If you ski annually, how do you afford it?

[Truetoself]

The cost of a ski holiday just for two people in Bulgaria in mediocre accommodation for 4 nights was £2600 (during half term as DC at school).

The reaort is full of British families. I am imagining the cost for the average family would be a lot more? How do people afford it?

We couldn't afford for the whole family to go

By having more money basically.

I know plenty of people who spend £10k on a trip to Disney land for example... not every year but people do spend a lot on holidays.

You could rent an apartment for £1000 for a whole week for 4 within a 15-30min drive from mai resort. So £250 each. If you drive and go to France then no flight costs. Highest costs now are ski passes ( £60-90 a day average now)

But you do have fuel costs and the crossing, its not a completely zero cost transport plan.

We did save money by two people driving while 4 flew this year. Negated rhe car hire while over there, but fuel plus the motorway hotels was anputvthe same as a flight.

Sure. You can also fly very cheaply to certain airports.

lift passes cost the most as you can’t reduce these. But flights and accommodation you can still get fairly cheap if you’re willing to self cater slightly further out and drive in daily. So it’s no more than a summer holiday really

for example London standsted to Klagenfurt Austria is 18.99 out on 27th feb, and 15.99 back on 6th March. One week, less than £35. £140 for family 4. Even if you add extras like a suitcase or 2 it’s a bargain. Far far cheaper than a flight in August for the sun

We go to a small town in the French alps no one has heard of. We usually drive. You can rent a house for €500/week. Local resorts are not 3V prices. We usually do sandwiches and self cater. We have our own kit (my sons boots are ex hire and cost €15). You have to drive to the actual resort(s) but nearest is 20 mins away.

Often people go who don’t have kids in state school so they don’t have to pay the regular half term prices, they might go an off peak week

By earning substantially more than the average family, usually

You don’t go to a resort..you go where the French go, cheap flight, the bus to where you stay from airport and you hike to the hire shop where your stuff is kept. You buy an old ski suit so you don’t need individual items 😆

yes we do this

We stay in self-catering rather than hotels and cook for ourselves.Most very keen skiers I know with kids do the same.

It’s expensive for what it is though - you have to love the skiing.

Not any kind of boast, just the facts;

We're skiing in France at the moment, apartment booked on booking.com, easyJet flights, hire car, hired skis, passes, spending money etc, costs about £4K, this is our 5th year, not to the same, but similar places.

Household income around £110K, we also go on an all inclusive style summer holiday for about £5K, we live a relatively quiet life week to week, occasional meals out but nothing really extravagant, it just about works out (was much easier before the mortgage interest rate rise!)

We went to Geilo, Norway at xmas - five of us, self catering apartment complex with pool/spa - had a fantastic time. 3200 all in inc lifts passes, equipment hire, so not everywhere is expensive.

We're off to Lindvallen, Sweden next year and that's coming in at about 3700, so again, not that expensive.

We went tor Ruka, Finland in 2019 just before covid for 3600 and would love to go back there but it's now about 6k now that it's become popular, which is getting expensive for us. You just need to look off the beaten track from some bargains/last minute deals - we only booked Ggeilo in October when Crystal Ski popped some deal on thier website.

Drive don't fly, go to a smallish resort that tourists don't go to, self cater, don't eat out, buy your gear on Vinted.

I've just booked for next year. I was a good skier back in the day and my friends and I would go for an annual chalet holiday. Before lift pass, I'd be able to get flights and a catered chalet for £500. Good times!
We've been considering it for a few years as a family as DH boards - DC are 8 and 10 and never skied and it's been 10 years since I had skis on. Just bit the bullet.
We're going in Feb half term and catered chalet, flights, kids lessons, hire and lift passes will be £6k.
We have an annual holiday budget of £10K which normally gets 3 trips abroad so next year I'll just need to be creative with the remainder.
A Disney holiday costs way more and some families do that regularly.

Have a look at Cheap Holiday Expert on Instagram - she's just done a ski trip to Poland for €200.

We've just come back from a lovely chalet in France. Took our blended family and compromised on a low resort to save money but hired cars to drive to the lifts with access to higher pistes with great snow. Instead of hiring a chef we took turns cooking, ate out a couple of times.

Once you've finished with transfer/ski hire/ passes it's an expensive holiday whatever you do.

I’ve found catered chalets actually work out cheaper than self catered. We paid €2700 at half term for a s/c apartment in Les Carroz approx 7 years ago. Flights, transfers etc on top. Worked out v expensive holiday.

Had never been to a catered chalets, only hotels etc, but decided to give catered a bash. OMG. Have had some real bargains. All food, wine and transfers included for as little as £599pw. Look on chaletsdirect.com. We generally book our (Geneva) flights well in advance for £200ish and choose the resort depending on snow conditions approx 2-3 weeks before travel.

Avoid package holiday skiing trips, especially if you have to go in school holidays. The price sky rockets. You can sometimes get good bargains for other dates from some of the ski operators.
Have a look around at the countries you are interested in and find out when they have their school holidays. You might be able to find a week when the UK is on half term but the country you want to go to isn't (though many countries have staggered half terms so different areas of the country will be heading to the slopes at different times)
Look for self-catering accommodation. See if you can find places that are a little outside of the resort (or go for a smaller resort) but linked with good public transport or ski buses.
Have a look at Scandinavia. Once upon a time when I started snowboarding Norway and Sweden were very expensive compared to the Alps but that has all changed now. The lift passes in Norway tend to be reasonably priced but the other side of that is that the resorts tend to be smaller and the lift systems a bit dated, but who cares about that if it gets you up the hill.

Give up downhill skiing and take up cross-country skiing (and then go to Norway to do it!). You don't need a lift pass which is a major expense and the equipment is a lot cheaper too. I swapped to xc skiing years ago mainly because of the cost of lift passes and the constant queuing and I soon got addicted to it.

Make friends with people who live or have houses in ski areas and make sure you host them back a lot.😀

Oh, and recognise that this will often involve you digging a path to the door, opening a house up and standing in your coat between the stove and the wall until the place warms up, and sometimes participating in strange ritual singalongs with your friends’ elderly great-aunts, or translating. So you do pay!

I hate downhill skiing but have always wanted to try XC…

I've just booked a catered chalet for next Feb (our half term but not sure if coincides with France and England). It's how I always did ski holidays in my 20s with friends. I got £700 per person so £2.8k for a family of 4 in a popular resort. Obviously by the time I've added everything on the price mounts up but the chalet has a pool and does airport transfers too so by the time I added that on to a s/c apartment there wasn't a huge amount in it.

What are the cheap places in France to ski?

I don't any more but when we did we were rich.

We drove, booked self catering apartments through French holiday rentals and brought a lot of our food with us or stopped off at a hyper market to buy it on the way.

No lessons because we could all ski.

It was still expensive.

That’s about £100/month per person.

People earn differently and spend differently. Plenty spend that one sky / subscriptions.

Most people who go skiing earn a lot more than the average salary.

Don’t go if you can’t afford it then!

Others obviously can afford it so they go!

No different to families paying £3-4000 for a holiday in the summer abroad!