Cheapest Skiing in France?

tbyeah

tbyeah

tbyeah

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What's the cheapest accommodation you can get/lift passes in France, where the skiing is good for intermediate/experts?

Accommodation can be completely barebones and basic, so long as it's cheap (and somewhat habitable). Train seems to be cheapest way, ~£100 return. Most important factor is skiing; ideally short walk from accommodation, with high concentration of reds/blacks. Will likely be going around next April (school holiday time).

Ski hire shouldn't be needed as I have my own gear, so this shouldn't be in if it's a package.

Anyone got any experience with this? Thanks.
 
I've just booked with Action Outdoors who are an agent for the French UCPA scheme. It's government subsidised, and not the most amazing of accommodation, but it includes instruction and passes. And it's ski in/ski out at La Plagne.

Came to £400 less than other holidays with similar packages.
 
If you are really looking for as cheap as possible, then you are probably best looking away from France and the Alps. Some of the very small resorts, due to their size and lack of popularity are cheaper, but in general you want to be looking towards Eastern Europe and places like Bulgaria.

The other things to bare in mind are that you say you want to go during a school holiday period, which will be a peak time, thus more expensive. Also, the train as transport may sound good, but you have to understand that the Eurostar direct Snow Train is a fairly limited service, otherwise you have to take a train to Paris and then do a lot of changing. Even then, the train goes as far as Bourg-St-Maurice, so fine if you are going to Les Arcs, but if to any other resort, you then need to factor in either the public coach service or a private transfer. The cheapest options are also going to depend on you putting the trip together yourself and how many other people (if at all) are in your party.
 
Went to Zakopane which is in Poland, once... They have a lot of slopes for all levels, but none of those "above skies" views as you get in alps. Krakow is less than 2 hours away, I personally prefer zakopane to "posh" resorts simply due to it being more varied and theres a lot to see/drink/eat in Krakow.

And yeah, its incredibly cheap too.
 
The main reason for France is that I'm familiar with it and also no-one I'd be going with drives hence the train (from what I've read you can get pretty close to many resorts by train/bus fairly cheaply). Likely about 4-5 of us.

Thanks for the suggestions, that UCPA scheme was tempting me although we'd rather pass the tuition. La Plagne looks very nice as it's majority blacks and reds, I'll have a look into it.

Eastern Europe will be worth a look as well if it's cheaper.
 
Can't do the UCPA scheme. Irritating...

I've had a look and Three Valleys/Val Thorens looks good. I forgot to mention that probably the most important factor is ski in / ski out location for the accomodation (or very short walk).
 
Ski in ski out and cheap don't normally go together. La plagne is excellent plenty of terrain, good off piste and is entirely ski in ski out without being overly expensive. Chatel in port fu soleil is very reasonable. Chamonix has several very reasonably priced 2 star gaffs and is amazing but defo not ski in / out.
 
tbyeah said:
The main reason for France is that I'm familiar with it and also no-one I'd be going with drives hence the train (from what I've read you can get pretty close to many resorts by train/bus fairly cheaply). Likely about 4-5 of us.
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As I said above, the closest you can get to a resort by train is Bourg-St-Maurice, which is the end of the line. From there, unless you are staying in Bourg or Les Arcs, you will need to make further travel arrangements to get you to the resort you choose.

The bus is currently 110 Euros return from Geneva Airport. If there are 5 of you, your best option is just to get a private transfer, which would work out less than that, whether from Geneva, or perhaps Bourg-St-Maurice if you took the train all the way there.

As Skidder quite rightly points out though, Ski In/Out doesn't mix with as cheap as possible. Typically you will find that the cheaper places, especially those that are self-catered, (as most central will be catered and more expensive) are found out on the fringes. You could be looking at say a 15 minute+ walk to the lift.
 
I've just had a look about and 4 people can stay in La Tzoumaz in Switzerland (near Verbier), for 7 nights, with lift passes for the full 4 valleys, for £700 (edit: each :D). Ski bus at the door which takes you a short distance down the road to a gondola (walkable anyway).

