n To connect to the Internet, you first need a computer, a modem and a telephone line. Then you will need to choose an Internet Service Provider. Each ISP offers different facilities and services so it is worth comparing the features before deciding. Most ISPs charge a monthly fee for connection, however recently there has been a flood of ISPs offering trial free periods or free subscription. An ISP that offers free Internet access might not necessarily offer the best service and support. Check out the technical support hours – they may not be 24hrs – and check the cost of calls to the Help Line. Check that your service provider allows you to connect to the Internet at local call rates all over the UK and remember that you can work off-line by browsing from the cache on your hard drive. You should have some idea in advance of what sort of package you require. ISPs vary and may offer single, multiple or unlimited e-mail addresses. You may also be interested in creating your own Web page so make certain the amount of Web space offered suits your personal needs.
Description
1ski.com claims to be the complete on-line skiing service – so we took a look to see exactly what the site has to offer.
Home page
The colourful home page appears quickly and although rather cluttered there is a clear navigation menu to the left linking to numerous subjects, including holidays and flights, resort guide, latest news, events diary, brochures and so on.
The page also features adverts, some key subject links with brief descriptions as well as an interesting list of Top Ten Deals.
Site design
There are a number of adverts that appear throughout the site which can sometimes be distracting with their flickering images. However many of the advertisers do provide relevant services that the user could benefit from.
Navigation has been clearly thought out with the main menu appearing on the left hand side throughout the site. Colours on the navigation bar are also reflected on the background of the corresponding page.
Searching for holidays and flights
On reaching the holidays and flights search page a simple form needs to be completed to perform ‘The Biggest Ski Holiday Search On-line’.
The search criteria is good. For example, the date entry allows searching for a particular date or around that date by a choice of a number of days, and a budget can also be set.
Select the duration of holiday, resort, preferred airport and type of accommodation – hit ‘go’ and wait for the list of holidays.
The next page that appears should provide a list of matching holidays – in our case, however, we were disappointed and weren’t supplied with any holidays, even when we were not fussed about destination, budget or date!
Using the quick flight search method, only the date, departure and arrival airports needed to be entered, but once again the result was disappointing with a ‘system busy’ message of ‘currently our system is overloaded, please try again’.
Going back to the site the next day all these bugs had disappeared and numerous holidays and flights could be found – we must have been unlucky before.
Booking holidays and flights
Booking on-line is not possible. Instead we were invited to submit our contact details and holiday information with a form containing the holiday we were interested in. Send the enquiry by e-mail and the holiday sales team would check availability and notify us by telephone or e-mail. For urgent requests, telephoning the sales team was advisable.
Content
The site contains a large amount of useful information. The resort guide is exceedingly user friendly and categorises each resort’s information into key sections: ski area, snow, costs, apres ski, travel, family and diary.
Clearly displayed, this detailed information, such as number of lifts, ski instruction and food costs, is easy to read as well as easy to find.
What if you’re not too sure on the particular resort to visit? Perform a ‘super search’ to find suitable resorts based on numerous options, whether looking for apres ski, snow ratings, off piste skiing, and so on. Or even take the site’s resort recommendations neatly categorised by best resorts for: value for money, apres ski, beginners, big ski areas, experts, family, beauty, winter sports and non-skiers.
Other good information includes a comprehensive UK dry ski guide, ski techniques, and an interactive equipment guide. Unfortunately, the piste maps were a bit too small to actually read on the Web page.
Nice features
Web cams provide a great view of the resorts and also the current snow conditions.
Brochures for the key ski operators can be ordered from the site. An events diary keeps information on worldwide ski events and competitions.
Would you come back?
Yes. This site certainly knows a lot about skiing and is great for anyone planning a ski holiday with its resort guides and detailed information.
Booking a holiday or flight does not give the same level of service. The site only provides an idea on the prices of the holidays. Checking availability and booking has to be done off-line.