Savvy/Affordable ski holiday ?

[Bubblegum80]

Hi Guys
I am trying to organise our family February 2025 mid term break for the kids. As there was no holiday this year due to family illness.
I've asked were they fancy going, and general consensus is a "Ski Holiday" 🎿 🤔 😳 which is notoriously expensive, as myself an hubby have been a couple of times. Not wanting to disappoint, I'm looking advice from other savvy mums who have been able to build there own ski holidays, affordably. Any places tips or companies worth using appreciated.
We are family of 6 from
Northern Ireland,
4 kids aged 13 (twins) 8 & 6.
Usually I do city breaks and air bnb or hotel. Depends on location.
Last year they went to krakow and did some history stuff. Year before was Budapest. But any advice or tips that's tried an tested would be great please and thankyou 😊
D x

If you want affordable Finland is good but absolutely freezing. Ruka is great for beginners, really clean, nice accommodation. Cost us £1200 each for flights/accom/lift passes/ski hire/food whilst we were out there.

If you are confident skiers and ok driving, I would suggest you go independently. From NI you’re not going to want to drive all the way, but consider flying and hiring a car. A 6 seater might be pricey. Go somewhere off the beaten track. How good are you at skiing? Do you want a big name resort or something more friendly and manageable? I only know France, and would recommend somewhere like Puy St Vincent, Les Orres or vars. But maybe Eastern Europe or Austria might work. Often an airb&b in the valley will be cheaper than a package price.

Friends of ours stayed in Guillestre (20 mins from Vars) paying about €500 for a weeks accommodation in Feb half term. Last year they stayed further down the valley in a fab house with another family costing €1400 for 9 people. 20 mins to Les Orres.

Might be worth speaking to a company like Peak Retreats - they specialise in self-drive but you can sort out flights and they can arrange transfers. A smaller resort should be fine as beginners - you don't need access to a huge skiing area as the lift passes will be correspondingly more expensive and you won't get the use from them. Not sure if self-catering works out cheaper when you fly - we drive so can do a shop on the way in one of the big supermarkets - but worth costing up options for hotel and self-catering to see which suits you best.

The Peak Retreats website has loads of useful information about what to take with you in terms of clothing etc. Try and borrow or buy second hand to start with. Decathlon is a good place to purchase ski gear at reasonable prices.

Italy, andirra and Bulgaria are cheaper than France, Switzerland and Austria.

The expensive bits are lessons and ski passes...if you're beginners you can go for a smaller, cheaper resort.

Feb can be expensive unfortunately, its peak season. But ots also the most snow, so its more spread out.

Andorra is absolutely not cheap. And also not really nice. No village atmosphere, it is just a road with buildings on both sides of it. Slopes are ok, but not the skiing holiday atmosphere you might want together with the ski.
When we were living in Barcelona, we tried several spots in the Pyrenees. In the end, France was the go to for weekends .
Italy is fantastic. Cheaper and great food. Cheaper doesn't mean cheap. Skiing is expensive to start with .

Maybe as someone has said, Eastern Europe, but I have never been.

Go independent

Stay in accommodation just outside resort and drive in each morning. Accommodation can easy cost half the price.

The price of lift passes are just really expensive now. But some resorts are slightly cheaper. If you stay in between several resorts you can the option of swapping where you drive daily and mixing up smaller cheaper resorts with the larger ones.

I skied a couple of times in Bansko, Bulgaria, before dc/2020. I wouldn't go with kids. Slopes were so crowded it was unsafe, imo.

Bulgaria is usually the cheapest package deal option, and in feb the snow will be fine.

If the kids haven’t skied before they’ll need lessons so look at the cost of those before committing. In most places you can get a cheaper deal booking lessons, ski passes and ski hire all together from the ski school.

if they haven’t skied before I wouldn’t recommend doing the driving in every day thing - it’ll get stressful trying to get there in time for lessons etc if it snows. You’re better off going for a smaller, cheaper resort. Size of resort won’t matter if they’re beginners.

if when you look at it costs are too much consider going the week before or after and them missing a week of school which they make up with self study in half term. It will halve the cost.

We flew ryanair to Innsbruck and got the train up to mayrhofen and stayed in a cheap ish hotel, all booked separately. It was really easy to do and made for a reasonably priced ski holiday. Admittedly that was pre kids but I think it would probably still work with them!

If you have nerves of steel you could hold out for a last minute deal on igluski.com . A few years back I got a trip for three to Soll in Austria for less than £1k. Flights and accommodation included but we had to pay the passes and ski hire separately. Still a great deal.

Good luck finding something. Ski holidays were our best family holidays.

The ski passes make it pretty expensive even if you manage to find a cheaper place to stay or get there. This year ours at 375 euros each for the Three Valleys.

We’ve just booked on the cheapest (but suitable) package we can find and it was £6k for 4 of us, but that’s France and does include kids childcare and their lessons.

We tend to find that ski holidays come in around £1k per head. Sometimes more if we've splashed out on accommodation, sometimes a touch less, but not much.

We always DIY, but even without factoring in travel, you're looking at £200 pr child for ski school, and an average of £200ish per person for passes for the week.

February half term is notoriously the most busy. We usually go at Easter, but due to clashing commitments next year are going in February half term instead, we've already booked our lessons, so if you want to do that, jump on it soon.

For us, the cheapest accommodation we've ever found was a 2 bed apartment in Arc 1800 for £280 for the week, last Easter.

It's a crude question, but what's your budget? As affordable could mean a range of things.

A good suggestion above is to rent further out and drive in each day, which will reduce cost but increase faff and also commits you to eating out every day, whereas closer accommodation may allow you to go back for lunch. Feeding six of you somewhere like France every day, you'd probably find it cheaper to have an apartment close by. And if you go for morning ski school, the meet time is usually around 0915 to 0930.

Sunweb often have good deals.

It's working out where you're willing to compromise.

Are you happy with an apartment where some of you sleep in the living room, or does it have to have separate bedrooms? Walking distance to lifts? Or ski bus or drive?
Will you fly drive or will you need transfers?

These are both on Vrbo for February half term (starting Saturday 15th) for £513 for the week. Both are about a 20 minute drive from La Plagne, which gives you an idea of the price difference.

Download the Vrbo app to look at this great place in La Plagne-Tarentaise. https://t.vrbo.io/w0x0qtipCNb

Download the Vrbo app to look at this great place in La Plagne-Tarentaise. https://t.vrbo.io/mhjBDZrpCNb

Also in NI - Topflight are a fantastic company, Irish owned + run and they often have fantastic deals. They mainly do trips to the Dolomites. We’ve been to Folgaria with them quite a few times, would definitely recommend! A lovely little authentic resort, very family friendly with amazing slopes for all abilities. Last time we were there the USA Olympic ski team were training! Dare I say a hidden gem🙈

@Bubblegum80 what did you book?

I would recommend Bulgaria but go to Pamporovo, it’s more family oriented than Bansko I believe. We used a company called BulgariaSki to go there over Christmas. We booked our own flights with WizzAir, but a 2bed apartment in a hotel, private transfer, half board, ski passes and equipment and flights was about £800 each. Fly to Plovdiv rather than Sofia.

We did our first few ski holidays with the kids in Slovenia Kranjska Gora . It was great value then .

There are not many ski runs but very suitable for beginners . We stayed in what is now called the Best Western .

We have 5 kids and ten years ago did the whole thing , including lessons , passes , food and flights from Dublin for under 3 k !!!

Imagine !

Last few ski holidays have cost 12 🙈🙈🙈!!!