Embarking on a tour is a double-edged sword. They’re a great introduction to travelling in an unfamiliar region or country, especially if you are travelling solo, but can be limiting in choices and options. Plus you have to spend a lot of time in close quarters with complete strangers. So what are the dangers, and how do you know if a tour will be the right one for you? Here are the five biggest downsides of going on a traditional group tour when travel, along with the five best reasons to pick an Epic Snow tour.   Fear #1 – Only visiting the most touristy sites We’ve all been there or seen it in action. Gigantic coaches rolling up to major tourism drawcards in a long line, each spewing 40-80 passengers out onto the footpath, cameras around their necks, marching off after their assigned bright umbrella or flag wielding tour guide. They jump the queue to the groans of the masses of patiently waiting individual travellers who, despite pre-booking, will now only be able to catch a faraway glimpse of what they came to see. Meanwhile, if you’ve been on one of these tours, yes, you get an expedited view

7 of our favourite things to take our guests on whenever we are on Tour in one of the most amazing cities… Tokyo. Experience amazing culture, eat some of the best food in the world and sing your heat out in a Karaoke bar.

In today’s world of cheap airfares for long distances flights with limited luggage weight allowances, we as the traveler are always looking to save as much weight and room as we can while still packing everything in. Traveling with your skis or snowboard can be a pain especially when these items take up a lot of our weight allowance and space. If you’re going for an extended time you may want to pay the extra fee on that budget airline and get an additional bag. If you’re going to get the extra bag, look at the not so budget airlines as these usually have the additional baggage allowance built into the airfare price. Here are a few hacks for saving weight and room. Board bag and ski bag. When buying a ski or board bag always keep an eye on the weight of the bag empty. Just because it’s a big bag and you can fit everything in it doesn’t mean it will save you in the long run. A bigger bag means more weight which can mean less gear to take with you. It’s a catch 22. You could get slogged for overweight baggage and the bag might not even

The French Climber Lionel Terray famous term “Conquistadors of the Useless” Which I think is a perfect description of the enlightened ones that call these beautiful mountain towns home for the winter and life becomes a lot simpler. After many years of living this dream myself I dedicate this to our fellow Conquistadors! 1.     You consistently buy bulk instant ramen. 2.     You have all the free Wi-Fi passwords in town. 3.     You think beer is a legitimate form of currency 4.     You use duct tape to fix everything clothing, furniture, vehicles etc. 5.     “Doing Laundry” consists of cycling through different flannels on your floor. 6.     You have a day job anight job and possibly a third job for the “hookups” 7.     You might not have been a gear head but you are now. 8.     You collect all your old seasons passes and grow your moustache all summer for the photo. 9.     Your goggle tan is the only tan line on your whole body. 10. You find yourself storm chasing with a car full of gear, sleeping bags and beer. 11. You yank broken skis and snowboards from a dumpster and think: “With a touch of epoxy, these could last an

A good pair of goggles will go a long way in your shred career if you look after them. Theres a few easy steps to make sure they do. Buying Goggles There re 2 types of goggles, spherical are the domed style of lenses while cylindrical lenses are a cylinder shape. It’s personal preference, comfortability and fit which style to get. The best advice for which goggle is the goggle which gives you the largest range of visibility – you want to see the next corner when you’re in the thick of that tree run! Always consult the sales representative at the ski shop for the features on each goggle before you get a pair, there are so many! Helmets When purchasing a helmet its always recommended to bring your goggles along to try with your new brain bucket. This will ensure you have the right fit and no weird pressure points on your head. Always loosen the goggle strap to its widest point when sliding over the helmet, then tighten the strap. Doing this will stop the strap from losing elasticity. Make sure you don’t store them or travel with them stretched over your helmet, this can cause the

Kyneee Snowboards X Epic Snow Tours As most of you know, Epic Snow has teamed up with Kyneee snowboards for our Epic Col-lab board. But did you know when you book on tour to any one of our destinations you have the option to buy a Kyneee Pow Board or an Epic Snow x Kyneee board for HALF price! Check out the Japow Tour HERE to come ride with us in the deepest snow the world has to offer. To give you a little more incite about the Aussie snowboard brand we sat down for a quick chat with Kynan from Kyneee to pick his brains about what motivates him and what kyneee has for install for the future. Tell me a bit about the brand when did it start and where? Kyneee is a small board brand based out of Sydney. The brand officially started May 2013 but it’s been in the works for a lot longer. The “nope, we’re doing this” happened on a Canada trip. Doing research to purchase a new board and all the info seemed like jibberish. Companies get so caught up in branding tech features with individual names for their brand that it just

It’s not too often that 2 different board sports can get together and rip the same course, but Mountain Dew has come to the table with their new Super Snake course combining a skate and snowboard track alongside each other. Heavy hitters in their respective sports, Snowboarders Danny Davis, Jeremy Jones and Scotty Lago and skaters Sean Malto, Trevor Colden, Chris Colbourn,Nick Tucker and Micky Papa hit this course like no other! Check out the Teaser trailer before the release! Watch it on Monday, October 17th.  youtube.com/mountaindew  

The Epic Road Trip New Zealand was one of those trips you will remeber for ever, lots of Laughs powder snow and sometimes a little to much to drink…. for the tour Epic Snow teamed up with Summit Balm Lip Balms for a special gift for all the team on the trip! Katie from Summit Balm wrote a beautiful article about our trip in land the of the long white cloud! Here’s a small excerpt from the article. Read the full article HERE Next up, day 3 offers turns at Ohau Ski Resort – Part of the Famous New Zealand Club-fields (small privately owned ski hills) which can be found midway between Christchurch and Queenstown. A day of exploring runs like ‘The Boulevard’ (a groomed trail as wide as a highway) and ‘The Escalator’ amongst amazing conditions what’s better than that?! Then off to Wanaka for a stay at Stony Ridge Lodge and recover after a 1.5hr drive of terrible Kiwi accent impersonations and plenty of laughs. Stony Ridge Lodge offers the perfect environment for some memorable family dinners. Shop for Summit Balm NOW “Summit Balm was born as a result of a long, unsuccessful search for the perfect all

A short Myoko Powder run from Yesterday 24th January 2016 after a solid 50cm dump. This was shot Akakan off the Champion 3 Chair. There were so many more good turns had that day and more to come! love this place! To find ou more about Epic Snow Tours check out www.epicsnow.co

“this is first mate Scott speaking, we are starting our decent in to Narita airport, we have made up time a bit of time for the Epic Snow Crew and our arrival will be at 6:45pm” Yep that’s right a big ol shout out over the PA system on Jetstar as we started out decent into Narita. Our excitement level was high after hearing that although the good time started on our first leg to cairns and then on from there. We arrived at Gold Coast airport bright and early for check and got put in isle seats… who doesn’t love a bit of leg room! After having a conversation with the happy looking dude sitting next to us, he turns out to be Captain Paul was the pilot flying us on to Narita from Cairns! Didn’t he look after us on the long haul flight!. A quick convo in the terminal and we were in the cockpit checking out the flight deck and getting a tonne of happy snaps and meeting first mate Scotty …. What a couple of legends! The good times didn’t stop there! Introduced to Cabin Manager Nat who’s a mad keen skier and our attendant