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Chamonix all-in for £400: For years it was a deal that the French kept to themselves. Now the Brits are finally getting in on skiing's big secret.

By Dan Elkan, Saturday 3 February 2007

You get all that for how much? That can't be right," is my sceptical reaction when a friend tells me about a ski package that the French have apparently been enjoying for years. Surely he's mistaken France for Bulgaria.

Who in their right mind would offer full-board accommodation in a prestigious French resort, a six-and-a-half-day lift pass, as well as ski or snowboard rental and four days' group tuition for just £403? But it turns out my friend is right, and I arrive in Chamonix to sample a deal that seems just too good to be true.

If there is a catch, it's the accommodation; you stay at the UCPA Cosmique, a four-floor hostel that holds 215 people. But I can't fault the location: 150m from Chamonix railway station, right in the centre of town, and - as my liver discovers during the week - stumbling distance from bars and clubs such as Le Choucas, Privelage, Le Terrace, Cantina, Le Garage.

The package is offered by UCPA, a not-for-profit organisation set up in 1965 by the French government to encourage young people to take more holidays. The price is certainly encouraging; bought separately, the package could easily cost £700. The Swedish found out about UCPA around 20 years ago, and for the past three years Felixstowe-based Action Outdoors has been letting Brits in on the secret. The offer is open to anyone aged 18-39, with some exceptions for older people.

The no-frills accommodation is clean, functional, and spacious enough for its guests, around three-quarters of whom are French. There's a subsidised bar and plenty to keep you occupied off piste: outdoor table tennis, table football, board games, a pool table, and a sauna. Most rooms have four or six single bunk beds, with a couple of wardrobes and an en-suite shower and basin. For a supplement of £30 per person, there are twin rooms, but availability is limited.

View full article on The Guardian Online Chamonix all-in for £400

Water works

White-water swimming, Pyrenees
Words by Jeremy Taylor

If you thought white-water rafting was brave, how about trying it without the raft? The Pyrenean village of St Lary (about two hours from Biarritz) is a hotspot for daredevil white-water antics. OK, so you don’t risk anything as big as a Class 6 rapid as you bob along the river, but that doesn’t make the experience any less exhilarating.

See full article on The Easyjet Magazine online: Water works

This is a Summer activity available with Action Outdoors, on the multi-activity course in St Lary in the Pyrenees, June-September.

Eco, cheap and chic: The green ski holiday in France that could change your outlook!

by Richard Moriarty. Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Kicking off a skiing trip with a 12-hour coach trip is not everyone's cup of tea.

But it's a small sacrifice if it helps keep Flaine one of the best spots in the French Alps to enjoy the thrill of bombing down a mountain with nothing more than two planksof wood strapped to your feet.

As holidaymakers put more thought into alternative methods of transport to short-haul European destinations, coach trips to skiing destinations are becoming increasingly popular.

And with each coach passenger creating six times less carbon dioxide emissions than air travellers, you can see why the eco-conscious among us are making the switch.

After an overnight coach from Victoria station, we arrived at the resort a little groggy.

But unlike our friends who chose to fly to Geneva Airport one hour away from the resort, we're at the resort early on Saturday afternoon allowing me and my fiance to get out on the slopes for a couple of runs within a couple of hours of arriving.

Flaine may sit in the shadow of Chamonix, but it has great snow and forms the centre of the spectacular Grand Massif, which is all overlooked by the  imposing  Mont Blanc.

At 1,600m, Flaine, which was purpose-built in 1969, is not quite as high as other French resorts but because it lies within a dramatic bowl, the snow remains longer here than at other locations.

And with 52 red runs, 52 blues, 15 greens and 14 blacks, there's plenty enough skiing for all abilities.

After spending all the the family silver during Christmas, myself and my fiance had plumped for a low-cost, all inclusive trip with specialist ski company Action Outdoors.

Staying in a hotel operated by the UCPA, which is a Government-backed French organisation providing 28 accomodation centres throughout French ski resorts, we shared a clean and comfortable hostel-style ensuite twin room.

The hotel's position just yards from the slopes was perfect as it allowed my fiance to go and have a bath when the cold bit into her feet, while I could finally discover whether Flaine's most difficult red run (Mephisto) was too hard for me.

Answer: yes.

Luckily the blues and greens spread out across the mountain offered the pair of us as much skiing as we could handle and at the right level.

Read the full article on The London Paper online: Eco, cheap and chic
 

Cheap thrills

by Rebecca Miles, Daily Mail Ski & Snowboard Magazine, October 2008.

