Cheapest ski holiday?

[Frazzled74]

I would like to book a ski holiday for February half term. Dc would love to give skiing a go, I don’t really want to ski but will if I have to for them. Im looking for 7 nights away, but maybe only 2-3 days of skiing so that we can do a little sightseeing as well. I don’t mind staying in the same place for one week or moving location, whichever works out the best value. Can anyone help please.

Staying in the same location is likely to be cheaper - during high season many places won't let you rent for less than a week. Go self catering in a small resort if neither of you have been before. There will be enough to do if you are beginners. Smaller resorts tend to have cheaper accommodation and the lift passes will be cheaper too as limited number of slopes. It's worth keeping an eye on the flights when they're released as well. If you time it right you can get reasonably priced flights to places such as Geneva / Grenoble / Innsbruck, and get a hire car from there. If you have a hire car you can drive off to do a bug grocery shop and activities elsewhere.

Big rather than bug shop 😀

Could you give DC a few ski lessons at an indoor or dry ski slope at home 1st to see if they'll actually enjoy it before committing to a whole holiday?

Bansko bulgaria is really cheap. Never recovered from recession

I second Bansko - we've been there a couple of times when we've just wanted a cheap week away snowboarding. You'll get so much more for your money in terms of accommodation (a four star hotel with spa facilities and great half-board food/drink for around the same price as basic accommodation in the Alps) and although the resort isn't on the same scale as the French/Italian resorts, the slopes are tree-lined so it's much easier to navigate if conditions aren't great! No accidental off-piste . . .

You can spend some time in Sofia during your trip too, which is actually a lovely city to walk around.

Maybe consider Spain? We have skied the Sierra Nevada several times. Good beginner and intermediate slopes. Reasonable ski lift pass rates too. Re flights, there are some but limited flights direct to Granada or loads to Malaga, which is about 2 hours away. As a package, you would be picked up at the airport and taken to the ski resort. For trips, Granada is about half an hour away (good bus service from the resort) or if you had hired a car, you could be on the coast in under an hour.
Also agree with Wisteria about flying into Geneva (the flights are cheapish and widely available) and opens up a whole area for skiing resorts.

Switzerland is crazily expensive. Everything is expensive. Bulgaria is the well known budget place. Not been yet but planning on snowboarding there next Feb.

Thank you, I don’t drive so need somewhere easy to get to on public transport. I don’t want us to be skiing for more than 2-3 days so I’m not sure an actual ski holiday is worth it. Can you just book some ski sessions as add ons to a non ski holiday?

I would actually say La Molina and fly into Barcelona - you can take the train to the ski resort - its not guaranteed snow and can be windy but you have the fall back of Barcelona ...

Winterberg in Germany is probably the cheapest skiing you will get in Europe but you need a car really to transfer from Dortmund...

Frazzled, I'm not really sure that what you want will work in Feb half-term. Literally every ski resort in Europe will be rammed in Feb half-term, so to try and get a hotel booking for a few days will probably be really tricky, because they'll all be holding them for week long bookings. If you just want to go for a few days, you are probably better of trying somewhere in the Easter holidays.

The cost of 2 days lift passes barely seems worth it. You clearly aren't into it. Just tell your kids no

Yep, Granada Spain. We stayed in an apartment in the city and got the bus to the Sierra Nevada from the bus station early each morning. Bus back to Granada was mid afternoon.

We went walking, shopping and visited the Alhambra. It was very memorable.