 Poster: A snowHead
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For single skier could be not that expensive especially outside the school holidays, cheap flight to Geneva then 20 EUR bus to Aosta and cheaper skiing options are available. But still at the end, you get 600-800 EUR for week of skiing, which is still a lot of money.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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What is certainly noticeable is the burgeoning top end of skiing. I feel like years ago, there were only a couple of "exclusive" resorts, like Verbier. Has anyone been to Courchevel lately? Val d'Isere isn't far behind. Time was Courchevel 1650 was a cheap option, not any more.
Also, the quantity and quality of the lift infrastructure has increased hand in hand with the popularity, drag lifts are the exception now in most resorts, they've gone along with knee whacker chairs.
Rentals are much more centralised, the odd bargain that you could get phoning around seems to have gone .
So, more people, more money going into the areas, it's no surprise the way its going. Grumpy old fogeys like me miss some of the old rough edges
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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?
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It is an expensive sport but, to be fair, look at the capital and ongoing costs to run a ski resort and the exposure to potential significant losses.
To be honest, whilst I'd like it to be a bit cheaper I don't feel as if I'm being ripped off (at least not in Europe) and there is an argument that says if we don't pay a fair price that allows resorts to cope with potential shocks and issues (eg. Covid) then we're likely to lose the facilities.
And, despite all that, you CAN do it on a budget (coach, hostel, second hand gear etc) if you're sufficiently motivated and Snowheads Bashes are, I think, really great value for money.
Sure, you can go and sit on a beach and drink yourself silly for a lot less ... but skiing is just worth it isn't it ??
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Meanwhile people spend £15 a day on a packet of fags and kill themselves in the process or drink a couple of pints a day at a fiver a go , as has been said when you look at the cost of the infrastructure and the electric to run the lifts its no wonder prices are where they are.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You ‘ad a day pass?
You were lucky…
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Can always just go touring if you don't like the price of a day ticket. The infrastructure and staff to operate it needs to have the cost covered. Outside of Vail's CEO I dont think many people are getting rich out of running ski areas.
It costs a lot of money to set up, maintain and operate a ski area. It's scary - small examples - a set of replacement tracks for a cat is gonna run about 40k. Refurbishing a couple of lift towers is probably 40k. A lot of it goes in upfront, a bad season for weather, and things can get tight quickly. One of the attractions in selling season passes is that it secures cashflow early.
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| Quote: |
Can always just go touring if you don't like the price of a day ticket
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I made a similar comment in the past and got shot down, apparently touring is not real skiing  Although I do agree with the sentiment, it's not what most holiday makers are looking for.
Also, while you save on the lift pass there's quite a big outlay for touring equipment (or rental) and possibly need for a guide and/or avalanche training.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@hang11, I guess its not only about ski lifts, re last season Austria received about 70M visits per season, if avg 100EUR per visit, imagine money flow into country economy.
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42 M tourists visited the uk and there's not many ski lifts 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Quote: |
| I will have a look, thank you. |
Sorry
@blahblahblah, I was wrong on the price 
Its ftom £39 - not £38 - from March 2026 
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AHH, must be getting near ski season if we've got the annual "skiing is expensive" clickbait from the Guardian!
Given increasing costs of energy, travel, everything etc. it's not really a surprise, especially as many resorts are investing in new infrastructure, for which all the construction costs will also be going up.
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You know it makes sense.
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| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
| AHH, must be getting near ski season if we've got the annual "skiing is expensive" clickbait from the Guardian!... |
Soon to be followed by the rest of the trilogy. "There's no snow anywhere" and "Skiing is dangerous. You're all going to die in an avalanche"
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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A voyage to Arabba for £39 sounds good value to me.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@snowball, the boom years for growth in numbers were the 60s, 70s and 80s. Suspect UK skiing numbers have fallen a lot the last 20 years.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| adithorp wrote: |
| SnoodyMcFlude wrote: |
| AHH, must be getting near ski season if we've got the annual "skiing is expensive" clickbait from the Guardian!... |
Soon to be followed by the rest of the trilogy. "There's no snow anywhere" and "Skiing is dangerous. You're all going to die in an avalanche" |
I didn't realise you wrote for them!
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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?
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| hang11 wrote: |
Outside of Vail's CEO I dont think many people are getting rich out of running ski areas.
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One of the attractions in selling season passes is that it secures cashflow early. |
Ironic.
The chief complain against Vail is indeed the need to buy seasonal pass in order to afford skiing!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Quote: |
| A voyage to Arabba for £39 sounds good value to me. |
Overpriced
@Peter S - "skiing is expensive!"
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Specialman wrote: |
@johnE, totally. It always felt a bit posh going skiing - my family hadn't even thought about it as a kid, normal people went to Spain or Italy for a sun holiday - so when I went on my first Crystal trip for £129 to La Plagne, staying in a shoebox and eating pasta by the bucketload, I thought I'd cheated the system somehow. £150 for a lifts? Yes please!! 2 euros to the pound? I'll have that...
