It’s that Holy Grail of ski holidays for those of us who don’t have limitless funds (that’s most of us really).  How do we ski more but pay less to do it?

Well you can certainly spend a fortune very quickly if you don’t make careful preparations to ensure you pay less than everyone else.  Here are some top tips.

1. Go Low

Prices can double or more if you travel on peak dates.  These vary from country to country but are  mostly New Year, most of February, and around Easter time.  You can expect to pay half or less if you travel pre-Christmas and often in the latter half of January, or even after Easter.  Of course you need to be sure the lifts will be running and there’s a likelihood of snow wherever you choose to go but that’s a mere detail…

2. Go By Car or Bus

Although you can get cheap deals on flights, especially if you book early and travel low season, once you factor in transfers, baggage costs etc it’s hard to do it cheaply.  With a car you know your costs more up front and if you cram 4 or 5 of you in there those prices tend to plummet as you divide them up.  Avoid toll roads to keep costs lower still and fill, up in Luxembourg, Europe’s cheapest petrol, if you can en route. Also remember to buy your supplies for the week at the hypermarket en route before heading up to your resort.  If you prefer your transport still more public, then coach holidays are normally the best bet for the lowest price from Blighty to the Alps.

3. Pack Em In

As with your car, so your accommodation.  Travel low season (as per point 1) and fill and apartment with 4, 6 or 8 people (the more the merrier!) and you can expect to pay less than £10 per bed per night if you shop around a bit.  If you don’t have lots of friends to cram in to an apartment with, look at hostel options in resort – many ski areas have them, but you do have to hunt them down.

4. Go Small.

There’s often the temptation to head to a famous name resort, but unless you REALLY need to, there are literally thousands of small to medium sized ski areas you’ve never heard of that offer the same experience (snow, lifts – it’s not rocket science!) for less money across the board.  They just don’t have quite so much of it.  One option if you do want to visit a famous resort like Verbier or Chamonix is to stay in a smaller, neighbouring village, where the costs are again less but the ski area the same.

5. Lift passes – it’s complicated.

Lift pass prices have got increasingly like mobile phone bills – hard to keep track of.  But a few things to look out for: Advance-online-purchase is increasingly offered with some resorts offering 20% savings if you book your pass, usually before some autumn cut-off date.  Age discounts – if you’re under 25 or over 50 check there are no discounts to be had – although child/senior discounts usually end younger and start later, some resorts do extend the age brackets.  Again pass prices can vary according to time of season with passes in low season (see point 1) costing less than the rest of the winter.

6. Rent Savvy

Rentals, like lift passes, are no longer about rolling up in resort and finding the nearest shop.  Again there can be huge fluctuations in price, for identical gear, depending on when and how you pay for your rental.  As with so many things, booking before you leave the UK is often the best bet with online deals a plenty in the competitive cyber market, which disappear if you roll in to a shop with no reservation and get fitted up before asking the price.

7. Mind The Gap

When you are trying to do everything on a budget, be extra wary of any weaknesses in your holiday plans.  A bus or car taking you right to your slopeside ski accommodation (and back again) is spot on, but if you’re on a plane to Geneva be sure you have a cheap and reliable transfer booked, and back up if your flight is late.  It’s the little things, that can cost a fortune if you need to book them at short notice, that can scupper the budget on a cheap trip if they go wrong.

8. Look For Tour Op Deals

Although many of these suggestions are based on travelling independently, and although tour operators and travel agents would have us believe that the era of the ‘late booking deal’ is at its end, if you do travel last minute and are prepared to go anywhere so long as the snow is good and its cheap, deals do still appear and they sometimes seem top cost less than you could possibly buy the constituent parts separately.

Overall remember prices have never been more fluid and what may seem cheap one day may not be the next, and vice versa for expensive.  Good luck!

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