ski lift pass and ski hire in Finland

stegs8

Some friends and I are going skiing in Finland at the end of the month, to Ruka. Does anyone know if we are best paying for our ski hire and lift passes before we go or waiting till we get over there?

poe.tuesday

are you going with inghams? if so, then they offer package deals that are usually cheaper than when you are there but you could wait until you are there and book with the tour rep but you may have to pay in euros - check out ruka.fi and it should link you to the ski pass prices etc

stegs8

Thank you, we are going with crystal, when we first started looking they were offering ski pass deals, but by the time we came to book they were no longer offering the deals so we decided not to get it with them. Thanks, will have a look at the website.

LMH67

Unless on special offer, do not pre-book with Crystal. Without exception they preload their lift pass prices.

Ruka prices can be found here: http://ski.ruka.fi/ski_passes/?id=540&area=ruka

Standard 6 day pass at cashier is Euro173 or Euro 164.50 by buying online.

Crystal are currently asking £157 for this. At today's average exchange rate the pass should be costing you around £143. Multiply that by a large party and that's one big profit for Crystal.

We've always found that by buying on the bus to the resort, we get the in resort price but have the convenience of someone else fetching it and delivering it to your accommodation ready for skiing. Watch the charges on credit cards though - 2%. No charge for debit cards. Also watch what rate they convert at - sometimes they charge in Euros and sometimes they 'conveniently' convert for you!

Of course, if you feel brave, take a trip to the lift pass office and buy direct yourself.

Sorry, missed the bit about ski hire. Only hired a couple of times so can't say how much extra you might pay on this. Again it's down to whether you want the hassle and how much ski equipment knowledge you have. On this one, you might want to book with them for reassurance. If you can find out which shops they use, you could always price online to compare.

stegs8

Thank you, I knew that crystal overpriced which is why we were only going to get from them if they had the offer, but now that they don't def not going to get from them. We will prob book a couple of the excursions with them but will wait till we are over there and have a bit more haggling power.

Having done some research it seems that we will be better off getting our pass online before we go. Prob get the ski for 5/7 pass as doubt any of us are fit enough to do the whole week!

The ski hire shops all seem to be about the same price and there is one right near where we are staying so will prob just go straight there. Thanks for your help.

poe.tuesday

have a fab time and make sure you are prepped for the cold and also, if the temps go below something like -24 then the ski lifts wont be open so make sure you have taken out insurance for piste closure if you are getting a week long pass - also, a lot of the resorts in finland have button and t-bars - get those legs ready for the pain

stegs8

Thank you, yep, we've got lots of sexy thermals and layers etc, whether we will be able to move other than rolling out of the room and down the slope is another thing. Yeah I'm certainly not looking forward to the drag lifts. Looks like there are quite a few chairs where we are going though, so will just plan our slopes around those! ;-)