I took the coach option as in my past coach journeys always been a good laugh, partying all the way straight to the resort without the hassle of flying.
So this is what I found:
I choose the coach from London but a week before the trip they emailed telling me that is was in Egham, which is outside the M25 and the London transport system and past Stains.
The pickup was in a car park of the local University couple of miles from the station.
So I had to take a train to waterloo, then up to Egham and then a take a taxi to the car park!
The coach turned up 2 hours late as it was coming from Preston. So we had to wait in freezing conditions with no facilities till then until it arrived at mid night!
The coach was packed with students to the last seat. Every snowboarding coach trip I took they leave seats empty for luggage.
Because it was full of passengers and the fact they did not in force luggage policy (specially at the time) there was not enough luggage space on the hold, so boards and skis had to be placed under the seats so you had to step on them while seated throughout the whole journey, and board bags where piled up on the corridor, involved climbing out to get out of the coach!
The coach had the smallest seats I have seen, I am small and even then my knees where butting against the seat in front of me!
In our case the coach did not take us to the resort, they dropped us off in Bourg-Saint-Maurice and we had to get the local bus to the resort!
Because the coach was late 2 hours we lost the last transfer so I had to pocket €80 to get us the local taxi up to the resort! They eventually refunded me on my credit card as they did not offer to refund me in euros in the resort.
The coach return day was 1 day early on Friday, even thought the package included the hotel and ski pass until Saturday. Because of the heavy snow we had to get to Bourg-Saint-Maurice 1pm on friday!
Of course I told to stick it and booked an easyjet flight from Geneva and bought a local transfer instead. No refunds where offered.
On the plus side they gave us an excellent accommodation upgrade in a self catered chalet flat part of a 4 star hotel bang in the center of Val d'Isère!
One note about the accommodation, we where 6 straight males and they had 2 twin rooms and 1 double room. In the outgoings email they mention 2 sofa beds in the living room but it turned out the room only had 2 normal sofas, but the staff on the hotel was very helpful and they placed a single bed there.
I must complement the staff in the hotel, they where extremely helpful.
We also had some issues with the internet in the flat but it was not the fault of the hotel, from what I gathered previous occupants managed to reset the router. Thanks Nick for fixing it
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Did outgoing just point you in a direction rather take you there
Perhaps it wasnt the best example of outgoings organisation by being late but good of them to refund you the €80 for the taxi :-)
@227angrydonkeys.. I hope you meant financially when you say times were tight back then..?
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Neil did quite a good video of the bash: http://youtu.be/vOzujkE2w5Y
I did take the coach before almost every year with Wasteland or SkiBus and they been very good, leaving from Victoria straight to the resort with enough spare space and so on, was a good laugh. SkiBus was particularly comfy last year even giving blankets and pillows in a half empty coach.
Of course the ski train is better if you can get it
Bartsimsonhead got a few videos on Facebook as well.
I haven't got around doing mine yet.
I flew there with no problems but the coach must be bad to have to fly back!
The lift passes wern't there on arrival but one phone call and it was sorted. There's a 10euro tourist tax to pay on arrival, although isn't a lot is a bit like the booking fee which is also extra.
The appartment was excellent, real fire, kitchen, tv, internet, like having our own chalet. I did have to leave my credit card to say it would be left as we found it otherwise they would charge me. Looks as though everyone washed up as I was one of the first to leave and havn't been charged 50euros for it not being done.
Shame there was too much snow and the mountain was closed for a few days but I guess that's as it was early season. A lot of nice pubs, clubs and restaurants there!
A small video I made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOzujkE2w5Y&list=UUTWDJ4dO2vpdEKzvyLxCOEQ&index=1&feature=plcp
Has anyone had any other dealings with outgoing?
Never googled outgoing as i thought that may be minor details that they are dealing with.
You also get what you pay for I suppose, not sure how much this trip cost, but at the same time, you should still expect good customer service.
But needs must!
Snow looked awsome in the vid/photos
I would know, I did a trip to Val D last week with my Uni... jeez. Never again.
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a trip or coach trip is what you make it .... it can be great fun or a total pain ....
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I did the coach to Laax once and we had to shed a few people as there wasn't enough room for the luggage and it's actually not legal to travel with bags in the passenger area, so you were "lucky". I ended up driving from Calais in a hire car as the three girls who had blagged a lift and who got thrown off didn't want to drive themselves. I did get the coach back and it was fine though. A few films and a pillow seemed to do the trick. The worst journey was in the back of the old SCUK van - no windows all the way to the Alps and back (twice) and so noisy we had to have the subtitles on the films!
I know resorts often have issues with transfers out when the snow comes in. We had similar issues in Tignes a few years back, when the coaches didn't leave enough time to get through the fresh snow/traffic and a few people missed flights. Luckily all covered by insurance, but still a pain.
I will follow the Early Bash up with Outgoing though, to make sure we're all properly catered for. Seems like once you got there it was all fine, apart from Mother Nature not quite playing ball.
1. We had to pay tourist tax separately (Mentioned by Neil) .
2. Nick's coaching information was not provided and outgoings could not provide any information regarding the coaching lessons, so it turned out that they started 9am the day after the arrival so he only found out about them after they started! Outgoings eventually refunded him.
1. We had to pay tourist tax separately (Mentioned by Neil) .
I'm going out to Les Arcs with Skiworld on 14th Jan and they said we have to pay tourist tax when we get there too. I can't say I remember ever having to do it before but it seems pretty standard nowadays.
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