Familiy skiing on a budget - advice please.

muddyl

Hi all,


I'm looking for some advice or pointers please.


I'd like to take my family on holiday next year. It's been 9 years since a holiday for us parents and the kids have never been abroad. My wife isn't really into the sun and sea thing and I'd like to do something a little different for my kids who are 6 & 7. The likes of Disney land is way beyond our budget, maybe Euro Disney when they are a little older.


So, I'm thinking that taking them all skiing could be a fun alternative that they would enjoy and remember. I've been skiing once before as has my wife, but the children have not.


Does anyone have tips/pointers or advice to enable a family of four to go skiing on a budget? If they enjoy it I'd look into repeating it in the future.


All help appreciated.

spadoosh

Ive always considered that a skiing holiday would be an expensive holiday. Like for like ive always assumed disneyland would work out cheaper than a skiing holiday.

Sorry im of no help what so ever. Although i believe bulgaria is one of the main budget skiing destinations.

richardw

Lidl had a recent Ski clothing special, there more might be some still in stock.

stevenhp1987

Skiing is expensive.

I went a few years ago on a "budget" deal, was over £500pp as you have to pay for the coach (a long drive!), gear hire, chalet, ski passes etc.

It would actually be cheaper to go to DisneyLand Paris...

Murphy_The_Cat

muddyl wrote: »

All help appreciated.

Ensure that you are adequately insured for Winter sports.

814man

Skiing can be expensive but there are also cost saving options. As a start I'd suggest you'll get better information on a specific ski forum such as http://www.snowheads.com/.
Everyone's view of what is cheap/expensive/reasonable will differ. I recent posted in another thread that I've just booked flight, transfers, and self catering accommodation to a resort in Italy flying from Doncaster for less than £200 per person over a week at Christmas (https://www.crystalski.co.uk/search/sr.14) . On top of that the main expense will be a lift pass, although remember that many resorts have options here as well as you may not need the full area pass as beginners. You need to consider lessons, either half days or 3 days out of 6 can reduce the cost. If you dont have your own ski kit you can hire equipment in resort but will need to buy or borrow clothing. As mentioned above you can get very reasonable kit in the likes of Lidl and TKMax. My only advice here would be never skimp on the cost of good gloves. We did that once many years ago getting my daughter some ski gloves from Next to match her outfit and they simply didnt keep her hands warm so we had to buy more in resort.
I think that ski holidays are the best family time you can have and we have taken our kids since they were 4 (including school fines for term holidays some years).

gettingtheresometime

Would you, your wife & children actually like to go skiing?

I couldn’t sit on the same beach for a week/10 days/fortnight but if the alternative was skiing id rather not bother!

What’s your budget OP & preferred time to go as that may help with suggestions

agrinnall

Andorra is a good option for budget skiing (well, it was on my first ski holiday, although to be fair that was - gulp! - 34 years ago). Or you could consider Scotland, if the snow conditions and the weather are at their best then the skiing can be as good as anywhere.

wazza99

I'd second Andorra, though cheap is a relative term, last year it was around £650 pp per week. The flights and hotel are just the start, ski pass, ski hire, locker hire, plus any ski wear. As for gear i found a mixture of Lidl/Aldi and Decathlon perfectly fine, never cold.

As an alternative look at Poland, Zakopane, 1st year we took kids there cost about £150 each ! as we had nothing to compare to they thought it was great ! though looking back its nothing like "European resorts" so research carefully before committing.

michele-p

Skiing can work out expensive, just the cost of ski school and lift passes on top of any bargain deal is a lot. But, you could consider club med skiing, sounds more to start with, but it includes all food and drink, lift pass and lessons. We went to Cervinia this year with them, and it was fab. There's kids club all day if you want it too. Even wine with lunch on the mountain was included.

Perhaps try lessons in the UK first this year, and if you all like it then aim for snow next year. It would save says of just falling over on holiday. Here in Norfolk we have an amazing ski club, there are many country wide.

muddyl

814man wrote: »

Skiing can be expensive but there are also cost saving options. As a start I'd suggest you'll get better information on a specific ski forum such as http://www.snowheads.com/.
Everyone's view of what is cheap/expensive/reasonable will differ. I recent posted in another thread that I've just booked flight, transfers, and self catering accommodation to a resort in Italy flying from Doncaster for less than £200 per person over a week at Christmas (https://www.crystalski.co.uk/search/sr.14) . On top of that the main expense will be a lift pass, although remember that many resorts have options here as well as you may not need the full area pass as beginners. You need to consider lessons, either half days or 3 days out of 6 can reduce the cost. If you dont have your own ski kit you can hire equipment in resort but will need to buy or borrow clothing. As mentioned above you can get very reasonable kit in the likes of Lidl and TKMax. My only advice here would be never skimp on the cost of good gloves. We did that once many years ago getting my daughter some ski gloves from Next to match her outfit and they simply didnt keep her hands warm so we had to buy more in resort.
I think that ski holidays are the best family time you can have and we have taken our kids since they were 4 (including school fines for term holidays some years).

Great advice, thank you. I'll check out your other thread too.
I'll keep in mind about the gloves.

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Would you, your wife & children actually like to go skiing?

I couldn’t sit on the same beach for a week/10 days/fortnight but if the alternative was skiing id rather not bother!

What’s your budget OP & preferred time to go as that may help with suggestions

Erm, yes we would like to go otherwise it would be a little silly asking lol.
My wife and I have both been skiing before, albeit many years ago and both enjoyed it. Our kids are both active outdoors types and I believe they would prefer that to sitting around a pool burning for a week.
No budget as of yet, just trying to get a handle on rough prices to give us something to aim for.

michele-p wrote: »

Skiing can work out expensive, just the cost of ski school and lift passes on top of any bargain deal is a lot. But, you could consider club med skiing, sounds more to start with, but it includes all food and drink, lift pass and lessons. We went to Cervinia this year with them, and it was fab. There's kids club all day if you want it too. Even wine with lunch on the mountain was included.

Perhaps try lessons in the UK first this year, and if you all like it then aim for snow next year. It would save says of just falling over on holiday. Here in Norfolk we have an amazing ski club, there are many country wide.

I understand skiing is never cheap, just looking for more cost effective methods.
There is a dry ski slope near me. My only concern being that when I went on it before going skiing for the first time, I couldn't do anything on the dry slope and thought I'd wasted my money booking a ski trip only to find out that it seemed completely different and took to the real thing no problem.


Thanks for all the input guys/girls.
I know Euro Disney may work out cheaper, but at the age of 6 & 7 there will be a lot the kids will be restricted from trying and as such I'll save that for a couple of years I think.

I'll start trawling some of the sites and see what I can come up with.