Alps?

[Ross]

A thing to think about is the destinations, Slovenia would be good for a warm up, depending on the skill level of the group, and then Italy would push the group regardless of skill level.

France apparently can be good for all levels, and UL are going out there this year for their whole trip, changing it up from Italy/Slovenia/Italy which they've done in previous years, but I'm not sure if the levels will be there in May.

I've never been to Slovenia, I know Italy quite well, and I've only really done one river in France, but that was a bit of a blur of a clusterfuck

[Douchier]

Slovenia seems to be runnable all the time, unless you get a freak amount of rain and things get too high.
Paddling is nice; prefect to start but if you've a strong group they'll get bored.
It's also an exceptionally nice place.

France has plenty of good stuff. Quite varied.  And there's always a British university group that's just had a cluster-fuck.

Getting the ferry and driving is great craic if you've got the time/car.

[Diarmuid]

Also to drive a car rented in Venice in Slovenia costs "From 8 days onwards: 80â,¬ per vehicle".

Ross mentioned flying to venice then back from milan to me earlier in the week so I've just priced that up too:

565e to Rent Focus Estate in TSF and return to LIN + cross border travel 80e + carhireexcess.ie 50e = 700 / 4 = 175

Flight to TSF with Ryanair: 80e + baggage (90e) = 170e
Flight from LIN with Aer Lingus: 61e + baggage (90e) = 151e

is 496e per person, pretty much the same price as flying in and out from TSF

(LIN = Milan, TSF = Treviso Airport)

[Ross]

Milan Bergamo with Ryanair is probably cheaper?

[Diarmuid]

Milan Bergamo with Ryanair is probably cheaper?

Okay, just pricing this now

[Diarmuid]

Dub - BGY 23 May - 7 June

Return Flights with Ryanair: 86e + baggage (180e) = 260e
Car rental: Fiat Doblo Minivan (has roof rails and allows cross border travel) = 633e + car hire excess 50e = 683e / 4 = 170e

Totals at: 430e per person
Also the rails would mean it should be very cheap to get racks (provided we'd actually get the right car)

(BGY = Milan Bergamo)

[Diarmuid]

Okay so I looked up prices for getting boats and gear shipped over...
We could pretty much put whatever we wanted in there (bags and stuff) since the volume of the boats cancels out the weight.
Expensive though.

Origin: Dublin City Limits, Destination: Venice, Italy

1/ Service Type: Air-Freight 378 Kilos / Airport to Airport.
Air Freight Cost â,¬ 1,188.60
Collection (if required) ex Dublin, â,¬ 45.00
Transit Time 1 Day

2/ Service Type: Courier 378 Kilos / Door to Door.
Courier Service â,¬ 538.00
Transit Time 5-6 Days

All costs subject to VAT @ 23%

This quotation is valid for 30 days.

[Ross]

That seems like a lot of effort for little gain versus bringing them on the plane...

[Diarmuid]

That seems like a lot of effort for little gain versus bringing them on the plane...

Yeah not really worth it, I was mostly just curious about it 

[DervM]

Ok lads, calm down, can't plan the Alps till like late March 

[Diarmuid]

Ok lads, calm down, can't plan the Alps till like late March 

But it's so much more fun than work

[Zog]

lets take the club van to the alps..

[Poopy Dick]

lets take the club van to the alps..

Actually... 😁 I'd say onto something there

[Aoife S]

Sounds great but as far as I know it's only work if the Alps was Irish 😜

[Poohy]

We asked I think and you cant take them out of the country cause they are not sports vans, they are college vans