Why is skiing in France so expensive ?

A snowHead

miranda, it's the kind of thing that people talk about when they get home as it's a clearly understood reference point, and the reputational damage is immense.

But, ultimately, the customer is always right. I don't like the prices in the big French resorts so I don't go. No amount of Francophile sneering at my stupidity will ever make me more inclined to return. Quite the reverse, in fact.

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

The biggest rip off holiday I had was Whistler.

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miranda, It was me that paid the 5 Euros for the little bottle of water. Total rip-off, total French p*ss take. That summed up the in resort attitude of the greater proportion of French working there. Not exactly welcoming, yet another "rostbif", far too busy to care about service.

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Maybe if they were rude they might get charged more.

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Well since it's obviously the silly season, here are my silly thoughts:

- France is expensive because it can afford to be. Best flattering piste skiing, most snow-sure, most ski-in/out, largest most developed lift systems, a faithful indigenous population who would rather not ski than consider going somewhere cheaper, the world's number one tourist destination (year round) makes the brand bullet-proof. They don't care about a few less brits coming, winter revenues have proven to be recession-proof, if anything they like the high prices as it's seen as keeping out the low-budget riff-raff!

- Restrictive labour laws, archaic working-practices, and high taxes fuel the fire.

- I agree it's often not good value for money and I probably wouldn't ski here if I wasn't here already.

- The most expensive place I've skied was in Switzerland (St. Moritz)

- The most I've paid for a day-pass (for 12 lifts!) was in Canada.

- 4Euros80 for a small bottle of pop from the restaurants in Linderets this summer. So I don't think Tignes prices are un-representative.

- Given Jonny Jones requirements (hungry thirsty teenagers, 9-days skiing, not prepared to spend half the holiday finding ways to "do it on the cheap"), the US is the obvious choice. Absorbing the on-mountain food is harder than absorbing the flight costs! You have to place no monetary value on the extra two days travel time to make the sums work though. The european Sat-Sat business model is not changing anytime soon, so any similar deal in France will be bespoke and expensive.

Skiing anywhere is far cheaper than it ever was anytime up to the eighties, and probably as cheap now (in real terms) as it's been since. Enjoy it whilst you can! snowHead

After all it is free

I think I was right though. Infrequent user finds old thread and starts/continues an argument for no obvious reason. And has previous for thread resurrection.

edit: and then boogers off to lurk for a year or so

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shep, one of the more balanced posts in this thread so far. I only take issue with the suggestion that you need an extra two days to travel across the Atlantic. You don't. Leave Thursday morning; ski Friday. Ski the following Saturday, fly overnight and arrive home Sunday lunchtime. 9 days skiing for 7 days leave. Simple.

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Hmm, nope, it's just an opinion

I expected to be challenged on, but posts get so long when you try to cover every option. I suspect that a higher proportion of skier-beds in france's major ski areas are in resorts with skiing averaging a higher altitude than in the other alpine ski nations. France has plenty of low lying (and excellent) 2nd and 3rd division resorts but the "high price" accusation of this thread does not apply to those, according to many here. Conversely with a few exceptions even the major resorts in the other alpine nations are at a lower level, on average, imho.

Personally I find the typically brit fixation with altitude ridiculous (it hardly exists for continentals), for example the PDS despite being relatively low in french terms got the most snow in france last season (which is back-upable if I could be bothered); what I was alluding to was the perception of snowsuredness which is prevalent and allows the french industry to charge a premium for such, even if in the real world it is untrue.

Re travel time again on average and typically your west-coast NA flight will be 12 hours, and often followed by a wait and then internal flight and the transfer to your resort. So the 12 hours is extra travel time vs UK to the alps. Add in lost time both ends due to jet-lag and my generalization of a lost day both ends seems quite reasonable to me.

But to paraphrase many above, you pays your money and takes your choice, there are so many ways of presenting these arguments it can only be a subjective view, hence my "silly thoughts" opening comment snowHead

You know it makes sense.

Bode Swiller, scotland does get a lot of snow, it just generally gets blown away (or you do!) before you get a chance to enjoy it.

Or the weather is too foul.

Or both.

Often in the space of ten minutes.

Scandinavia is flat. Otherwise why would so many of them be in Chamonix?

Much of Switzerland is a bug of a transfer. So who cares how snow sure it really is. There's a great apres ski bar in Disentis I should point out, and the best peperoni and gorgonzola pizza I have ever had is served in Davos.

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

Jonny Jones, I am not knocking your choice of North America for half term it clearly suits you and you get a great holiday out of it. I personally choose not to go to France at half term as I find it crowded and have been to Austria or Switzerland for the last ten years. I regularly ski France at other times though and love it, Serre Che being possibly my favourite resort anywhere.

Some of your complaints though do seem to be a bit of special pleading,
If there are a lot of complaints about prices in France it is possibly because a lot of people go there. I have visited Jackson Hole and it certainly was not particularly cheap nor was my accommodation particularly good. I have certainly had better in France (and worse). Vail and Aspen certainly have a 'meme' of being ridiculously expensive.

