SA Footy

OK looking at taking the kids to the Snow in August in between a trip to Melbourne for the footy and then to Canberra to visit my brother and sister.

Now I have no idea where the best spots are etc, any help people could provide would be a good start!

We are happy to stay away from the snow and travel up there for a day if more economincal.

So let me have it, whats the best?

just cant think of it right now, but dont the Melbourne FC members go to the snow about this time of year......

last year it was the sun and surf and this year its sport and snow!!!

Former English cricketer Chris Lewis is on a 13 year snow holiday.

Trust the RAA for all your touring needs

Wouldn't bother trying Nevis, Glencoe, Glenshee, Cairngorm or The Lecht...not in August anyway...too hot for snow

Regards
JAS

JAS wrote:Wouldn't bother trying Nevis, Glencoe, Glenshee, Cairngorm or The Lecht...not in August anyway...too hot for snow
Regards
JAS

You’ve got me brushing up on my Scottish geography now JAS.
Ben Nevis is the only one of those I’d heard of at 1344 metres.
I never would have thought good old Mt. Kosciuszko would have been 884 metres taller
than your ‘highlands’ highest.
Just goes to show that if you can keep your mouth shut long enough, your ears open &
the hair out of your eyes, you can learn something new every day.

Forget prices Dutchy, think safety. Especially up Thredbo way.
It’s one thing to slide down a mountain on skis, but quite another to slide down in ya’ bed,
with the chalet, the rest of the village and half the bloody mountain !



(JAS – refer Thredbo disaster)

Too Bloody Cold for Dog_ger's arthritus.

I tend to look around the equator...

SABRE wrote:

JAS wrote:Wouldn't bother trying Nevis, Glencoe, Glenshee, Cairngorm or The Lecht...not in August anyway...too hot for snow
Regards
JAS

You’ve got me brushing up on my Scottish geography now JAS.
Ben Nevis is the only one of those I’d heard of at 1344 metres.
I never would have thought good old Mt. Kosciuszko would have been 884 metres taller
than your ‘highlands’ highest.
Just goes to show that if you can keep your mouth shut long enough, your ears open &
the hair out of your eyes, you can learn something new every day.

Forget prices Dutchy, think safety. Especially up Thredbo way.
It’s one thing to slide down a mountain on skis, but quite another to slide down in ya’ bed,
with the chalet, the rest of the village and half the bloody mountain !



(JAS – refer Thredbo disaster)

Those are also the names of the ski resorts here...Cairngorm is my nearest at Aviemore. Ben Nevis not only highest in Highland but all of the UK.

Must admit I've never had any burning desire to try sliding down mountains myself although I do love to watch the Winter Olympics on TV...got quite addicted to the snowboarding last time.

Yep...I've heard of the Thredbo disaster...it got talked about on 5aa once around the time of the anniversary.

Regards
JAS

Thanks for all your help

And Ive already been to Ben Nevis!

Dutchy wrote:Thanks for all your help

And Ive already been to Ben Nevis!

lol,you've copped some real useful info mate.
Do me a favour and take Mrs Wedgie as she wants to goto the snow. The kids and I would rather save up for more time in Thailand and we dont see the attraction from getting cold and wet.
In all seriousness if I was wanting to go to the snow there's only one place I'd consider but its a bit out of your way in Queenstown, NZ.
I've spent a fair bit of time in Canberra and there's a lot of people there that just head off for day trips as there used to be some decent snow a couple of hours out of Canberra.
If you're driving yourself be very careful as conditions can bevery trecherous for non experienced drivers and if you're not in a 4wd it becomes worse again.
And dont forget your tyre chains.

PS Its a pity it doesn't snow at Mt Thebarton anymore!

Im off to Queenstown in 4 weeks for a work conference, will let you know what I think of it Dutchy.

Dutchy wrote:Thanks for all your help

And Ive already been to Ben Nevis!

Dutchy ive been to Perisher and Falls Creek and both were great. Im heading to Hotham this year for a week in August and have been told it is also a very good place to go.

