A group holiday with friends and family can be great fun, and an experience that you’ll want to repeat year after year. But co-ordinating a big group can be hard work, so we’ve come up with our 10 top tips to make it easier . . ..
1. Before you choose a holiday the most important thing is to get everyone to agree what they’re looking for. Are you going catered or self catered? Are you flying, driving or taking the train? What is your maximum budget? It is also good to get an idea of the sort of things that are important to people – do they want a sauna? would they like to be ski-in ski-out? is the resort choice important?
2. Once you’ve chosen where you’re going it’s important to get people to commit. Either take a deposit from everyone, or ask them to pay it directly to the chalet. If you need a certain number of people to make a booking viable, it’s worth putting the property on hold for a couple of days whilst you collect deposits to make sure that you have enough confirmed skiiers.
3. Check that you have all the information that you need from the group. You’ll need to know their full names, what sort of rooms they want, whether they are a vegetarian or have any strong food dislikes, and if they want to book any extras before they arrive.
4. Make sure that everyone has all the information that they need before they go. Give them a contact number for the chalet, travel details and information about what has been booked. If the group don’t all know each other, it’s helpful to pass round phone number too if you are meeting up en-route.
5. Book lift passes and ski hire in advance to make the first morning easier. At Ice and Fire we can arrange in-chalet ski fitting for when you arrive, and pre-book your lift passes so that they are waiting in the chalet for you. Just let us know what you would like . .
6. Discuss ski school together before you book. If you’re all at different levels, group lessons might be the best option, whilst if there are a few of you who are all the same standard, a shared private lessons can work out well. If a lot of you want private tuition, you could rent an instructor for the week and split the cost, and the time, between you.
7. If you’re travelling with children it’s worth setting some ground rules when you arrive. If they’re all the same age, it’s easier if the same bed times etc apply to everyone. It is more fun for the children if they can all eat together, so either book an earlier kids tea, or have everyone eat at the same time.
8. Remember that with a big group, doing everything together will be hard. If people ski at different speeds and abilities, why not split into groups for skiing and then meet together for lunch or apres ski drinks? You chalet staff can suggest some good restaurants and drinks stops for you so just ask.
9. If you are staying in a catered chalet, your hosts will have one night off during the week and you’ll need to decide whether to eat out together or separately. If you are a big group and you’re all going to want to go out for dinner, it’s worth booking this in advance, especially on peak weeks. The other alternative, which works well with kids in the group, is to order in takeaway pizzas and eat in the chalet.
10. Groups ski trips are great fun so relax, and have a great holiday!
Check out the Ice and Fire early bird prices for our significant discounts for whole chalet bookings.
