Ski holiday kit
Ski holidays are short trips in which the main purpose is skiing, and the cheapest ski holidays cost around 650 to 850 pounds for an adult on a 7 night self cater package in December. The figure lands in the low band when a package combines 7 nights of accommodation, an airport transfer, a lift pass and a rental of skis and boots for the same 7 days, because buying the elements separately usually raises the price to 1,100 pounds or more per person. The number moves by season, by departure and by discipline: a January week from 2 airports in England is often 100 to 150 pounds cheaper than the same week from 1 airport in the north of England, and a snowboarder who rents a board and 2 pairs of bindings pays less than a skier who rents a pair of skis, 2 pairs of bindings and a helmet. This page defines what a ski holiday is, names the 4 disciplines the kit serves, and walks through the 5 parts of a package that decide whether a deal is actually the cheapest one.
Before you spend a single pound, Pick the destination for your ski package. The resort decides the lift pass price, the accommodation price and the transfer time, so a week in a small French valley can beat a week in a famous Austrian resort even when the two look identical in a search result. Once the resort is fixed, the next decision is the discipline, because the kit differs for each of the 4 disciplines, and a family with a child who snowboards and a parent who alpine skis needs 2 separate rental lines.
What a ski holiday includes
A ski holiday is a booking that bundles transport, a base, a lift pass and kit into one price, and the word package describes exactly that bundle. The 5 standard parts are the flight or coach, the accommodation, the lift pass, the equipment rental and the transfer, and a price that covers all 5 is what sellers call all inclusive. When a deal lists only 3 or 4 of the parts, the rest are added at the desk or at the airport and the final total rises by 200 to 400 pounds for a family of 4. The word inclusive does not mean free extras, it means the named parts are inside the one number you pay, and the word including works the same way when a listing says including lift pass, it means the pass is inside the price, not that the pass is a bonus.
The cheapest ski holidays keep the 5 parts but shrink each of them, and the shrinking happens in a fixed order that a buyer can check line by line.
Flight or coach
The transport is the first part and the one that swings the most. A flight from 1 of the 2 main airports in England to the Alps takes about 2 hours, and a flight from 1 airport in the north of England to the same resort takes about 2 hours 20 minutes, which adds 40 minutes to the day. A coach from 2 cities in the south of England takes about 16 hours one way and costs 150 to 250 pounds for the seat. The cheapest ski holidays usually fly in the morning and land in the afternoon, because the morning flight is the cheap one and the afternoon is when the transfer queue is longest.
Accommodation
The base is the second part and the second most expensive. A self cater apartment for a family of 4 sleeps 4 adults and costs about 400 to 700 pounds for 7 nights in the low season and about 900 to 1,400 pounds for the same 7 nights in the first week of February. A hotel on a half board plan for 2 people costs about 350 to 500 pounds a night in the same week, which is 2,450 to 3,500 pounds for 7 nights, so the apartment is the cheaper of the two for a family. The word all in all inclusive points at this part, because the meals are inside the price on a half board or full board plan and are outside it on a self cater booking.
Cheap ski packages and how the price is built
To find a cheap ski package, you split the total into its 5 parts and compare each part, because a package that is cheap on the flight is often expensive on the accommodation and the two cancel out. The price of a 7 night package in the low season breaks down into roughly 180 to 260 pounds for the flight, 400 to 700 pounds for the apartment, 200 to 300 pounds for the lift pass, 120 to 200 pounds for the rental and 40 to 80 pounds for the transfer, which puts the per person total for a family of 4 at about 650 to 850 pounds. In the high season the same 5 parts rise by 40 to 60 percent and the per person total reaches 1,100 to 1,600 pounds. A cheap ski package is one whose 5 parts are all inside those low season bands, not one whose headline number is low while the lift pass is added separately.
| Part of the package | Low season, 7 nights | High season, 7 nights | What changes the number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flight or coach | 180 to 260 pounds | 300 to 450 pounds | Departure airport, date, baggage |
| Accommodation for 4 | 400 to 700 pounds | 900 to 1,400 pounds | Apartment size, distance from the lift |
| Lift pass for 1 adult | 200 to 300 pounds | 320 to 450 pounds | Resort size, pass duration |
| Equipment rental, 7 days | 120 to 200 pounds | 150 to 240 pounds | Discipline, whether the helmet is in |
| Transfer, per person | 40 to 80 pounds | 50 to 100 pounds | Distance, whether it is a minibus or a coach |
The 4 numbers in the left column are the ones to check first, and the lift pass is the part most often hidden, so a listing that says including lift pass saves 200 to 450 pounds per adult compared with one that does not.
