Best Season Pass for a Regular Weekender

A snowHead

Hi, I wonder if any have you can help...

Over the last few years the family has done a 1 week trip each year at Easter - but my son and I are itching for more. We have some limiting factors incl:
- cant take son out of school for a week during term time (but could do a day or two)
- not keen on expense of feb half term trip (and how busy it is)
- keen to keep annual leave for other stuff (eg summer hols)

My potential solution is to get a season pass for my son (nearly 10 yo) and I, and then do lots of long weekends (leave Thursday evening and fly back late sunday) during non peak season dates (Jan, March in particular).

I have a large stash of Avios points so I can get flights from London for not very much as long as British Airways fly there - Geneva, Lyon, Milan, Venice, Munich, Zurich, Salzburg (they also fly to Grenoble, Innsbruck, Turin, Verona, etc but far fewer Avios flights available from what I can see)

So I am looking to find the holy grail of a season pass / resort combo that optimises for the following weekend trip criteria:
- A good ski pass deal (ideally one of the flash sale/early bird deals).
- A resort that's not too far from an airport with economical/fast transfer options: shared/private transfer, train - I'd consider car rental but its not my preference.
- Decent availability of weekend only accom at not too crazy prices (not fussed re board basis)
- Snow sure enough for the week pre Xmas and/or a week in Easter hols.

We are both low to mid intermediate skiiers so primarily after blues and reds. Off piste is not high on priority list (yet!).

So far in France, PDS, Grand Massif, Chamonix (all via Geneva) might tick some of those boxes but I don't know much about options in Italy (are snow sure resorts further from the Airport?) or Switzerland (expensive?), or Austria (Weekend accom availability?) - Anywhere else I'm missing?

Any input greatly appreciated.

A snowHead

The best season pass deal is magic pass but you'd probably want to combine with a hire car and out of resort AirBnB to keep Swiss accommodation costs down. Which adds to stress (re rental pick up) if its lots of weekends. PDS is nearest and shuttle served from GVA but no idea how feasible repeated weekend rentals are.

Italy I'd say Milan is a solid 3-4 hours drive from most places you'd want to ski. Venice nearer for the Dollies of course.

INN possibly an option if you could make flights work (remember Sleazy as well) - lots of skiing, quite a lot accessible by local bus and city hotels more used to nightly stays. Freizheitticket is now I believe possibly available to non residents.

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

@AliAfro, personally, I'd start with the flights, as those are an immutable constraint. There's no point finding a cheap ski pass if you can't get to the resort.

Go to google flights, , set to multi city rather than return, input London as starting point, you can have up to 5 options as end points (e.g. GVA, LYS, MUC, MXP, INN) fix airlines to BA (since you want to use Avios), and set departure time to >7pm depature (or whatever allows your son a full day of school/you a full day of work) and set return time to >7pm (so you get a full day skiing on the Sunday). Pick a random weekend in January 2026.

You'll immediately discover that Geneva is your only option, which narrows it down a lot.

Given the time constraints, I always rent a car. Shared transfer or public transport won't let me optimise for flight times, the transport nearly always costs an extra hour of skiing.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

I should add - I've done this occasionally with my kids - don't underestimate how tiring it is for them. Mine were quite tired for school on the Monday. I wouldn't want to (and never did) do more than one weekend a month. Like many things, the dream and the reality can diverge.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

+1 for the Magic Pass with a hire car. 419CHF for an adult if you book in the next few weeks.

You'll need to Register first of course.

@Dave_of_the_Marmottes

Thanks - Re. PDS I've never had a prob booking weird dates in PDS: Pierre and Vacances run all the accom in Avoriaz and let you book whatever days you like (though I haven't ever tried this at Xmas or Feb half term). Plus lots of AirBNB, Vrbo, Booking.com options in Morzine

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

@snowdave

Thanks - thats really helpful advice.

After all it is free

For Italy, BA fly from LGW to Turin at least a couple of times a day through the winter season. From Turin you've got Sauze d'Oulx within an hour and other via Lattea resorts (Sestriere and Montgenevre the main targets for choice of accommodation) an hour and a half drive. I don't know about season passes but I always found weekly passes in Via Lattea to be reasonably priced. Then you have Cervinia about an hour and a half, and other Aosta resorts such as Pila, La Thuille, Champoluc, Gressonney, Courmayor etc, some of which have lift pass sharing arrangements.

