Is Skiing Expensive?
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Is Skiing Expensive?

Skiing is a notoriously expensive past time. By the time you take everything into consideration including lift pass, ski rental, ski clothing, travel and paying for food on the mountain, the costs all add up. You could easily be paying over $1000 per person for 1 week. This depends a lot on the resort you choose.

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As with any holiday you decide to go on, within reason the holiday can be as expensive or as cheap as you want to make it. There are ways to cut costs all over the place and it's up to you how you would like to spend your money and what you want to prioritise. If you choose to go on a ski holiday or are considering it, unfortunately there are some costs that are unavoidable such as lift pass, ski rental and travel. These will form a substantial cost of the holiday.

There are certainly ways to lessen these unavoidable costs outright, by choosing to ski in cheaper countries and resorts such as Bulgaria in Europe for example. Even within the main countries for skiing, it is possible to find more affordable resorts. These more affordable resorts will not be the best ski resorts on offer. They might have a lower altitude, be less snow sure, smaller, or maybe just very awkward to get to and not very accessible. It is worth looking around at the general price of different resorts in whatever part of the world you are skiing in, as you could be surprised at how much prices vary between resorts, even in the same country.

The purpose of this article is not to compare prices of different resorts, have a look at ‘insert name of a book we could recommend to buy’ for recommendations on different resorts in every country around the world. In this article I will explore the different things on a ski holiday which are going to cost you money, and some suggestions for how you can save a bit of money once you are in the resort.

Ski Lift Pass

The ski lift pass is one of the most expensive aspects of a ski holiday. Ski passes are paid for on a daily basis, therefore the longer your holiday is, the more you will inevitably pay towards the ski pass. In many resorts, particularly in European ski resorts, discounts on ski passes are given for each successive day of skiing. Each additional day of skiing you purchase gets progressively cheaper up to around 2 weeks for most resorts. By this stage each additional day of skiing may cost as little as €25 in some of the top resorts! For most people who are booking a ski holiday for a week or so, you will definitely start to see the price of each successive day purchased drop for the latter few days of your holiday.

Alternatively, if you are lucky enough to find yourself with the luxury of spending weeks or months on end in a ski resort (yes unbelievably there are people for which this is an option) if you can get away from work for this long or are retired, there is no doubt that purchasing a season pass for your resort of choice is your cheapest and easiest option. Compared to paying for a ski pass on a daily basis, you will save a lot of money by purchasing a season pass. Depending on which resort you are at, a season pass will pay for itself after anywhere between 10 days – 2 weeks of skiing.

Ski passes vary in price significantly around the world. In Canada or USA you are looking at around $100 per day of skiing with little or no discount for multiple days purchased. Compare this with Europe where the most expensive resorts charge around €60 for a day pass, and progressively get cheaper as the days go on as I mentioned above, and you can quite clearly see why skiing in the Americas is that bit more expensive.

Ski Lift Pass

The ski lift pass is one of the most expensive aspects of a ski holiday. Ski passes are paid for on a daily basis, therefore the longer your holiday is, the more you will inevitably pay towards the ski pass. In many resorts, particularly in European ski resorts, discounts on ski passes are given for each successive day of skiing. Each additional day of skiing you purchase gets progressively cheaper up to around 2 weeks for most resorts. By this stage each additional day of skiing may cost as little as €25 in some of the top resorts! For most people who are booking a ski holiday for a week or so, you will definitely start to see the price of each successive day purchased drop for the latter few days of your holiday.

Alternatively, if you are lucky enough to find yourself with the luxury of spending weeks or months on end in a ski resort (yes unbelievably there are people for which this is an option) if you can get away from work for this long or are retired, there is no doubt that purchasing a season pass for your resort of choice is your cheapest and easiest option. Compared to paying for a ski pass on a daily basis, you will save a lot of money by purchasing a season pass. Depending on which resort you are at, a season pass will pay for itself after anywhere between 10 days – 2 weeks of skiing.

