Ski Bespoke Blog

Skiing peak periods

Written on January 8th, 2016
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When are you skiing, half term or Easter?

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Fabulous February Half Term Skiing

Our recommendations

Ischgl, Austria

Saalbach, Austria

St Christoph, Austria

Zurs, Austria

Courchevel 1850, France

Megeve, France

Meribel, France

Val d Isere, France

Val Thorens, France

Cervinia, Italy

Davos, Switzerland

Saas Fee, Switzerland

Verbier, Switzerland

Zermatt, Switzerland

 

Shhh Don’t Tell Anybody…

Berwang, Austria

Flachau, Austria

La Clusaz, France

Crans Montana, Switzerland

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Easter is a great time to ski, great snow and sunshine.

Our recommendations

Ischgl, Austria

Lech, Austria

Oberlech, Austria

Saalbach, Austria

St Christoph, Austria

Zurs, Austria

Courchevel 1850, France

Meribel, Easter

Val d Isere, France

Val Thorens, France

Cervinia, Italy

Verbier, Switzerland

Zermatt, Switzerland

 

As you can see there is still plenty of excellent possibilities for the peak ski weeks, so if you haven’t yet already booked your ski holiday call one of our specialists to discuss the options 01243 200 202

 

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Book now!

Written on January 8th, 2016
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Book Now!

There is still time to book for

February Half Term

Easter

 

Call us now for details 01243 200 202

 

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Boys will be boys…

Written on January 8th, 2016
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Boys will be boys!

Here is our guide to the perfect ski holidays for you gents.

Great snow, sunshine and skiing with friends, what more could you want…

 

Ski & Après

Raffls Tyrol Hotel, St Anton

Elisabeth, Ischgl

Madlein, Ischgl

Carlina, Meribel

W Hotel, Verbier

 

Ski & Spa

CHEDI, Andermatt

W Hotel, Verbier

Crans Ambassador, Crans Montana

Nira Alpina, St Mortiz

 

Steep & Deep

Hameau Albert 1er, Chamonix

CHEDI, Andermatt

Julen, Zermatt

Avenue Lodge, Val d Isere

Village Montana, Tignes

 

Classic Luxury

Hermitage, Cervinia

Barmes de l’Ours, Val d Isere

Almhof Scheider, Lech

Thurners Alpenhof, Zurs

 

Best skiing in the Alps

Kristberg, Lech

Raffls Tyrol Hotel, St Anton

Le Val Thorens, Val Thorens

 

Call one of our specialists to discuss the options 01243 200 202

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Girls just want to have fun…

Written on January 8th, 2016
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Girls just want to have fun…

Here is our guide to the perfect ski holidays for you ladies

Great snow, sunshine and skiing with friends, what more could you want…

 

Ski & Après

W Hotel, Verbier

Kalia, Meribel

Raffl’s Tyrol Hotel, St Anton

Barmes de l’Ours, Val d Isere

Private Hotel Grand Alpes, Courchevel 1850

Das Central, Solden

 

Ski & Spa

St. Hubertus, Cervinia

Au Coeur du Village, La Clusaz

CHEDI, Andermatt

W Hotel, Verbier

Crans Ambassador, Crans Montana

Alpaga, Megeve

 

Steep & Deep

Hameau Albert 1er, Chamonix

CHEDI, Andermatt

Mirabeau, Zermatt

Avenue Lodge, Val d Isere

 

Classic Luxury

Hermitage, Cervinia

Barmes de l’Ours, Val d Isere

Badrutts Palace, St Moritz

Zurserhof, Zurs

 

Best skiing in the Alps

Arlberg Hotel, Lech

Raffls Tyrol Hotel, St Anton

Koh I Nor, Val Thorens

Sivoliere, Courchevel 1850

 

Call one of our specialists to discuss the options 01243 200 202

 

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Where to ski with friends?

Written on January 8th, 2016
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Where to ski…

Here is our guide to the perfect ski breaks with friends, as they say girls just want to have fun and boys will be boys!

