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Originally Posted by GrilledSteezeSandwich  Serious stoke...I need to ski Europe sometime soon..
Where did you fly into and were things expensive over there? |
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Originally Posted by gladerider since my first trip there, the currency nearly tripled, overall price over in europe more than doubled so the trips out there is getting way out of affordability for me. but, you can alway time it well.
les trois vallee has i think more than 6 or 7 resorts so you need to choose wisely based on time of your trip, price, base elevation, etc. IIRC, val thorens and courchevel 1850 are nicer to stay but steep in price. other resorts are much more economical. during my second trip we stayed at courchevel 1850 and it was very nice and convenient, but pricy. they normally have 1 week packages.
you can fly into Geneva, which i think is the easiest. i flew into Paris > took the TGV to lyon > Moutier > bus to base of Courchevel, which is a day trip.
if you do head out there, you also want to do some research on off-piste skiing. check out couple of guides take you around. summit at Val Thorens is at 3200meters, which is over 10K feet and its glacier so if you don't know where you are going, you can really be in trouble. |
I flew in through Paris and rented a car to drive down, but that's only because we stopped to see the in-laws....I think flying into Paris and taking the train, or flying into Lyon or Geneva and taking a bus is probably the way to go (unless you're carrying all your gear, in which case renting a car and not having to move it from plane to train to bus might be preferable).
The euro/dollar exchange rate is rough, but at least lift ticket prices are really cheap in Europe. My 6-day pass was 220 euro, which works out to about 350 dollars. I couldn't track down Vail's pricing on its site, but I would be willing to bet it's more than $58/day.
Of course, food and lodging are another ballgame. Pretty steep prices, but I agree that if you do some hunting, you can find reasonably priced places.
GSS, considering your trip reports always detail what you eat and drink, I bet you'd be down with Euro skiing. There's a pretty good "quality of life" aspect to skiing in Europe that's missing from places like Jackson Hole (that's no diss of JH, just a comment that skiing in the Alps is different).