Author: Bill Bates

1. Whistler – Early Bird Offer

For a very limited time, HPSC is able offer early bird pricing on our trip to Whistler!  Until September 14^th.

This special all-inclusive price of $2,380 (per person, double occupancy) must be booked and all deposits paid by Sept 14.  The trip is already open on the website for registration. Hurry if you want this discount.

The trip includes 7 nights at the Listel hotel with hot breakfast, 2 Queen or 1 King bed, 5 day lift pass, 6^th day $85 extra, direct flights on Air Canada to Vancouver and shuttle from the airport to the hotel in Whistler.  The resort will be raising its lift prices next week, so our prices must increase at that point as well. 

The Listel hotel is located in Whistler Village, steps from the main gondola lifts and includes the award-winning Bear Bistro restaurant.  The trip departs Saturday March 6 and returns Saturday March 13, 2021, right in peak season.   This is a fabulous chance to ski with reduced crowds this year, at one of the top ten resorts in the world.

2. St Moritz Club Med

St Moritz Club Med trip opens for registration on September 30.

Sign up for our Club Med St Moritz March Break trip is September 30.  The trip will depart on Saturday March 13 and return on Sunday March 21.  As those who have travelled to Club Med before know, it is truly all inclusive and offers a fabulous opportunity to experience exceptional guided skiing in the famed Swiss resort of St Moritz at the unbeatable price of $3,055, with a limited number of single rooms for $565 extra. As a reminder, HPSC will not be assigning roommates this year.   

For those concerned about travelling during the pandemic, Club Med has included their own Club Med Covid-19 medical insurance within the pricing of all of their trips (details are available on their website). Spots are first being offered to those members whose Club Med Les Arcs trip was cancelled this past year due to the COVID shutdown, but all of the remaining seats will be available on Sept 30 to the membership. 

3. More Charter Trips

Other Charter Trips include 2 IKON destinations and 2 BC Interior resorts

Canadian destinations in this year’s line-up besides Whistler include the usual favorites, Banff and Sun Peaks, but we also arranged trips to Revelstoke and Panorama.  Registration for these trips will open on Thursday October 15^th.

Check out all of the charters and overnight trips on the HPSC website to read detailed trip descriptions by going to OUR TRIPS > Charter Trips , or > Overnight Trips and scroll down the page to see the list and then clicking on the specific trip.  Don’t miss out on any of these fabulous trips!  Contact your partners to arrange a roommate in advance of sign up or treat yourself to a single room this year.  As noted, HPSC will not be matching up roommates on this year’s trips. 

Day Dreaming about Winter 2021

The Long Trips team has been working on potential charter and overnight trips for 2021. We will follow all safety protocols to make sure our members stay as safe as possible from catching COVID19 on one of our trips. We know that travel will not be the same because of social distancing, face masks and hygiene principles. With safety as top of mind, we will make some critical decisions about the best way to offer trips.

The responses from the recent HPSC survey told us that there is little appetite for US or European trips. COVID19 has been rampant in US; who knows whether the situation this winter will be better… or worse. Thus we will plan only Canadian trips in 2021.  Fortunately there are lots of great western and eastern ski resorts to select from and as usual we will try to get the best possible deal for our members. For those with Club Med credits from the cancelled 2020 trip, we will slide the next Club Med Europe trips into 2022. For those who were on cancelled Taos, NM, this trip will be run again in 2022.

Travel Insurance

Please reread the blog item below from April on travel insurance. We never plan on using our insurance but when we need it, it comes in very handy. By not buying insurance for your trip, you are “self insuring” and just hoping that nothing will go wrong. In March 2020 members found out that things don’t always go as planned. Through no fault of their own, two charter trips got cancelled and they had to rely on insurance to recover their losses.

HPSC has always strongly recommended trip insurance on our website and in our other documentation.  For 2021 we may insist that every participant have it, ie, both medical and cancellation insurance. So when you sign up your next ski trip, keep a few dollars in reserve for insurance.

Disappointment reigned supreme last week as the last two charter trips of the season were cancelled due to the corona virus. Both trips had been sold out since October so these members were eager to finally get to ski those two beautiful resorts. Alas it was not to be! Refunds are now being pursued and members will call on their travel insurance policies to recover any loss. We will try to put on these same trips in 2021 when the smoke has cleared on COVID-19.

Over 100 members on our overnight Tremblant trip were very disappointed to miss out on the biggest ski party of the season. What an event we had planned! What a shame to have it cancelled by the corona virus. Full refunds are coming. Refunds will take some time for our volunteers to do so please be patient. Rest assured whatever amount you paid for W8 will be refunded back to your credit card.