The best skiing with friends

Ski & Apres

St, Anton, Austria

Meribel, France

Val d Isere, France

Ischgl, Austria

 

Ski & Spa

Verbier, Switzerland

Andermatt, Switzerland

Crans Montana, Switzerland

La Clusaz, France

Megeve, France

 

Steep & Deep

Tignes, France

Val d Isere, France

Zermatt, Switzerland

Chamonix, France

Andermatt, Switzerland

 

Classic Luxury

Cervinia, Italy

Cortina, Italy

Lech, Austria

Zermatt, Switzerland

 

Best skiing in the Alps

Lech, Austria

Zermatt, Switzerland

Val d Isere, France

Val Thorens, France

St Anton, Austria

 

Please call and speak to one of our ski specialists for further details 01243 200 202

 

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Skiing Peak Periods

Written on September 10th, 2015
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Where to ski peak periods?

Christmas
The perfect winter wonderland
•    Verbier
•    Lech
•    Riederalp
•    Megeve
•    Saas Fee
•    Zermatt
•    La Clusaz
•    La Thuile

New Year
Fabulous New Year Celebrations
•    Verbier
•    Lech
•    St Anton
•    Ischgl
•    Val d Isere
•    Courchevel
•    Kitzbuhel

February Half Term
Superb family skiing
•    St Christoph
•    Zurs
•    Courchevel
•    Val d Isere
•    Kitzbuhel
•    La Thuile
•    Verbier

Easter
The perfect time to ski, great snow and lots of sunshine
•    Lech
•    Oberlech
•    Val d Isere
•    Val Thorens
•    Cervinia
•    Verbier
•    Zermatt

Specialists with over 40 years of combined expertise in providing a truly bespoke luxury ski experience whatever your holiday choice.

Less than 15 weeks until the start of the ski season!

Written on September 10th, 2015
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Only 15 weeks until the start of the ski season!

Peak dates – Peak ski dates include Christmas, New Year, February Half Term and Easter.
Please note if you are wishing to travel over these periods we would advise you contact us as soon as possible.

Full concierge service as standard – We offer a full in-house concierge service as standard with every booking, so whether you want to book ski lessons, an airport hotel or a restaurant reservation we would be happy to help. Again please remember that for peak periods we advise getting everything booked early to avoid disappoint. Please note that ski schools including ski school lessons and private instructors do get booked up early.

WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE EXCEL AT –

Our diverse selection of ski destinations range from world class ski resorts throughout North America and across Europe, to quiet family-focussed resorts.

Skiing holidays with friends – If you are looking for fabulous skiing with great après or a more relaxed holiday enjoying time to catch up with each other we have the perfect destination/hotel for you.

Family focussed holidays – If the children are happy that makes for a great skiing holiday – we know the best destinations for you.

Skiing holidays for couples – If you want to have a break from it all and just being able to enjoy each others company or to meet new friends who enjoy the same interest.

Short Breaks & Ski Weekends  – Whether you are looking for an extra trip during the season, a romantic break in the mountains, or a few days away with friends, we can suggest a resort that will cater for your needs. Many are within 1½ hours drive from the airport.

Ski & Spa – Maybe you will be travelling with someone who doesn’t share your enthusiasm for pounding the slopes, has a more relaxed attitude towards skiing or doesn’t even ski at all; we have a selection of hotels that offer the ultimate pampering experience.

Luxury Chalets – We have a selection of beautiful chalets to choose from.

Shhh don’t tell anybody resorts – We have added to our portfolio a selection of resorts and hotels that are widely unknown to the British market each having been chosen for having that little something extra.

Multi-centre holidays – Many destinations offer the opportunity for you to combine a ski holiday with a city break, some retail therapy, a cultural trip, a beach resort or even combine a bit of blackjack in Las Vegas. We would be delighted to discuss the various options.

