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Late discounts in Banff?
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

So for 3 years we've driven from Lisbon to Andorra for one week Feb half term and been quite content. However, I had superlative memories of Banff and so last year, as Easter was early, committed to two weeks there and booked stuff in November (TR duly posted!). It was all that I remembered and more, one of the best holidays ever. This year should be back to Andorra for a week again.

But the little devil on my shoulder noted that I'd had a pretty unpleasant last few months, I'm the one working constantly (very short and simple Christmas break), my bank account is looking a lot healthier than I expected, and if I take the girls out of school (private, no problems, and they're young) then we can get two weeks at the beginning of March. A first look at prices suggested that driving to Andorra for a week would be about €3000 while two weeks in Banff would be €7500. Man maths then cuts in, saying pro-rata it's not that much more, and I can't take the eldest out of school from next year... A few websites and emails showed me that my favourite family hotel room was available (Cdn2600 14 nights), as are BA flights (€3200 LIS-YYC), for respectable prices. Sky scanner didn't find much better than that. For a couple of days I was the happiest person returning to the office in January!

Then the ice-bucket of reality found that I'd miscalculated, and even a discounted pack of rental, passes and some lessons, took the budget closer to 10k Sad

Anyone got any money-saving tips, mainly some sort of discount codes or tricks? BA site offered vaguely €500 off with all my Avios, I understand that's not an economic way of using Avios but I never use them for anything else, I'm a luddite at air miles. Last Nov I got something like 1/3 off passes and lessons by early booking through skiHub / skibig3 ; now I have a quote from the same people, still with a discount (though not so much, and they say prices will go up next week). They will give free children's passes if I book accommodation also, but their accom quotes are so high it is cheaper for me to go separately and pay the full passes.

I haven't included food, as we're a cheap family for that and would rely on Banff Safeway; and I think the lessons (5 all day) should be included at least for the children as the teaching is so good it would be a shame to pay the plane tickets and not take advantage of that. For myself, I'd avail of a few Louise' First Tracks private lessons, and the rest we'd use the Ski Friends service.

Am I looking for a magic discount that doesn't exist? Do I need to take the Dave Brailsford approach of incremental gains? Or should I just give up and be happy with Andorra?

Thanks for suggestions and tips!
ski holidays
ski holidays
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Last time we went to Banff, I followed a recommendation on here and bought lift passes through American Ski Classics.

Other than that, we stayed in Canmore rather than Banff - we were happy to drive to the ski hills, and got an apartment - very few in Banff and quite nice to have the extra space and be able to sort breakfast etc in the mornings. Falcon Crest was very nice.
snow report
snow report
 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thank you - email duly sent to ASC!
ski holidays
ski holidays



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