To the west, the mountains stretched out to the border with Italy and beyond, and to the south they disappeared through the Ecrins national park to the town of Gap. But it was Serre Chevalier’s 250km of slopes, rolling out across the peaks to the east that held our undivided attention. The red run swept away from the top of the chair and we merrily followed our instructor’s path as he ducked in and out of the trees, popping off ridges along the way. From the top of the next lift, it was a home run to lunch, but we diverted from the direct route into natural bowls and gullies, seeking out any remaining pockets of untouched powder. The delicious spread of salads, soup and hot French cuisine that greeted us on the sunny slope-side terrace was a well-earnt reward for our morning’s riding. And the most satisfying part came at the end of the meal – we didn’t have to awkwardly split the bill as there was no bill. Lunch, like the all-day instruction, the full area seven-day lift passes, and our breakfast, dinner, equipment hire, travel and four person dorm room, was included in the credit-crunch busting price of £490. The 10 of us were a group of friends, of varying ability from absolute beginner to hardy mountain goat, staying at the UCPA centre in Serre Chevalier, booked through Action Outdoors in the UK.

UCPA stands for Union Nationale des Centres Sportifs de Plein Air (essentially, the national union of sporty centres in the fresh air) and it was established to provide sporting holidays and opportunities for 18 to 39 year olds. Importantly for us, this translated as inexpensive, and it took the term all-inclusive to new limits – we barely had to think for ourselves. So what was the catch? Well, we had to clear away our plates and make our own beds – unnatural for a holiday at first, the duties soon became second nature.

The food, served buffet-style, knocked the socks off our expectations, and girls who’d been worrying about a potential lack of salads were gleefully proved wrong. UCPA bars work on a voucher system, we’d buy a book for €20 from reception then pay for good value drinks with a blur of purple and orange vouchers. And for save’oholics wanting even cheaper drinks, our uber-chilled Swedish rep, Hans, explained we could bring in our own supermarket wine. As the only non-French guests, our usual table in the dining hall quickly became known as Les Anglais. We were the only ones to take Hans up on his supermarket suggestion and tended to linger over dinner. The other guests rushed off to catch that evening’s entertainment in the bar – cabaret for example, which in France seemed to translate to a guy screeching in French (hilarious apparently). Oddly enough we didn’t find it appealing. If we wished, our time could be filled from dawn to dusk, and beyond. While the cabaret didn’t float our boat, there was an entertaining music quiz, translated for us English speakers, morning stretching classes – and the mini bake-your-own crepes for après snacks were a real crowd pleaser as was the all-day ski or board instruction.

On the last day everyone, bar those who’d been distracted by the French disco in the centre until 4am, headed up the mountain for a final blast – the beginners’ confidence had really come on. We had to dash to catch the airport transfer bus, but made sure we had time to claim back our €2 towel deposits – just because we’d barely needed to put our hands in our pockets all week, didn’t mean we were going to start getting frivolous now.

A weekend dash to Chamonix

By Betony Garner, Monday 15 December 2008
After having enough of talking about the snow and not actually seeing it, the Ski Club's Betony Garner made a last minute decision to go to the Alps this weekend and see for herself what everyone is talking about.

After realising that all I had been doing for the past three weeks was telling people how good the snow in Europe is and that it is the best start to a ski season for over 10 years, I suddenly had a realisation. All I wanted to do was get out there and ski and escape the Christmas shopping madness.

So last Thursday lunchtime, after drooling over the latest photos of fresh snow, I decided to hatch a plan to get to the snow at the weekend.

After a chat with Julie from ski tour operator Action Outdoors, she told me they had a coaching leaving London at 5pm on Friday. Could I face a coach journey to the Alps for two days of skiing? I decided the answer was yes, as long as I could fly back. So after finding a flight, booking the coach and securing a sofa in Chamonix I was all set.

The coach journey was relatively pain free and we arrived in Chamonix just before 10am on Saturday morning. I have never seen so much snow in Chamonix village in December, and as the white mountains glistened under the sun, there was no time to hang around.

It was on with the kit, on with the skis then we were off. We spent the morning skiing a fantastic off-piste run with British mountain guide Jonny Baird. The snow was just amazing - light fluffy powder everywhere and considering how early in the season it was, we hardly hit any rocks. It was exactly how I had imagined it to be.

After another go at the same run, we then headed up to La Tour for the rest of the afternoon and were more than pleased to find the snow in prestine condition on and off the piste. We had fun cruising down the main slopes and also trying to find fresh snow away from the pistes - which was easy to do. So as the sun started to set and we enjoyed an apres-ski beer, it was safe to say that the snow reports I had been reading back at Ski Club HQ were more than accurate - the snow was fantastic

The next day we woke to find cloudy skies and a warm Foehn wind. This meant some of the top lifts in Chamonix were closed, so we made the decision to head through the Mont Blanc tunnel to the Italian resort of Courmayeur which is included on the Mont Blanc Unlimited Ski Pass. Most of the lifts were open and it was dumping with snow. Conditions were out of this world with fresh snow everywhere. It was so deep at one point I was buried in powder and took at least 10 minutes to get out! This minor incident didn't hinder us, however, as we skied hard all day and only decided to stop as the clock headed towards 5pm. Back at the car it was clear that over half a metre of snow had fallen over the course of the day and it was still falling. As I stood watching the snow, I felt satisfied that I could head home in the morning and officially report that the snow is as good as everyone has been saying.