Corporate – Our specialist team have experience in organising bespoke trips to meet specific needs and budgets for any size of group. It could be for a team building event, an incentive trip, or corporate hospitality. You may wish to consider a Heli or Cat skiing adventure in North America, or Skijoring in Europe, whatever your choice we can advise of the options available to you.

Heli skiing and Cat skiing – If you are considering the ultimate ‘powder experience’ we will help you find it. Many resorts offer the opportunity to realise these new challenges and we can organise through our partners some of the most exciting Heli and Cat skiing in the world.

WHY SKI BESPOKE

Specialists with over 40 years of combined expertise in providing a truly bespoke luxury ski experience whatever your holiday choice:

With military precision we can organise your family holiday, ski weekends, short breaks, honeymoons, Ski & Spa breaks, corporate trips. We also have access to a large portfolio of some of the finest chalets in the Alps.

Our exclusive concierge service comes as standard for every client, this can be anything from organising your child’s first ski lessons, or for the more adventurous; a heli skiing trip, mountain guides or just a dinner reservation at a sought after restaurant, spa reservations, and much much more… And this is just one example of what you can expect from a truly bespoke luxury holiday.

Never too early to think of snow

Written on July 7th, 2015
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The sun is shining, the summer is finally here and it is hard to think of snow or is it?

Here at Ski Bespoke we are busy preparing for next winter and we are always thinking of snow. We have put together for you the best resorts to spend Christmas & New Year, the ultimate resorts for a short break in January and the top ski & spa destinations.

Magical Christmas winter wonderlands

  • Megeve
  • La Clusaz
  • Riederalp
  • St Luc
  • Berwang
  • Grossarl

New Year skiing with friends

  • Val d Isere
  • Meribel
  • St Anton
  • Ischgl
  • Kitzbuhel
  • Verbier

The ultimate ski weekend in January

  • La Thuile
  • Crans Montana
  • Verbier
  • Gaschurn
  • Kitzbühel
  • St Anton

Our best ski & spa destinations

  • W, Verbier
  • Crans Ambassador, Crans Montana
  • Chedi, Andermatt
  • Alpaga, Megeve
  • Au Coeur du Village, La Clusaz
  • Singer Sporthotel, Berwang

Travel options –Ski Bespoke can arrange all of your travel requirements for your ski holiday, whether that is a private jet from the UK, helicopter transfers to your resort, private taxi transfers, car hire or even self-drive. Your dedicated travel consultant will be happy to arrange this for you.

Changes to car hire – Introduction of Paperless Driving Licences: Did you know that on Monday 8th June this year , UK Driving Licences turned paperless?  Don’t be caught as the new law could affect you if you’re planning to hire a car as part of your holiday. The paper counterpart will be replaced by an on-line data base that the government hope will reduce red tape, and drivers will need an on-line code from the DVLA, which the hire companies use to check the data base.

While you may not miss the paper counterpart, which often goes missing and requires a charge for replacing lost ones, motoring organisations are warning that the new rules could cause confusion, resulting in long delays while collecting a hire car.

Teething problems over the new system this summer are a real concern as many hire companies could be unaware of the changes – particularly those abroad. The AA is advising drivers to ignore official instructions to destroy their paper counterparts and instead hang on to them to show a hire company that they can legally drive.

We recommend that you check with your car hire confirmation to see what documents or information they will be asking for. You will need to generate your check code, which is supplied free of charge by the DVLA, up to 72 hours before collection, and gives the company 72 hours access to the driver’s online record of entitlements, offences, endorsements and penalty points.

Skiing for the first time

Written on May 5th, 2015
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We ran a competition to win a ski holiday with local magazine ETC. Our lucky winner Abbi Penn kindly wrote a blog about her FIRST ski experience.

Crans Montana: Chocolate, Cheese and Skis – Abbi Penn

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Where do you send someone with no balance, a love of food and the ability to be cold in the height of summer?

To the mountains of Switzerland of course!

