Possibly our favourite Christmas present at Skipedia was an original 1984 copy of ‘The Sunday Times Guide to Ski and Apres-Ski’ (in association with Harpers & Queen, don’t you know…).
Skiing was in a massive growth phase in 1984
Written by Alastair Scott, who had been appointed skiing editor of The Sunday Times by Andrew Neil only the year before, the book is a fascinating insight to a time when skiing was going through a massive growth phase.
Only a third of companies still in business
Scott’s selection of tour operators (‘not intended to be comprehensive’) that have ‘reasonably good reputations for organising skiing holidays’ is a fascinating read.
By our count, 13 of the 36 listed are still in business, and there are some wonderfully evocative names that have fallen by the wayside over the years.
TOUR OPERATORS:
Activity Travel – now only operate to Les Gets, but principally an agent.
Adventure Holidays – a schools company. No longer operating.
Ski Beach Villas – primarily a summer operator. No longer operating.
Bladon Lines – one of the quintessential 80s chalet companies. Alumni include YSE founders John Yates-Smith and Fiona Easdale, Momentum Ski founder Amin Momen, Alpine Answers owner Simon Hoskyns, as well as Natives & Skipedia founder Iain Martin. Bought by Inghams in 1995, who closed the brand down, then brought it back, before finally dropped it forever.
Blue Sky Holidays – no longer operating.
Club Mark Warner – ‘definitely for the more sociable skiers’. Now simply ‘Mark Warner’: the largest independent ski company left.
Club Med – the upmarket French company remain a niche operator for British guests.
Crystal Holidays – this ‘relatively downmarket’ operator is now the biggest UK tour operator.
Ski Enterprise – this became the First Choice ski brand, before it was absorbed into Skibound in 1996.
French Travel Service – we think this company is still in business, but they don’t do ski anymore.
Global – no longer in business.
Horizon Holidays – no longer in business (the current Horizon Ski has only been around since 2001).
Inghams – ‘no longer as upmarket as it once was’. Now the UK’s second largest ski company.
Intasun Skiscene – Intasun went spectacularly bust in 1991 after the Gulf War, taking Air Europe with it.
Kuoni – still in business, although does not carry many UK skiers
Made to Measure Holidays – were still in business up to 2008, but don’t appear to be operating now.
John Morgan Travel – well known in the 80s, but no longer in business.
Mountain Lodges – no longer in business.
Neilson Holidays – ‘pioneered the ski guide concept’. Now part of the Thomas Cook group.
Peter Stuyvesant Travel – no longer in business as a tour operator.
Powder Skiing in North America – no longer in business.
Ski an’ Do Holidays – no longer in business.
Ski Club of Great Britain – still operate their ‘FreshTracks’ holiday programme
Ski MacG – no longer in business.
Ski Sunmed – no longer in business.
Ski Supertravel – went out of business in 1989, but the name and mail-list was purchased by the Lotus Group and run as Lotus Supertravel until the old company name Ski Supertravel was more recently revived.
Ski Val – still a popular tour operator in St Anton and Val d’Isere.
Ski West – sister company of Bladon Lines and no longer in business.
Ski Whizz – no longer in business. Not to be confused with SkiWiz.
Skiworld – founded in 1982, Skiworld is the largest independent ski operator in the UK
Small World – no longer in business.
Snowtime – no longer in business.
Swiss Travel Service – still operating a small programme.
Tailor Made Ski Tours – no longer in business.
Thomas Cook Holidays – no longer an operator, although they do now own Neilson Holidays.
Thomson Holidays – part of the TUI group, still operating a reduced programme.
Please feel free to add a comment with your memories of any of the departed…
30 comments
Tom says:
Jan 11, 2012
Ski Whizz was bought by “Ski Enterprise – this became the First Choice ski brand, before it was absorbed into Skibound in 1996.”
Colin MATHEWS says:
Dec 17, 2012
I started MERISKI in MERIBEL in 1984…..as it happens!?
iain says:
Dec 17, 2012
Clearly Alistair Scott wasn’t digging deep enough!
Sharon Saw says:
Nov 15, 2013
I used to love the Chalet holidays in the 80’s and was a loyal Supertraveller… i just loved the total flight+transfers+catered chalet programme… quite sad to know that they went out of business but i hope the new owners have kept the ethos. I was looking for a similar package but now I guess the packages are all sans flights and transfers… if anyone knows of any company that does the whole package, do let me know 🙂
iain says:
Nov 15, 2013
Hi Sharon,
Supertravel are still in business. The name and list was bought – you can find them here
http://www.supertravel.co.uk/ski/
re package holidays with chalet, lots still offer this. Try
http://www.chaletline.co.uk/
Enjoy your skiing!
Paul Dobie says:
Jan 7, 2014
I worked in isola 2000 all thru the 80s and Neilson were bringing 200 plus clients per week.
Andrew Selby, formally John Neilsons partner created a company called Vacations and was quite successfull for a while.
Goeff Garner Richard Harrison and Emily Lewis were amongst the instructors.
This was a fun few years.
iain says:
Jan 7, 2014
Thanks for that comment Paul. Sounds like great days
ian kennedy says:
Feb 13, 2014
i had a company called splashdown in the 80/90’s , mainly making sailing clothing but we also made ski clothing uniform for bladon lines , inghams , ski club gb , ski macg , ski val ski west , supertravel .. in fact we had most of that market for the boom times of the 80’s .. good days ..
Ian Kennedy
iain says:
Feb 13, 2014
Great contribution Ian. I wore the Bladon Lines uniform – loved those parrots!
