We're never going to be able to go skiing are we?

[churchmouse84]

Our DC would love to go skiing. They are currently 9 &12. We didn't have a summer holiday this year so thought about skiing next year,

Everything is about £6,000.

Is there any way to take your children skiing - we are all beginners so need ski school, hire, people who know what they're doing.

Are we just going to have to get saving for 2020?

We’re currently away.
Flat in a chalet €1300- open fire, spacious, 90 second walk from the lifts.
Eurotunnel, tolls, petrol £500
Ski lessons 2x€130
Passes and hire €200/person x4 (one non skier)
Food, we’re going flat out and it will be less than €1000.
This is the most expensive week of the year. And for five adults.

There's some great ideas on here. Id just add that doing things separately eg.drive in France and find separate gite, borrow what you can, take your own food and self.cater etc. We go from Bagneres de Bigorre in pyrenees and that is possibly a cheaper area but shop around. Happy to send links on all things ski in that area if you are interested. Also your half term holidays might not be the same as our french ones so you may be lucky and find it isn't quite as peak rate as you think. I'm probably being optimistic but it sounds as though you're so desperate and deserve this holiday I'm trying to think of ways to help! Pm. me for anything to do with pyrenees as I might be able to help.
But listen too to the others advice here. It IS possible! Keep us posted!

@Etino - where are / were you? That's incredibly cheap for passes and ski hire.

My nephew - English and French speaker - has a lovely chalet in France. They do self catering or catered holidays.
I can PM you the details so you can have a look at the prices on his website and have a look at the area if you want.
He picks up from the airport if you don’t drive.

I went with my three children last year( 10,16,17) to Norway. They were the hovi cabins in Beitostolen,we went with crystal over the Christmas week and came to just over 2k. Lift pass extra and food very expensive so I took a case full of cereal and tins!

Actually,for a first time ski,it could be perfect. The ski school was great and the slopes pretty empty. It isn't a large mountain so I was happy for my children to go to the top on their own in the afternoon after lessons. They also did the dog safari and there was a trip of fishing in a tipee. But if you want luxury then maybe a hotel is better (i'm saving like a crazy woman to go Austria next year,only with eldest child as can't afford to take others!) hotel alpin in scheffau :)

@namechangedtoday15 I’ve just ch caked and I exaggerated 😞
It was about €250/ person because 2 of us were on the baby slopes for 3 days. A week full ski pass is €147 and ski hire was €115 including helmets and performance skis for
We went here it’s by far the prettiest resort I’ve ever been to and small so very easy to get around. I went to the ski hire in my slippers. 😳

If you can book last minute these people often have good deals. We paid £379 for Xmas half board. Booked our skis via alpin resort about £150 for 4 adults and lift passes are what lift passes are
www.rocketski.com/component/hotels/?resort=24-I-84&airport=A&searchdate=2019-01-19&numadults=2&numchild=0&numinfants=0&rnd=1547738466

Mumtofoirandnomore,

That sounds great. I’ve googled it and it looks really perfect, just what we’re looking for? When you went to Are, do you remember if the beginner slopes were in the town/by hotels. We will have a four year old and one adult will need to be playing with him on nursery slopes so wanted a central waiting/beginner area where they can buy drinks etc?

Also - when in April did you go? We’re unable to go until 13/4 and we’re a little worried there’ll be no snow!

Thanks

A skint friend of mine goes for next to nothing - air bnb in an apartment, all self catering including picnic in a pack for slopes, drives to the resort, second hand or cheap kit. He avoids Switzerland as too pricey. The only thing you’ll need is lessons - he is a reasonable skier so has taught his kids himself.

We've just booked our first ski holiday on the recommendation of a colleague of my husband. My husband had said that it was too expensive, and he said it doesn't have to be.
We've booked a self catering 2 bed apartment right in the centre of Rauris, metres from the gondola and ski school for 7 nights. That's £1200. There were cheaper ones around too.
Ski school is €221 each for husband and I. €191 for the 8 year old and €189 for the 6 year old. That is 5 days of lessons (4 hours a day) and equipment hire for 6/7 days. Converted it works out at around £650. We're anticipating spending around £500 on ski passes, plus food and drinks. With self catering, we just apply whatever we'd have spent on the weekly shop at home.
We figure that the whole point of a skiing holiday is that that's our entertainment. So we're just paying up front rather than chipping away everyday with a little bit here and there. We're expecting flights to be around £200.
This is all for February half term 2020.

Less than £500 on ski passes and food and drinks for 4 of you? Aren't adult ski passes 200+?