This is an exceptional start to the season and if you are heading out to the Alps for the Christmas holidays I can assure you there is currently loads of snow. For those heading out later in the season there is an amazing snow base, and if you have not yet booked your ski trip then I can tell you that this is a season not to be missed.

Read article online: SkiClub
Related websites: www.jonathan-baird.com
 

Want to have great skiing without spending a fortune?

By James Cove, Tuesday February 3, 2009

Well, try going with the French company, UCPA. 1 week with everything included comes to under £400. A fraction of the cost you’d expect to pay for what’s on offer. 

Not many people in England have heard of UCPA, Union Centre Plein Aire, but it takes hundreds of thousands of people skiing and snowboarding each winter.

It has been going for over 40 years and is in 28 ski resorts in France.
The idea is as simple one.

You stay in fairly basic accommodation in a good ski resort and included in the price is all your food, lift pass, ski/snowboard hire and lessons. You have 25 hours of good quality ski instruction.   Drinks are cheap, entertainment is laid on and there are no hidden extras.

It’s not luxury but if you want to eat well, ski hard and don’t mind sharing a room and mixing with all nationalities it could be for you.

Excellent and good value instructionThe skiing lessons range from complete beginner to a high level of off piste instruction and come with experienced and fully qualified instructors.

Think Club Med.

"It's no frills, but what UCPA concentrates on is what matters – top ski resorts, excellent equipment, amazing instructors and great food. The bedrooms are basic, but that’s more than made up for by the buzz that the whole UCPA centre exudes," says David Robertson from Action-Outdoors, a UK agent for UCPA.

“People come the first time to UCPA because of the amazing value, there is no cheaper way to ski. However people come back again and again because it’s so good."

Here’s a short interview with Celine Sobezack who helps to run the lodging in the French resort of Flaine. She is speaking to our content editor, James Cove.

Friendly staff in FlaineUCPA is a non-profit making company set up by the French government to get people to the mountains to ski and snowboard in the winter and enjoy the outside and other activites in the summer.

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea or idea of a skiing holiday but it works. 

You need to muck in as you serve yourself food, clear up afterwards and no-one comes to clean your room or turn your bed down at night.

However, all this means that the holiday is affordable to many.

From what we at PlanetSKI have seen in Flaine it works. 

We’re pretty keen on making our skiing pounds go further!

By Jamie Doward, Sunday 8 February 2009

There are few more wonderful sights than the Observer's travel editor bounding over to my desk in the newsroom to inquire: "Fancy a ski trip?"

This year, though, there was a coda, a real sting in the tail of spirit-sapping proportions. "Credit crunch special," the editor said. "Skiing on a shoestring. Youth hostels, that sort of thing."

Hmm. Now I don't want to come over all Prince Andrew here, but I thought skiing has always been about rubbing shoulders with the likes of Jack Nicholson and Paris Hilton in Aspen or partying with twentysomething oligarchs in Courchevel 1850 as if their hedge funds depended on it.

So no, the prospect of a few nights in a dormitory with France's answer to the cub scouts was not what I considered a top-drawer proposal. But then, given the fact our houses are now worth only a fraction more than our dishwashers, I guess we've all got to lower our expectations. But how low should you go?

A spot of googling puts things in perspective. It transpires a UK company called Action Outdoors can arrange for me to "enjoy" one of its six-day all-inclusive ski packages staying in a hostel in the Alps for the price of a moderately boozy gastropub lunch for six.

All the hostels are run by a French organisation called UCPA (Union Nationale des Centres Sportifs de Plein Air), a non-profit organisation comprising youth associations, the national Olympic committee, sports federations and representatives of the French government. Its motto is "to provide an opportunity for young people to experience the outdoors through sport". It sounds rather daunting - a sort of state-run boot camp for those too young for national service.

Actually, the youth thing is a bit of a myth, for the centres offer accommodation to 18- to 39-year-olds. Action Outdoors reckons the average age of the 3,500 Britons it sends to UCPA centres each year is 27.

