First family ski holiday and on a budget

[lovepeaceandvodka]

Hello,

I am trying to research a skiing holiday for 2 adults and 3 kids, who will be 9, 7 and 4. They will need to go to ski school, we will need to hire skis etc. We don't mind where we go or when but it would have to be in the holidays. I am thinking the first week of the Easter holidays would be good - from 27th/28th March. Not sure whether this would cut out the lower possibly cheaper eastern European resorts? I have only skied once in the French Pyrenees so I don't know much about it but as we are on a budget I think the Eastern Euro resorts might be better. Oh we would like a swimming pool/other stuff for the kids to do! Thank you in advance for any experiences and advice on where to go and how much it all costs!

Might be worth looking at some of the package deals (e.g Crystal, Inghams). They sometimes offer things like 2for 1 lift passes, special family deals.

Toomuchcoffee Andorra is higher altitude than most Alpine resorts. Snow is actually better there later in the spring, although the daytime temperatures are warmer too (nice tshirt skiing!) You can get very cheap flights to Barcelona - a variety of loco airlines fly there and it is off season for summer holidays. There is always an abundance of cheap self catering accommodation (and I say this as the owner of a cheap self catering apartment in Andorra - far too much competition for us out there!) and the ski school is excellent for children, regularly winning best english-speaking ski school in europe. Food (both in supermarkets and eating out) is much cheaper than the alps. Wrt the skiing, people are frequently surprised by the amount of skiing - in Grandvalira there is over 220 km of well groomed piste, several snow parks, a decent bit of off piste - plenty to keep most skiers happy for a week.

We are going to our place over New Year and expecting to spend about £2000, which includes flights, car hire and petrol, lift passes, ski school and food.

Another plan is to do what my sister does, and look for last minute deals to Lapland. The skiing is limited (but plenty enough for beginners) but the lift passes are cheap. The get self catering accommodation, often booking through Crystal or Neilson and booking last minute - they rarely pay more than £1600 for a family of 5 in self catering, and that includes flights, transfers and lift passes. Food is expensive, but they take some with them and only eat in.

Update on this post in case anyone is interested - we went to Kranjska Gora in Slovenia, stayed in a lovely 4* hotel with pools half board. Great food, well maintained slopes, plenty of snow, ski lessons for 4 of us for 2 hours/6 days, ski hire, passes etc for 5 cost about £3000. We did go the week after half term though and took the 2 older kids out of school (no fine).

I second the above. We had a fab holiday in Kranjska Gora. 5 kids and did it all for under 4 thousand euro.
Brilliant, already booked for next year !
Sounds like the same hotel as us Lovepeaceandvodka!!

hotel lek FoodieToo? When were you there?!

Yes it was Lek! We were there 19 th Jan for a week. Booked to return next year. Loved it!!