Don't know what your budget constraints are but to maximise skiing time the best way is to have your own car parked at / near the airport so there is no faffing with buses / trains / taxis and you can store your skis in it. Independent car parks at Lyon are about 50€ a week with fast mini bus pickup, you might be able to negotiate a deal for repeated use, repeat customers get 10% anyway at the one I use. At Grenoble you can walk to the car and it was possible to get a season ticket, have not used Grenoble for several years though. Got my cat cut off and nicked at Grenoble though Sad

But so did every car in the row......
Alpe d'Huez / Les Deux Alpes / Serre Chavalier season pass gives you days in the others. Discounted for kids and over 65's, about 600€

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Grand massif are super cheap early booking but magic pass also appeals. Swiss train to resort?

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I've been told that PDS have a flash sale in June for around 600 euro, hopefully that is true as great value for a season pass, wherever you go it needs to be near to airports at both ends, maybe trains are possible option, the new Gondola from st fayet to st Gervais is right by the station and I would guess the accommodation is cheaper down there, it's not a direct train to Geneva but fairly easy to do the one change .

snow reports

Yeah I've done the frequent weekend thing too. More than every 3 weeks gets a bit much and two successive trips of shitty hardpack can really make you question why you're doing it. It might not cost much in work/school days but it can take some of the shine off skiing as a "holiday".

Nonetheless I'd still recommend that people try for themselves so they can work out what they really value in skiing. It may not be being on the slope every hour possible.

You know it makes sense.

Have a look at the Salzburg super ski card. Flights to Salzburg and then easy public transport options. Maybe look at Maishofen or Saalfelden for Saalbach / Hinterglemm & Zell am See or Altenmarkt / Radstadt which opens up Flachau, Zauchensensee, Schladming plus local slopes. With a hire car more places all well within an hour's drive of the airport.

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

A snowHead

I second the Salzburger Super Ski card since you can get those flights to Salzburg. Amazing number of quality resorts included on it!

A snowHead

Weekend passes can work out pretty cheap for kids. I've taken my boys to Murren for a weekend trip and their passes on the Saturday were free.

So I wouldn't bother with a season pass. It's unlikely to be worth it, and you can be free to check out different resorts.

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

You need to Login to know who's really who.

I don't have loads of experience in this (done one weekender over 20 years ago) but I agree with posters questioning doing lots of them with a young kid.

I would do one and see how it goes.

Have you considered going for a week at Christmas? Kids are off school anyway and you only use 3 days leave from work.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Thanks all - This has been really useful - particularly in recalibrating my expectations on how regularly we might do these trips... and whether a full season pass will actually be worth it.

@Layne - Trial run is a great idea... And yes, Ive booked flights to Geneva for the Xmas week 25/26 - Just have to figure out how to break it to the extended family that we will be skipping the traditional family Xmas meetup this year!

You'll need to Register first of course.

You could look at a pass that gives you access to lots of different resorts if you want variety.

It's not a short journey for a weekend trip to Andorra even although there are plenty of flights to Barcelona from most places in the UK. However, the Andorra pass allows days in lots of other places. 5 days in Norway, 3 days in 3 Valleys, 3 days in Alpe D'Huez/Les 2 Alpes, 5 days in Verbier, 3 days in Skirama Dolomiti plus more in Japan, USA, Argentina and western Pyrenees. It's not a particularly cheap season pass though at around €815 early booking rate this season (prices not announced for next season). https://www.grandvalira.com/en/ski-pass/season/advantages

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

Also the level you are both at (learning late, and watching kids learn are both something I have experience of…!) you will benefit more from longer stretches to consolidate and then improve your skills. If it’s only 2-3 days on snow all the time I think it will harder to become a better skier. Certainly for you; your boy will likely pick it up faster.
Also it’s true it’s quite a lot of hassle going back and forth but I guess everyone has different tolerance for that.

