily good value. You don’t spend a single penny once you’re in the resort
The food and drink is top class

We went to Samoen this year, which is their new hotel, and they are opening a new one in alpe d’huez in dec 19 which is probably worth looking at

And absolutely don’t go to Val D’isere
It’s a terrible resort for beginners because all the runs back home are steep and crowded

There are few worse things after tired legs than having a treacherous run to get back and have a drink

Beginners can take the gondola down...

The very best ski instructors in the Alps are in Val d’Isere. If you want to learn to ski (as opposed to lying round drinking mulled wine or shopping) there are very good reasons for going to Val d’Isere. No one has to ski back down to the resort if they are tired - the lift network is brilliant.

I’m just back from a similar trip. We were a group of 10 beginners, a mix of adults and kids. We spent a week in La Thuile in the Italian alps at a great ski in ski out hotel called Hotel Planibel. We were half board, the food was amazing and we ate like kings every morning and night. We mostly lunched up the mountain part way through the day. We had an amazing time and are planning to go back next year.

If you're only going for 4 days then don't go somewhere with a long transfer (Val d'Isere is 2.5 - 3 hours from Geneva, for instance). So if it's a short break that you're after I would go somewhere with a short transfer (Grand Massif area, Les Gets/Morzine, etc). Any decent sized resort will have nursery slopes and greens/blues to progress to.

If you're all singles then would you be prepared to share? If not, then you'll need a huge chalet, so hotel might be better and Jan is low season if you go once the schools are back (i.e. second week onwards).

Is the £1.5k each or total budget? If the latter, then you won't get much for that.

The very best ski instructors in the Alps are in Val d’Isere

Are they bollocks!
There is barely a hairs difference between the ski schools in any of the main resorts
A lot of people aren’t huge fans of ESF, so find somewhere with NewGen or Evo2, which are both excellent in every resort

There are better instructors for elite instructors in Val because it’s on the World Cup circuit and has a history of ski racing
Not a single one of those instructors will be coming anywhere near a group of adult beginners!

tenbob - outside the French school holidays (which is what the OP is after all considering) it is quite easy to get a really fantastic instructor. Not necessarily very young, but that doesn’t matter at all for beginners.

Maria, that is true of any resort in France

Teaching adult beginners is the grunt work that the best instructors avoid in favour of teaching advanced adults

Trekking all the way to Val as a group of beginners for the quality of instruction is like telling a leaner driver from Manchester to get instruction in surrey because it’s where the f1 team instructors work

No it’s not. Different sorts of instructors congregate in different sorts of resorts, according to the clientele.

Obviously if the OP doesn’t much care about learning to ski, it doesn’t matter where she goes.

We will have to agree to disagree then

I’ve never known any resort not have a great selection of instructors for beginners and intermediates. You’ll have a couple of duffs and stars everywhere depending on what mood everyone is in

You wouldn’t want to do your race training in some resorts but this isn’t up for discussion here

All our DC learned to ski in Val d’Isere - DH has very high standards in skiing - and the instructors were just excellent

Ask crystal
Inghams etc if they do a one free place for more than 10 people...
Inghams does group bookings call then for a quote and advice

tenbob , Defiantly Club Med is the way to go. :-)