Perisher was the better of the 2 if you ask me but thats purely size related. There are 4 mountains (Perisher, Smiggins, Blue Cow and Guthega) and you can ski all 4 on the 1 lift pass.

I highly recommend the snow as a holiday, great fun.

Any of the big ones (Perisher, Thredbo, Falls Creek or Hotham) should be suffice for what your after.

Depends on how much you want to spend and what activities you want to do.

We did the family version a couple of years ago, stayed in a cabin in the caravan park at Porepunkah (2 minutes from Bright) then travelled up the hill to Buffalo from there. An entire week cost less than $1000 including equipment hire, food and petrol (we drove over). Awesome trip, kids still raving about it and want to go again soon.

I've done Buller once and Hotham 3 times. A mate has done Hotham and Falls in the same season (ski'd at one, worked at the other), thought Hotham was slightly better.

I prefered Buller to Hotham, a better spread of runs which means the line ups at lifts are smaller. However is more expensive to stay there as majority of accomodation is at top of mountain, where as with Hotham they have a village called Dinner Plain halfway up, good value freestanding accommodation and a bus comes past every 20 minutes or so to take you up to the mountain for free, a 10 or so minute bus trip. Also there is a half decent valued supermarket at Dinner Plain so you can cook your own meals rather than paying 6 bucks for a bucket of chips.

Also found Buller to be more professional skiiers, there is a beginner run at Hotham thats seperate from all other runs and is good for beginners to learn their trade. Hotham probably a bit better for first time up I'd reckon.

smac wrote:Depends on how much you want to spend and what activities you want to do.

We did the family version a couple of years ago, stayed in a cabin in the caravan park at Porepunkah (2 minutes from Bright) then travelled up the hill to Buffalo from there. An entire week cost less than $1000 including equipment hire, food and petrol (we drove over). Awesome trip, kids still raving about it and want to go again soon.

Thanks for the last 3 posts, very helpful.

Ive been up to Bright and Fall Creek, but in summer, very pretty area....was thinking staying at Bright might be the go and travelling up so will look at your suggestion thanks Smac

Cause of my bad knees and the kids still young will just look at doing some very basic toboganning etc

We are driving, looking at doing Melbourne, Philip Island, Snow, Bega, Canberra, Mildura route

how long is this holiday gonna be?????

mighty_tiger_79 wrote:how long is this holiday gonna be?????

probably a week and a half, only going to be in Canberra for the weekend - was there last year and did most of the tourist stuff

bloody hell, id need a holiday after the holiday!!!!!

If your only really after tobogganing and basic skiing then lake mountain is cheap, accessible and in need of tourism after vic bushfire. However, its pretty basic and average on the skiing side of things so wouldnt really consider it if decent skiing is high on the agenda. Its also different in snow fall to Hotham/Falls/Buller/Buffalo generally, was well down when a mate was there a couple years ago in comparison to what we were getting at the same time at Hotham.

Dutchy wrote:

smac wrote:Depends on how much you want to spend and what activities you want to do.

We did the family version a couple of years ago, stayed in a cabin in the caravan park at Porepunkah (2 minutes from Bright) then travelled up the hill to Buffalo from there. An entire week cost less than $1000 including equipment hire, food and petrol (we drove over). Awesome trip, kids still raving about it and want to go again soon.

Thanks for the last 3 posts, very helpful.

Ive been up to Bright and Fall Creek, but in summer, very pretty area....was thinking staying at Bright might be the go and travelling up so will look at your suggestion thanks Smac

Cause of my bad knees and the kids still young will just look at doing some very basic toboganning etc

We are driving, looking at doing Melbourne, Philip Island, Snow, Bega, Canberra, Mildura route

Tobogganning half way up Buffalo for free, a good sized hill for the kids (smac jr was 9, littlest smac was only 18 months and they were both happy with it), a good sized cafe for the parents when needed as well. The Porepunkah caravan park we stayed in was actually on the road up to Buffalo so it took about 20 minutes to get there as well.