La Tania, January 2005

By Mark Sullivan

Another "Newcomer's" perspective on the main Club holiday.

Both my girlfriend and I decided to join the club on the recommendation of our good friend Tony (Shaw), as he had attended the Val d'Isère holiday as a first timer last year and enjoyed both the company and the holiday itself. Going on holiday and being strangers in a well established club is not the easiest of things to do.

What we found is that we were made very welcome by a lot of members of the club right from the beginning and this straight away put us at ease. Members of the club, whom I didn't know were addressing Joanne and me by our names and found this very encouraging. It was looking like our gamble to come away with the club had paid off and Tony's advice seemed accurate to his assessment.

We tried our best to remember people's names but of course we could never do so due to the shear volume of support and interest in us i.e. "The New Kids"! Mike, Ilene, Susanne, Angela, Dave, Ray, John, Rosie, Brian, Ernie, Downhill Dave are just some of the names we can remember but there are many more people to the club's credit whom made us very welcome.

The holiday resort itself was very good and the hotel was of a good standard with friendly and some hard working staff. The après ski in the resort wasn't particularly that good to be honest but the quality of skiing made up for that. Although the ski club go away solely for the snow I feel a more lively resort could demand a higher level of profile in the planning of the holidays if you want to attract a more youthful element for the long term future and well being of the club.

The Restaurant could have done better to cater for all tastes which would surely been of benefit to some members of the club whom like a little more diversity in their food especially the vegetarians. But overall the choice of the hotel and resort was still an excellent choice and both Joanne and I enjoyed it thoroughly ......... especially the free demi bottle of wine each per meal!

Having dissected and discussed this year's trip with the Greg and Tony, we would have no hesitation in recommending the club to our other friends and are hoping to book for next year's trip. On a personal note, I hope that I can add a few more names to the above list after next years trip.

Overall Score 8 1/2 out 10.

Many thanks to Manchester Ski club,
Mark Sullivan & Joanne Croft.