Cutting the cost of a ski holiday

A snowHead

Hi guys, i've recently bought a first home with my girlfriend so money is tighter than it has ever been before however we both still want to get away on a ski holiday.

Are there any tips on how to go cut the costs of a holiday? Cheapest places for ski passes etc. We have all our own gear so thats not a problem.

Thanks in advance Very Happy

A snowHead

@Paul F, if there's just the two of you and you aren't tied to school holidays then a cheap option would be to wait until the last minute for tour operator deals.

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

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Also, look for small and bijou....I haven't got any personal recommendations, as I always go to large, linked areas.

Andorra and Livigno are duty free...or at least used to be, so assume they still are.

Bulgaria

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ski/articles/best-europe-budget-ski-resorts/

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Go for it. You'll always meet the bills if you've got any wits and memories last forever.

if you've got a company car drive, if you can borrow kit, do. Take food with you, self cater, stay out of town, don't go where the billionaires go, take a bottle of your favourite spirit and some mixers and when you get there control yourself on excessive meals out and drinks.

Where there's a will etc, etc

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Hitchhike to Glencoe and camp. Hike up rather than use the lifts. Catch/shoot your own food.

Or do what rob@rar said.

After all it is free

Head to Eastern Europe. Not just much, much cheaper, but also different to your typical Alpine experience

I spent two weeks in Serbia & Montenegro last March and it only cost a few hundred euro. Look at Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic etc.

Last minute deal with TO is usually the cheapest option that includes flight & transfer for as little as £300 catered chalet. DIY is not always that cheap when ski carriage is added to the airfare and the transfer to resort is often more expensive than the flight.
Don't be too fussy where you go, some of the best trips I have had, I didn't know where I was going till I got there (almost)

Don't waste money at home, wear your ski gear instead of putting the heating on Toofy Grin

, eat out less and go to the pub instead of a posh restaurant, don't waste money on fancy gadgets and bling, don't have kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Action Outdoors were offering last minute weeks for £300 or so, you'll need to add flights, transfers, etc. to that. It's not plush fur rugs, a bit more hostel-ly, but instruction, passes, gear is included, as well as all meals (was in Flaine, may not be in others). Always worth signing up for their newsletter...

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bansko was super cheap outside of school hols in jan

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Go small, go self catered, go self drive and go back door!

So a small studio in somewhere like Brides Les Bains or Bourg St Maurice!

balkan holiday do some cheap deals to Bulgaria/Slovenia & only charge £15 to take your own stuff!
Also, being a tourist operator they usually have plenty of last minute deals.

You know it makes sense.

Thanks guys, some good advice for a young couple learning the ropes in life 👍

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

Look at sunweb or skiweekends or rocketski. They will have budget friendly deals. I tend to diy but you often need to plan early..ie buy flights as soon as they are released a year ahead. I tend to fly BA or Swiss as your one hold bag can be a ski/board bag. The cheaper airlines look good til you add up all the extras.

Places to consider in the Alps that have cheaper end lift passes are Vars/Risoul, Valloire/Valmeinier, Mongenevre, La Thuile/ La Rosiere, Livigno, Passo Tonale.

A snowHead

Crystal have an apartment in La Tania for £236 each including flights, accommodation and transfers on the 6th Jan (leaving from Manchester but probably similar elsewhere).

A snowHead

Borrow a camper van? drive to resort and hook up. There's a camper van park in Montgenevre, and I'm sure there are others.
There are youth hostels in Chamonix, Val Cenis, Serre Chevalier.

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

I decided to cut costs by staying out of resort. Found a room for 27e/pp, breakfast included. 30 min drive to St.Anton, Ischgl and Serfaus. Flight to Munich and rent a car there. Another factor is the lenght of the holiday. 4 days much cheaper than a full week if going DIY.

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Having your own gear is a bit of a zero sum game because you save on the hire cost but lose on transportation (if flying), maintenance cost (if you DIY it helps) and of course the renewal cost.

I'd keep it simple in terms of the trip itself. If you are flexible when you go and happy to go to a less than perfect resort then you can get quite silly TO deals.

Also worth keeping up with the "Solo Skiers v Groups - Organising Trips" because you will get people with spare places on trips that will accept a lot less than cost price.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Sunweb or Snowtrex in early January.

Close thread.

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Yes, one of the "all in" holidays in French apartments, with ski pass included, can be very cheap. Cheapest if you find another couple to go with, have an apartment for 4 (better be quite good friends.....) and share the cost of driving, taking essential food supplies with you. Just be careful with the geography - some of the southerly resorts with the cheapest deals are more of a drive than others.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

first week after new year was always the cheapest when I was a student, book the time off work and get a last minute package deal as late as you can!

After all it is free

I see someone else has suggested it, but it deserves a retweet.

