So I have been asked to look into some budget options for ski resorts in europe.
Needs to be:
Near to airport (less than 1hr) with cheap range of flights from UK – ideally a London and a Scottish departure.
Reliable snow(!)
Good for beginners and families.
Cheap / economical.

Any suggestions of where to start?

Cheers

Innsbruck in Austria? Busy-ish airport and loads of resorts nearby. Didn’t seem too pricey when I was looking.

Innsbruck

Flights are not cheap…

I was thinking looking further east – Macedonia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia etc

Milky Way (Italy/France) are on your list, I hope?

Sauze, Montgenevre, Sestriere, etc.

Can I recommend Serre Chevalier as well? Not too far from Turin airport and superb skiing.

If you need a ski school (Beginners and above), http://www.ski-school-connections.co.uk/ is all you need to know. Davina and her team are superb people, really superb! (As is Davina’s dad and his little dog! 😉 ) They make learning fun and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

CFH – looking to set up some budget stuff…I have 5 ski instructors at my place who currently do not teach ski-ing, but are less well used each winter, with a further 20+ instructors in our organisation.
We currently run in Switzerland for 4 months each winter.
Looking to complement fully catered, chalet ideal for singles/couples, Swiss prices with some cheaper, self catered, family friendly.
It would be fair to say some of my colleagues cannot see past France and Switzerland, despite cost issues and long transfers (Swiss site is 2.5hours drive).
Hoping I can put a proposal together for ‘filling’ staff time at Christmas and January / February.

Fly to Chambery. Ski at Chamrousse or Les Sept Laux or La Clusaz/Grand Bornand

Hmmm, rather different from

So I have been asked to look into some budget options for ski resorts in europe.
etc.

Which sounds a lot like, “I’m booking a holiday, not trying to make money”.

Good luck, though!

Mmm a tough question, snow reliability, you never can tell. Somewhere with a glacier is always good.

Try asking over on snowheads.com

We flew to Innsbruck from London for £70 return per person and skied the stubai glacier Jan last year. It was unseasonally warm but there was still good snow on the glacier and thought the price of flights was pretty reasonable. Good luck hunting though!

He’s not looking for a skiing holiday, it’s a business question.

OP should have worded it VERY differently, IMO.

😳 Sorry CFH – re-reading it, I agree…. 😳

Not a prob, Matt! Sorry if I was a little harsh on you as well!

Don’t go to Serre Che. Davina’s got it sewn up! 🙂

Andorra

I did wonder Andorra.

I have similar challenge for somewhere ‘new’ for possible MTB or (more likely) river for a canoe trip.

Kransja Gora in Slovenia, tho those eastern places are not the most snow reliable. Slovenia has a similar feel and luxury to Austria, not at all like Bulgaria and Romania.

Don’t discount smaller Austrian resorts accessible from Salzburg and Innsbruck – according to price surveys, Austria is noticably cheaper for than France and Swizz. There are reasonably priced Easyjet flights from London Gatwick to Innsbruck. The local resorts on the same pass are varied, are close by and free buses allow you to visit them all easily.

I did wonder Andorra.

Not cheap and mahoooosive transfer times IIRC.

Transfer times are higher than I realised but it is cheap

The problem with transfer times is that those looking for “cheap” skiing may also want to be looking at a weekend/long weekend trip. Those transfer times rule out a large part of your market, IMO.

Maybe, but I would suggest budget skiing weekends for a family is a non existent market.

If there are less than 6 of you wait until a fortnight before and book the best thing you can find on Iglu.

Avoid Half term like the plague.

More than 6? Get your flights booked nice and early and look at self catered chalets.

Big name resorts have lots of accommodation so there are always deals to be had, they’re popular for a reason…