£1000 per person per week to ski abroad? Can YOU do it?

A snowHead

masmith, but she'll look more beautiful and youthful than she already does, right?

A snowHead

hyweljenkins, how could that be possible ? Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I actually find it difficult to SPEND much extra in a ski holiday!

When I'm on an "all purpose holiday", I eat everywhere. On ski holiday, I usually do half board plus a quick lunch. The cost is pretty straight forward. Since I'm usually staying in one place, there's no need to hire a car (or drive extra miles -- fuel + depreciation -- if I bring my own). I'm not tempted to buy anything cute since I'm too busy skiing.

Basically, when I go on ski holiday, the budgeting is really simple. Whatever I pay for the package, it's pretty much "it"! The whole list of "extra" don't really apply to me. Oh yes, I owned my own gear so no hiring cost. Though nowadays, there's a transport cost, but that's an up front cost clearly budgeted in.

Also unlike many of you, my ski outer wears are also my winter wear that I NEED day to day since I live in a relatively cold place. So it's not an "extra" cost to me. On the other hand, I found I have a few item of "inner wear" (socks, base layer) that I don't use for anything else but skiing. So those need to be factored in instead. Though it's relatively small cost for those items.

Granted, I'm a family of one. So I never forget to pack any essential by mistake. And I don't buy gift out of neccesity.

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Yeah, well, if the kids simply must have skidoo rides, dogsleigh rides and huge quantities of booze, and if granny needs half a bottle of whisky a night and a new ski jacket every year, you could easily spend £1000 a head. I think some families have a very "sky's the limit" attitude to spending on holiday - you see them at Gatwick airport. Not very well off, probably, but the entire (usually morbidly overweight......) crowd are tucking into vast piles of nosh in McDonalds at a cost which could feed them all well for several days of self-catering. Meanwhile we are unpacking our cheese and ham sandwiches, from home.... wink

Items such as warning triangle, high vis jackets and spare bulbs are commonsensical year-round UK items.

For several years our annual ski holiday was our main holiday - and the overall objective, for us all, was the skiing. We weren't too bothered about the frills and the kids understood perfectly well that the sky wasn't the limit. It didn't, in the least, diminish our enjoyment of the holiday. But then as well as being a masochist I am a sadist. There was a kid at the checkout in Géant in Albertville today whose Dad had bought him some toy cars. He was about 5. Made such a huge screaming fuss because he couldn't have them instantly, at the checkout, that the girl put that one item through for him, at the outset. If it had been my child the cars would have been straight back on the shelf, no question. You do get people who say that their kids "won't" drive to the Alps or "won't" stay in a cheap hotel. Fine. Leave the spoilt brats at home. Twisted Evil

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pam w, is it raining or something today out there wink

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I guess the £1000pppw for a family will be during school holidays? I'm going in just over a week and getting 9 days skiing for round about £500! Maybe a few extras on top of that, no more than £50. Taking my own kit, so no hire cost, and no lessons, which will explain part of the lower cost.

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After all it is free

Forget a thousand ... it can be done for around £500 Very Happy

We did a grand tot up at the end of the week for four skiers and it was about £2,000 last Christmas at Serre Chevalier. Neilson late deal including flights and transfers plus food & drink (mostly cheese, wine, bread, sausage and happy hour beer & junk food), airport parking, ski passes, 2 children's ski hire, 2 ski carriage and even a couple of mornings lessons for sproggies.

If any similar deals were/are available this year, it might even have worked out marginally cheaper with the better exchange rate as the second biggest single cost after the less than £200 holiday cost pp was the group lift pass at 613 Euros.

Neh, neh !!! Toofy Grin

I skied the first week of January this year and got an apartment for six for 199e

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No problem - my last ski holiday with friends with kids so during the school holidays cost me just under £800 all in. That also included the £152 extra it cost me to get down from scotland to meet my friends before splitting the ski holiday cost between us.

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Hmmm ... best value ski hol I ever had was to Norway about 2 years back ... suprisingly through a TO .

It went something like this:

£350 for package - flights, transfers, accomodation (which was in a rather swish chalet in the forest, with it's own hot tub).
£1 for lift passes (a January offer by the TO)
£15 Ski Carriage
£150 on lunches/beers

Grand total: £516 (or thereabouts) Very Happy

Although, in the last year or two I haven't come across as many bargain ski hols - so this sort of bargain seems harder to bag. Sad

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Not exactly relevant and a bit showy off but my last trip.

£225 for entire trip door to door, food and lift pass excluding spending money.

To Tignes.

(Cardiff snowsports pay for half the trip. Uni is fun.)

€120 spending money.

= around £330.

