1st bike holiday

bighitjas

Looking to book my first propper bike holiday abroad, after much time searching the internet iv decided to go with alpine eliments and book all inclusive so to speak. they can do a week in lez gets for £329 with flights,transfers,breakfast and 3course evening meal. inc free activies like the swimimg pools and a hardtrail mtb. the only extra i can see is that i would require a DH bike at £145, lift pass £30 for the week . is this a worth while place to go>? and at a good price??

cheers jason

UH DH

No.

Alpine Elements is very hit and miss. You may get good and consicentious staff. You probably won't. The breakfasts are basic, cereals, milk, OJ and bread. The swimming pools and other activities are €1 a day normally anyway, so you're not really saving much there. The hardtail is usually a Kona Caldera and is pretty crap. It's the bottom of the range xc bike. You may strike lucky and get one of the decent ones, but every other fucker is riding them too, so they'll be pretty shagged.

Do not under any circumstances hire out the AE DH bikes. They are absolutely abysmal. I borrowed both the XC and DH bikes when I worked for them. I did 3 runs on the DH bike and went back to swap it for the hardtail. Thats how bad it was.

Les Gets is a nice enough place, and they have entertainment in the town square most evenings over summer and loads of events. However unless you only want to ride Les Gets/Morzine, you're better off finding somewhere in Morzine for access to the full Portes Du Soleil. It's got better bars for starters, is more adult orientated, while Les Gets is family orientated, and if you're riding further out and the lifts get shut by weather, it's the easiest resort to get back to riding.

My advice is to forget Alpine Elements and look at some of the independant companies. There's several that'll do room and food for one person. Failing that, check out SouthernDownhill forums, STW or on here for people organising holidays and tag along. Advantage of that, is you'll be with people who have probably been before, so know the trails and routes.

As for hiring bikes: don't.

All the hire bikes are used all season. Even the best maintained ones will be threadbare and rattley. Your best bet is to check classifieds on the above forums for a decent DH or freeride bike around the £6-800 mark, ride it then sell it when you get back.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm currently assembling a Morzine fortnight for 5 and looking for victims. It's a drive there and back deal, central Morzine apartment, liftpass and all travel included in the £500 price. 28th July - 11th August.

bighitjas

Thank you for the heads up. Just it's for me my girlfriend and a mate of mine. The only week we can all get off is the 2nd week in June and were looking for something cheap and easy that we can just relax and maybe do a little dh and walking really then when we've sorted are house out back home we can look into a proper week of riding. The bike they have offered is the spec status one, so hopefully shouldnt be to hanging as there quite new I understand?

UH DH

bighitjas wrote:

The bike they have offered is the spec status one, so hopefully shouldnt be to hanging as there quite new I understand?

They get a pile of new bikes every summer. In theory, your bikes will be brand new when you ride them, because the trails won't be open. In fact, you'll probably be restricted to just Morzine and Les Gets. I know the full PDS doesn't open up until the end of june, but I don't know if it does for walking.