Luck
You know when you see a competition and instantly think oh I’d love to do that, but I’ll never win? You still enter, but people don’t really win those things do they? Well, I recently won a skiing holiday to Crans Montana, Switzerland with Etc Magazine and Ski Bespoke – not unaccustomed to the occasional prank call from my brother, no, I didn’t believe them when I heard either.

As I experienced a wide range of emotions from excitement all the way through to sheer terror, I eagerly began to plan the trip, booking holiday and calling my friend (buying ski jackets could wait until 24 hours before I flew…obviously!).

Ski Bespoke were incredible and Lesley was quick to get in touch, organising everything for my friend and I to head over to Switzerland for a four-day break – even detailed instructions for using the trains and transfers (thank goodness!).

The Journey
Swiss Air carried us from London Heathrow to Geneva (tip: fly them just for the free Swiss chocolate that they hand out) and the train station was practically on the runway. We boarded a train and settled in to watch the incredible views of Lake Geneva slide past the window feeling incredibly continental with our fizzy strawberry laces.

After a couple of hours (and a quick glimpse of Mont Blanc) we arrived at Sierre, from where we took the funicular up to our final destination.

Scenery
When you head into the mountains, you have a vague idea of what to expect. Crans Montana takes that idea and makes that look like a stick man sketch of a Disney princess. The views were breath-taking. It took everything I had not to source a long dress, cut my hair and burst into a rousing rendition of the hills are alive with the sound music… as performed by a bag of strangled cats.

Now you can see why, according to Wikipedia, Roger Moore and Michel Roux have homes there and Sophia Loren used to have an apartment above the golf course, right?

Accommodation
You know the images of Switzerland showing snow, chocolate and wooden lodges capped in snow? Well that’s pretty much where we stayed. We checked in at the Helvetia Intergolf Apart-Hotel, not far from the slopes or the station.

The hotel staff were wonderful and very welcoming. We were picked up from the station, swiftly checked in with a brief tour and then we got to the room which was perfect – modern, clean and spacious with floor-to-ceiling windows, a balcony and a stunning view! Bags dropped, we set off to hire our gear which they delivered to the hotel for us (each room has a ski locker allocated next to reception) and having had a long day, we found a bar to chill with an Aperol Spritz and let the realisation that we were in Switzerland wash over us.

Skiing
The trip to Crans Montana was my first trip to Switzerland and my first ever time skiing – I had given snowboarding a go previously, but the last trip ended in a broken elbow, so my hopes were high that maybe I was a better skier. That didn’t stop me making sure I was insured to the eyeballs though.

The next day it was time. Frightened, shaking and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I fumbled my skis into the cable car (those were designed to separate the wheat from the chaff!) and headed up to the kids’ area.

Remember that scene with Bambi on ice, legs going everywhere before he ends in a big heap? I couldn’t get that out of my head as I gingerly slid my feet back and forth, slowing carving my way down towards the mountain in the manner of a hacksaw rather than forward. And in the scenario where I was Bambi, my teacher, Ricardo, was my Thumper, trying to prop me up. Credit to him, he did manage to talk me into going higher and higher on the training slope.

The snow was a bit icy on day one and the locals said that the winter for Crans Montana has been a bit shorter this year with not as much fresh snow (peak time to go is Jan-Feb apparently) and it seems that icy slush isn’t good to learn on. But the heavens smiled on us and on day two the snow fell overnight to create a much more learner-friendly layer of powder.

We spent most of our time going up and down the training slope painfully slowly as I started to get to grips with snow ploughs and the idea that everyone else on the slope wasn’t out to get me (the slopes appear to be overrun with 4-year-old pole-less ski prodigies intent on wiping out the ineffective skiers). That didn’t mean we couldn’t dream big though and on the second day we got the cable car up to the top of a black run…

…where we made a snowman (and tried not to sing Do You Want To Build a Snowman?).

