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Costs of skiing overseas compared to Japan


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I'm out of touch with things overseas, my riding snow career being based mainly in Japan.

 

Thinking of doing an overseas trip though next season, not sure where.

 

Anyone give us the heads up on where might be good value or best value, etc.

 

I suppose if Japan had cheap travel it would be really good value right.

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in most french resorts you pay about 24,000yen for a week ticket. or usually about 6000y for a day pass. you can get cheap accomodation if you stay in places called 'pierre et vacances' which is a massive hotel chain all over the french alps. you can also bung loads of extra people in the room. otherwise you can stay in various hostels for 4000yen or thereabouts. food in france is quite a bit more expensive than here but way better. also, go to somewhere like the 3 valleys, les arcs, chamonix, tignes, val d'isere and the terrain will blow you away, if you've done most of your riding over here in japan that is. the thing with large french resorts is that they hike the prices up during the holidays, a lot, so definitely check out when they are and avoid them. unless you want to hang out with shed loads of chain-smoking parisians who actually wear blinkers when they ski.

going to italy, you can get decent terrain for a fair bit cheaper than france.

damn i miss the alps...

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Frankly if you know where to go, then Japan is cheaper than many other places (yes). Terrain is not the best, mostly geared for beginners / intermediates but no other place I have been to beats Japan for the amounts of snow.

 

My definition of heaven would be french terrain with japanese snow eek.gif :rolleyes: ... Let's pause and think in awe about that one for a couple of minutes.

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For 24,000 Yen you can get an apartment for a week including liftticket in the French Alpes.

 

If you go to "smaller", but still a lot bigger than most Japanese, resorts is can be even a lot cheaper. The cheapest i just saw was 48 Euros (7500 yen) for a week apartment + liftticket.

 

But the amount snow here in Japan is just incredible.

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'My definition of heaven would be french terrain with japanese snow'

 

roger that SerreChe. i have been saying that so much since i've been here. i think it's going to be a big shock when i head back to The Alps!

 

'For 24,000 Yen you can get an apartment for a week including liftticket in the French Alpes'

 

Sanno - where the hell are these places?

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ValTho! "Chalet Les Balcons de Val Thorens" 23 April. These are great apartment much, much better than the average French apartment.

 

Off course not during Christams, but at the beginning and end of the season.

My friends were there last May and they got 2 feet of fresh light powder. So you can get lucky even outside the normal season.

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NZ is the same price as Japan if you get the day tickets at the time.

 

However get the season pass before 10th march (online) and you could pay only 199NZ dollars (about 15000yen) for a weekday season pass at Mt Hutt. i.e. about the cost of 2days normally.

 

Get in!

 

Maybe i should get a job for NZsnow

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Sanno:
For 24,000 Yen you can get an apartment for a week including liftticket in the French Alpes.

If you go to "smaller", but still a lot bigger than most Japanese, resorts is can be even a lot cheaper. The cheapest i just saw was 48 Euros (7500 yen) for a week apartment + liftticket.

But the amount snow here in Japan is just incredible.
Sanno where was that? What site were you looking at? Sounds pretty sweet and cheap.
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 Quote:
NZ is the same price as Japan if you get the day tickets at the time.
hold on a minute - $89 (6756yen) for a TC pass is NOT the same price as Japan 4200 (55.23) for a GETO pass.

and an early TC pass for $999 (44000yen) is more expensive (slightly) than 42000yen here.
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 Quote:
Originally posted by SerreChe:

My definition of heaven would be french terrain with japanese snow eek.gif :rolleyes: ... Let's pause and think in awe about that one for a couple of minutes.
That would kind of be like Alaska or coast range BC.
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 Quote:
Originally posted by Captain Stag:
 Quote:
NZ is the same price as Japan if you get the day tickets at the time.
hold on a minute - $89 (6756yen) for a TC pass is NOT the same price as Japan 4200 (55.23) for a GETO pass.

and an early TC pass for $999 (44000yen) is more expensive (slightly) than 42000yen here.
Yeh thats fair enough. I was only trying to say that if you are prepared to do midweek then you can some cracking season deals. Whereas in japan (and i am sure someone will prove me wrong) then the season deals are not quite as good. Thing to do is do a bit of looking.

cheers
UGGGGLLLLYYYY

p.s. I am not a NZer so its not from a bias point of view.
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I am a NZer and Im looking to spend a couple of months skiing and im just astounded at the prices TC are charging.

Im still in a state of shock, I guess I will have to find another place in NZ to go.

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Toque, am I correct in thinking Whistler is coast range BC? because if i am, i never experienced the quality of snow in whistler that i am in japan. i did, to be fair, go over on one of the 'el bloody nino' seasons, but i went for the season and it was never as light as the stuff i've ridden here. i heard that it's way lighter in the interior, banff, fernie etc.

my main problem with whistler was the heavy snow, the locals seemed to agree with that, along with the poor ratio of bluebird to overcast days. i've ridden way better pow in both japan and france than i did out in whistler.

 

sanno - thinking about it, i got a piss cheap deal on a hotel room in chamonix right at the end of the season, it was the 2001-2002 season when we had a 2foot dump on the 5th of May!!! so yeah, you can get really lucky and score a cheap place and some powder!

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Captain Stag:
I am a NZer and Im looking to spend a couple of months skiing and im just astounded at the prices TC are charging.
Im still in a state of shock, I guess I will have to find another place in NZ to go.
Yeh, I am thinking of popping over again in the summer for a few weeks. Since you are a local, i am sure you know more about the good places to go than me. But 199NZ dollars for a weekday season pass at Mt Hutt seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Gambero!
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  • 2 weeks later...

I think that u need a thick wallet if u wanna ski Alaska (Heli skiing). Chugach mountains / Valdez are probably the most reknowned places. I think 6 runs + lunch will set you back around USD 600 / day depending on how long of a haul it is. Not sure if there is decent non-heli stuff in Alaska. Anybody?

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From the Alyeska site:

Alyeska Resort is the premier resort for family vacations, rated in the Top 25 ski resorts in North America by Skiing Magazine.

 

Not much competition to heliskiing.

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That Alyeska resort looks pretty good. Probably the best one in Alaska from what I have read. Too bad though, not much vert.

 

So french vert with japanese snow combo still looks like a winner (or simply, finally a truly decent winter in the french alps like we have not seen for ages)...

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