You do your booking with a lot of experience for America directly but complain that UK travel agents cannot match your prices. Frankly I undercut brochure prices DIY'ing at half term by huge margins. You also complain of busy airports and a lack of longer length holidays. It is a lot cheaper to travel midweek and this adds to the length of your holiday and is quieter at the airport . Although staying in the resort is difficult it is really not to arduous or difficult to find accommodation in the valleys for a couple of nights if booked well in advance I regularly ski seven days and have skied eight travelling at weekends by staying elsewhere. If you have teenage sons getting older a couple of nights in a mountain hut tagged onto a holiday would be an unforgettable away from it all experience.
I am not trying to suggest that you should do any of the above clearly what you do works very well but it does not mean that French based alternatives cannot provide a wonderful holiday and still avoid the things you seem to dislike most.

A snowHead

Jonny Jones, 9 days skiing dor 7 days leave.

Hmmm, when I lived in the UK, we would latterly fly Friday evening, arriving in Morzine (say) in time for last orders and depart Sunday evening after a full days skiing in time for an early bed for Monday office.

9 days skiing for 5 days leave.

I think my ratio wins?

A snowHead

Bode Swiller, you are assuming Shep is leaving from London.

For me, cheapest is £650ish and I would have to use Friday and Monday as travel days as there are no direct flights nor connections that allow me to route mostly or all overnight. (From Geneva).

So two delightful vacation days in airports and on planes. Crikey. Feels just like work.

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

Thanks Jonny Jones Very Happy

my habitual ineptitude will no doubt swiftly return! If you and Bode are fortunate/organised enough to need no regional connecting flight uk side (whereas most can fly direct to the alps these days), and no connection or internal flight NA side, and still get good pricing on those limited direct routes to NA snow, then good on you and doubles all round!

.

I'll trade not mentioning nightmare alpine transfers (don't they have traffic holdups in NA?) for not mentioning possible immigration delays. I still maintain most uk skiers would lose a day each way, and if I were uk based, I'd probably find that worth it! snowHead

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It's not a competition. One of the lovely things about being a grown up is you get to choose to go wherever the hell you want on holiday (unless you're trying to go somewhere with horrible visa restrictions obviously). Why on earth are you trying to score points off of each other based on where you choose to go on holiday Puzzled

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Perhaps, miranda, it's because some of us aren't too proud to learn from others. If under a new name has found an objectively better way than me of squeezing more skiing into a finite time without shelling out extra cash, I'm the first person to want to congratulate him on his winning ways and then shamelessly plagiarise his ideas.

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Jonny Jones, You come across as being a bit blinkered. I like skiing in the states. I like skiing in France. We have had cheap comfortable holidays in both. We have had a week in France including passes for less than flights to Denver. You don't seem to be able to accept than with a bit of planning you can have a cheap and comfortable holiday in the French Alps.

p.s. - I paid $10.00 for a slice of pizza in Jacksons Hole once. Rip off isn't restricted to France. I would hate to be feeding hungry teenagers with that pizza

After all it is free

Jonny Jones, the extra nights are easy peasy. Friday you book a hotel between airport and resort. You could do similar on Saturday by staying in a hotel in resort, many of them if contacted directly are happy to rent for a night or two.

Jonny Jones, those sorts of trips? Outside of vacances scolaires (and I realise that, pro tem, this excludes your family) many (any?) hotel will accommodate any date range.

Book flights as soon as they are released. Even so, I could book Swiss today for £190 including baggage and skis, out Mar 21 return Mar 30.

The French insistence on Sat - Sat is simply to maximise their income, not designed to minimise your spend. And it's not only the French. Try booking anything less than 4 nights or a week over Inferno week in Mürren for example. Try booking anything right now in Mürren for that week even.

Also, also, surprising even my jaded and cynical self, here are results from a well known booking site which includes several reasonable looking hotels with an easy drive (certainly modest by many U.S. Set ups, e.g. Utah) of several good or great ski areas including reasonable prices and Friday to next Sunday+1... In what I estimate are the middle of the school holidays...

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I really don't understand the France is expensive chat. I don't know wnough about Italy to compare, but I found St Anton just as expensive as Val T, Val D etc. Accomodation, drinks, food, all were just as pricey.

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It's just trolls bumping ancient threads to poke the fire (yet again).

As I said a few pages back... every where has cheap places, and everywhere has expensive places, etc. etc. And some places are convenient, and others a 3 hour coach ride from the airport. And some people's holidays are ruined if they have to get a gondola first thing, but not ruined if they can ski or walk from the hotel boot room to a chairlift instead. Bardy blardy blah...

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kat.ryb, St Anton is different from most of Austria.

I'm beginning to think the title of this thread ought to be 'Why is skiing expensive'

You know it makes sense.

Bode Swiller, the usines de ski are different from most of France as well.

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

Some places expensive and others not shock.

A snowHead

People like different things shocker

A snowHead

What's even worse is that i've just heard that the French don't like ski guides. Or hosting. Or it may have been escorting (which is also very expensive in the resorts.)

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

I like some places in France. And in Italy. And in Austria. Do I need help?

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ALQ, Erm, the most money I've ever spent on a ski holiday was in Lech. Does that answer your question? Toofy Grin

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Pedantica, So you're saying Austria is by far the most expensive place to visit and all Austrian people are (and historically, always were) rude, obnoxious, rip-off artists who hate Brits. Having only ever driven through Austria to get to Switzerland or Italy, I concur and fully support your fair and valid assertions.

Laughing

After all it is free

ALQ,

ALQ, Surrey to Switzerland via Austria. I think you got a tad lost...

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Why is skiing in France so expensive ?

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