Once we had exhausted ourselves on the slopes for the day, we had a quick bite to eat on the mountain before heading back to the hotel and spending lazy afternoons in the pool and sauna with amazing views out the window to accompany us. Yes, it’s a hard life.

Food
Kate Moss once said “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” which makes me wonder: has Kate ever been to Switzerland?

Any country who boasts melted cheese as one of their culinary masterpieces has my vote and my allegiance. Within 6 hours of arriving in Switzerland we had an Aperol Spritz in hand and a pot of fondue bubbling away in front of us.

But cheese isn’t the only thing on the menu. As an incentive to keep skiing, my friend told me that night two would feature a Chateaubriand (aka the best steak you’ll ever eat) accompanied by a bottle of the local wine – she knows me well! I was impressed that the wine came in bottle sizes that two people can drink without feeling like alcoholics.

Now, given our penchant for all things Italian and our proximity to the border, night three was dedicated to the nation that gave us pizza, pasta and Parmigiano. We headed to Le Farinet in town and had an incredible three course meal that was topped off with a Limoncello (it was definitely good quality as it didn’t taste like antifreeze).

Results
When we left to go to Switzerland, we went feeling a bit frazzled, scared and unsure what was to come (hospital visits?) and came back totally relaxed and absolutely delighted (with no broken bones). Skiing gives you a warm buzz of exhaustion that makes you deliriously happy and now that the bruises from the boots have faded I can safely say that I’ll be going back again, but first I need to hit the gym up to work out all these muscles I’ve found that I didn’t know I had…

Still time to ski

Written on March 13th, 2015
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The end of the ski season is looming but with such excellent snow conditions it would be a shame not to take advantage of them. With only 21 days until Easter there is still plenty of availability in world class resorts and stunning hotels. So whether you want family fun, a romantic getaway, skiing with friends or something a little bit special now is the time to book, before it is too late!

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The following resorts have availability for Easter

Austria

  • Hotel Fernischt, Lech
  • Kristberg, Lech
  • Thurners Alpenhof, Zurs
  • Hotel Maisensee, St. Christoph
  • Hotel Arlberg Hospiz, Ct. Christoph
  • Hotel Arlberghohe, St. Christoph
  • Best Western Kaiserhof, Kitzbuhel
  • Eva, Saalbach
  • Saalbacherhof, Saalbach

France

  • Le Val Thorens, Val Thorens
  • Hotel Fitz Roy, Val Thorens
  • Des Trois Vallees, Courchevel 1850
  • Le Portetta, Courchevel 1650
  • Le Savoy, Meribel
  • Les Barmes de l’Ours, Val d Isere

Switzerland

  • W, Verbier
  • Cordee, Verbier
  • Julen, Zermatt
  • Daniela, Zermatt
  • Alpenhof, Zermatt
  • Schloss Alex, Zermatt
  • Alex, Zermatt

Ski Weekends – Don’t forget this time of year is perfect for a ski weekend. So ski now or even into May as there is a selection of resorts staying open. There are some exceptional offers to take advantage of. Contact us as we would be delighted to help 01243 200 202

Resorts perfect for ski weekends

  • Davos, Switzerland
  • Klosters, Switzerland
  • Verbier, Switzerland
  • Chamonix, France
  • Megeve, France
  • La Clusaz, France
  • Kitzbuhel
  • Ischgl
  • Lech/St Anton, Austria

Book now for next winter ski season 2015/2016 – We are already taking bookings for next winter, with flights released for Christmas, New Year and February Half Term.

 Summer Holidays – It is never too early to look ahead to the summer with thoughts of lots of lovely sunshine, we can help you find the perfect summer break. Whether you are looking for a luxury villa, fabulous family fun, a relaxing spa break or exploring the mountains we will be able to help.

Call us now to discuss your options 01243 200 202

Testimonial

“We had a fantastic time thank you! The W Verbier was amazing.”

Get in touch

Tel: 01243 200 202
Email: sales@skibespoke.com

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