*Woby Was that for me? I said around £500 on passes *plus food and drinks. The resort is currently listing adult passes at £204 for adults and £90 for children for six days. Smallest one comes under the exempt age. So £498. It'll go up for next year I don't doubt, but £500 is a good rough number to work with until then.
As for food, we're self catering so we just transfer the weekly shop budget over to an Austrian supermarket. It's what we've done with every holiday and it works for us.

If you’re all beginners go to a tiny resort somewhere like Bulgaria which doesn’t have enough piste for good skiers. It will be about £1000 a head all in but you’ll spend very little once there.

A hotel is a fortune in half term but I’ve done apartments in half term with easy jet flights for 4 for approx 3k. Inc ski passes We don’t do lessons any more but we used too.

Easter is also a good time if it’s an early Easter. Done week half board at Easter for 3k too.

Don’t even bother looking at hotels if you are not taking kids out of school.

If yr willing to go Jan you can get a bargain

Hello, sorry to be so late coming back to this thread - we are not skiing this year so was avoiding reading about everybody elses holidays lol ! Are will be fine in April, Salen is a bit hit and miss I understand, I’m not sure if you’ve booked anything - I know it was fine last year but Salen is further south. We went to a Are last Easter for the second week of April and it was beautiful, we flew to Trondheim on the Friday with Norwegian and stayed in the airport hotel overnight on the Friday (it’s a really nice Radisson hotel but not too ££ as you can get family rooms) and then we drove up to Are in a hire car first thing on Saturday - the drive is very straightforward. The best area is called Are By, and the beginner area is called Rodkullen - we found it easier to drive up there from the lower village, there is a cafe etc but you might be able to get a cabin right next to it. Equally, Salen is better for ski to door to the beginner slopes, so if you were to book late after checking the snow, it might be a good option. Both places have beautiful wooden cabins and you can either self cater to save money (easy supermarkets at both) or eat out. I can see that Norwegian flights mid-April are really cheap still, c£120 per adult, so a hotel is a good option (no Saturday flights annoyingly....). Anyway, I will keep an eye on this thread if you have any more questions, you might have already booked but we love Swedish skiing and have had so much fun with the kids, there’s still a chance we might book last minute for this year but we will definitely go back next year !

My tips from last year

Val Cenis, France, Easter hols
Booked with peak retreats. Apartment 'les Alpages de Val Cenis' right by ski school meeting point & lift.
Drove with one night stopover on the way.
2 adults, 3 kids, equipment hire for all & ski school for 1 adult and all 3 children for 6 mornings.
£1800 - not including ferry/fuel etc
Shopped in Lidl before we left, made lots of meals (Bolognese, casserole, chilli etc) froze them and took them with us; so food costs low. We ate out one night as well & bought fresh baguettes etc for lunch as well as frites, hot choc on mountain, but by taking evening meals no cooking needed & not too pricey.

This year, Easter's later, so we're going to La Rosiere, France which is higher altitude.

I should say that the £1800 includes lift passes too

Poland is cheap as chips and you can hire a one in one instructor very cheaply. Good was cheap hotel was cheap good to see if you like it .

Food not good

Wrong thread sorry food was good :-)

When we ski we keep costs down by:

1. Self-drive or fly and drive
2. Self-catering (we shop at Hofer—Austrian Aldi—and cook simple meals. Frozen pizza, pasta, etc. Bacon and eggs for breakfast before we hit the slopes!)
3. Booking lessons and equipment as a bundle in advance (for example Skidome Oberschneider in Austria does an online discount so that the entire package of equipment and lessons for a week of skiing per kid is about 300 euro, and lift passes are free until age 6).
4. If money is really tight, try booking maybe three solid days of skiing and flesh out the rest of the week with other holiday activities like trips to the pool, ice rink, local sites, etc. We did this once or twice when our kids were really small as they were tired after a few days of lessons anyway!

I suppose there are two kinds of skiing holidaymaker: one who goes because they just love to ski and will make a way to do it even if they’re on a budget and it’s hassle, and those who for whom the point of the trip is holiday relaxation and will pay for an easy trip with a bit (or a lot) of skiing thrown in. I suppose we fall into the latter category since 3 kids makes the full-on relaxing holiday experience prohibitively expensive! We can relax at the beach. The mountains are for playing hard. 😁

Oops, meant former category! We are not the relaxing holiday skiers.😅

Rocketski are brilliant for budget ski trips, we’ve used them twice now and paid £250pp the first time, £300pp the second. The cost includes flights, transfers, half board. Their hotels are basic (but very well located) and the food unexciting (although plentiful), but who cares when you get to go skiing all day?

Rocketski mainly cater for school trips in term time and everyone else in the holiday weeks. I highly recommend them if you’re not bothered by luxuries like hot tubs & fine dining! www.rocketski.com

@highheelsandbobblehats who is that booked through?