Xmas 2023 - book now or wait

[Carusa123]

Our family of 5 is just back from our first ski holiday and we all LOVED it!! Thanks to all who gave me great advice on this board about clothing, budget etc.
We definitely want to go again next Christmas and I'm wondering do we book now or hold off? My main reservation is probably snow. We were just ok this year in Andorra. But I guess holding off won't solve that as it really wont be known accurately until a few days beforehand.
We loved being away over xmas so thats definitely the preference. It also works best for school hols etc.
Lastly I'm looking at Les Arcs but very open to suggestions on more snow sure resorts, preferably on the lower side of the budget! We did half board this year but I'm tempted towards SC as I found the hotel food very average. Any thoughts? Thanks everyone, the information on this board is invaluable!

Personally, I would wait until 2 weeks before travel then get a catered chalet in a resort with plenty snow. The chalet people organise transfers, ski passes and kit hire to make that side of things easy peasy. No food shopping/cooking/cleaning is my idea of a great holiday!

Ive used this strategy a few times for New Year skiing. Used chaletsdirect.com. Go to the “solutions room” and post your requirements. The chalets with availability then bid for your business.

We've been at Christmas several times and tend to go somewhere high with glacier skiing. The times we've been to lower less snow-sure resorts we've held off until November when we've seen the snow has arrived. Obviously there's less choice doing that.

Christmas is very early season and in a bad snow year there can be limited skiing.

Ooooh. Love this tip! Thanks!

We skied at Christmas this year. Several of the runs were closed and those that were open were very icy. But from what I'm reading, this whole season is looking pretty dire sadly.

Our trip this year was cancelled in the Thursday for a flight on the Saturday... thankfully with Crystal who have a Snow guarantee so we got credit to book anything else. Ended up going from Bulgaria (one of the cheapest resorts!) To actually going to Val Thorens which apparently is a completely different league for skiing (I don't ski). With the last minute booking... it was the same price... albeit for SC over half board.

But we are hoping for a similar deal this Christmas! Plus keeping a careful eye on snow after this year... Next year is slightly trickier with DDs not finishing school until three days before Christmas (on the Friday, CD is Monday)

I think a lot of accommodations haven’t opened up their booking systems for 2023 yet… nearer to May is when the place we went this year opens their bookings for next year.

For a good snowsure budget option, have a look at Les Menuires. A fair bit of high altitude skiing and you can easily ski over to Val Thorens (or the rest of the 3 valleys for that matter) if it’s really bad at resort level. The newer part of the resort near the Bruyeres lift (which takes you straight to a nice long blue that goes into Val Thorens) is a lot less of an eyesore than the resort’s reputation would suggest. You can get a 2 bed apartment that sleeps 6 with ski in ski out and a pool for less than 1k.