Dear ozbargainers,
I am planning a weekend or up to four day at the snow in Sydney. I am not sure if its cheaper to go on a package including bus transport or hire a car and drive up there and buy some deals for accommodation and entertainment of sites like Groupon. I know that the package one does not allow much flexibility for exploration.
UPDATE
any deal for package suggestion for this july
Any advise would be great
Is air ticket and hotel to Cairns discounted? or is it going to cost double?
Atm im looking at
Tiger flights there. Virgin back. Wed-Sun.
$350 return
$250 for hotel - 4 star in decent location.
Just a little package i made myself.
Looking to spend $100 a day an activities.
Total trip under a thousand hopefully
Same Same….. ;-)
The Snow in Sydney? Uh…. is this some kind of Sydney resort? It doesn't show in Sydney.
If you mean leaving from Sydney to the Snowy Mountains (and not NZ, which you could also do) then let me suggest that if you haven't driven in snow conditions before, the time to learn is not on a holiday with your friends. You could take a deal with a bus ticket from Canberra and a slope pass, and hire a car for the drive to Canberra. Or drive to Jindabyne and bus from there. Unless you do know how to drive in snow, in which case I'd go car hire.
You dont need to drive through snow conditions, you can drive to bullocks flat which is below the snow line and then you catch skitube to Perisher, get it included as part of your ticket.
somethings you need to take into account if your not going via package
unless you have a AWB or 4WD, it is illegal to drive up the mountain without chains
http://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/stayingsafe/drivers/b…
park entry - is around 30 bucks a day
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/Kosci…
petrol - depends on your car milage
it is roughly 32km one way from Jindabye to Perisher (of course this varies on where in jindi you stay)
assuming your going to Perisher…SkiTube as mentioned is a possibility but remember it is per person cost (inclusive of lift ticket)
https://www.perisher.com.au/plan-your-trip/new-to-perisher/s…
Because the Bullocks Flat Terminal is well below the normal snow line and only 20km from Jindabyne, it's an easy drive. Frequent train services run to Perisher >Valley and on to Blue Cow.
A Skitube ticket includes the National Park Use fee when traveling aboard Skitube, and savings can be made by combining your Skitube with any Lift Ticket, Bundle or
Snow Experience ticket.
if you plan on driving your own vehicle with a full load of people….unless your not hiring gear on the mountain itself (personally, i would not recommend it), where are you going to put a full load of gear
hiring gear takes some time to get measured up and fitted
Yeah, I would need to hire a 4WD. I am not driving on snow but I'm driving on the road to the snow does that make a difference?
most people would not drive on snow itself unless there was snow on the road?
people just get caught out by looking at the sky saying it wont snow so they dont need chains
firstly its wrong to assume that weather will not change rapidly
secondly its more to avoid being fined and told to turn around and pick up chains in town
anyway 4wd will save from any chains hassles
Can I get some tyre chains with my car hire or do I got to rent them? What is the cheapest options
@tradiesunited: i am not aware of any car hire places hiring them out
you can rent them at most servo's around the region or at most ski rental places
they charge per day
if you are going in peak season where the likelihood of having to put them on are high
its probably best to ask the place you rent them on how to put them on
the last thing you want to do is be stuck in an installation bay trying to figure it out
if it is snowing and your hands will be freezing cold
pretty much all of the places rent out the ring style chain which are impossible to put on with gloves on
The one piece of advice I can give for the snow is to book as a package. The lodges/accommodation get us way better deals than we could have by ourselves for lessons, lift tix, and rentals. Stay on the snow if you can - Thredbo has some awesome chalets that for us worked out cheaper too. Drive there, stay, catch the village shuttle around for free.
On the flip side; I'd go to Cairns :) Awesome place :D
Where can I find the lodges/accommodation packages?
Scoopon/Groupon may have some packages to consider:
https://www.scoopon.com.au/deals/69489/thredbo-midweek-lifts…
I live in Melbourne and ski at Mt Buller. I havent skied in NSW for years and i know the laws re driving with chains etc are different but for what it is worth here is my 5c:
I would never book a package deal.
I drive my own car to the snow (dont have to hire) and I bought some chains on one of the many Supercheap Auto deals on OzB at some big discount.
I joined a ski lodge when the kids were small because accommodation at the snow was likely to scuttle my plans for skiing holidays. I pay about $600 a year to be a member and I pay about $20 a night (each) to stay in the lodge at the snow. For that we get a family bunkroom with a new renovated en-suite. It is much cheaper over summer and we normally go up for Easter and maybe another weekend to ride the Mountain Bikes as well.
Because we stay in the lodge there is communal cooking and fridge facilities so we can cook our own meals and dont have to eat out every night. We can also have a beer in the lodge.
I have bought my own kit and kit for the kids as well, all of it on massive discounts from northern hemisphere shops selling out of season stuff. Our boots/boards/skis are in lockers or hanging on the walls in the ski lodge, we dont have to carry them back and forth, we just lob up and get them out of lockers.
It is too late now but for lift tickets, around March-ish each year the mountains normally run promos and you can sometimes pickup cheap lift tickets, seasons pass deals etc. Last time the winter olympics was on Mt Buller had a promo that every time an Aussie won a medal you could buy a Lift ticket cheap.
I know i am in a much different situation to you. I know many lodges rent out rooms to guests and I would recommend staying at a lodge rather than commercial accomodation, it will be much cheaper and you will get to meet a bunch of friendly snow folks to boot. The old timers in whichever lodge you stay at will know what is going on in town or if there are any deals around. The old timers at my lodge tell stories about the Ski resort being built in the 1950's and the younger members either work as ski instructors or in many of the bars etc around town. Over winter many of the club stalwarts become 'locals'.
In terms of getting a discount for 'hire', all of the hire places will offer a discount, if not go somewhere else. There will be loads of places. If you are new to it I would actually recommend hiring on mountain. It might cost a little more but if you find your boots dont fit once you are skiing or your bindings explode or the zip wont do up on your hired jacket it is much easier to take it back and swap on-mountain than it is to hire a replacement.
Following this post!!
Same boat as you.
Though tossing up between Snows and Cairns (YEs i know…huge difference and sounds stupid to go up north in the midst of winter, but it's a bit cheaper, plus the rest of the boys want to go Cairns…Majority RULES!)