Pooch in the Powder: Taking your dog to the Alps

Next time you plan your trip to the Alps, why don’t you consider taking Bouncer with you?  Our loyal and most lovely client Mr Drabble and his family take their beloved dog Rosie with them to La Plagne every year and have kindly agreed to share their tips and tricks on how it works, read on to learn more:-

Meet the Drabble Family

Just a few thoughts relating to taking a pet to France…

1.    Most people taking their pets abroad, particularly for the first time, would be apprehensive.  In reality, if all the rules and regulations are observed, there is nothing to fear.

2.     The regulations do change from time to time.  New rules were introduced in January 2012 which actually make travel easier so make sure you understand them.

3.    The Pet Travel Scheme applies to all cats and dogs and allows them to enter or re-enter the UK from approved countries without quarantine.  To comply, the pet must have been Microchipped, have had the necessary vaccinations and have been issued with a Pet Passport.

4.    All our cross channel journeys have been on Eurotunnel which is a fast and efficient way to get to France.  You can remain with your pet for the 35 minute crossing.

5.    The Eurotunnel Flexiplus upgrade offered free of charge by Erna Low is a major benefit.  It takes all the worry out of the arrival/departure time for the crossing and usually ensures a departure which is earlier than scheduled.

Walkies in the snow for little Rosie

6.   France is far more dog friendly than the UK.  Dogs are readily accepted in most restaurants.

7.   Don’t forget a French collar tag containing your mobile phone number and holiday residence in case your dog is lost whilst you are away.

8.    Make and keep the appropriate vets appointment prior to leaving France to have your dog treated against tapeworm.  The treatement has to be administered no less that 24 hours and no more than 120 hours (1 – 5 days) before the scheduled arrival time in the UK.  Make sure that the relevant pages of the Pet Passport are completed and stamped by the vet as they will be checked by the transport staff prior to leaving France.  They will also check that the Microchip is in place so ask the vet to show you its exact position.  Don’t panic if the chip cannot be located immediately as they can move.

9.    Keep the Pet Passport safe as no other documentation will be accepted.

Puppy powder - more walkies in the trees

10.    Final thought – A typical day in the Alps:

a. Up with the larks and a walk with Rosie before breakfast.

b. Out on the 1st chairlift and ski until lunchtime.

c. Back to the chalet for lunch and to collect Rosie.

d. A walk into the mountains to find a suitable bar/resaurant for an afternoon in the sun with the occassional hot chocolate or vin chaud.

e. Gentle stroll back to the chalet in time to get ready for evening meal.

A perfect day.

Enjoying the afternoon sun with a chocolat chaud

The majority of our residences allow pets to stay in their apartments, just ask us and we can check all the details before you book.  Please note that some residences limit the number of pets allowed per apartment and additional charges will always be applicable (50-100€/pet/week).  There is also a pet supplement for travel on the Eurotunnel (£35/pet/return – based on winter 11/12 rates).

Erna Low Loyal Client Spotlight: The Drabble family have stayed in the Les Granges du Soleil, Plagne Soleil for a number years now and previously Residence Aspen in Plagne Village was their favourite.  They try to book two ski holidays a year with us and always book early – they have already pre-booked their trip back to Les Granges du Soleil with us and we bet Rosie can’t wait to hit the slopes again!

Our Top 15 Money Saving Ski Holiday Tips

As featured in the Erna Low Ski Report 2011/12, we bring you our Top 15 Money Saving Ski Holiday Tips:

1. Book early – and take advantage of precious Early Bird discounts of up to 20%

2. Choose lesser known resorts – cheaper accommodation, cheaper lift passes and cheaper après ski

3. Self drive – you know it makes sense. Convenient with kids; fun exploration on your journey; use our free Eurotunnel FlexiPlus upgrade for maximum freedom

4. Self cater – less expensive than catered chalets and hotels; easy on tired children; relaxed and informal; masses of top end, spacious and elegant accommodation to choose from

5. Choose off-peak dates when you can but if restricted to school holidays, opt for Christmas or Easter rather than New Year and Half Term

6. Purchase groceries before you reach the resort – buy in the valley or bring supplies with you so you have total control over your Euro household expenditure. Remember staples like coffee, preserves, dishwasher tablets – fill your boots!

7. Pre-book your extras – take advantage of preferential ski hire, ski school and lift passes available through your tour operator

8. Take it with you – that’s not just food but expensive sun screens, essential sunglasses, ski accessories – hats, gloves scarves – it’s miserable without them and expensive locally

9. Free ski passes – there are some great offers for young kids and senior skiers in some resorts such as La Plagne and Les Arcs

10. Keep your après ski costs to a minimum – and still have fun. Check out free events such as night time ski descents; take the family swimming or ice skating; hire a toboggan; pack your favourite books, games and DVDs to avoid expensive local impulse buying

11. Stock up on bumper packs of snacks; pack a picnic for the slopes, it’s still the same view and the same sun – but don’t forget the waterproof travel rug; enjoy produce the from local bakeries and delis

12. Watch where the seasonnaires and students hang out; guaranteed to be good value. Just party and they’ll soon overlook your age!

