Anonymous wrote:Swiss Alps for E3600 might be a new DCUM legend, along with Bobcat Girl, Kitchen Cllsed MIl, Beunch Granny, and Original Larla.

Her vacation planning skills seem top notch, but her post is not remotely to the level of those you mentioned. You forgot burgundy washcloth lady.

Swiss Alps for E3600 might be a new DCUM legend, along with Bobcat Girl, Kitchen Cllsed MIl, Beunch Granny, and Original Larla.

Seriously, PP, well done. If the fed thing doesn’t work out, you can start a travel agent business catering to all of us that want to live the high life on the medium life budget.

Awesome Swiss skiing PP! Please post a trip report and feedback when you are back, maybe that will be my 2026 trip!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Skiing in the French Alps. Booked tix for the family using Chase points a year ago. Booked a great apartment overlooking the slopes and valley six months ago when the FX rate was higher, all day ski school is 70 euros a day for the kids, a French meal delivery service is providing 7 days of meals for 240 euros & we don’t have to cook, fresh bread & pastries delivered every morning to our door, etc. The whole trip - flights, car rental, a week of skiing and lessons for the kids, meals - is like 3500 euros. Best deal I’ve ever scored.

-A Nervous Fed

How did you know how to do all this?

I knew our spring break was late in the year (3rd week of April), so I began researching Alps ski resorts with the latest ski seasons. This means you need to look at high altitude villages with glacier skiing which dramatically narrows down your options. Our flights were only 30K points each RT because I got a good deal on Air France into GVA, so my choice of ski resort was driven first by time of year and the airport choice.

We settled on Avoriaz (1800m), only a 90 min drive from GVA

Initially I thought we should do an all-inclusive like ClubMed. But that would've been around 7000 euros (excluding airfare) and we would have to pay for 7 nights (whereas our flights have us on the ground for six nights). The highest ClubMed is in Tignes and I think that drive would be miserable for my younger kids after a transcon overnight flights (plus slogging drive back to GVA).

Avoriaz is the highest village closest to GVA. Another benefit is that its in the Portes du Soleil interconnected domaine which gets a ton of sun in the spring. It's also in France along the Swiss border, which means its a lot cheaper but you can easily take interconnected lift system into Switzerland.

With the location nailed down, I started doing lots of research into accommodations, ski school, meals, etc. A lot of Google Map use to see the locations of everything within the sizeable village and reading reviews. We found a great vacation apartment building run by a company called Pierre et Vacances - they seem to be a popular rental company in European resort towns. Through the concierge at the property, I can order meal kit delivery, reserve lift tix/ski rental at a substantial discount, book spa treatments, etc. They gave me information about booking ski lessons through ESF, the French national ski school located in all French ski resorts and also runs daycares in most ski villages so the parents can have a break.

I did a metric crap-ton of research to plan this vacation. And it started about a year ago all due to Air France having a bonus transfer deal with Chase points lol

Great job! As a fellow Chase UR collector I have a lot of respect for this!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Skiing in the French Alps. Booked tix for the family using Chase points a year ago. Booked a great apartment overlooking the slopes and valley six months ago when the FX rate was higher, all day ski school is 70 euros a day for the kids, a French meal delivery service is providing 7 days of meals for 240 euros & we don’t have to cook, fresh bread & pastries delivered every morning to our door, etc. The whole trip - flights, car rental, a week of skiing and lessons for the kids, meals - is like 3500 euros. Best deal I’ve ever scored.

-A Nervous Fed

How did you know how to do all this?

I knew our spring break was late in the year (3rd week of April), so I began researching Alps ski resorts with the latest ski seasons. This means you need to look at high altitude villages with glacier skiing which dramatically narrows down your options. Our flights were only 30K points each RT because I got a good deal on Air France into GVA, so my choice of ski resort was driven first by time of year and the airport choice.

We settled on Avoriaz (1800m), only a 90 min drive from GVA

Initially I thought we should do an all-inclusive like ClubMed. But that would've been around 7000 euros (excluding airfare) and we would have to pay for 7 nights (whereas our flights have us on the ground for six nights). The highest ClubMed is in Tignes and I think that drive would be miserable for my younger kids after a transcon overnight flights (plus slogging drive back to GVA).

Avoriaz is the highest village closest to GVA. Another benefit is that its in the Portes du Soleil interconnected domaine which gets a ton of sun in the spring. It's also in France along the Swiss border, which means its a lot cheaper but you can easily take interconnected lift system into Switzerland.

With the location nailed down, I started doing lots of research into accommodations, ski school, meals, etc. A lot of Google Map use to see the locations of everything within the sizeable village and reading reviews. We found a great vacation apartment building run by a company called Pierre et Vacances - they seem to be a popular rental company in European resort towns. Through the concierge at the property, I can order meal kit delivery, reserve lift tix/ski rental at a substantial discount, book spa treatments, etc. They gave me information about booking ski lessons through ESF, the French national ski school located in all French ski resorts and also runs daycares in most ski villages so the parents can have a break.