Go for less than a week. Flights in Jan (the fixed part of holiday costs) are filthly cheap. Everything else is proportionally cheaper. Austria is particularly good for this, as they have a number of cheap routes (eg linz), good public transport to resorts (car hire and taxis not required) and lots of small family run hotels/pensions which are happy to do four or five nights in the off season. Three good days skiing if you get up early and work hard is as good as a week when you might fancy a lazy day to recuperate...

+1 for flying to Munich and hiring a car.

Did that weekend before last. Lufthansa from Heathrow. Ticket was cheaper than Easyjet inc one bag and you get one bag, plus ski carriage free. And you get much better service!!!

Three hour drive to Sölden from the airport. Sölden is expensive for skip passes but there are plenty of other resorts within 3 hours drive. Plus you can stay out of the resort with a car so accommodation is cheaper.

We caught the early flight from Heathrow 6.35... But having left home at 3.30am we were skiing at 3.30pm, just enough time for a couple of runs! On the return leg we finished skiing at 4.45pm and were home by 00.30!
Friday to Tuesday was a perfect break.

But skiing for two for less than a grand is not easy once you factor in travel, accommodation and ski passes. I'll definitely be looking into some of the suggestions above though. Food can be managed on a budget if you pack your own lunch and refrain from après ski.

Good luck! Let us know what you end up doing.

W.

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Depends what you mean by "get away on a ski holiday".
If you mean relaxing and being looked after then the only option is a late deal with a tour op.
2nd week of Jan is usually optimum as the first week has some holiday demand from the likes of Russia.
Book the time off, and the cat sitter etc and hold your nerve until at least a week beforehand - if you dare, hold out till 3 or 4 days. It's unlikely that nothing will crop up but if, on the off chance there's nothing you fancy, you can get all your DIY done and try again at the end of the season.

There are additional unseen risks n this though. Some chalets are worse than others - tour ops know which are their good ones and may "upgrade" full-price guests into the gaps leaving the less salubrious spots for the late deals. Similarly some chalet staff are more reliable than others... and you pay peanuts, you know what you might get.

There are cheap ways to do it though that don't put you at the mercy of gap-year party animals.
For example: flights to Turin are often very cheap as is car-hire from there. Drive up to the Aosta valley - an hour, 90 mins. The wheels mean you don't need to be within staggering distance of the slopes and 5 mins drive can change the economic landscape drastically.
We booked a B+B on the way via a booking site. We got a triple room just off the motorway for 39€ inc breakfast. Yep, 13€ each! In the morning, we drove 45mins up to the resort and went skiing.
Next night, booked a place 5mins drive away, 17€ each inc breakfast.
As we planned to move around, we bought lift passes by the day - 'expensive' you may think? Well yes, it's not efficient if you remain in one of the big domains all week, but spending a couple of days in mini areas with 2 or 3 lifts each cost 20-25€/day. And funnily enough turned up some really good terrain - eg. untracked powder, 4 days after it had snowed! snowHead

It's a different kind of trip - a little more of an adventure. As I say, it depends what you're after snowHead

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So I went to Bankso for a walk a couple of weeks ago.

Flight was £75 (just hand luggage)
A weeks car hire £48 (clip with winter tyres)
Airbnb £17 / night self cater apartment (British owned)

One of the cheapest and best walking holidays I've done. The Pirin Mountains are stunning.

AVOID the busy times though! 1 bubble up to cater with the entire city (yes it's more like a city than town!) Simply isn't enough and I imagine queues will be huge.

That said if you hire a car you can drive half way up where there are more lifts if you are early!

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I usually get cheap flights to Geneva and transfers to Morzine then use the local french estate agents (morzine immobiliser). They are so much cheaper than British run operators. I've got a self catered studio flat at bottom on Pleney for few hundred euros in the past. They all speak great english, you just have to negotiate a key collection if out of hours.

@admin some great advice there

Although since joining your forum I've gone from having a crisis over how to make my ski holiday of the year affordable, to how to be able to afford at least 4 weeks... Shocked

You know it makes sense.

You're not alone there @dp. Many years ago someone said, "when I found this place I thought of skiing as a 'once a year luxury' but soon realised twice was the minimum. This year though I'm feeling a little hard done by that I'm only getting 3 in".

I think snowHeads just do a good job of opening each other's eyes to the multitude of possibilities out there Happy

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

A snowHead

@admin, I would heartily concur with that someone. One or two weeks a year just doesn’t cut it anymore; must try harder!

A snowHead

@mikeycharlton, +1

Snowtrex to SuperDévoluy has worked well for us. Lift passes included in self catered accomodation. Self drive - stock up on provisions somewhere cheap.

Help!!

Cutting the cost of a ski holiday

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