Nicki Pope says:
Mar 14, 2014
I was a Bladon Lines Chalet Girl in Crans Montana 86 / 87. I still use my Bladon Lines Chalet Girl Cookbook, and my mum still wears my Parrot Ski Jacket! Happy Days 🙂
iain says:
Mar 14, 2014
My mum has my old Bladon Lines cookbook – still loves it. I’d love to see a picture of the jacket – any chance you could mail one to us?
Ian Barr says:
Apr 3, 2014
I used to be the Contracts manager for John Morgan, then went on to work with Mark and Andy at Mark Warner.
Reading through that list of those once GREAT names is kind of sad!
R.I.P. !!
But what good times we had. And the older we get, the better we were.
Haha.
iain says:
Apr 3, 2014
Good to hear your thoughts Ian. Great days indeed.
Linzi Stockdale says:
May 2, 2014
I was a chalet girl for John Morgan in 1984 based in Verbier! This period in my life was one of the best! Certainly up there with the best memories. John Morgan was a great company to work for – fabulous 5* chalets and 5* chalet girls! In my fifties now but still love skiing and being in the mountains. Sad that John Morgan is no more……..
iain says:
May 2, 2014
Great days Linzi – love that feedback.
Rob MOY says:
Aug 21, 2014
Did my first season as a ‘bum’ in ’84 back in the day when you could ‘crash’ in spare chalet beds and on a good week purloin an empty apartment. There was also plenty of ‘cash in hand’ work to be had, unlike today; I made enough money to keep me going all season without having to dip into the meagre savings I had.
Ski Enterprise was part of British Airways Holidays at the time and was the only ski brand for BA, they had three other brands at the time – Sovereign, Flair and the direct sell Martin Rooks. I went on to work for BA Hols for nearly three years doing serial summer and winter seasons.
I left when BA Hols merged with SunMed which became Redwing Holidays, which morphed into the Owners Abroad group (who still kept a whole shelf-full of different brochure brands) before consolidating them all into First Choice.
iain says:
Aug 26, 2014
Great insight there Rob!
Vicky says:
Aug 21, 2014
Q: Why *were* there parrots on the BladonLines brand?! I never knew…
iain says:
Aug 26, 2014
I believe it’s because guests said so often that the red, yellow and blue uniforms looked like them
James Taylor says:
Nov 7, 2018
Why no mention of Ski Lovers , great company . Had my honeymoon in St Johann I’m Pongau in 86
skipresto says:
Feb 8, 2019
I worked as a ski instructor for Skiing Europe, formerly Ski Europe both gone.
But one of the biggest current operators is Interski (Interski.com) that carry 1500 school children per week to the Aosta Valley in NW Italy.
I met a beautiful girl who worked for Beach Villas in Verbier circa 1984
Anyone who wants to meet for a ski? Contact skipresto.com !
iain says:
Feb 8, 2019
Nice one! I worked for Ski Beach Villas in 1994 in Mottaret!
PeeWee says:
Feb 16, 2019
Bladon Lines.
They were based in Putney, just round the corner from Inghams.
I have vague recollections (well, it was a long time ago) that Inghams bought the mailing list, trading name and one or two chalet contracts.
The problem was apparently that Dieter didn’t waant the “risk” of a lot of chalet contracts.
iain says:
Feb 16, 2019
I worked in that office in Putney, but I think it was Supertravel who bought the mail list?
‘Spike’ Johnson says:
Dec 30, 2021
(Bit of an old thread that I found when looking up what happened to Bladon Lines at 5am!).
Having just had a Christmas ski vacation with ‘Le Ski’ cancelled due to Covid/French politics, I can confirm that they too were around back then in Courchevel. I remember as I was a ski guide for them for a season.
Many of the old names I remember well. I also guided for Supertravel the previous year. They had 20+ chalets in Courchevel 1850 alone! Bladon Lines and Ski Whizz, Inghams and later Ski Scott Dunn come to mind from that era.
A few people I knew from back then still live in France now and the more successful of the ones that returned to England now own chalets in the three valleys. Part of that scene never fully left. Good days indeed. Thanks for the memory jog.
Jackie Williams (Brown) says:
Jan 15, 2022
I was just reading through this old thread too! Nice to see a recent comment. I worked for four years as a chalet girl/ski rep/ ski guide for Small World originally, then John Morgan travel. All in the early 80’s – still some of my best memories and the very best of times! Very sad to see how many companies are no longer operating, but it was a long time ago. Sorry to hear your ski holiday was cancelled – and now they’ve opened up again. Very frustrating. Hopefully you will get back in the spring.
iain says:
Jan 16, 2022
Hi Jackie, thanks for your comment. I love hearing about the glory days of British skiing. When I get the time, I will do a special episode of The Ski Podcast (www.theskipodcast.com) on Bladon Lines.
Andrew Johnson says:
Jan 16, 2022
Hi Jackie.
Just read your response. You didn’t say where you worked for those 4 years. That’s a good stretch as a chalet girl. Most only do the one season as you’ll know.
Nice to hear if someone else who didn’t quit.
Spike
Jeff & Jo says:
Feb 3, 2022
I’m in Meribel as I type celebrating my 26th wedding anniversary with my wife. We met in Putney in 1992 on our way out to work for Bladon Lines.
iain says:
Feb 4, 2022
Great story Jeff. I know so many people who met their partners on their seasons. Too late for this year now, but next year I’ll have to do a feature on this in The Ski Podcast (www.theskipodcast.com)