Even sun holidays are now expensive, but skiing is another level.... I reckon as a family of 4 we'll be lucky to get change from £5000 by the time we've totted everything up from our Christmas trip - a huge, huge portion of our annual income - but we scrimp, save and forego other things to enjoy this very luxurious indulgence. Obvs, it can be done miles cheaper at different times of the year, but the add-ons like lift pass, kit rental or ski carriage don't help to 'sell' skiing to normal people who probably just think that it all seems like an expensive faff to be cold and fleeced €10 for a beer. |
Accommodation prices have gone through the roof. Our apartment in Tignes that we have rented for 4 seasons doubled in price last year and is now being sold. We've had to add another £1000 to get something in the same building. We are thinking next year we may try different resort.
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@FrediKanoute, that's a shame, a huge increase to swallow. I was amazed at the price for SC accommodation in places like Tignes and Val Thorens, and they're definitely not alone in the prices going up dramatically - often, it's not like you're getting anything posh either; some of the those shoebox apartments look like they've not had a lick of paint for 25yrs, zero investment.
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@FrediKanoute, Yep, the usual places we stay in Vallandry have gone up by nearly £2000. On the plus side we are now trying a different resort!
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Apartment/rabbit hutch we have booked in Les Coches for Christmas is 720 Euros up from 650 Euros so ~10% increase. However, last year was ~25 Euros cheaper than the year before that.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Not just skiing- rugby too. Had tickets for NZ autumn Twickenham international in basket at £180 each. Just too expensive.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Yes it is expensive for a family with kids possibly needing childcare, lessons and equipment hire. We are 'veterans' so get either free or very reduced ski passes in the big French resorts. I have costs for all our trips since the birthday bash in 2020 which was £2080 including flights. By 2022 our next trip due to covid restrictions, another bash, was £2300.
Since then we have done 10 independent trips mostly to 3V plus twice to Tignes, shorter trips flying and longer trips driving from Scotland. The total cost of these 10 trips is £22268 (scary stuff when you add it up!) but that is for 22 weeks of skiing. That works out at about £1060 a week for the 2 of us compared with double that for a birthday bash. But that is so cheap because we are on the cheap/free lift passes, own equipment and travelling out for up to 3 weeks at a time.
Our first trip this season will be to Tignes in December and total cost for that will be £1200. That is Easyjet flight, Ben's Bus, P&V apartment in Tignes and airport parking. We will self cater so food to add but you ned to eat wherever you are. 5 more weeks accomodation already booked in Meribel for 2 trips when we will drive.
Our first ever ski trip abroad to Flaine at Easter 1988 cost £1200 for 2 adults and 2 children aged 14 and 11. So we are about to do the next trip for 2 oldies at the same cost as a family 37 years later! I'm glad I do not have the cost of every trip recorded although they are listed, all 130 trips. Hopefully we can continue for many more......
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| hang11 wrote: |
| It costs a lot of money to set up, maintain and operate a ski area. |
Mr O and I had a similar conversation earlier this year. We were on the pedestrian Dahu lift in Arc 1800 returning to our apartment after being out for dinner. We were watching the piste bashers work. We noted that things are always happening to maintain it, and that it is a spotless resort. You don't see rubbish anywhere at anytime. They've regularly invested in infrastructure, too, so we understand where the cost of the pass goes.
We have family coming with us next year for their first ever trip. I was upfront about what it costs us, and they were on-board with it. But it's still a shock to them when they're now paying out for things. For those that haven't been, it's a shock to find the the amount of things you need to pay for. Your summer holiday to Spain, you pay your flights and accommodation upfront and off you go. For skiing, that's just the start.
It does bug me when people make comments 'you must be rich, I could never afford to go skiing', and when you ask where they go on holiday, they tell you about the 2 week AI trip to Spain that they've booked for the middle of August, which has cost about £6k.
Articles like this are designed to reinforce those attitudes. Don't fancy skiing? Your loss. I don't fancy two weeks on a lounger, but you do you, I'm not going to complain about what it costs you.
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Im going to go against the grain here.
My first ski holiday approx 2003 was a package with Inghams/crystal i remember paying around £700 each for x4 mates to share a family room in the strass (full board) in mayhrhofen with flight from Edinburgh. A quick package price for same hotel same month for two with flights from Edinburgh is just over £1k each (b&b). Pretty reasonable increase in my opinion. The days of renting a rabbit hutch in france for a few francs is gone.
Yes lift passes have gone up but i have never grudged europen costs. I would imagine a large percentage of ski area costs would be insurance, everybody is so quick to claim even for the smallest incident these days. Also the snow making costs are ever increasing.
