02 November 2008

skiing in dolomites in january ...

i'm looking for a week's skiing in dolomites for a week from Saturday 17th January ...

Val Gardena seems like a good location - not too far from the airports, not too expensive a resort, in the heart of the Dolomites and with access to the Sella Ronda ...

to get there from London the best option seems to be the Ryanair flight to Bergamo (BGY) dep 15:50 and arr 18:45 for 39 gbp including the 12 gbp baggage charge ! the best flight back is from Brescia (VBS) dep 21:10 and arr 22:20 for 34 eur including the 15 eur baggage charge. there is a connecting bus service with return tickets for 29 eur.

there seems to be a good choice of bed and breakfast accommodation with prices from 200 euro for the 8 nights. so the total flights and accommodation from 250 gbp - a lot cheaper than package holidays, and an extra day of skiing !

a ski pass for the 7 days in Val Gardena is 191 eur, and for the full Dol0miti Superski area is only slightly more at 205 eur. "premium" ski and boot hire is available from Snow Rental for 138 eur.

so the total for the 7 days skiing would be 530 gbp plus drinking and eating money !

01 November 2008

skiing in dolomites in january - from dublin ...

i'm looking for a week's skiing in dolomites for a week from Saturday 17th January ...

Val Gardena seems like a good location - not too far from the airports, not too expensive a resort, in the heart of the Dolomites and with access to the Sella Ronda ...

the best flights seem to be with Ryanair to Bergamo (BGY) - outbound on saturday dep 07:40 and arr 11:20 with the inbound on sunday dep 11:00 and arr 12:45 for 93 eur including the 30 eur baggage charge. there is a connecting bus service with return tickets for 29 eur.

there seems to be a good choice of bed and breakfast accommodation with prices from 200 euro for the 8 nights. so the total for flights and accommodation from 322 eur - a lot cheaper than a package holiday, and you get an extra day's skiing !

a ski pass for the 7 days in Val Gardena is 191 eur, and for the full Dol0miti Superski area is only slightly more at 205 eur. premium ski and boot hire is available from Snow Rental for 138 eur.

so the total for the 7 days skiing would be 665 eur plus drinking and eating money !

17 August 2008

west of ireland for a long weekend ...

at slightly short notice, i decided to take a trip to the west of ireland for what was a bank holiday in the UK ...

my preferred routing was LGW - NOC with XL ... but the price was exhorbitant, at well over a hundred quid - i guess lots of people are scrambling to use the route before it is withdrawn in a few weeks time. flights from LUT or STD to NOC with Ryanair were also very expensive ... so it was back to skyscanner.net to find the best priced flight to DUB ...

i did even consider taking the train to Holyhead, and the ferry over to Dublin, but the timings were dreadful ... the latest afternoon sailing with Irish Ferries departs Holyhead at 17:15 and with Stena an even poorer 15:00 ... and the train connections don't help - there is a 12:45 departure from London Euston that frustratingly arrives into Holyhead at 17:20 ... so to catch the last afternoon ferry, it would be the 11:46 train from Euston ... which would mean taking a full day off work rather than just the afternoon.

on the return journey, i again considered taking the ferry option, but with engingeering works on the direct train routes, it would have meant a 7 hour journey with 3 changes ... and a 7am departure from the west of ireland ...

so it was back to the airlines, and again both XL and Ryanair were charging over 100 quid for the monday flights from NOC to London ... but I was prompted to look at flights from NOC to BRiStol ... and unbelievably, they were selling for just 24 euro [plus the 3rd world style 10 euro departure fee charged at the airport] which is a huge saving over a direct flight to London ... and luckily there aren't any engineering works on the line from Bristol to London.

thetrainline.com have singles from Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington for 21 gbp, charging 1 gbp for ticket delivery, or 0.50 gbp to collect the ticket from a machine at the station ... however First Great Western have the same priced tickets, but don't charge for collecting your ticket from the station ...

12 April 2008

last week of May at a beach club ...

i'm looking for a week in the sun departing london at the end of May to do some windsurfing, dinghy sailing and waterskiing ... preferably with some tennis and mountain biking thrown in !

i've enjoyed a couple of different Mark Warner resorts before ... and their best option for this week seems to be Abamar in Sardinia for 745 gbp per person ...

Sunsail's website is annoying, and it seems that their best price for the week is a whopping 940 gbp !

the best option with Club Med appears to be Kemer in Turkey, with the week costing 745 gbp ...

Neilson seems to have the best offer with a week at their Halkidiki resort in Greece costing around 600 gbp - which includes waterskiing, a try dive in the swimming pool, and group tennis lessons ...

if anybody knows of other companies providing beachclub type holidays - please post a comment and let me know !