13. Check out Happy Hours – a different bar every day if you’re organised. You do deserve it after a hard day on the slopes. Just remember to leave after 60 minutes!

14. Avoid an avalanche of hidden costs - Check your provider charges for roaming costs making and receiving calls and voice mails. Internet? Sign up for Skype

15. Money – consult a site like Martin’s Money Saving Tips for best deals on credit cards – using plastic overseas can result in a mountain of hidden charges. For currency purchase – pre-purchase online using services like HiFX, compare websites, commission, delivery charges and exchange rates

Flaine Goes Up Market!

There are loads of reasons to go to Flaine…

It’s car-free, child friendly, icing sugar white throughout and only 8 hours drive from Calais – and it’s packed with the sort of alpine activities that you’ve always wanted to try but didn’t know where to start…like ice driving, snowshoeing, ice quad biking, dog-sledding and one I’ve never even seen before – ski joering!

(If you’ve tried this please tell me it isn’t as difficult as it looks!)

But there‘s one thing Flaine hasn’t necessarily had going for it in the past – and that is luxury, high quality accommodation. But that’s all set to change this season with several brand-new apartments available for the savvy skier to snap up.
In additional to Flaine Montsoleil which opened two years ago, Le Refuge du Golf, open for the first time this December, is situated in the beautiful, more traditional Hameau de Flaine nestled amongst the trees and connected to the modern ski centre by regular ski shuttles. All the apartments are south-facing with fabulous mountain views; there’s a swimming pool, sauna, steam room and spa within the residence as well as a bar and restaurant and ski-hire shop.

I’ve just had a look at the Flaine webcam and there’s already tonnes of  snow on the slopes with 70 lifts and 141 runs already open. The resort itself opens on 11th December and if you want to take advantage of this year’s Early Christmas Week – you’ll get an extra night free! To give you an idea of price Team Erna are offering the week 18th to 26th December – 8 people sharing a 3 bedroom apartment including Eurotunnel crossing for only £178 per person. For a family of 4 or 5 sharing a 1 bedroom apartment including Eurotunnel it’s around £188 per person.

And we’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried any of the snow sports above – especially if it involved being pulled on skis behind a horse!

WHY VOLCANIC ASH IS NO MATCH FOR A GOOD SKI COMPANY?

Exciting headlines from  an informative lead article yesterday in The Independent Ski Supplement.   Ski journalist and guru, Stephen Wood, discusses the difficulties of last winter with the Ash Cloud and the disruption it caused to skiers at the end of the season.

This is something that Erna Low have been watching carefully as we believe passionately that the best route for skiers to the Alps is by car or train.  Here’s  what Stephen says…

“In marketing terms, the ash cloud has a silver lining for others too.  Erna Low, whose business is primarily in resort accommodation and ski/drive holidays, produced an impressive, 32 page document in late August entitled (in part)  “Feel the thrill of snowy mountains… and leave the ash at the airport”;  it raised the specture of further eruptions in Iceland.  The company reports that sales are currently five per cent ahead of last year.  Erna Low also offers rail travel, which being both ash-resistant and guilt-free (in carbon-emission terms) could expect a boost in the coming season.  Certainly the potential is there, thanks to the efforts of Daniel Elkan of Snowcarbon.com in persuading Rail Europe to allocate seats on routes to the Aops for ski operators.  All that is needed to herald the new age of the ski train is a puff of smoke from Eyjafjallajokull.”

A first prize trip to Morzine!

Francis Barnard won our Sunday Times competition to win an Erna Low summer alpine holiday to Morzine. He took the time to tell us how it went and we just have to share it with you!

Having now returned from Morzine and having had an excellent holiday I can write and thank you most enthusiastically for offering it as a prize for the Sunday Times.

The trip went very smoothly – Eurotunnel got us across the channel with minimum fuss, including putting us on earlier trains as we arrived a little early, both ways.

We stayed a couple of nights in Troyes – fascinating, and well out of our usual travel area – and then arrived at L’Aiglon de Morzine in good time and a rainstorm!  However the latter was brief and virtually the only time we had other than hot clear weather.  Having not been there before we were not at all sure what to expect and arrived with several
books to keep us occupied in spare minutes: they remained largely unread – there is so much to do, even for those who not use a mountain bike!

