Airport Transfers to Ski Resorts
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No 16 applies to our team in Morzine and don’t think any of them will score less than 15. What’s you’re score? The only antidote is more skiing!
Thanks to our friend at Snow Gaper for this great graphic.
Okay. So the UK has now left the EU – but what can you expect when travelling to the European member states from 1st January 2021?
The UK will no longer be treated like a member of the EU, and is subject to new rules.
Once the COVID situation is under control and UK citizens are generally allowed to travel abroad again, you’ll need to be aware of these 8 changes when travelling to any EU countries (plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).
Most British travellers spend a few weeks at time abroad, however if you are thinking of spending longer you need to be aware that you’ll only be able to stay in an EU country for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. If you want to stay longer, you’ll need the right to remain/visa. The rules for Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania are different – as you can be there for 90-days and not use up your 90-day allowance for other EU countries.
You’ll need at least 6 months left on your passport and it must have been issued in the last 10 years. To make sure your passport is valid please visit the Government’s passport checker.
If you have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) it is valid up to the expiry date displayed on the card.
There are limited details about what will replace EHIC but the UK government has said it will be issuing UK Global Health Insurance Card, which will most likely cover chronic or existing illnesses, maternity care and emergencies. Further details will follow.
The advice is to always take-out comprehensive travel insurance with appropriate healthcare cover, including existing medical conditions and any activities you plan to do such as skiing or other winter sports.
Ski-Lifts’ partner for travel insurance can be found here.
While the UK’s four main mobile operators have said they have no plans to reintroduce roaming fees, it’s a good idea to check with your provider before you head off. As of 1st Jan 2021, Brits in Europe are not guaranteed free mobile data roaming so you could be charged for calls, messages or using the internet or apps.
You will no longer be able to use the EU passport lanes on arrival. You might also have to show a return ticket and that you have enough money for your stay.
Good news if you are travelling to the EU from the UK (expect Ireland) as you can now stock up on duty free shopping with tobacco and alcohol limits set to increase as well.
Meat and dairy products cannot be taken into EU countries so please check as recent news reports show they are checking. The exceptions are powdered baby milk, baby food or food required for medical reasons.
Take the hassle-free approach and book a transfer with Ski-Lifts to ensure that your holiday runs as smoothly as possible – be met at the airport and taken directly to your accommodation. Get an instant quote here.
If you are hiring a car, you’ll need to take your driving licence (you’ll need an international driving permit if yours is the old paper version or issued in Gibraltar, Channel Islands or the Isle of Man).
If you are taking your own vehicle, you’ll also need the logbook (V5C) and valid insurance documents – please contact your insurance company four to six weeks before travel to get a green card to prove you have insurance. They may charge you an admin fee for this. You’ll still need a GB sticker on the car.
There are several resorts in Germany for skiing. Of note are some great bunny mountains for those wanting to build their confidence, as well as the Kandahar run in Garmisch, which surprises everyone for how tricky it is for downhill ski fans.
Germany is a beginner and family skier’s secret bolthole, with many resorts just an hour away from Munich Airport and Munich Train Station, as well as many tiny towns and villages that no-one really knows about…
Garmisch – or Garmisch-Partenkirchen by its full name – is a very well-known location with 45km of pistes, where a skier can kick off their skiing holiday, before tacking the Kandahar for the week, or whizzing around the four big peaks: the Hausberg, the Kreuzeck, the Alpspitze and the Zugspitze (“Trek Top”), which is the highest mountain in Germany. It casually relaxes itself across the Austria-Germany border and descends into Ehrwald in Austria.
The whole Garmisch area has lots of little pockets of (interestingly named, and) beautiful places to pepper your trip with if you wish. There is the Linderhof, an ex-royal palace open to the public, a glacier Höllental (Wetterstein) – great for trying our climbing in the Alps, and Eibsee, which is quite possibly the most instagrammable lake in all of Germany.
⛷ Need an airport transfer to Garmisch? Let Ski-Lifts take care of your ski transfers today!