I have never considered renting ski kit good value so after my 1st trip to the mighty hof always had my own kit.
I took my neices go karting in Aberdeen yesterday for 2x 10 minute sessions. £97 (3 of us in total).
It would wee wee me off if I was tied to school holiday times times but thats the same across all holidays.
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You know it makes sense.
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Those big resorts are pretty busy - even out of the school holidays, as people have noted elsewhere.
Resorts are currently in a sellers market. Clearly there are plenty of people who can afford to ski - even to the extent that there is some talk of limited numbers.
This is capitalism, folks. You sell your wares at the market-clearing price. Talk of products being "unaffordable" makes no sense in such a booming market.
There are plenty of us who can afford luxuries, it seems! Aren't we lucky?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I suspect there are FAR more British families going skiing now than in the 1960s, when I started. And far more going on summer packages abroad, too. I went to a girl's grammar school which was mostly attended, like other grammar schools, by pupils from relatively privileged households. When the first school ski trip was planned, in 1963, the number of girls who had ever been skiing was vanishingly small (there were certainly none in my year). Everybody on the trip - to Geilo in Norway - was a total beginner. We enjoy a hugely better material standard of living in many ways, including ski holidays!
But that won't stop us complaining.
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Poster: A snowHead
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I think it is pretty good value compared to other activities.
The only costs that you wouldn't incur elsewhere are the lift pass and equipment hire or purchase, and you need gear for almost any sport. Everything else - accommodation, food, travel and so on you have to pay wherever you go, and you can cut your cloth accordingly. Sky is the limit if you want or you can self cater or stay in a pension for less per night than you'd pay in blighty B&B. I also find on the ground costs less than I'd pay at home...an espresso for a euro on top of an Italian alp! A beer for less than I'd pay in my local on an Austrian alp! A crappy burger in a UK pub is £15+ these days. It's cheaper to go skiing than staying at home!
To put the lift pass price into context - a full day on the mountain costs around as much as 18 holes on an average golf course. If you like underwater action, then a days (non technical) shore diving will set you back 100 euros or so. Of course, you need lessons to get you started in any activity other than sunbathing. Overall I think skiing is fantastic value.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@obmij,  Puts it all into proportion!
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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?
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I don't mind paying the high fees for a lift pass in a good resort as I am happy to get up early, ski all day and then return home as late as possible. I feel that I get value for money.
This year we are driving to Switzerland from Paris. £150 of petrol gets us to our resort and back and even when you factor in a cheap hotel on the way (£40) it is still significantly cheaper than flying or taking the train. Even with an SNCF discount card and purchasing the tickets as soon as they are released would have been over €350.
We could fly...but cost is over £200 return each although there is a flight from Paris to Geneva for £78...but it transits through Luton which you could not pay me to visit.
Everything is going up...not just the cost of ski stuff...
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Quick question - where are people getting these cheep beach holidays from? I have just researched a Neilson beach holiday for the summer in Rhodes in August and it comes in at £2229 per person for a week. The same company is offereing 1/2 board ski trips in January to Les Menuires for £1299. OK for the ski trip you will to buy a lift pass and it is lowish season, but I imagine August in Rhodes will also be low season. It will be far too hot to do anything.
ps Actually I was suprised to see that the Rhodes holiday will be over £1000 less expensive in May. I thought it would be more in May. But still fairly comparible prices
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@johnE, August being prime school holidays, so will always be a fortune.
Really, either look up to early July, or go in September. Should save a fair bit compared to August.
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| Origen wrote: |
| .. But that won't stop us complaining. |
Specifically complaining within the same forum that: (a) skiing is too crowded; and (b) skiing is too expensive for people to afford.
But then if I was to complain about people being inconsistent, I'd be complaining too...
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@phil_w, What we really mean is, "Why can't all those other buggers just go somewhere else?" I think that every time I'm on on the A27 at busy times.
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@TheMikeSki, Yes, early October looks a good price at £1300 to Rhodes. I'm tempted, Kalymnos is a bit too crowded in October for me.
TBH I couldn't envisage anyone going to Rhodes in August, school holidays or not. As skiers we know when the season is and for the Greek isles I thought it was April - June and mid Sept to mid November.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@johnE, not doing a package with a TO in the summer holidays is probably a good place to start for a cheaper trip.
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| johnE wrote: |
| Yes, early October looks a good price at £1300 to Rhodes. I'm tempted... |
Indeed - and we did that exact holiday a few weeks ago. First time I'd been on a dinghy in years!
For most people, if they are with kids (and Neilson cater for kids very well) they are stuck with summer holidays. Even in very hot Greece. When our daughter was in school we did those in summer half term which wasn't too hot, but still expensive.
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FAQ
We paid £55 nearer the time. It's absolutely brilliant 