The local way to travel

We used the extensive lifts almost every day to get to different places, combined of course with walking: probably the high point in more than one sense was to stand on a mountain top at about 6000 feet and look in one direction to see Mont Blanc and the other to see the Eiger while listening to the sound of cow bells drifting up from the valley beneath
- oh, and then walking a few yards to find oneself straying into Switzerland!

With a good enough imagination that is the Eiger!

We spent another day visiting Lake Léman and enjoyed a  visit to Evian ‘the water town’ while wishing we had more time to explore some more – on the deliberately ‘interesting’ route back, high up I even spotted a Golden Eagle.

Walking is always possible

The accommodation, of course was excellent – we were given Suite 5 which gave us a little extra space but clearly all the suites were very comfortable, providing plenty of space to relax and a more than adequate cooking facility should one require it: we particularly liked the proper coffee making machine!

Looking down from a ski-lift and listening to the cow bells

We returned home with a stop off at Reims – again a most interesting city – to complete an excellent, relaxing and of course quite unexpected holiday. Once again thank you and your team for organising it.

Would I Recommend Driving From England to Morzine?

Steve and Caroline Warner, treasured Erna Low clients, loaded up the car and set off to Morzine for a summer holiday in their apartment in L’Aiglon de Morzine.

We’re off on our family holiday to Morzine. We have 2 children aged 9 and 6. The main reasons for driving are that we are fed up with airport delays, airport queues, lifting a multitude of bags on and off trolleys and can take more toys for the kids in the boot of the car. This is a log of our journey, from my perspective – the mum and passenger.
Got up at 3.30am at our home in Suffolk so I could prepare food for the journey. Really did wonder if this was a good idea after all.
Car looked liked a NASA station when we set off at 5am with DVD’s, ipods, DS’s etc. Stopped at garage to fill the car and buy 2 cans of redbull for the driver. I’d made 2 travel mugs of decaf – husband not impressed.
45mins into our journey I started to feel chilled, kids were happy watching DVDs and asking for breakfast already. Going to be difficult spacing out a day’s worth of food! Thinking driving actually might just be the right decision after all as I sit here with plenty of leg room, travel mugs and other creature comforts. Just not sure about the Homer Simpson voice over the sat nav.
Arrived at the Eurotunnel Folkestone terminal at 7am – ahead of schedule – and they put us on an earlier train than booked – part of the wonderful Eurotunnel FlexiPlus experience! Managed to delay the kids breakfast until the train. Looking forward to getting to France and listening to my audio book all in one go. How often do you get the chance to do that!
Husband not quite so fortunate but he does like being in control of his travel.
The kids are REALLY excited at this novel concept of driving onto a train. It’s even inspired them to pause the DVD’s.
Arrived in France and disembarked at 9.30am (local time). Sat Nav estimates arrival at destination 5.20pm
Motorway proves to be easy and SO quiet. Husband now very happy and relaxed at the prospect of empty, straight roads with no pot holes or road works.

The end is in sight!

We are all amazed at the frequency of toilet stops – which we take full advantage of at least hourly. Since they are all picnic spots they are quite pleasant places to have a stretch. Unfortunately sight of picnic benches are making the children think of food. Only down side – NO toilet paper in any of them. Take your own!
Had a lazy picnic lunch – sat nav now predicting arrival at 6.30pm since we’ve stopped SO many times. Children sleep for a couple of hours after lunch. I doze on and off and husband drinks the red bull.
After that back to hourly stops.
Finally arrive in Morzine 6.45pm. Ended the journey feeling quite relaxed and refreshed considering how long we have been travelling. We chose to make the journey a relaxing one rather than driving straight and this was most definitely the right one. Despite the time it took to get here my vote is still to drive since it has been stress free, the kids vote to drive and the driver? Well he still votes to drive since it has been really easy.
Door-to-door, it took us around 11 hours, including time on the Eurotunnel.
And the cost? Train 63, tolls 67.70E, diesel 109E

Our end destination! The lovely Aiglon de Morzine

FlexiPlus Eurotunnel – smug, moi?

Or should it be re-named Club Class?  Joanna opts for driving to Paris and finds the smoothest modeof transport in a weekend of travel chaos…

We decided on a whim to self-drive to france for a meeting in Paris – so very nearly booked flights – and what a relief as it just happened to be the day iceland’s volcano caused complete havoc in the skies!

We didn’t need to think about limiting ourselves with our luggage and chucked everything randomly into the boot of the car – what bliss not having to squash things into suitcases only to be told we were overweight by some arrogant  airline.

