Snow Go CONSUMING INTEREST
By LESLIE ADRIAN
THERE will be no fewer British on the ski slopes of Europe this winter, but they may be just a bit smellier. In Switzerland, at least, a bath costs 5s., and that's a lot of foreign cur- rency. The ski-ers who hie to the Highlands will have no money worries like this. Nor many others, if Egon Ronay's Ski Europe (25s. to members of the AA) is anything to go by. Even the Coylumbridge Hotel, pride of Rank's Hotels Division, charges only 45s. for bed and breakfast (55s. in the high season). And the best meal in town costs 27s. at the High Range Hotel. The best meal in Scotland is, however, not an experience likely to send connoisseurs flocking northwards. The trouble with the Cairn- gorms is the frequent bad weather, and Glencoe seems to be little better, so the £9-£10 that may have to be clipped off your £50 travel allowance if you take a ski-ing holiday on the Continent is probably worth while.
The brochures all go to great lengths this season to wise us up about V-form require- ments, and they remind us of our privilege £15 sterling that the kindly authorities permit. No doubt out of sheer tact they refrain from point- ing out that, if you do take two holidays, you can take two lots of £15 in notes. This may not be patriotic, nor even legal, but I cannot see any- thing to prevent it.
The Which? report on ski resorts last October suggested that the average V-form cost to British ski-ers this season will be £15. Looking at the Bergen Line's list, I found one eleven- day holiday in Norway that would deduct only £9 from the allowance. These Bergen Line all-in affairs include accident insurance and participa- tion in the Norwegian national health scheme, and you never know when you're going to need that. This particular package deal would be fairly austere (in a hostel at Voss, in fact) and most of the Bergen Line holidays cost much more, but Norway is by no means out of the running.
For various reasons, Yugoslavia, which had looked promising as a cheap ski-ing centre, is out. None of the guides, Ronay or the Observer `Time Off Ski-ing,' for example, include it. Though Ronay offers Spain, with reservations, and the Observer makes room for Finland. The big tip, wherever you go, and the odds are still on Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany, is to pay for as much as you can in London: dry ski-training, if needed (ask Lillywhite's, Pindisports, the Central Council for Physical Recreation), hire of gear (Moss Bros., Lillywhite's, Pindisports, Thomas Black, Sports Continentale), and, if possible, reservations on ski-lifts (Harold Ingham and Erna Low both have arrangements at a few resorts to pay for cable cars and ski- lifts in advance, but it has to come out of the travel allowance).
Swissair have just announced reduced excess- baggage rates for ski-ers who want to fly out with equipment hired in London. They have also issued a leaflet listing a number of seven- or eight-day trips that will carve only a tenner out
of your £50; for example, Swans Tours run a £37 eight-day package to Brand, and Cooks have another for under £30 for the week to St Anton. Such economy jaunts are for ski-ers, not learners. There are other week-long tours, such as World Travel Service's coaches to the Tyrol and the Italian Alps (ten days with the journey), and offering economical abonnements for the lifts. But even though the total cost is less than £30, it takes £20 from the currency allowance.
Judging by some of the careful juggling of
costs and extras that can be detected by scouring the brochures, the agents are leaning over side- ways to capture business, at a moment when quite a lot of two-holiday types will have written off their snow sports this year. But watch for the 'all-in' arrangement that charges extra in small print for full board. Watch for those addi- tional meals en route. In short, get all the literature and read it from cover to cover. That part costs nothing, even if you don't get much exercise.
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