The 4 disciplines the kit serves
The kit you rent or buy depends on the discipline, and there are 4 disciplines on this site, alpine ski, snowboard, waterski and jet ski, each with its own set of 2 to 5 core pieces. The alpine skier needs a pair of skis, 2 pairs of bindings, a pair of boots and a helmet, which is 5 pieces and about 120 to 200 pounds for a 7 day rental. The snowboarder needs 1 board, 2 bindings, 1 pair of boots and 1 helmet, also 5 pieces, at a similar price because the board replaces the pair of skis. The waterskier needs 1 rope, 1 pair of gloves and 1 life jacket, which is 3 pieces and about 30 to 60 pounds for a weekend, and the jet ski rider needs 1 life jacket and 1 wetsuit, which is 2 pieces and about 40 to 70 pounds for the same weekend. The first 2 disciplines are the winter ones and the last 2 are the summer ones, so a buyer who books a winter ski holiday rents from the first 2 lines and a buyer who books a summer watersports holiday rents from the last 2.
Alpine ski and snowboard
Alpine ski and snowboard share the resort, the lift pass and the transfer, and they differ only in the rental line. A beginner who is 1 of 2 adults in a family usually rents the same 5 pieces as any other skier, and the difference is the boot stiffness, which is softer for the beginner and firmer for the experienced skier, but the price for the 7 day rental stays inside the 120 to 200 pound band either way. The snowboarder pays the same band because the shop rents 1 board, 2 bindings, 1 pair of boots and 1 helmet at the same daily rate as the skier rents the 5 ski pieces.
Waterski and jet ski
Waterski and jet ski are the summer pair, and a buyer who finishes a winter season with 2 months to spare can move to a watersports holiday for the same week. The waterski kit is 3 pieces, the rope, the gloves and the life jacket, and the jet ski kit is 2 pieces, the life jacket and the wetsuit, so a family that waterskies and jet skis in the same week rents 5 pieces at about 70 to 130 pounds. Kit for family ski trips works the same way in summer, because a family of 4 waterskiers rents 4 ropes, 4 pairs of gloves and 4 life jackets, which is 12 pieces, and the shop charges a family rate that is 15 to 20 percent lower than 4 separate lines. The jet ski rider who wants to add a board to the same week picks the Jet Ski Holiday Kit, which bundles the life jacket, the wetsuit and 1 towable board into one price.
Choosing the package by departure and by family
To choose the package by departure, you compare the 5 parts from 2 or 3 departure points, because the same resort costs different amounts from different airports. A 7 night package to the same French resort from 1 airport in the south of England costs about 700 pounds per person in the low season, from 1 airport in the north of England about 750 pounds, and from 1 airport in the middle of England about 730 pounds, so the 3 departures differ by only 50 pounds and the resort is the bigger decision. A family that departs from 2 airports in the same region can save 60 to 90 pounds by meeting at 1 airport and flying together, because the 2 separate fares are usually higher than the 2 seats on one booking. For a family of 4 the package choice is the apartment over the hotel, because the apartment sleeps 4 and costs 400 to 700 pounds for the 7 nights while the hotel for 4 on a half board plan costs 2,450 to 3,500 pounds for the same 7 nights, a gap of 1,750 to 2,800 pounds that no lift pass or rental can recover.
The package that serves a family with a beginner and an experienced skier keeps the same 5 parts and splits the rental line into 2, a beginner line with the softer boot and an experienced line with the firmer one, and the total stays inside the 650 to 850 pound per person band for the low season. The same structure serves a family that mixes disciplines, with 1 skier renting the 5 ski pieces and 1 snowboarder renting the 5 board pieces, and the lift pass, the apartment and the transfer are shared across both lines.
Caring for the kit through the season
The kit you rent is the shop to care for, but the kit you own is yours, and the care routine is the same 4 steps for a pair of skis, a board, a set of waterski gloves or a jet ski wetsuit. The 4 steps are to rinse, to dry, to wax or condition and to store, and they take about 10 minutes a week in season. The skier rinses the pair of skis with clean water after the last run of the day and dries them before storing, because the lift wax and the snow hold salt that eats the base if they sit wet for 2 or 3 days. The snowboarder does the same 2 steps for the board and the bindings, and the waterskier rinses the rope and the gloves with fresh water after each session, because the salt in the lake water is the same enemy. The jet ski rider rinses the wetsuit with fresh water and lets it dry flat, never in the sun, because the sun dries the neoprene and the 2 or 3 sessions of sun cut the life of the wetsuit by a season. Keeping the 4 steps in order, rinse, dry, wax, store, is the difference between a pair of skis that lasts 5 seasons and a pair that lasts 2.
The end of the season closes the loop, and the owner who stores the 5 ski pieces in a cool dry room with the bindings set to the lowest position returns in the next season to kit that still works on day 1. The rental line is the opposite, because the shop does the same 4 steps for the next renter, and the buyer pays the 120 to 200 pound band for a 7 day rental precisely to skip that care. A ski holiday is the 5 parts and the discipline, and the cheapest ski holidays are the ones where all 5 parts sit inside the low season band and the discipline matches the kit, so the 650 to 850 pound figure is the number to beat.