Oberjoch Bad Hindelan is popular locally in a similar way that The Nevis Range is popular in Scotland, UK – the peaks are family-friendly, and the snow is good when travel costs are cheaper – in January and February. Of course, Oberjoch’s pistes aren’t as dizzying as they are elsewhere, but the slopes add up to a little range of 32km to choose from. While this is small, this number does makes Oberjoch much bigger compared to many tiny slopes dotted around Bavaria that literally centre around about 8 cabins and a few cafes (perfect if you’re on a serious hideaway holiday!). There is also a snow nursery for the smaller kids to meet and go sledding or learn skiing; and in the winter, Oberjoch welcomes a little troupe of horse-drawn carriages for couples wishing to live the actual Bavarian fairy tale.
⛷ Need a transfer to Oberjoch? Get a custom quote for your Germany ski transfer now.
Oberstdorf’s range technically crosses over in Austria – some skiers will tell you that Oberstdorf is Austrian because that’s where the bigger footprints of the mountains are… But if your resort or chalet is in Oberstdorf proper, you are actually still in Germany – albeit, the most southern tip of Bavaria.
It’s much bigger than most people imagine it to be, with 130km of pistes to choose from, including the more challenging red runs – the Fellhorn and Walmendingerhorn mountains. Off-piste, you can explore another untouched 70km of mountain and crag – a place that hikers and climbers tend to make more use of in the summer.
⛷ Visitng Oberstdorf this season? Book your Munich Airport transfer today, with Ski-Lifts.
Feldberg is the name of the mountain and the village, located at the “end” of the famous Black Forest. It is sizeable in terms of the kinds of skiing areas that exist in Germany – there are 60km of slopes across the Feldberg and Seebuck mountains here (not including any off-piste shenanigans), which together make Feldberg a third bigger than Garmisch’s range in total, just for on-piste.
Feldberg has 36 slopes and 28 lifts – again, not massively known internationally, but a new year must-do in Germany, with lots of city folk rushing in during the Christmas and school holidays here. Feldberg is also the spiritual home of skiing in Germany – at least in the sense that in 1892, Germany’s first ever ski club was established on Feldberg mountain; and the first ski-in ski-out lodge in the country.
⛷ Ski-Lifts has your ski transfers to Austria and Germany covered! Book now.
A. Garmisch is probably the most famous ski resort in Germany, home of the country’s tallest mountains and most challenging downhill runs. Oberjoch and Oberstdorf are also well-known as Bavarian Alps wonderlands; the latter crossing over into Austria. Oberstdorf offers an impressive 80 miles of piste to explore, and a World-Cup ski track.
A collaboration between Gravity Industries, which has developed and patented a 1050 brake horsepower Jet Suit, and the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS), led to an incredibly well-documented, successful test flight and hill rescue mission in the heart of the Lake District, UK.
Founder of Gravity Industries and Chief Test Pilot, Richard Browning, used his skills and vision create the world’s first patented Jet Suit. The Jet Suit currently can perform speeds in excess of 80mph (although, yes, we know some of you may feel that you already ski at this speed anyway on a good downhill day in Kitzbuhel 😉 ) – the suit is technically capable of reaching an altitude of 12,000ft (although for safety purposes, it is typically flown lower).
Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) showcased the Gravity Suit, an item of ‘mecha’ flying clothing capable of performing mountain and hill rescue wherein the travel distance compared to traditional air ambulance service, such as that which may require a helicopter, is much faster with a suit. The Gravity suit has the potential to be empowering and a life-saver than the transport which is currently available to mountain rescue services currently in use across the world.
The test making this use case occurred most notably, and recently, at the Langdale Pikes saw Gravity Industries founder and Chief Test Pilot Richard Browning fly from the valley bottom to a simulated casualty site on The Band, near Bowfell – a 2,950ft peak in one of the UK’s biggest national parks.
Andy Mawson, director of operations and paramedic at GNAAS, identified the Lakes as a possible location for a Jet Suit paramedic after hearing of Mr. Browning’s work and then studying the charity’s own call-out data. Mr. Mawson said the exercise had demonstrated the huge potential of utilising Jet Suits to deliver critical care services.