I did a metric crap-ton of research to plan this vacation. And it started about a year ago all due to Air France having a bonus transfer deal with Chase points lol

This website is very good for researching ski resorts in Europe: https://www.skiresort.info/snow-reports/seasonend/alps/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Skiing in the French Alps. Booked tix for the family using Chase points a year ago. Booked a great apartment overlooking the slopes and valley six months ago when the FX rate was higher, all day ski school is 70 euros a day for the kids, a French meal delivery service is providing 7 days of meals for 240 euros & we don’t have to cook, fresh bread & pastries delivered every morning to our door, etc. The whole trip - flights, car rental, a week of skiing and lessons for the kids, meals - is like 3500 euros. Best deal I’ve ever scored.

-A Nervous Fed

How did you know how to do all this?

I knew our spring break was late in the year (3rd week of April), so I began researching Alps ski resorts with the latest ski seasons. This means you need to look at high altitude villages with glacier skiing which dramatically narrows down your options. Our flights were only 30K points each RT because I got a good deal on Air France into GVA, so my choice of ski resort was driven first by time of year and the airport choice.

We settled on Avoriaz (1800m), only a 90 min drive from GVA

Initially I thought we should do an all-inclusive like ClubMed. But that would've been around 7000 euros (excluding airfare) and we would have to pay for 7 nights (whereas our flights have us on the ground for six nights). The highest ClubMed is in Tignes and I think that drive would be miserable for my younger kids after a transcon overnight flights (plus slogging drive back to GVA).

Avoriaz is the highest village closest to GVA. Another benefit is that its in the Portes du Soleil interconnected domaine which gets a ton of sun in the spring. It's also in France along the Swiss border, which means its a lot cheaper but you can easily take interconnected lift system into Switzerland.

With the location nailed down, I started doing lots of research into accommodations, ski school, meals, etc. A lot of Google Map use to see the locations of everything within the sizeable village and reading reviews. We found a great vacation apartment building run by a company called Pierre et Vacances - they seem to be a popular rental company in European resort towns. Through the concierge at the property, I can order meal kit delivery, reserve lift tix/ski rental at a substantial discount, book spa treatments, etc. They gave me information about booking ski lessons through ESF, the French national ski school located in all French ski resorts and also runs daycares in most ski villages so the parents can have a break.

I did a metric crap-ton of research to plan this vacation. And it started about a year ago all due to Air France having a bonus transfer deal with Chase points lol

Bulgaria then College Park to check out the newer UMD hotel

Anonymous wrote:Ok, the Swiss alps for 3500 euros is pretty sweet. Congrats, PP! That's awesome.
We'll probably pay that much for a week at the beach in Fla. so good job.
We will be covering some of the costs though for a family with a parent who is getting RIF'd/ we all need some time away from the unusual (and counterproductive and damaging to our nation) developments here inside the beltway.

My plane tickets to Florida cost more than that!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College tours in Georgia and SC.

LOL tell us you are not paying attention to what is going on in the US.

She's looking at engineering schools. Why does it matter where they are?

Seriously?

Wake up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you going?

Marco island

I thought we weren’t supporting red states with our travel dollars? DCUM is a bunch of virtue signalers

MAGA trash posts on DCUM.

Just got back.

College tours up in the Northeast.

Anonymous wrote:PP Belize, are you renting a car to get to San Ignacio and do you have hotel recs? Thank you!

I’m the poster that flew from Lamanai to San Ignacio. Having been there, a rental car would have been okay, but long. Plus our 3-stop route didn’t appear to work well with a rental car. The Lamanai Outpost quoted $650 for a private driver and $1,000 for a flight. Then we stayed at San Ignacio Resort because toucans were a priority for me. I really enjoyed seeing those toucans every morning. Things we enjoyed around San Ignacio: Jaguar Paw cave and Belize zoo, ATM, iguana thing at hotel, hotel pool.

Anonymous wrote:Belize poster-can you share your itinerary? I am planning for May but having a hard time deciding, everything is far apart!

I’m not the Belize poster but I’ve done the trip. Belize is a destination with excellent domestic air options. The hotels book flights for you. We did 2 or 3 nights at Lamanai Outpost Lodge. Flew from the lodge to San Ignacio (just our family of 4 for $1,000). 4 nights near San Ignacio then flew to San Pedro for last 3 or 4 nights (I can’t remember the flight cost but it was a lot less than the earlier flight. Full little plane that made a couple stops. Views were incredible.) One of our best trips ever.

Anonymous wrote:Skiing in the French Alps. Booked tix for the family using Chase points a year ago. Booked a great apartment overlooking the slopes and valley six months ago when the FX rate was higher, all day ski school is 70 euros a day for the kids, a French meal delivery service is providing 7 days of meals for 240 euros & we don’t have to cook, fresh bread & pastries delivered every morning to our door, etc. The whole trip - flights, car rental, a week of skiing and lessons for the kids, meals - is like 3500 euros. Best deal I’ve ever scored.

-A Nervous Fed

How did you know how to do all this?

Ok, the Swiss alps for 3500 euros is pretty sweet. Congrats, PP! That's awesome.
We'll probably pay that much for a week at the beach in Fla. so good job.
We will be covering some of the costs though for a family with a parent who is getting RIF'd/ we all need some time away from the unusual (and counterproductive and damaging to our nation) developments here inside the beltway.