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masmith, that's the right answer.

You know it makes sense.

4 of us going to Kaprun on Saturday with Esprit. 2 adults skiing (inc. ski school for the Mrs.), 1 kid in ski school in the morning, and child care in the afternoon, and the other kid in child care all the time. This includes ski carriage, hire for those without equipment, lift passes, ski school and chalet accommodation.

Esprit invoice is £2550.
Petrol £80
Parking £50

Spending money £500

Stuff bought specifically for this trip ~£150.

This is still a lot less than the alleged £1000pppw.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Last year we didn't try that hard. This year I'm aiming for somewhere under £800 each, and hoping to get below for the package/sort a free/half price lift pass deal. Lunches and snacks didn't cost £50 last year and we were not trying to budget, unlike this year!

Package from tour op: £400 max
Lift pass : £180 (Have spreadsheet of all lift pass costs to make sure I don't get the wrong resort)
Lunches : £50 (will be carrying water/sandwiches from spar in a pocket)
Meal out on chalet day off: £30
Airport Parking: £50 (Should be able to do better than this with planning)
Ski Hire: £100
Insurance: £30

A snowHead

A snowHead

ADH next week

Chalet - £450 per head. That's a non-reduced price despite booking last minute, but it's a private chalet. Includes collection from airport. Oh yes, and it's a single room.
Lift pass €185 (through chalet; reduced price)
Ski hire - Salomon X-Wing Tornados through www.alpinresorts.com €52.25 (boots extra €20 Euro though I have my own but included for the purpose of this exercise) Insurance €12
Travel insurance - free with bank account
Easyjet £105
Train to Gatwick, say £15
Lunch at Gatwick - picnic £0 as I'd have had to eat anyway

€269.25 @ 1.141 (euro rate for purchases at ICE Waterloo) = £235 + £555 = £790.

I could have gone to Meribel this week and saved £150 on the above prices by taking a late offer with a TO. So that would have been £640.

But, I'm single and loaded (according to somebody on here, anyway), so I'm going to splash out a bit.

Add a tenner a day for lunch on the slopes and €50 for dinner on chalet staff night off, and £100 for some beer (though there's nowhere to buy beer in Villard Reculas), and £10 for ten postcards and I guess I'm just about hitting the £1000 mark.

Tell me, how do you manage to spend MORE than £1000 a head on a ski holiday?!?!? Or do your children drink huge quantities of beer?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

And you can do luxury fairly cheaply - 5* Granvilara Hotel in Selva, Dolomites in December 1800 euros for a suite, half board (amazing food). Lift passes were cheaper than anywhere else we've been.

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pam w, Yeah, I never understand people noshing out in airports. We buy sandwiches in the village bakery for the flight home.

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if you look to the bottom righthand corner of this page a ski holiday to folgarida will only cost you from £570
all inclusive that is what you call a very good marketing strategy

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Going Week after next to Tignes

Price in £'s

Car parking 40
Chalet board 620 (got ski carriage thrown in)
Espace Killy pass 200
6 x lunch and a drink 120

Sub Total 980

Leaving £20 for beer if the budget was a grand Mad

, sorry

's you can't go somewhere like Tignes (and I know some of you dont want to ) for anywhere near a grand, unless of course its a late deal, which appear to be thin on the ground this year.

My breakdown does not include essentials others may need such as ski/boot hire, lessons and insurance which would add another £250

After all it is free

Forgot about the chalet staff's night off, I will have to spend my £20 beer money on a Pizza that night

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clarky999, Would you care to name some of these hidden gems no-one has heard of? Or PM me if you don't want the masses to learn your secrets! I'm looking for just that type of resort for my next trip! Thanks.

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Last year,
Apartment 2500
Pass 480
Insurance 240
food 500
food on hill 0
beer ?
car to cham 300
-----
4020

So with 16 weeks skiing that comes to £251.25 a week plus beer.

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Half Term Week in Laax, my 14 year old daughter and me

Fuel to Gatwick - £40
Parling at Gatwick - £30
2 flights to Zurich - £410
Rail Transfer - £74
Studio Apartment - £367
Lift Passes - £314

so that leaves £765 for food and drink for a week however will I manage on that!