Not cheap at all but it looks damn nice, and I think we all have our own gear.

We could save a pretty penny by persuading my friend to drive there; about 10 hours excluding ferry apparently.

However he has a 91 Mini and we will have all our ski gear, plus we are all 6 ft +. Should be fun :D
 
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La tzoumaz is nice but very sleepy if night life is your thing. Eye watering booze prices too.

I sometimes drive to cham but I don't think it ever works out particularly cheap after fuel. Chunnel. Tolls
 
Skidder said:
La tzoumaz is nice but very sleepy if night life is your thing. Eye watering booze prices too.
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No issue; we'd be there to ski and ski only pretty much. Nights would be waiting for the lifts to open the next morning haha

I'll have a look around some of these other suggestions, appreciate the help guys.

What sort of costs am I missing out? £700 covers all accommodation faffing and lift passes, then transport (if by some miracle we drive) would be petrol, tolls, + ferry. Food and drink.

What else is there if anything? Also just remembered insurance.
 
We're doing a week snowboarding in Tignes in mid-March, driving there, and I *think* it's costing us about £450-500 each including petrol (four of us).

Half board, two of us will be sharing a double bed, with one on a single and one on a pullout bed but it's close to the slopes and looks tidy enough.

I might not be bang on with the price but it's definitely in that region and I was impressed with how cheap my mate managed to find stuff for.

Edit: Checked my list and I've got down that I need to get hold of £600 inc my spending money which I'm sure was £100 - so it looks like it's under £500 including everything except spending money.
 
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The £700 doesn't include your method of getting out there right? So you would still need flights or such.

The problem with driving yourself from the UK for a holiday is that with a week's stay (typically Saturday to Saturday), if you want to get any time on the slopes on the Saturday, you need to really leave the UK on the Friday night, get a late ferry or the tunnel and drive through the night. It's a long old trip, then the person who drives will be too tired to do anything but sleep when you get there. Otherwise, you leave Saturday morning and likely won't get there until Saturday night.

Again Skidder is right, driving doesn't really work out that cost effective. I think Whitelines magazine did a 'race' a few years ago where they had teams fly, drive and rail as well as comparing all the costs. You also need to factor in the following costs when driving:

- Toll roads
- Obligatory roadside safety kit that French Police insist you must have in your car.
- Snow chains*

*Snow chains may not be necessary, but driving a car in the Alps in winter without winter tyres can be pretty sketchy once you get on the mountain roads. It's pretty common when there is snow falling heavily for the Gendarme to setup checkpoints where you have attach snow chains to proceed to resorts. If you don't have them, you will be made to turn around. I know people who have to spend the night in other places because the roads are too bad. Finally, if you are travelling on a Saturday, peak season on something like school holidays, be prepared for a much longer journey, as transfer days can be extremely busy and slow going, especially when snowing.
 
We would leave Friday night if driving probably or afternoon. Get there early morning, time for some sleep.

The tolls are apparently ~£65 each way, and I've already got all the safety kit + chains. Surely it would be more economical than four flights + transfers?

PardonTheWait, how did you get it so cheap? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places...
 
Second wastelandski - if you are on a budget it's the best way to do it.

eg. Val Thorens 31/1 - 7 nights accomodations and 6 day ski pass for £275. The ski pass is worth £150 on its own!
 
tbyeah said:
We would leave Friday night if driving probably or afternoon. Get there early morning, time for some sleep.

The tolls are apparently ~£65 each way, and I've already got all the safety kit + chains. Surely it would be more economical than four flights + transfers?

PardonTheWait, how did you get it so cheap? Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places...
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I didn't book it, a friend did. It's just half board accommodation and lift passes. We're driving, already have insurance etc.

We're also staying in pretty much the cheapest accommodation we can find and it looks very plain but is half board and close to slopes and looks clean! That's all we want. We're already going to Spain over NYE which is costing us quite a lot, and we wanted a second trip in the season so we've cheaped out wherever possible. I'll ask my mate for some links, see if he's got them handy.
 
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