Travelling FlexiPlus with Eurotunnel means you  get  directed down an empty lane for the first available crossing and you get to overtake hundreds of cars sitting waiting obediently for their appointed time. FlexiPlus signposts guide you past the bottle necks and you arrive at the wonderfully empty flexi lounge  exclusive to FlexiPlus clients – where you get to stuff your face with a limitless picnic including wine, wide variety of sandwiches and puddings, fruit, chocolate, crisps – and topped off with complimentary newspapers and comfy sofas.  Quick snooze on the train and you are all set for your journey!

Promotional Offer – WIN your Eurotunnel crossing!

Warning: spot of unashamed self promotion coming up but we want to keep all our fans, followers and up to date with our special offers too!

WOULD YOU LIKE A FREE EUROTUNNEL CROSSING FOR YOUR NEXT SKI HOLIDAY?

Erna Low are delighted to have teamed up with the lovely people at Eurotunnel to offer you the opportunity to win a free crossing when you book your January ski holiday with us!
Eurotunnel is the fastest and most hassle free way to start your trip to the slopes, taking only 35 minutes to transport you from Folkestone to Calais.
The advantages of travelling by Eurotunnel are many; you can enjoy up to two extra days on the slopes, there is no wait to disembark in Calais, you can fill your car up with necessities for your holiday, you can avoid all the queues at the airports and still benefit from the great shops in the Eurotunnel terminal.  Erna Low can book overnight stays for you if you wish to take your time to drive down and you can also choose when you want to arrive in resort.

Book your apartment or hotel now and you could win a free standard Eurotunnel crossing.  This competition is open to all Eurotunnel inclusive bookings for the weeks commencing January 9th, 16th & 23rd 2010 made by Friday 28th August 2009 .  Please call us on 0845 863 0525 for further information, to check availability and to enter the competition.

All bookings will be entered in to a draw, winners will be advised by telephone on Monday 31st August.  Competition not open to Erna Low employees.  Conditions apply.

Never driven before? have a read of our self drive guide for some handy information, hints and tips on getting the best out of your drive!

THIS IS ON TOP OF ALL OUR USUAL EARLY BOOKING DISCOUNTS AND GREAT VALUE HOLIDAYS SO PLEASE CALL NOW ON 0845 863 0525.

Reaching new depths at the Eurotunnel Terminal

It was with some trepidation that I set out on my ‘behind the scenes’ tour of Eurotunnel. I had vivid memories of the fire in the tunnel last year and the potentially drastic effects of it – though Eurotunnel had reacted very quickly and efficiently and it was a credit to their crisis management that there were no casualties and the news was contained without hysteria letting loose. 
Did you know that Eurotunnel actually has three tunnels, 2 running tunnels that are used by trains and the service tunnel – specifically designed as a “safe haven” for customers in the event of an emergency.   The service tunnel is also used for regular maintenance as well!
But did I really want to go down the service tunnel?  Normally no members of the public are allowed in there and I was a bit hesitant about making my trip down into the unknown.

It was a revelation to me that there was a whole team of people on standby in case there was an emergency situation. Their whole life geared up for a crisis, only to happen probably once in a life time.  It was mind boggling to drive deeper and deeper into the service tunnel riding in one of the specially adapted vehicles. We stopped at one of the Cross Passage Doors – this is the door linking the train tunnel to the service tunnel and can be used in the event of an evacuation.  It felt like I was tracing the steps where hundreds of passengers would potentially escape from …. It had that eerie feeling that you wouldn’t have been surprised if James Bond were to jump out at you from behind a security door! 

On leaving the service tunnel, we were taken to the “Nerve Centre” of the tunnel, a NASA inspired control room – a train spotter’s paradise – no windows and computers/electronic charts blinking everywhere with the longest and largest electronic chart showing every single movement of every train in the tunnel, or about to go into the tunnel.  We were treated to a fascinating lesson on how the trains were controlled by our Eurotunnel mentor, Paul, who lived and breathed the complexities of every train entering into the tunnel. 

One of the other aims of the day was to try for myself the whole experience of going by Eurotunnel.  I had been part of the privileged few to travel the tunnel when it opened in 1994- and even have the certificate to prove I was in the first 500 passengers – so it was great to re-visit it 15 years later.  This time I was “trying out” Flexiplus  *. Travelling using Flexiplus was an experience that way exceeded my expectations. If you have ever been to Disneyland and purchased fastpasses to beat the queue, you will appreciate Flexiplus – being one of the smug few travellers to jump all car queues and be loaded on first.  On top of that, Flexiplus allows you to stop at the exclusive lounge, where you are given a generous snack of sandwiches, fruit, wine, cakes and coffee, while picking up a newspaper and taking a break.  Check out www.ernalow.co.uk for further details of how to travel Flexiplus.

*Full Flexiplus service is open to vehicles under 1.85m