To not understand the snobbery around skiing?

[Cappuccinowithonesugarplease]

An actual conversation I overheard:

"Virtually anyone can afford to go skiing these days"

Do people really still think like this in 2024? It just seems so classist....

My DH grew up in a country where skiing was just a couple of hour drive away and it wasn't regarded as a sport reserved for those with money. Drive out (driving at 15), hire kit, off you go. And in those circumstances - I'd give it a go.

But the thought of taking my annual holiday and going somewhere colder than I set off sounds like an exercise in masochism to my working class ears. 😁

I know a new graduate who organised their Uni ski trips (rather her than me, think about organising a group of friends to go on holiday together and then multiply by 100!) and they had a coach option from the North of England plus accommodation, lift pass, and it was about that price for the accommodation and lift pass - £200 coach or book your own flights.

@User75235 I wonder if the ethnic diversity will change at least in part due to immigration to ski areas - if you live somewhere skiing is the norm, and you are sporty, but your family are from a country without snow, will you take up skiing or will you go with a sport your family already valued?

Lots of Indian and Nigerian immigrants in Canada take up ice skating and skiing. It’s just what you do if you live there.

That’s hardly a reflection on skiing. Not everybody likes the same things.

I hate going to football matches, plenty of people including the rest of my family love it (and yes I have been to plenty, and also hate going to rugby, baseball and basketball matches).

I just went to look at the Crystal Ski website as I was quite flabbergasted by this price.

The only one I can find, using our Feb half term dates, at that price flies out of Belfast. Northern Ireland doesn’t do a Feb half term so for them that’s a term time holiday. The same resort is just over £1000 a person flying out of an airport serving England, Wales and Scotland.

I then added the extras. An adult lift pass alone for the week was over £300. Adding basic hire, lift passes (one of my imaginary children was too young to need one thankfully), and half day ski school for both children, it came in around 6k in total.

So many misconceptions here from people who admit they do not ski at all. It does not matter how much you try to correct them, they are not having it - skiing is elitist and not about the skiing, but actually about networking, partying and drinking. 🙄🙄 Firstly, so what? For those who do enjoy the partying on a mountain vibe, why not? It seems as valid a way to spend your holidays as partying on a beach or in a city. Secondly, I think there is a subsection here, led ably by @User75235 who are determined to indulge in reverse snobbery as much as they can where it comes to skiing - these folks can’t actually be spending their money on a ski holiday because they actually enjoy sliding around in the cold on a pair of planks, can they?

Yes - people do go skiing for the skiing. I grew up working class, and skiing was beyond our financial reach. But I love it now, and would walk over hot coals for the chance to get out into the cold fresh air and strap my skis on! I have a lot of hobbies that involve adventurous activity in the outdoors, including skiing, and so do a lot of people. I have lots of friends and colleagues who would eat pot noodles in a hostel if it was what it takes to get their skiing fix. Those posters who are convinced adults wouldn’t ski if there was no party attached to it, try to think outside of your own small ideas of what counts as fun for others!

Good point!

Yes, some total pompous drivel about diversity it’s a bloody ski hols, not a town planning box tick exercise. It’s really not anything deeper than that.

And no-one forces you to plonk your three year old on skis, that was entirely your own parental decision.

When I started teaching our local authority (west of Scotland) had centralised coaching schemes for sailing, windsurfing, canoeing and skiing. I learned to sail through the scheme and then taught pupils from all the schools in the authority at after school courses. During summer I was out 3 nights a week and the payment just covered petrol. Loved it. Did the same for skiing, bus up to Glenshee on a Friday night and stayed in hostels. The children were from all backgrounds and I later met a boy I had taken from my school (very deprived area) to the sailing and he had become a countryside ranger and said I had influenced his career choice. It was an amazing scheme and opened up sports to so many children. I never thought skiing was an elitist sport because of the way I had been introduced to it and the need to keep costs low to allow pupils to participate plus our social group were all teachers so not exactly wealthy upper class types.

We later skied in Chamonix every Easter for 2 weeks with our kids. Lessons in Scotland so no need when on holiday, second hand equipment, picnics, only a couple of meals out. People think it’s posh/expensive but it doesn’t have to be. We felt it was a sport we could all do as a family at all ages and stages and they still love nothing more than chasing each other down a mountain. It was our choice and we didn’t do other things, like Disney.

I taught a girl whose family had annual passes for Disney Florida yet lived in Glasgow - that seemed way posher/more expensive than our ski trips.

exactly, and that is for ONE family member to go ONE TIME. most of the school 'ski' trips involve maybe two and a half days of actual skiiing, max, the rest is travelling time.

that's not enough for a 'yes' to 'do you ski?' that's 'I went once in year ten and by the end of the three days managed to go about thirty feet without falling over.'

