What a ski week really costs

A ski holiday is bought in five or six pieces, and the piece in the advert is the package: flights, transfers and a bed with some meals. The lift pass, the skis, the lessons and the lunches are bought separately, and together they are £600 to £1,200 a head on top. The Post Office's annual report puts an adult's in-resort costs (pass, hire, lessons, lunch and a drink) at £601 for a week in Bardonecchia, the cheapest resort it surveyed for 2026, and roughly double that in Switzerland and Austria. The table below is the finder's model of the same thing, line by line, for every resort it covers.

One adult, one week in January, from Gatwick

One adult from Gatwick in the week of 16 January (low season). Package = flights, transfers and half board or a catered chalet. Lessons = six half-days of group lessons. Lunches = lunch and a drink on the mountain for six days. Half term multiplies the package column by about 1.9; nothing else changes.

Where the money goes

• The package is £680 to £1,410 a head in January for a 3-star hotel or catered chalet, and it is the only line that changes with the week. In the finder you can switch to self-catering, 4-star or luxury, which moves only the accommodation part. It is also the only line where the operators compete, which is why it is the one in the advert.
• The lift pass is £205 to £480 for six days and is set by the lift company, not the operator. Zermatt is the dearest by far, then Sölden, Tignes-Val d'Isère, the Dolomiti Superski and Ischgl; the small Italian resorts are the cheapest. Each resort page says where its 2026/27 price comes from and how sure it is. A local pass for one valley is often £40 to £60 less than the full area and plenty for a beginner.
• Hire is £80 to £170 for skis, boots and poles, and 20 to 30% less if you book it before you go rather than in the shop on the Sunday morning.
• Lessons are £150 to £300 for a week of group mornings. Only beginners need them every day; an intermediate wanting to improve does better with two or three private hours, which cost about the same.
• Lunches are the line people forget: £15 a day in Bulgaria, £35 in France, £45 in Switzerland, for a plate of something and a drink on the mountain. Over six days that is £90 to £270, more with children who want chips and hot chocolate at eleven.
• Not in the table: winter sports insurance (£30 to £60 a head, not optional), airport parking or trains, ski clothing, a helmet if you don't own one, après, and the lift pass deposit card.

How the school holidays multiply it

Operators price each week of the season as a band, and the finder uses these multipliers on the January package price. Everything else in the table above stays the same in every week.

Multipliers applied to each resort's low-season package price, from the operators' 2025/26 brochures. The 2 January week was moved to low season on 6 November 2026, because it was the cheapest date for more of the operators' 2026/27 properties than the week after.

So the Val Thorens week above, £2,066 in January, is about £3,040 at half term: the £1,080 package becomes £2,052 and the other £986 stays put. The cheaper the package, the smaller the half-term premium in pounds, which is why the cheap Italian resorts get cheaper still relative to the French ones in peak weeks. The full week-by-week picture is in the cheapest weeks guide.

Children

The finder costs a child at about three-quarters of the adult package, the resort's child lift pass (free below a certain age in many resorts: under 8 in most of the Italian ones and in Ischgl, under 5 or 6 in the French, with a paying adult), 70% of adult hire, the child rate for lessons, and 60% of adult lunches. For a family of four that puts the in-resort lines at roughly £1,300 to £2,000 on top of the packages. Passo Tonale's under-8s-free rule alone is worth £180 a child a week. The family side is covered in the first ski holiday with children guide.

Six ways to cut it

1. Move the week. The week after half term costs 0.7 times the January package less than the week before. Nothing else on this page saves as much.
2. Pre-book hire through the operator or a hire chain's website: typically 20 to 30% off the shop price, and the boots are waiting when you arrive.
3. Buy the local pass if you won't use the whole linked area. A beginner in Méribel doesn't need the Three Valleys.
4. Self-cater or go half board rather than catered chalet, and pack a lunch two days out of six. Mountain restaurants are the dearest meals of the week.
5. Pick a resort where children ski free. Passo Tonale, Cervinia, Sauze d'Oulx, Bardonecchia, Selva and Ischgl for under-8s; La Plagne, Les Arcs, Soldeu and Verbier for under-6s.
6. Choose Italy, Andorra or Bulgaria for the in-resort lines: passes, hire, lessons and lunches are £150 to £550 a head less than in France or Switzerland in the same week.

Common questions