Most affordable way to ski

[interestingdays]

Is there such a thing as an affordable way to ski? Have heard that Bulgaria is most affordable.
Tips would be much appreciated!

The cheapest way I've done it is sorting own transport, hiring a car at the airport and then renting an apartment in the ski resort.

I think some tiny resorts like Bulgaria might be a good shout for your first ever trip as I I think you can get deals which include lessons etc.

But I think you'd only do that once as any other time once you've learned to ski then a resort of 10 runs just wouldn't be enough.

If you can travel out of school holidays, this should help.
But yes Bulgaria would be less expensive than the main ski resorts in France (nevermind Switzerland).
I have also found booking things separately yourself is cheaper.

Definitely agree with the PP who said a small resort won't be enough once you can ski. We've been twice. Both times to the same tiny (but beautiful) resort. We're going to La Plagne next as we feel the need for something bigger.

What are you looking for and when? If you're not fussy about accommodation and are open to anywhere, then I managed to price up for a family of 4 at Easter in France at £912 on Sunweb. This includes equipment hire, lift passes, and accommodation in a 1 bed apartment but not lessons, food, or transport. I'd say about £500 in fuel/crossing costs and another £1000 in spending money.

If you can go outside of the school holidays, that will be cheaper. It'll be cheaper to drive than fly (though don't forget you'll need to buy chains or socks). Easter is a bit cheaper if you are restricted to holidays.

Your big expenses will be lift passes and lessons. France is more expensive than Austria on both counts but more accessible to potentially drive, so it could offset some costs.

I've not been to Bulgaria, but I hear it is cheap for a reason, and I've not heard great reports.

Transylvania in Romania was great. Beautiful landscape. We met people there who had also been to Bulgaria and praised it.

Andorra was a disappointment - rubbish apartment, cold, bleak, and a rude instructor.

The Romanian hotels and instructors were warm and helpful.

Sunweb are great.

Italy?

My husband has gone up to Scotland to ski for the weekend. He says there's plenty blue and green runs and the lift pass is not too expensive. But the runs were closed for part of today because of high winds.

We went to France and stayed in a hostel (although in a private double room) was a few years ago so might depend on your age. Was great

www.ucpa.com

We
Love Romania _ Poiana Brasov is
Amazing and very good value

People say Sunweb is cheap, but has anyone tried "Heidi" as the ski holiday provider? Heidi appears to have the cheapest package offers of all.

As for our budget ski trip, we are going to Scotland (against many MN posters's advice 😂 so I will report back once we have been). We are taking the sleeper train from London to Aviemore and staying for the February half term week. Hopefully we will be able to ski as this winter was pretty cold, but I'm preparing myself to be as flexible as possible 😄It was amazingly cheap though compared to anywhere abroad, except Bulgaria, but ai've heard there is very little snow there. At least with Scotland we are not flying and there are other things to do.

I've not used Heidi, but I have been looking on there for deals. They only seem to offer flight packages, though, and we want to drive next time.

Before we had dc, we used to do Tuesday flights (seemed to be cheapest), out of school holidays (end of Jan seemed cheapest too), studio flat. Slightly out of the main drag, so Argentiere rather than Chamonix, St Jean d'Aulpes rather than Morzine. DIY breakfast, takeaway dinner, lunch on the slopes.

Flixbus overnight then stay in a youth hostel and buy lift passes in advance with early bird deals.

Andorra is worth a look, it is great for beginners / occasional skiers and once you are in the resort then the drinks and food a less expensive then France, Austria and Switzerland. It is amazing for ski schools too and the group lessons are great. That said, the snow conditions this year might be risky.

Cervinia in Italy (Matterhorn) also tends to be less expensive than equivalent resorts elsewhere and you can ski over the mountain to Zermatt.

But certainly Bulgaria will be cheaper than both of these optiona.

We did Scotland in the past and although we had plenty of snow the wind was too strong to open the lifts. Given the drive time is similar to for us, then I would rather drive to France or Germany and if on a smaller budget find a lower cost resort there. But Aviemore is beautiful and a nice place to visit in winter even if the ski conditions aren't in your favour.