Maaaaayybe a tiny number of people will go once with school/scouts, get the 'bug' and seven or eight years later when they get their first full time job they might try again and end up going semi-regularly, particularly if they have friends that go. But most people 'ski' because they grew up doing it, or maybe marry into a family that grew up doing it.

You’re booking less than four months out, so prices will be higher for popular weeks like half term.

We are doing a week in Mayrhofen in Feb, me, DS. DM, DBro, and I can assure you we haven’t paid anything like £6k. The flights were £1100 for all four of us (flying into Munich on Friday night, overnight stay in airport hotel then train to Mayrhofen the next morning). The apartment was expensive at £2500 for the week, but it is also massive - there were smaller apartments in the same block for £1500-2000.

Lift passes I grant you are steep. Free ski hire is included with children’s ski lessons. Ski clothes usually last a couple of seasons, and can be handed down.

Most ski schools don’t take kids below age 4, IME. And even then, usually just half days.

DS did go to ski kindergarten in Canada when he was 2, but that was literally just playing in the snow (not in skis) and they went back inside regularly to warm up. So, exactly like his Toronto nursery, which also took them outside to play in the snow every day in -10C weather. If they have decent clothes on, they shouldn’t be sobbing from the cold after less than an hour outside in the Alps.

I’m not trying to book. I’m pointing out that the previous poster’s holiday costings were a bit misleading.

Although what you’re costing out there is quite different to what would be included in that holiday. And IME ski passes aren’t included in ski schools, but I’m sure mileage varies, so to speak. They’re not included in the package I priced up on that website.

Ski hire is included with children’s lessons - boots and skis and helmets. Not lift passes.

Also, it might not be £6k, but 3.5k it ain’t either.

£1100 flights
£2000 accommodation
£x ski school (at least for the kids, from your post)
£y ski hire for adults
£z lift passes

plus airport hotel for 4 people (1 night? Or also on the way back?) Train for 4 people (granted, it’s Germany, not the UK, so you might not need a second mortgage)

How much once you’ve taken into account all the costs, not just flights and accommodation?

Sorry, I mistyped. But same as the passes, ski hire not included in my own experience, nor in the Crystal holiday.

Well, also plus all food.

(German trains are virtually free. Although they have become unreliable in the extreme recently.)

I’m also very intrigued by the flight costs! We are doing the exact same route on the same day and I lived on Skyscanner for weeks, not to mention checking out EJ costs on the day the flights were released, and we booked last spring, and we’re paying far more for indirect flights. I think you need to set up as a travel agent. I’d be your first client.

The airport hotel is actually ridiculously cheap for a family room - €107 for all of us, including breakfast. Trains are €180 return for all four of us.

The adults have their own equipment and not everyone is skiing (DM is in her late 70s and just does some hiking). An adult lift pass is €369 for the week, a child one is €167. Ski school for the week is €249.

So for us, with two adults and a child skiing and one adult hiking, that’s another €1073. So £4000 total. If it was two adults and two children, all skiing, it would be an extra €1500, so more like £4500 in total.

Not cheap, but definitely not £6000. And we aren’t cutting corners, it’s a nice apartment in the centre of town, and flying with BA not Ryanair etc. It could be done cheaper if you were staying in a cheaper apartment further out of town and flying with a budget airline.

BA flight from LHR to MUC at 19:55 on 14/02, returning on 22/02 at 14:45. We booked last June in the seat sale, not sure if that affected prices - obviously they cost more now, but that isn’t a hugely popular route. You can still book on those dates now for £600 pp return

How much do you expect to spend on food?

I think though the point has to remain that these holidays are not particularly cheap!

We are going skiing next year but no summer holiday for us: the kids picked that arrangement as they love skiing so much. As I don’t ski, it’s not my preferred option as my only holiday of the year particularly, but it’s not forever.

The sale made a difference as I priced up those exact flights out back in March and they were much more.

We’ve never flown before as it costs so much more (we don’t do a package option) but after misery at both Eurotunnel and on trains in recent years, I snapped. The flights are still a lot for five of us though.

It is where we go. Obviously depends on the resort, but it’s pretty common in Austria IME. Lots of ski schools chasing the same customers, I suppose.

We’ve done this journey a lot now, and that is definitely the cheapest route - it’s usually much cheaper to fly with BA than easyJet, no idea why.

When we booked, EasyJet was about £500 each way, BA was £187 or something. Still a lot more than they charge every other day of the year though - if we could fly on the Wednesday it would only cost £50 😭

Yeah, we’re going to Munich in October half term midweek for a fraction of the cost.

BA were far more expensive than our indirect option, and as we aren’t in the south, there’s the advantage of being able to travel from a more local airport too. Frankly after the train journey from hell, even a connecting flight felt like a giant treat.

We go to a hotel so it costs more but I don’t want to self cater. As a non-skier my fun is being waited on.