He added: “In a time in healthcare when we are exhausted with COVID and its effects, it’s important to still push the boundaries. We think this technology could enable our team to reach some patients much quicker than ever before. In many cases this would ease the patient’s suffering. In some cases, it would save their lives.”
Using the suit, medics, or specialist mountaineering rescuers, could be flown directly to the site of an emergency, instead of having to walk up or down, or take the risk of flying in a chopper. While these types of flights are only for experimental purposes for the moment, the team hopes they could be a crucial part of a future mountain rescue.
Richard Browning added: “It was wonderful to be invited to explore the capabilities of the Gravity Jet Suit in an emergency response simulation and work alongside the team at GNAAS. We are just scratching the surface in terms of what is possible to achieve with our technology. Emergency response is one of the areas Gravity are actively pursuing, alongside launching a new commercial training location at the world-renowned Goodwood Estate.” Following this successful trial and the record-breaking times in terms of ascending the fell, GNAAS and Gravity Industries are now exploring the next steps in this collaboration.
To anyone who has seen a mountain rescue helicopter approach a scene of crash and disaster, the great saving of valuable time that the Jet Suit could promise the whole skiing industry is more than apparent – we can’t wait to see the next iteration of this exciting ski mountain rescue technology.
Gravity Industries designs, builds and flies Jet Suits, “pioneering a new era of human flight” – it’s hard to argue with that!
The company was founded to challenge perceived boundaries in human aviation. Launched in March 2017, the business secured a raise: totalling $650,000 investment within the first two months from Tim & Adam Draper, Tim best known for his early investments in Baidu Inc., Tesla and Skype.
The company says that it’s true focus is the relentless evolution of the technology as well as bringing “this inspirational spectacle to live audiences all over the world in the form of the International Race Series and other performance events.”
As of this winter season, Gravity is allowing potential clients of the jet suit to fully experience it (tethered, though, just in case you get giddy!) over at Goodwood. Hey, if you can’t fly out to your favourite ski resort for the Coronavirus – why not fly –literally– with your body?
Ski Lifts enjoys keeping company with the best organisations in the ski and snow communities, so it gives us great pleasure to continue being one ‘a part of the furniture’ at Ski Club of Great Britain!
For regular skiers, boarders and the chalet getaway crowd, the Ski Club of Great Britain is able to offer exclusive deals to members that save a lot of money in the long run, from ski hire, resort bookings, coaching and lessons – and even transfers with ourselves at Ski-Lifts.
One thing that’s guaranteed to keep you excited this season despite everything that’s going in this year, is the wonderful Snow Forecast service from Ski Club of GB. Members get access to an exclusive 10-day forecast in one easy place to check.
Including our team, Ski-Club has 22,000 members with over a century’s worth of a rich history in the mountains around the world.
Ski Club of Great Britain members are entitled to members-only discounts across the full Ski-Lifts range of transfers in every single location. Because Ski-Lifts don’t do discounts normally, being a member of Ski Club is of great benefit, as this will help you save on your transfers with us, thanks to this partnership.
You can receive 20% off standard Ski Club membership today by using the code SKILIFTS20. Fill in the details on our membership page and find the perfect membership type just for you!
Ski Lifts continues its fantastic partnership with Ski Club – the membership organisation that gets better and better every year for its members.
Commercial Director, Simon Holmes said: “We are delighted to once again be a partner of Ski Club, a fantastic organisation for skiers and snowboarders, old and young. The plethora of benefits is truly incredible – the value they offer in boosting and saving money across all your ski experiences through the years with them, is simply unmatched.”
Ski Club of Great Britain Head of Member Services, Owen Chapman has said: “We are very excited to announce Ski Lifts as our Preferred Transfer Partner this coming season. Not only supporting our members in providing a great service to and from resort, Ski Lifts work very closely with our Freshtracks team to provide an excellence service for our holidaymakers. We are delighted for our long-standing partnership to continue to grow for many winters to come!”
Click to find out more about Ski Club of Great Britain and how it can benefit you.
