High slopes, plenty of skiing and a holiday budget that goes a little further. New figures from Heidi highlight four ski resort alternatives to some familiar Alpine favourites, with average package prices up to 46% lower.
How attached are you to the name on your ski holiday booking? If you could still spend the week exploring a big ski area, with high slopes within reach, would you try somewhere different?
It could be a question worth £1,235 per person, according to new figures from Heidi. The ski holiday company has compared average package booking prices across four pairs of Alpine resorts, finding some substantial differences for winter 2026/27.
The biggest is between Cervinia and Sestriere, where average prices are 46% lower. There are also savings to investigate by swapping Val d’Isère for La Rosière, Val Thorens for Les Menuires, or St Anton for Kaprun.
These are comparisons of what customers have booked, rather than matching holidays with identical dates, flights and hotels. But if your resort shortlist tends to look much the same every winter, they give you a good reason to branch out.
Why Are Skiers Looking Higher?
You’ll probably know how this goes. You book your holiday months ahead, then spend the weeks before departure checking snow forecasts for a mountain you can do absolutely nothing about.
Choosing a resort with access to high slopes is one way skiers try to give themselves better odds, particularly early or late in the season.
According to Mountain Trade Network’s October 2026 State of the Snowsports Market survey of more than 1,300 UK skiers, altitude now ranks second only to ski area size when choosing a resort, ahead of price.
That doesn’t mean everyone has suddenly stopped caring what their holiday costs. Finding somewhere that ticks both boxes is the attraction here, and Heidi says bookings across its four suggested alternatives have collectively risen by 98% year-on-year.
“The big-name Alpine resorts are classics for a reason,” says co-founder Marcus Blunt. “Altitude is increasingly on skiers’ minds, particularly when they’re looking to book early or ski later in the season. We’ve identified four alternatives where you can enjoy impressive mountain terrain, high-altitude skiing and big ski areas, with significant savings.”
Here are the four swaps worth a closer look.
Love Cervinia? Try Sestriere
Average package prices 46% lower, equivalent to around £1,235 less per person over a week.
Sestriere sits at 2,035m in the Vialattea. Image: Heidi
If a high Italian base and plenty of terrain are what draw you to Cervinia, put Sestriere into your holiday search as well.
The resort sits at 2,035m and forms part of the wider Vialattea ski area, giving you plenty of scope to set off in a different direction each morning. It has serious skiing credentials, too, having hosted Alpine events at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.
You’ll be choosing a different mountain setting and ski area, so take a look at the piste map alongside the prices. But with the biggest average saving of the four comparisons, it deserves more than a passing glance.
Heidi’s bookings to Sestriere are up 181% year-on-year. It seems quite a few skiers have already had that thought.
Love Val d’Isère? Try La Rosière
Average package prices 33% lower, equivalent to around £600 less per person over a week.
There’s something pleasing about a ski day that takes you into another country, particularly when lunch gives you an excuse to linger there.
From La Rosière, you can ski across the border to La Thuile in Italy through the shared Espace San Bernardo ski area. The French village sits at 1,850m, the same altitude as Val d’Isère, with skiing reaching 2,800m.
The two resorts offer different experiences, so think about the terrain your group enjoys rather than choosing on village height alone. If you’re open to a change, though, cross-border skiing and a lower average holiday bill make an appealing combination.
Bookings to La Rosière through Heidi have risen by 135% year-on-year.
Love Val Thorens? Try Les Menuires
Average package prices 15% lower, equivalent to around £245 less per person over a week.
Les Menuires. Image: Heidi
This one is particularly useful if your group loves the Three Valleys and convincing everyone to go somewhere else would require several dinners and a spreadsheet.
Les Menuires gives you another base within the same 600km linked ski area. With the appropriate Three Valleys lift pass, you can head out across the valleys and explore the same mountains, with the wider area reaching 3,230m.
You’ll be staying at 1,850m, lower than Val Thorens, so check where your accommodation sits and how you’ll get onto the slopes each morning.
For skiers who spend their days roaming around the Three Valleys anyway, changing where you sleep could be a fairly easy adjustment. Heidi’s bookings to Les Menuires are up 77% year-on-year.
Love St Anton? Try Kaprun
Average package prices 35% lower, equivalent to around £865 less per person over a week.
Kaprun, with glacier skiing on the Kitzsteinhorn. Image: Heidi
If Austria is on your list, Kaprun offers glacier skiing and plenty of options for mixing up your week.
Cable-car connections from the town take you towards the Kitzsteinhorn glacier, with access to skiing above 3,000m. The Ski ALPIN CARD also covers Schmittenhöhe above Zell am See and the Skicircus Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn, alongside Kitzsteinhorn and Maiskogel.
That adds up to 408km of pistes across several areas. You’ll need to allow for travel between them, so treat it as a choice of places to ski during the week rather than one continuous circuit.
Kaprun offers a different holiday from St Anton, making it worth checking the terrain and resort atmosphere against your group’s priorities. Heidi’s Kaprun bookings are up 73% year-on-year.
How Much Could You Save?
Image: Heidi
The useful next step is to try the comparison with your own dates.
When we explored how to book a ski holiday the easy way, changing travel days made a sizeable difference to the prices we found. Trying another resort gives you one more variable to play with.
Keep your departure airport, accommodation standard and holiday length as consistent as possible, then compare the total cost, including the lift pass and any extras you need.
And look beyond the highest number on the piste map. How much skiing is up there, how easily you can reach it and whether everyone in your group will enjoy it all matter. Altitude is useful, but it can’t guarantee good snow.
You may still decide your usual resort is worth the extra. But when the potential difference runs into hundreds of pounds per person, another search seems a small amount of effort.
Your favourite resort will still be there next winter. The £1,235 might not.
Compare ski holidays with Heidi
About the figures: Heidi compared average prices per person per night for winter 2026/27 packages booked as at 27 October 2026, including flights, accommodation, transfers and any extras booked. These are comparisons of different bookings, rather than identical packages. Weekly savings are illustrative, based on seven nights, and individual savings will vary. Booking growth compares confirmed UK bookings for winter 2026/27 departures made by 27 October 2026 with winter 2025/26 departures booked by 27 October 2025.