You know it makes sense.

only done 6 ski trips. Stayed in catered chalet 5 of those times and never ever spent £1000 with everything.
Catered Chalet £450 with transfer
Flight £70
Ski Pass £190
Ski Hire £80

All other equipment you already have so you wont be buying it everytime you go away will you. You can make skiing as cheap or as expensive as you want. 4 of us are flying out to chatel on tuesday here is the total cost of accomadation and flights for all of us. £660. Yes cheap isnt it, thats because we couldnt really afford to go away this year but then just thought lets do a cheap one, so we did.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Ricklovesthepowder,

Dont know how you came up with £660, thats £790, so only £210, change out of a grand. Out of this £210 you neeed to pay for parking at the airport/taxi, money in airport lounge both ways, lunch every day and beer money. Never been to Chatel, but I suspect it's the same as every other rip off euro zone place and I know how you Manc's like a beer or 6 Laughing

A snowHead

I can see £1000 pp being an easy figure to roughly cost (every) thing(s) out. If you add in going during peak weeks then this is probably a pretty accurate price including car parking/fuel/anything you care to spend from the minute you leave to when you return.

Skiing is expensive, even done cheaply it's expensive. I do think there's an argument that when a holiday is planned on a shoe string it can become less of a holiday and more of a budgeting exercise which can spoil the impulse events like having a meal on the mountains or whatever one wants to do.

Also, budget ski accommodation is generally so bad it's barely qualifies as more than a sofa in a room, which for me never feels like a holiday.

A snowHead

Look out for deals on ski passes at certain times of the year. In Amade region from 13 March, kids get free lift passes when an adult buys a six day pass. Also plenty of deals in the same vein on ski equipment hire. With a bit of leg work you can find big savings. Very Happy

See www.skiamade.com

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Well we managed LDA between Xmas and New year for £721 per person. Haven't included any kit as is either used here at dry ski slope or was old... and certainly not including warning triangle that we bought in Holland in 2002! No wear and tear as company car... no international insurance or breakdown cover needed either and annual travel insurance free with bank account. Have included food - but this really isn't an incremental cost as we did shopping in England and shipped it with us so was exactly the same food cost (if not less!) that we would have spent on Xmas at home; we also imported a shameful amount of wine into France... not much was exported again! We did share the apartment with friends so cheaper that way and ate all our meals in - this was as much because the kids were too tired post skiing to entertain going out... tired children in a restaurant is not fun in my experience!! My slow cooker made the journey with us and was fantastic as food ready when we got home.

Whole thing was excellent and we have already reserved same apartment for next year!

Tunnel 145
Hotel (both ways incl bkfst & dinner) 225
Tolls 100
Fuel 136
Apartment 500
Ski lessons 605
Insurance 55
Skis 236
K pass 167
E pass 73
Food 190
Lesson 90
Spends 260
Snow chains 99
Total 2,882

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Last year costs at christmas for a family of four were well under £1,000 per person.

Accomodation, self catering appartment £600
Lift pass for 4: £550
Flights: £600
hire car including tolls on the motorway: £200
parking at the airport: £60
food for the week, we didn't eat out once at lunchtime on the mountain, instead we went back to the appartment for a buffet/picnic: £200
ski hire: £400

In total: £2,600

Therefore £650 per person.

This is without travel insurance which covers holidays year round and our unexpected €280 taxi back to the airport after the hire car breaking down.

That was to a top (in my opinion) French resort with 250km of skiing at christmas week with a weak Pound when it first hit home, Xmas 2008. Managed to do it even cheaper to a lesser known resort with a TO with ski lessons for 4, in 2006 but with a strong Pound.

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Christopher, did your car hire costs not get refunded then?

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A lot of my hols have come in at about £800 inc booze (although we do tend to take some out with us).

After all it is free

Helen Beaumont, Unfortunatly not. Something we didn't read in the small print of the hire car contract is that you need to inform the company (Targarent through Holiday Autos) in writing if you're going to take the car out of Italy. It was a surprise to us when we discovered this and I can't have imagined the 2 other groups in the queue with us who were hiring cars and both going to France didn't write to inform them. As we broke down about 3 miles from La Grave this was slightly problematic.

Therefore they said they wouldn't refund it and we didn't argue. They wanted us to travel to Turin pick up a new car, which we refused as we were on holiday and didn't want to spend a day trecking to Turin on public transport as my dad didn't want to touch the car again.

In the end the car got taken to Gap as it was the nearest Alfa garage. Don't know what happened to it in the end.

and don't forget to factor in the savings you make by going skiing, no fuel for the school run, no Tesco grocery bill that week (Other supermarkets are available), reduced electricity usage, no fuel/fares for going to work, no cost of school/work canteen, no cost of food/drink apres work. Silly maybe but on a par with amortizing the cost of the kit.

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tafflondon, good point - can deduct £10 from not paying a baby-sitter for our weekly badminton night our - oh and of course I didn't have to pay the pitch costs either. Which reminds me I save on 2 match fees for the 2 games of hockey I didn't play.

Help!!

£1000 per person per week to ski abroad? Can YOU do it?

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