Book yourself and go for self-drive if you are a family of 4 or
more, and rent a self-catering apartment. Easter cheaper than half term if you can go somewhere high. In my experience of French resorts the only price fluctuation when booking this method is the accommodation and possibly Eurotunnel or ferry, but you can offset this by booking well ahead or using Tesco clubcard vouchers. Costs for ski pass, ski hire, lessons and parking all remain the same ime, regardless of when you go.

Self-drive would be great, but I'm a worried about driving in mountains in icy/snowy conditions. I drive every day in the UK and have no problem driving long-distance, but have never driven in proper ice and snow and have mo idea how to fix chains.

Apologies for all the typos...

Fair concerns. In which case, fly and take a transfer, but this will increase costs.

We skied over Christmas and opted to fly into Vienna rather than Salzburg as flights for 4 were around £600 cheaper doing this.

We then spent about £150 on return train tickets to get us to the train station closest to resort. We got the local bus from the station (€10) on the way in and a taxi on the way back (€25). So we still saved a substantial amount, but put a significant amount of travel time on our journey. We don't mind the train, though.

Using public transport is cheaper than booking transfers and trains in Austria are excellent. I can't comment on France as we've always driven there.

Over on Snowheads, posters will tell you that putting on chains is easy enough once you've worked it out the first time. They advocate practising at home first in the daylight and warm.

You probably won’t need chains unless you’re planning on driving on the backroads and over high uncleared passes, but what you absolutely WILL need is winter tyres (all-year tyres will do at a pinch, but specifically winter tyres are better). (Virtually) Everybody in central/Alpine Europe has them - we just accept that we have to get the tyres changed twice a year. In many European countries it’s illegal to drive on summer tyres in snow.

Chances are you won't have to use chains, but should always carry them. We've used them a number of times in the past, but had far more dry journeys than snowy journeys. Mountain roads are generally cleared very quickly - it's the only route in and out of the resort so the snowploughs are very efficient.

You can learn to put on snowchains - there are YouTube videos - and should always practice in advance. If arriving in resort on a Saturday there will be a lot of traffic going the same way, so you won't be on your own, but I would advise driving up in daylight. There are designated areas by the roadside for fitting snowchains: in France the gendarmes will be there and will pull everyone over for this purpose if it's required. In mountain regions the locals will have winter tyres as standard, which help in low temperatures, but they still need to fit chains.It's important to be aware of driving technique - low revs, high gear, safe stopping distances - but, as long as you're sensible of the road and weather conditions, it's very doable.

FWIW, we always drive as flights/package ski holidays have just worked out too costly for us during school holidays.

We’ve booked with Heidi. Was all fine.

I've just been to Scotland for the weekend and had a great time. It cost me £175 for four days lift pass and ski hire.

We’re going to France in March. 5 people in an apartment £110 pp for the week, three of them are taking cheap flights, DH and I are driving via the tunnel and taking all the gear so the flyers don’t have to pay for baggage. With food, petrol, flights, lift passes etc we reckon we’ll do it for a grand pp. We are all adults, it’s one of the cheaper weeks and all we need is somewhere clean, warm, close to lifts, shops and bars. We will also take a supermarket shop of basics with us so we don’t pay resort shop prices.
We’re experienced skiers so probably won’t have lessons but might hire a guide for a back country trip, which could cost around £300-400 extra.

Shameless follower!

Spanish pyranees are cheapish

Self drive to France (deux alpes) or Austria (sell am) is probably cheapest but only if you have winter tyres and chains and are confident to drive in snowy conditions etc . We go via the tunnel and take everything with us for the week and just rent a cheap-ish apartment (1 bed) for 4. Have all our own kit but still do lessons for a few days each week.

We aren’t going this year. used to do Christmas but snow has become a bit unreliable so will probably do Feb HT next year.

My advice is avoid Bulgaria, limited snow and terrible infrastructure. We might have been unlucky, and possibly fine outside of school holidays but we were very shocked at the number of accidents we saw on the mountain and the lack of ‘policing’ on the slopes of dangerous skiers/boarders. Also very limited infrastructure leading to insane queues for the (1) gondola in Bankso. Was more like a queuing holiday than a skiing holiday.