After all it is free

@AliAfro, I used to do Verbier for the first weekend of December. Might be a good time for a trial run - flights, car and accom were always really cheap, and there's something great about getting some ski days in before all your mates.

The problem with the Salzburg suggestions is that the BA flight times are no good- if you want to stick with BA for Avios reasons, GVA is your only practical option.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@HilbertSpace, good call. I stand corrected!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@skitow …the best way is to have your own car parked at / near the airport so there is no faffing with buses / trains / taxis and you can store your skis in it. Independent car parks at Lyon are about 50€ a week

We park our car in a secure underground car park which is a 20 min Uber from Lyon airport…€33 per month

However, unless you have proof of ownership of property in France it’s not possible to buy a second hand car and have it registered so they’d have to take over a British car which itself brings its own insurance issues.

snow reports

Another option is to go for a pass that lets you ski whenever you want but gives a discount on the daily rate.

For example:
https://www.skialacarte.fr/gb/

and
https://www.skiogrande.com/

These also give you a free day every 8th ski day or so. There must be others too. Saves the hassle of buying a new pass each time but you don't have to commit to a whole season so you could even go with more than one of these.

You know it makes sense.

@altis - Thanks,

Grand massif is probably the only resort within the skialacarte list that would work (for me) for weekend getaways (as the others are that bit too far from the airport) but Grand Massif was def on the list so this could be a winning compromise to get discount pass price without going the whole hog and getting a season pass...

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

A snowHead

Tirol Snowcard is one that may work, especially as it'll open up a lot of resorts which makes finding weekend accommodation easier. It also gives you the added bonus of doing weekend trips from October where you've got the 5 glaciers available to you (depending on when they open).

Flights in to Munich and Innsbruck and easy public transport from both to most places in Tirol.

No flash sale though, last year and adult early bird price was €989 if bought before the end of October.

A snowHead

@snowdave, "You'll immediately discover that Geneva is your only option, which narrows it down a lot" Really?

BA flights for Salzburg 8-11 Jan 26 (Thu-Sun). Depart LGW 08.35 Return LGW 17.50. That sounds pretty good for the OP. Plus multiple Ryan Air, Easy Jat Options.

Plus 1 for the Salzburg Superskipass, or just get the Ski Amade Season Pass. The latter requires 14 days skiing across the season to make it cost effective. The former opens up options to ski Saalbach, Zell am Zee, Kitz and Ski Welt, all within 90 mins of the airport by car. From 01 May 25 all local transport within Salzburgland is free with a tourist card.

Use local tourist office sites for booking digs. You can usually get halb-pension for weekends, even at late notice.

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

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Yet more info for the mix.......
https://www.valcenis.ski/en/purchase-path/product-details/17186
This is a good value pass when bought in October @50% discount (so about €425 for an adult) It gives you 6 resorts plus a few days in Italy. However if you are focusing on learning and skiing blues and reds you won't need huge variety, just good, uncrowded pistes and a decent place to stay. For these resorts you'd fly to Turin and then car or train. Train times may not fit so car likely best.
The best skiing on a budget will be at https://www.leskarellis.com/fr/
Annual pass about €250 if bought in October. It's a 2 hour transfer from Geneva and one of my favourite places.
Voila.

You'll need to Register first of course.

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

@AliAfro, if you’re thinking of doing this, I’d book all the flights on Avios straight away. There’s still availability for weekend flights, but it won’t last long. Avios flights are cancellable/changeable (maybe a fee, depending on the type of booking and your BA status, but it’s not material in the scheme of things) so even if you get one or two bookings “wrong” it’s not the end of the world. I’ve already booked a few weekends for next season and the availability on the popular late evening flights is going fast.

After all it is free

@snowdave - dont worry Im on it!

PDS does a free season pass for a child under 12 when the parent purchases a season pass. Early bird adult passes are €935 which would cover both of you for the season.
Shared shuttles are a bit limited for late weeknights outside of peak weeks, but it is a short drive and hire cars can be pretty cheap for 3 days.
The wider PDS pass will let you do a variety of areas of accommodation is harder to find for short periods, while a hire car will give you access to cheaper accommodation outside the main ski-in/ski-out bases.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Help!!

Best Season Pass for a Regular Weekender

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste