Booking a ski cheap all in ski trip for Christmas with teens

TabithaJM · 2021-10-12T12:44:31+00:00

Hi there, I am looking to book a ski holiday for my family at Christmas - 5 of us and kids are pretty much grown up - 16, 20 and 22. Myself and my husband have skiied before but we're not very experienced and the children haven't skiied at all. I am looking for an all in deal which isn't too costly to include lift passes, ski and boot hire, half-board, lessons, travel and accommodation. Has anyone got any recommendations for places to go to at Christmas?

massistar · 12/10/2021 17:22

Cheap and ski holiday don't go together very well unfortunately!

All in packages great if you're inexperienced but usually work out more expensive. In terms of resorts Andorra or Italy tend to be cheaper than France.

Bulgaria cheaper again but never fancied it personally!

abricotine · 12/10/2021 19:54

I'd advise you to look at Easter if you can bear to wait. Masses of pent up demand this season and you're looking for five adults travelling at the most expensive time (save for perhaps the week after). Also the weather/snow is definitely less certain and less appealing for beginners.

superram · 12/10/2021 20:19

If they’ve never skied before it’s quite cold and you need to go high. Crystal, neilson offer package tours but I think you are looking at 4K. Bulgaria has bed bugs so not for me.

Theredjellybean · 12/10/2021 20:22

I would say, what do you mean by cheap.
For Christmas week you will not find anything all in for less than 1k per person unless you go self catering, maybe one person on a sofa bed in tiny appt.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 12/10/2021 20:26

Weve been looking at similar. Just discounted Bulgaria for Covid requirements and now looking at Andorra.

Cheap is relative though.

hellothere007 · 12/10/2021 20:27

As above, cheap and ski don’t belong in the same sentence

lilyfire · 12/10/2021 20:34

We went to Pamporovo, Bulgaria as skiing novices pre Covid and it was great. Instruction was cheap enough that we could afford our own teacher rather than group lessons. Food was lovely and really reasonable. We stayed in a nice hotel (not luxury but had a nice small spa area and good restaurant - all clean and comfortable) which was really reasonably priced. Instructors were lovely. Not much to do apart from ski, sleep and eat but we were too tired to do anything else really. Would really recommend for beginners. My husband had skied a bit before and was also happy with it.

Ragwort · 12/10/2021 20:37

Skiing is incredibly expensive .... especially at Christmas.

NCTDN · 16/10/2021 08:12

Andorra was great value pre COVID compared to other places. It still cost a fortune but was much cheaper than other European resorts and we had a great time, with a good variety of difficulty on ski runs.

Weirdlynormal · 19/10/2021 09:00

The issue is that many many companies have let their chalet's go. There are also a lot of people rebooking cancelled trips and so the availability is low. We've just booked for New Year and spent the same as a trip to whistler cost!

turkeyboots · 19/10/2021 09:04

Covid vaccination maybe an issue for your teens. Over 12s are expected to have two vaccines in many places this year. There was potential issues with French ski lifts I think?
Also skiing is never cheap, and never ever at Christmas. We got a good deal with Esprit one year just after New Year, but also got fined for the kids missing 2 days of school.

Hophop26 · 19/10/2021 13:48

I’m not sure what your budget is but I would think £1k for all in with self catering could be realistic, easily £1500 each upwards for half board.

We are going Christmas week and when we booked (in Sept) prices were falling for Christmas and ours was same price as going end January. We are going self catering and got good deal on flights/transfers/accommodation with Crystal but it still adds up when add on ski hire and lessons for the kids and lift passes and ski carriage for us.

DistrictCommissioner · 24/10/2021 17:48

@lilyfire

We went to Pamporovo, Bulgaria as skiing novices pre Covid and it was great. Instruction was cheap enough that we could afford our own teacher rather than group lessons. Food was lovely and really reasonable. We stayed in a nice hotel (not luxury but had a nice small spa area and good restaurant - all clean and comfortable) which was really reasonably priced. Instructors were lovely. Not much to do apart from ski, sleep and eat but we were too tired to do anything else really. Would really recommend for beginners. My husband had skied a bit before and was also happy with it.

This is interesting, was just looking at Bulgaria. So much cheaper! What do you think about it for novice kids - worried about ski school experience for them?

Original poster

TabithaJM · 24/10/2021 19:23

Hi Lilyfire,
Did you book the hotel and flights as a package deal or did you book everything separately?
Thanks,
Tabitha

OP posts:

cloudtree · 24/10/2021 19:40

The only way we’ve ever done skiing relatively cheaply was by going to Andorra. But it was still expensive, particularly if you need ski school. You’ll easily spend well over £5k

SpindelWhorl · 24/10/2021 19:47

A very long time ago, pre-DC, I went skiing at Xmas in Romania. The organised trips around Transylvania were amazing.

People we met there said they had previously been to Bulgaria and that was great too.

Looking online, they're still good value and the resorts now have so much more to do for teens.

I've also been to Andorra and Austria over Xmas, for comparison.

I'd go back to Romania definitely.

TravelLost · 24/10/2021 19:50

Be careful of where you are going r covid restrictions.

In France, you need a covid passport to go into any restaurant, bus etc… probably also all the ski lifts.

Your 16yo will not have the two jabs and therefore won’t have the passport…

Europilgrim · 24/10/2021 19:52

In France, you need a covid passport to go into any restaurant, bus etc… probably also all the ski lifts.
Italy too.

OhCobblers · 24/10/2021 20:19

@Europilgrim

In France, you need a covid passport to go into any restaurant, bus etc… probably also all the ski lifts. Italy too.

So the QR code on the NHS app? Presumably we need to show negative test results for teens?

boismint · 24/10/2021 21:13

@TravelLost the decision has not been made about whether passe sanitaire is required for access to the ski lifts in France. Still under discussion.

cloudtree · 25/10/2021 07:00

What do you call cheap OP. If £7k ish is cheap to you then you’ll be fine accommodation wise. It’s all relative.

lilyfire · 25/10/2021 08:56

TabithaJM we booked it all separately as it worked out cheaper. We flew to Sofia and had booked a car for the transfer - I think about 2-3 hour drive but not too expensive. I’ll try and find the hotel we stayed in as it was nice (not luxury nice but clean, good food and good little spa area nice).

TravelLost · 25/10/2021 09:02

@OhCobblers you need to transfer the QR code to the French app (easy).
For teens, they would need a test every 2~3 days to put on the app. About 25 euros each, . You also need to find a chemist doing those tests (I know I looked at Tignes and I couldnt one in that particular resort)

TravelLost · 25/10/2021 09:03

[quote boismint]@TravelLost the decision has not been made about whether passe sanitaire is required for access to the ski lifts in France. Still under discussion.[/quote]
Yes but still needed for the train/bus/restaurant….

Not needing it for ski lifts would make things easier. I have no idea how they could police that for example.

Keroppi · 25/10/2021 09:27

I went to Borovets in Bulgaria as a first time skiier, it was great! Lots of variety of runs and cheap enough that we had alcohol with every dinner meal and enough for a private 1 on 1 lesson. The instructor was a bit drunk and smoked on every lift we went on, but he was very good.

There is a hotel right at the bottom of a blue run that we saw lots of families stay at.