Skiing Budget - Package or DIY? -- how much for ski school? lift passes? ski hire

[knakered]

Trying to work out how to do a cheap ski holiday -- do you save much by getting your own flights & appt compared with a package deal...how much does ski school, passes, ski hire add ...for adults and children?

depends where you go. We had a fab cheap holiday by flying cheaply to Stuttgart, hiring car, driving to farmhouse appt in village called Nesselwang (which cost about £180 for the week). Much more affordable than swanky french resort as we could drive to regular supermarkets etc.

this was our lovely cosy apartment

Do a bit of on-line research. google the resort you wish to go to, and look up the ski-lift prices. Yes, they vary massively from place to place.

Sport2000 have hire shops in most European resorts and seem pretty competitive. Look up their prices?? You reserve on-line and collect from the shop with a voucher. Easy-peasy.

Yes you do generally save that way but half term prices , for example, are already high for "low cost" flights so it partly depends when you are going. Most accommodation operates on a 3-tier price structure(peak for Christmas, New Year and local Half term weeks , low for January and late March/April, mid for Feburary/March and Easter) rather than varying by week as the tour operators do. Allow at least £200-250 average per adult for lift pass, ski/boot hire and ski school (Andorra, Bulgaria etc cheaper, big resorts in USA, France, Austria and Switzerland more). Most resorts will have such cost info online and sometimes kids are very reduced or free for lift passes, at low season or all season. You may also find acommodation deals with lift pass included during low season. You'd need to check car hire/transfer cost too.

oh and if you aren't great skiers or are beginners you may be able to buy a more limited pass or points cards to cover the lift systems you will actually use rather than a vast area.

Yes booking it all yourself is usually cheaper, but it depends when you want to go, where and how many people. If you choose not to fly on Saturdays the flights will be cheaper but finding accommodation which isn't Saturday to saturday is a little more difficult.

I agree with Lizs, in our area we have a point system with the lift pass which you can keep adding to through the week and is also transferable form person to person. It is the cheapest option for beginners.

Deb