Thankfully, the cheap prices are real. They start at £399 for an all-inclusive trip to Argentières, France, including six nights' full-board in a hostel with ski and boot hire, lessons both morning and afternoon, and a lift pass. Coach travel is extra. I opted to go to Flaine, one of the premier resorts in the Grand Massif, where a week's full board in a room sleeping four, with a lift pass and ski hire, starts at £466. Taking morning lessons adds £19; full-time instruction £43. Switching from a four to a two-person room adds £33. Return coach travel from London costs as little as £99, or you can book your own low-cost flight. Some tour operators' special offers may look cheaper at first glance, but, when you include ski hire (the best part of £100 a week), lift pass (nearly £200), and lessons (another £200) - not to mention lunches - the advantage is lost.

View full article on The Observer Online: A run for your money

Ski Industry Feels the Economic Cold

by James Cove, 15 February 2009

...A cheaper option

And there are ways to keep the costs of a ski holiday under control.

"Cleaning up a bathroom and emptying the bin is perhaps not the ideal way to end a ski holiday but for the price it's worth it," says British skier, Matt Johnstone.

He is on holiday in Flaine with the French organization UCPA, Union Centre Plein Aire, which charges less than £400 for a week with everything included.

It is a bit spartan, as you need to share a room, serve and clear away your own meals in the canteen and then at the end of the week strip the bed and clean the room.

"If this is what I need to do to get skiing - then fine," Mr Johnstone says as he clears away his dirty plates from the lunch table.

He empties the leftovers into the garbage bin, puts his glass in the washing tray and smiles broadly as he glances out of the window at the beckoning ski slopes.

"I'm off skiing this afternoon," he says.

"It's only cost me a few hundred pounds and life couldn't be better."

 Read the Full Article Online: BBC Online News

Get in Step in the Alps

By Simon Garner

'Un, deux, un, deux, Simon, tu me comprends?' says my salsa teacher, a first flicker of exasperation crossing her face.

Bless Marie for her patience, though. She's spent the past two mornings trying to help me through basic salsa steps while I've had to deal with the double whammy of coordinating my feet at the same time as trying to remember how to conjugate verbs from my patchy A-level French.

You're probably thinking I'm in some steamy joint in the south of France, a sea breeze taking some of the heat off the air while we try to master the intricate moves of one of the world's sexiest dances, but you'd be wrong.

I'm actually in Les Contamines-Montjoie, a village in the French Alps, and I'm staying at the local UCPA, effectively a state-run action centre with rooms for twenty- and thirtysomethings. And, as you may have guessed, I'm faring pretty badly.

The language has actually not been that much of a problem. When I can't keep up, my fellow guests and instructors all have that annoyingly excellent yet helpful grasp of English.

And then there is Frederic, my 32-year-old Parisian roomie and new-found best pal, who has helped me sign up to a few of the 16 activities the centre offers in its summer programme, all of which are included in the price of the stay.

So far we've shot down the mountain slopes on bikes, had a go at roller hockey and tried target shooting, where managing to bag three bullseyes in a row has been one of the proudest moments of my life.

My hips seem to move as though I'm confined to a straitjacket and I have about as much rhythm as John Sergeant

The salsa, though - my main reason for being here - has been rather more challenging, mainly because my hips seem to move as though I'm confined to a straitjacket and I have about as much rhythm as John Sergeant.

It's a situation borne out by the fact I've just treated Marie to one of my blankest looks yet. Obviously no quitter, she comes over, places a consoling hand on my shoulder and says: 'Let's go on to the deck.'

So we all step outside on to a raised sun terrace, where we get to appreciate the setting. All around us are mountains, lush green and imposing, a gurgle of streams and inspiring fresh Alpine air on our faces. Dancing al fresco, it seems, suits me and suddenly I don't need step-by-step guidance: my hips are free and I'm dancing like Metro's answer to Ricky Martin.

Clearly, Marie's noticed the difference and so we spend the next three mornings on deck. 'There is just a great atmosphere here at the centre,' she tells me after one of the lessons. 'Everyone is here to make the most of their day, to be active and then to have as relaxing or as crazy a time as they like in the evenings. It's up to you - it's your holiday, after all.'

I can see what she means about the evenings. The excellent buffet-style meals are a social occasion, everyone sitting at long, communual tables and recounting their adventures before heading into the village to sample the nightlife.

Over a beer, Frederic explains why the UCPAs are so popular in France. 'Many people here are single and they come by themselves or with a group of friends,' he says. 'We are the generation that stays single for longer and enjoys life for longer. UCPA caters for us but it is good for couples too - look how romantic it is here.'

Just as I'm wondering what he's driving at, he catches the eye of a pretty femme at the next table and introduces himself. 'Now,' I think to myself, 'if I could really perfect my snake hips and my hook turns I could do that. It would make me un bel homme, non?'

Metro UK, March 2009: Get in Step in the Alps