Ski Lift Pass

The ski lift pass is one of the most expensive aspects of a ski holiday. Ski passes are paid for on a daily basis, therefore the longer your holiday is, the more you will inevitably pay towards the ski pass. In many resorts, particularly in European ski resorts, discounts on ski passes are given for each successive day of skiing. Each additional day of skiing you purchase gets progressively cheaper up to around 2 weeks for most resorts. By this stage each additional day of skiing may cost as little as €25 in some of the top resorts! For most people who are booking a ski holiday for a week or so, you will definitely start to see the price of each successive day purchased drop for the latter few days of your holiday.

Ski Lift Pass

The ski lift pass is one of the most expensive aspects of a ski holiday. Ski passes are paid for on a daily basis, therefore the longer your holiday is, the more you will inevitably pay towards the ski pass. In many resorts, particularly in European ski resorts, discounts on ski passes are given for each successive day of skiing. Each additional day of skiing you purchase gets progressively cheaper up to around 2 weeks for most resorts. By this stage each additional day of skiing may cost as little as €25 in some of the top resorts! For most people who are booking a ski holiday for a week or so, you will definitely start to see the price of each successive day purchased drop for the latter few days of your holiday.

Alternatively, if you are lucky enough to find yourself with the luxury of spending weeks or months on end in a ski resort (yes unbelievably there are people for which this is an option) if you can get away from work for this long or are retired, there is no doubt that purchasing a season pass for your resort of choice is your cheapest and easiest option. Compared to paying for a ski pass on a daily basis, you will save a lot of money by purchasing a season pass. Depending on which resort you are at, a season pass will pay for itself after anywhere between 10 days – 2 weeks of skiing.

Ski passes vary in price significantly around the world. In Canada or USA you are looking at around $100 per day of skiing with little or no discount for multiple days purchased. Compare this with Europe where the most expensive resorts charge around €60 for a day pass, and progressively get cheaper as the days go on as I mentioned above, and you can quite clearly see why skiing in the Americas is that bit more expensive.

Ski Rental

If you haven't got around to purchasing your own skis yet, or you are just a beginner or intermediate skier trying to decide whether you enjoy skiing enough to invest in it, you will need to consider costs for renting ski equipment. Ski rental is another of the large costs on a ski holiday, and an unavoidable one. See the article here What do ski rentals include to find out about what all you can rent from a ski shop, and what you will definitely need to bring yourself. If you are just renting skiing and boots (and possibly a helmet) you will likely find most top end ski shops will sell their premium range of equipment for around $50-60 per day. This is will include skis and boots. Helmets always cost a little bit extra, though I cannot stress enough how important it is to buy or rent a helmet.

If you are certain skiing is something you will continue to do for years to come and is something you love, it is recommended to buy your own skis and boots. This will save you money in the long run, and will enable to skis on the skis you love time and time again. You can find an excellent pair of skis for around $500 - $600 for a pair of intermediate to advanced skis, and this price can go all the way up to $1200 for the top of the range skis! For more beginner orientated skis, you could probably find some for under $500 depending on where you look. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend buying sis if you really are a beginner skier and haven't spent much time on the slopes. I say this because as you ski more and you become a better skier, you will need better skis that suit your skiing style. This means you will have to dispose of your beginner skis rather quickly as you improve your skiing and outgrow them.

Accommodation

Accommodation is probably the most expensive part of any holiday. This is especially true for a ski holiday where you will be living in a small village high up in the mountains, where the hotels and apartment owners have a captive audience. To find the best deals and most affordable accommodation, it is worth searching for accommodation as early as August or September to be sure of getting the place you want.

Food

As is the case with accommodation, being high up in the mountains, restaurants and cafes find themselves with a captive audience. When you go in search of somewhere to eat and relax for lunch, the most expensive places will be the largest and the easiest to find. If you are after somewhere a little more affordable, off the beaten track and a little more authentic, it is well worth going exploring around the mountain for other smaller restaurants. These will all be labelled on the piste map and will be less touristy and more affordable.

Supermarkets you will also find will be more expensive than you are used to. Still far cheaper than eating out on the mountain, but still maybe somewhat of a shock compared to a food shop back home.


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