We have always loved to travel, but somewhere in the last five years we also learned to love skiing. It wasn’t because we grew up skiing or had a lifelong dream to start, but it was something we always wanted to try, and we eventually found a way to fit it into our travel schedule without breaking the bank.
The first trip was the hardest because we were all new to everything. The combination of learning something new as an adult while also managing young kids who were learning at the same time was a lot. But we kept it short and low key, and by the end of three days we were hooked, and we knew the kids were too.
Once we realized it was something we loved doing as a family, we made it a priority, and we have managed to ski every single year since. But, five winters later, we still have never gone to a big, expensive, all-inclusive resort. We keep it accessible for our budget, and sometimes that means skiing at places that dedicated ski bunnies might gawk at, but usually that just means more room on the slopes for us.
Here is how we’ve made it possible and on-budget:
Start Small.
When we were just starting out, we didn’t need a mountain with miles and miles of runs. Beginners typically just need a beginners area and a couple nice green runs. You really just need to get on skis and figure out what we were doing. Smaller resorts are less crowded, more affordable, and so much better suited to true beginners than big name resorts you’ve heard on social media.
We were living in Southern Africa when we wanted to start skiing, so started our ski journey at Afriski in Lesotho, a tiny resort tucked into the Maluti Mountains that most people have never heard of. It was more of a novelty than anything, but it was also exactly the right place for a family of complete newbies to figure things out.
Start Local.
Our rule for keeping skiing affordable is to pick places we can drive to, and to skip the flight unless we absolutely have to. We’ve lived across three continents, and we found driveable slopes in nearly every place we have lived. Remember that off-the-beaten path type ski places are often the best places for newbie skiiers. And driveable means you already have a car with you, which makes getting to and from the slopes even easier if you aren’t staying next to the lifts.
For us, that means when we visit family near Atlanta, we load everyone into the car and head to North Carolina for a ski weekend, which we have done several times now because it works so well. The drive is five or six hours, the mountains are perfectly good for our level, and we come home having kept up our skills without spending a fortune. Now that we live in Germany, it means looking for slopes in France and Germany that aren’t on the main Alps circuit, which turns out to be a great strategy because they are less crowded, more affordable, and just as beautiful as the places everyone else is rushing to.
Combine Destinations.
When driving isn’t an option, our rule is that we only ski somewhere if we were already planning to travel there for other reasons. That’s exactly how we ended up skiing in Finland since we wanted to visit Lapland anyway as our big family holiday that year. When planning our trip, we built in a budget-friendly plan to add a couple of days of skiing to the itinerary. It wasn’t the main attraction, but it kept up our skills and added a new country to our ski list, which felt like a pretty good bonus. The same idea applies to family visits or other winter destination. If you’re already planning to travel somewhere in winter, it’s worth looking at what’s within a couple of hours of where they live.
Avoid All-Inclusive Resort Stays.
We always look for somewhere with a kitchen, which might be an Airbnb, an apartment, a condo, anything that lets us cook for ourselves. Eating out for every meal on a ski trip is one of the fastest ways to watch your budget disappear. When we can make breakfast at home, pack lunches for the mountain, and actually choose when and where we spend money on a restaurant meal, the whole trip costs a fraction of what it would otherwise. Bonus is that when you’re exhausted at the end of the ski day, I really enjoy have the kids showered and in PJs to relax rather than swapping to real clothes and enduring a restaurant while exhausted. We splurge on food when we want to, like a mountainside crepe or glass of gluhwein in the afternoon.
Budget It All Out.
This year we skied twice as a family of six for under €2,000 per week total, and that covered everything, including accommodation, lift tickets, lessons, transportation and food. It’s possible to make skiing a regular part of your family travel without feeling like you have to make separate ski holidays every year, but it does take a bit of planning and a willingness to look past the fancy resorts you’ve heard about.
The biggest part of this is doing your research ahead of time. If the lift ticket prices at your first choice mountain are astronomical, there is almost always something smaller and less frequented nearby that will work just as well, especially if you just want to gain experience.
Want our full list of budget-friendly ski destinations we have tried and loved (plus more that we’re eyeing for next year)? Check out our full list of unique ski destinations here!
Ski time!!