Top tips for planning a group ski holiday

Following on from Liz’s skiing tips for holidays with children here’s a guide for those of you tasked with planning a group skiing holiday.  It’s not easy trying to please everyone but if you follow these simple tips you’ll have a much better chance of having a great holiday.

Resort choice

1.Make sure you’re aware of the ability levels of those you’re going with. If you’ve got beginners you’ll need to make sure you go to a resort that has a good number of blues and greens and similiarly if you’ve got lots of experts (or people who think they’re experts!) in the group you’ll need to make sure the resort you pick has enough challenging runs to keep them occupied for the week.

2. Check whether anyone has a fear of cable cars! In some of the smaller resorts the only way up to the pistes is via a cable car, and if, like us, one person in your group wont step foot inside a cable car then they’re going to have a pretty miserable week. We also have a friend that won’t use chair lifts, although that is a pretty extreme case and I don’t imagine there are many people out there like him, and so it’s important we pick a resort that has a few drag lifts on the lower slopes to keep him happy.

Accommodation

3. Be aware of your budget… Make sure you have a rough idea of how much people are prepared to pay for the holiday. This will make it a lot easier when you start searching for holidays and will heavily influence what kind of accommodation you can stay in.

4. Check the room layouts. If you’re a group of 4 couples then 2 rooms with 2 sets of bunk beds in each probably isn’t going to work! Also if you choose to go self catering and stay in an apartment then just check whether all the beds are in bedrooms or if 2 unlucky people will be expected to sleep in the lounge.

5. Location, location, location! If you’re the kind of group that like your apres-ski then your friends will probably be less than impressed if they arrive at the accommodation you’ve chosen only to find it’s half an hours walk from the nearest bar! Before you book it’s really worth checking exactly where the accommodation is located in resort so that there are no suprises when you arrive.

Booking

4. Think carefully about whether you want to book everything independently or through a holiday company. Booking your travel and accomodation independently can save you a few pounds but it can also heap a whole load of stress onto the person coordinating the holiday.  If you book through a holiday company they’ll do a lot of the hard work for you – this is especially useful if you have some people that want to travel by car, some that want to fly and some that want to go by train! Also, if you book independently more often than not one person will have to fork out for the travel/accommodation up front, resulting in days spent chasing up your friends trying to get them to pay you back, whereas if you use a good holiday company they will let each person phone up individually to pay their share.

5. Check out the group discounts. Many companies offer discounts for big groups and some of these can lead to big savings.  For example Crystal are currently offering up to 1 free place for every 5 people, and you can either choose to take the free place yourself as a nice reward for being the one that’s planned the holiday or you can share the savings out across the group so that you all benefit (I’d recommend the second option if you want to stay friends with the people you’re going with!)

When you’re there

6. Walkie-talkies! With the astronomic prices that companies charge to use your mobile abroad it’s a great idea to take walkie-talkies with you. You also get the added bonus of spending hours choosing call-names for everyone!