Self catering or package?

[turtledovelove]

Sorry, me again with another inane question.

I'm trying to weigh up the cost difference between booking everything separately versus booking with say a company like Crystal Ski.

What are the pros and cons to either? I've only ever skied in France (Meribel & Chamrousse) so it naturally feels more familiar to book a French ski resort. Saying that though I am totally open to other areas, especially if they are more affordable.

Looking ahead to a family ski trip in 2024 and like the idea of a few home comforts, like at least a breakfast included, a pool/sauna perhaps. Transfers taken care of....that kind of thing. Those sorts of thing aren't a dealbreaker though.

However is it really worth the price or can you get just as good of a deal booking each element separately? We won't be able to spend thousands upon thousands therefore need to keep it as affordable as possible.

Any advice/experience would be much appreciated thank you.

Do you mean "DIY" i.e. booking the whole trip yourself (flight/transfer/hotel) or do you mean "self-catering" (flight/transfer/apartment or B&B)?

Package holidays such as Crystal (other operators are available!) can be excellent value, but come with the disadvantage of being relatively inflexible. They only go to a small selection of resorts, use only a small number of hotels and make their money by consolidating - so you arrive at the airport in France or Austria to find that you're waiting 2 hours for the delayed flight from Manchester, and then when your transfer coach finally leaves it takes 3 hours to do a one-hour journey because it has to drop off people and detour via another resort before getting you to your destination.

Thankfully DIY, whether in a hotel or a self-catering apartment, is relatively easy these days. Tourist offices have heaps of information about accommodation, ski schools, transfers etc. Booking a hotel or apartment in a ski resort, either directly or via a booking website, is as easy as booking accommodation in London or Edinburgh. There is also a very good site - snowheads.com - where a community of skiers can answer just about any and every question that you might have.

Is it worth it? This depends on what your priorities are. If you are trying to price up exactly the same trip that a Tour Operator also offers (e.g. flight, specific hotel, transfers) then you'll be hard pressed to match their price. The hotel might give you a nicer room or a better menu if you book direct, but the other elements are probably going to be hard to match.

If you are trying to build a trip to a specific resort, or to a resort that the TOs don't go to, or want to self-cater or stay in a B&B, then there might be savings to be made and/or you might get precisely what you're looking for rather than being restricted to the TO offering.

There is one final factor - Half Term. If you are restricted to February half term then whatever you choose is going to be expensive. Flights alone can end up costing £2,000 for 4 people (the same flights would probably be less than half that in other weeks).

@Havanananana thank you for taking the time to write such a helpful response.

Yes I meant DIY - sorry to confuse 🤦🏼‍♀️

Think I've come to the conclusion that we'll take the kiddies out of school for a week in March rather than face the inflated prices during school holidays.

The points you make about booking through a TO are all issues that have crossed my mind too. The waiting and painfully long transfers fill me with slight dread.

I will take a look at Snowheads. Thank you

We always book a DIY trip - I hate the package element of flying for the reasons mentioned (waiting for other flights and hanging around the airport plus coach transfer) but we do self-drive. You can book luxury self-catering apartments in most resorts, many with pools/saunas - the CGH residences seem to feature widely in France - but they are eye-wateringly expensive compared to a bog-standard flat booked through one of the residential agencies in the resort. Have a look at the resort website for list of apartments/residential agencies/hotels/ski schools: most will also have lists of taxi services for transfers as well but you need to book early for peak holiday weeks.

Would you consider self-drive, in which case Erna Low and Peak Retreats are worth a look (think you can book apartment only via both companies if flying, so not exclusively self-drive). Re: breakfast included, part of the holiday for me is strolling to the boulangerie in the morning to buy breakfast before hitting the slopes, but appreciate it's not what everyone wants when skiing .

Have a look at www.skiweekender.com.
You have to buy your own flights to Geneva but they do the rest - apart from ski gear hire. As it's small groups only going to the same place, you shouldn't be waiting long for your transfer.