package ski holidays

pw01

Hi, i'm looking to book my first ski holiday and was wondering if any1 could help me
i was on the topflight website about to book it , think it was about 550pps and then a scren came up giving me the option to book a ski pass for almost 200 euro and ski gear for rent for 140 euro etc.
It was starting to work out way to costly so didnt book it
Does anyone know where i can book a hol with ski pass etc included and the cheaper the better????
was thinkin of austria (soll)!

bovril

I don't think you can get a package holiday that will include all costs. Any package holidays that I have seen will quote you flights, transfers and accomodation (some self catering, some B&B and some Half board). This will be in your 550pps.

The extras are lift pass, ski school and ski and boot rental. I presume these are seen as extras as not everyone will be booking all of these things. Some people will have their own gear or won't need school or may not need to ski all the days. You can get a lift pass for any number of days.

As a complete beginner you can usually get an extras package which will be approx 300-400E which will include your ski pass, gear rental and school.

A ski holiday is an expensive holiday at the end of the day. There are bargains to be had. Maybe you should ring a few places and see if they have last minute deals. You can ask how much it will cost with extras included then.

acurno

If your looking for a cheap ski holiday you'll have to forget about where you'd love to go or the standard of accomodation. It's an expensive holiday whatever way you look at it. I got a good deal with directski.com for 330pp to Chamonix, but I'm pretty sure the place we're staying in is a complete dive. Don't care though, I'm not there to spend my time in the apartment. Most good last minute deals will probably be to resorts you've never heard of with less than ideal apartments.
Ski pass won't cost you less than 150 in any resort and you'll end up paying at least 80 for equipment rental. One thing I will say about equipment, I wouldn't go for the ski rental option with the operator, topflight etc. Our company quoted us around 115 for rental, quick google on the resort, got one of the local sports shops to give it to us for 70 with group discount.

loobylou

I've never come across a Tour Operator where the liftpass was cheaper than in resort, but quite a few where it was dearer.
Bear in mind too that as a beginner you may not need the sort of liftpass being sold by the T/O, many resorts have cheaper and even free lifts for some nursery areas.
Ditto for the skihire. Nothing worse then your first morning being spent queuing in the same hire shop as everyone else on your plane/bus. Go to the quiet place next door where they will have the time to see that your kitted out properly, AND will appreciate your business.

glanman

loobylou wrote: »

I've never come across a Tour Operator where the liftpass was cheaper than in resort, but quite a few where it was dearer.
Bear in mind too that as a beginner you may not need the sort of liftpass being sold by the T/O, many resorts have cheaper and even free lifts for some nursery areas.
Ditto for the skihire. Nothing worse then your first morning being spent queuing in the same hire shop as everyone else on your plane/bus. Go to the quiet place next door where they will have the time to see that your kitted out properly, AND will appreciate your business.

All good points.

OP, I have been to Soll, learnt to ski there. Was a great resort for that, great apres ski, good food and nights out.

Skiing isn't the cheapest in Austria, total spend for the week would be between 1,500-2,000 between your full package and spending money/beer all in all. It is however cheaper than most places in France and Switzerland by all accounts but dearer than places like bulgaria, parts of italy, andorra, poland etc. That said these cheaper places by all accounts don't have all of the following: good skiing, good nights out, good infrastructure etc...

Austria all in all has good skiing, good nights out, good infrastructure etc...

And it is so worth it for the money:) Best week long holiday you will ever have!

bovril

I went to Soll with Direct Ski last year and as stated above if you are a complete beginner i.e never skied before ever and never spent time on a dry slope the beginner pass in the beginner package is not a lift pass for the full week. Think it's one day short of the week for the first day you spend on the nursery slope and you don't need to get any lifts anywhere. That is why the beginner package is cheaper than getting everything seperately. You will have to go with the TO's ski hire shop though...

olaola

Lift passes are the same price wherever you get them. They don't change! Worth emailing a couple of schools/rental places in the resort - they might give you discounts or have deals (e.g. place in Saalbach has school (5 days) + rental (7 days) for €224, which is pretty good value.

It's all about the flights, if you can get there cheaply - then you're laughing. Keep an eye out for good deals on flights going to airports Munich, Salzburg and Zurich (all for Austria). Then you literally have LOADS of resorts you can choose from not more than 2.5 hours drive from any of those airports.
All of the resorts have websites run by tourist offices, so they'll have all the info on free accommodation in the town.

We've been burned by booking our gear though the TO. NEVER again, we were brought to the crappiest place in town, the state of the gear was shocking. TBH I stick to Intersport, I've never been disappointed and they're great when you want to change things. And they'll always give you a discount if you email before you leave. If you can, try to get an early flight - so you can arrive early on Saturday and get your gear rented for Sunday.

halcyon4

For a cheap ski holiday I'd recommend:

Spinderluv Mlyn in the Czech republic.
http://www.spindleruv-mlyn.com/en/


The dates I went were around January 11th to the 15th.
Ski pass for 4 days was 80 euros.
Ski equipment was 40 euros for 4 days.

You'd need you own ski pants, jackets and gloves though.

Flew into prague for next to nothing as I booked early.
Train was about 2 hours then direct to Spindeluv Mlyn.

Booked this accomodation at Hotel Horni Pramen for a shared room(2 singles) at about 25 euro per night for the whole room:
http://www.spindleruv-mlyn.com/en/&ubytovani=21

The slopes were decent, and the holiday in general was cheap. There was enough snow at that time of year to enjoy skiing.