Please keep in touch with us every step of the way, as we want to help you organise a great tour. Don’t be afraid to ask any question at any stage.
1: Contact your Travel Advisor
Your Travel Advisor will help you through every step of the way. Our team is knowledgeable and experienced, and passionate about Skiing. Find your Regional Travel Advisor here.
2: Choose Your Resort
Whether you’ve already decided on where and when you want to go, speak with us as early as possible in your planning stages so that we can help check availability and tour viability in line with your preferences and requirements. We will then provide a comprehensive price quotation for the option(s) that we believe best suit your group and budget.
Your school will almost certainly have internal procedures for granting permission, and we suggest that you discuss your ideas with the appropriate influencers as early as possible in the planning process so that your choice of tour is most likely to be granted permission.
Our sample letter to headteacher/governors can be downloaded here.
Top tip: Please be mindful, your tour price may change if you make any amendments to your original quotation from us. We will advise you every step of the way of any cost implications should you wish to amend any aspect of your tour so there are no surprises further down the line.
Disabled and Less Mobile Passengers
If you or any member of your party have any disabilities, we insist that you contact our offices before completing any booking so that we can endeavour to make the appropriate adjustments.
3: Provisional Booking
Contact us to reconfirm availability of all the trip elements, and at this stage we will reserve space wherever possible.
Top tip: There is no financial obligation, but this also means that our suppliers will only reserve services for a limited time, and we will of course advise exactly what this means to you since every tour is unique. Do this just before you advertise the trip so that you can act quickly, as time is of the essence once we are holding accommodation/travel arrangements/resort allocations for you.
4: Promoting Your Trip
You have worked so hard to get this far, so make sure you give your trip every chance of securing enough takers. Advertise your trip to pupils and parents, giving particular thought to any other potential financial pressures on parents. It’s often a good idea to send a letter out towards the end of a month, and giving parents a short window to return a deposit payment, allowing for a pay day to fall during that window. Create additional urgency and increase demand by advising students that places are strictly limited and hence they need to sign up quickly to avoid missing out!
Our sample letter to parents can be downloaded here.
Tours by air often require passenger names as per passport at time of booking, so make sure you save yourself time and hassle by gathering this information in your initial promotion.
It is important at the outset to provide parents with clear information regarding payment deadlines for additional deposits and final payments thus avoiding any confusion later down the line.
Top tip: Depending on the demographics of your catchment, and/or the price of your
tour, many teachers also put a monthly payment plan in place to help parents budget appropriately for the tour costs (we can provide payment cards for you to hand out to pupils/parents to assist with keeping records). This helps to reduce last minute drop-outs around the time that the final balance is due.
5: Make a Firm Booking
Let us know how many passengers you have managed to sign up so that we can provide you with a pro-forma invoice to request the payment from your finance team. Please remember to send the deposit payment along with a completed booking form and passenger names if required for booking flights. Payments are accepted by cheque or bank transfer.
It is essential that you have travel insurance arrangements confirmed at this stage, either through us or your own provider, so that passengers are protected from the moment that a first deposit is paid to us. We include travel insurance as standard, but you may opt out if you prefer to use your own policy. If you arrange your own travel insurance, you should supply us with details of your policy at time of booking (Insurer name and policy number).
6: Pre-Tour Support and Planning
Once deposits are paid and your tour is booked, we hand you over to your dedicated
Tour Co-Ordinator who will support you through the rest of the planning process. He/she will let you know when and what information needs to be provided to hoteliers, ski hire shops, ski schools and transport operators etc., whilst working with you to firm up your itinerary details by booking evening activities and ski school in line with your group’s needs.
We will of course always be on hand for any queries that you may have, and point you in the right direction for additional support wherever it may be required.
Useful links:
Advice on travelling abroad: www.fco.gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo
Health and Safety Executive – School trips and outdoor learning activities – www.hse.gov.uk/services/education/school-trips.pdf
General visa, passport and health information: www.gov.uk/browse/citizenship/passports
Group/collective passports: www.gov.uk/collective-group-passports
US Visa (ESTA): https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/
For visa information and assistance for non-British passport holders contact the
appropriate Embassy
7: On Tour
We are not satisfied unless you are delighted with the arrangements that you have
entrusted us to make for your group so please let us know if something doesn’t
go to plan so that we can do our utmost to solve any problems on the spot.
In the event of any problem whilst on tour, our 24 hour emergency line will be
available to you.
8: On Your Return
We care passionately about every tour that we organise, so we will want to know
how the trip went and hence will definitely be in touch on your return to hear all about it! We want you to entrust your trips with us again and again, and be proud to recommend our services to your friends and colleagues.
