Hoping to get back to skiing next year, would be the whole family and a couple of friends – so 6 of us. 3 Skiing, 3 boarding. Needing to keep costs down if possible – anyone got any experience/advice on locations, travel, deals etc.? Had thought of driving. Would be hiring boards/skis. Thanks

Feb half term is the busiest/most expensive time to go. Good luck finding anything cheap :o/

X-scape milton keynes. Or hope it snows again

HTH.

Yeah Feb' half term will be expensive but have a look at Finland.

Last three years we've been to Saariselka/Yllas and had a great time for cheap money. It's inside the arctic circle and can be -35 Celsius but it's cheap and few people there. Good for beginners but not experts (so I'm told, I don't ski!).

With that many going it may be worth checking out the self-catering/half board log cabins.

'half-term' and 'cheap' do not co-exist when the subject is skiing!

I managed to save a couple of hundred quid by going the non-package deal route. IE: sort your own budget flights. Use the local bus to transfer to resort, try and negioate a cheap deal on accomodation. If you have kids to look after or don't plan on skiing everyday, then dont buy a full week's pass.

Italy or Andorra is usually cheaper than France. Bulgaria or Slovenia are apparenly quite cheap too. In Morzine this winter, it was cheaper to ski to Switzerland and have lunch there than to stay and eat in France. However butties on the piste most days saved me a lot.

Livingo in Italy is tax-free, its expensive to get there and to stay, but the booze (from the official license not the bars) is fabulously cheap 🙂

But a couple of hundered quid saving didnt really make much difference. Its still stupidly expensive. And there are only 3 for us in my famiy – i shudder to think now much it would cost for 6 – easily the cost of a couple of new Yeti's

Andorra is quite cheap, i've been going there for the last 3 years for 2 or 3 time a year. Best Options would be fly to Barcelona and drive up or fly to Toulouse and drive up. Driving is easy and routes / roads are mostly clear. Hotels are reasonable, food and drink is cheap with Ski Passes around 170 Euro for the week.

The Spanish half term holidays are different to the UK so it'll be reasonably quiet there.

Board / Ski hire is around 45 Euro for the week too, which includes boots and poles. Locker hire (enough for 6 people) at the Gondela station is around 10 eurto a day or 50 for the week, most hotels have lockers for free though.

Haven't cracked this particular problem yet – my wife has changed career to teaching, so it is an expensive problem.

We generally wait until Easter and get some fabulous late season spring skiing. Cervinia is good late season (can ski in Zermatt), but the two occasions we stayed in the resort it was as part of an all inclusive package – expensive, but good value.

This year we booked EJ, hire car and cheap "down the valley" accomodation. Skied Cervinia, Monte Rosa and Pila over 4 days. Worked well provided you didn't want apres ski beer before driving back to the hotel.

dont go with a tour op – it's pretty much one of the only weeks they make a decent profit save easter, xmas and NY, and they charge the earth (I used to do the pricing!)

My recommendation is to go independantly, hire a car, stay somewhere 5k out of a main resort and drive in to ski each day.

If you want to be in a resort, then find a smallish one, and you might get a bargain – La Clusaz is nice.

Or ferry /tunnel and drive down with a car loaded with food . We did Hull-Zeebrugge and drove to Wengen[as said above ,Switzerland is cheaper than France these days].
Staying down the valley always a cheaper option + the flexibility to visit different ski hills

drive to the massif centrale. miles cheaper than anywhere else driveable because it's not as high as the alps. I filled 5 in a car and sorted a self catering appartment for not a lot of money. ski passes are half the price of the alps too.

mont dore has some fantastic off piste and is linked to super besse to give a reasonable amount of runs with lots of sun 🙂

Thanks for the advice – sort of knew that there was no magic solution, but some different locations I had not thought of..

I would suggest all of some of the following (please bear in mind I mostly ski in France so there is some bias in the info):

Stay away from the resort. Somewhere like Moutier, Brides Les Baines or Boug St Maurice will be cheaper and you can still get to the resorts easily in the morning. Also you can look at small resorts on the edge of big systems, somewhere like La Tania or La Praz are both part of the 3 Valleys and are still lift serviced but are far enough away from the main resorts to be cheaper.

Assuming you are trying to work around school hols, don't go at half term, go at Easter. If you go somewhere high and/or with a glacier there will still be plenty of snow. Try looking at Val Thorens or Les Deux Alp.

Avoid tour ops, you can always get things cheaper with a few calls/e-mails and a bit of patience. Book the flights early, book shared transfers and sort the hotel/chalet direct. I would suggest that in most cases a chalet is cheaper as you can cook your own food. I book my annual ski flights when they are released in September.

Buy as much food as possible before you get to the resort and make your own sandwiches for lunch. If you must eat out do it in resort not slope side.

Book ski and board hire in advance and never ever from a tour op.

Somewhere like Bulgaria will be much cheaper than France, but do bear in mind the skiing will be limited compared to the bigger resorts. How much that matters is for you to decide.

And finally, buy all your gear now, you can still pick up end of seasons bargains and it will be half the price of buying it in February.

If youre not an expert try slovenia- bars and restaurants much cheaper than the usual suspects

Was in les 2 alpes for easter. It was half empty as most places are in the last few weeks of the season(apart from Tignes, avoid!)
As for the weather: Snow at night, sun during the daytime, never too cold. April skiing rocks!

mate of mine went to bulgaria last winter, not sure which resort. shit snow for the first 3-4 days and then when it did finally dump the lifts broke down. I don't think he'll be going back.

UCPA for me via Action-Outdoors. basic but really good value for money.

Flaine in France is a good location if kids are involved. Hotel Le TOTEM is yards from the main lifts and ski-meeting point for lessons plus does an all inclusive option so you can save on eating lunch out – which if meeting kids after ski-school is such a simple option to just pop in and eat, when it's already included in the price. Kids club is excellent too, if required.

Good choice of runs for adults too …..