You’ve decided to go skiing with a large group of friends or family members and now you’re trying to figure out the best way to organize the trip. The first step is to choose someone to handle the arrangements. It’s good to choose one person, or a couple, to handle the reservations and payments. It’s much easier to have one point of contact when booking group ski packages than everyone trying to do independent research and making phone calls.
The same is true for any upfront costs. There should be one person willing to use his or her credit card to handle any booking costs, and then each party in the group is responsible for paying their share. Once the responsible party books the trip, the rest is all about planning and having fun.
Planning an Itinerary
With any large group, you’re going to have people who want to separate and go off and do their own thing. However, on a big ski trip, it’s important that your group stay together for skiing so that no one gets separated. It wouldn’t hurt to a pre-trip planning meeting to see what everyone wants to do and make a general rough draft itinerary. You don’t necessarily have to follow it exactly, but it’s good to have a tentative plan in place before you leave. If you need help figuring out what else there is to do besides skiing, the agency you book group ski packages through should be able to help you.
Determining Transportation
A big decision making process will be the mode of transportation to use while at the ski lodge. If your group is all family, everyone may wish to stay together. If it’s a large group of friends, you may want to plan group and individual actives. There are plenty of places to rent vehicles, and a large passenger van works for big groups. Most of the lodges also offer shuttle services, which works well if your group will be doing a variety of activities. If you’re only going for a few days, you may not need any mode of transport if you don’t want to leave the lodge. When you call to find out about group ski packages, ask the representative to recommend the best way to get around the area you’ll be staying.
