Ski holidays on a budget

There is a general and collective groan when it comes to talking about skiing holidays: “They are expensive.” Many of us just accept that we will blow around £1,000 for a week of skiing in Europe but if you’re a couple or a family, the total cost can knock a big dent into your annual income.

Fortunately there are ways to keep the cost of a skiing holiday down. If you have flexibility on the times that you can go on holiday and you’re willing to look at a range of resorts, you could easily knock hundreds of pounds off the cost of a week on the slopes.

Top tips for cut-price ski holidays

Buy ski wear in the sales: Many ski shops have pre-season or end of season sales. This is the best time to bag a bargain on your ski wear.

Avoid school holidays: The price of a ski holiday suddenly goes up as soon as the UK schools are on holiday. So this means that the weeks of Christmas, New Year, February half-term and Easter are pricier than “school term” weeks.  If you do not have children, the non-holiday weeks are the ones to book.

School holiday deals: If you have kids – and a ski holiday is a great family trip – book your vacation as early as possible and take advantage of “kids go fee” incentives, such as those from Crystal Ski.

Go by train: A train journey to Europe’s mountains – if you live in England – can save money and will also take you much closer to the slopes so you will cut out the need for costly transfers from airports. There are many more train services to the Alps on offer these days.

Book it all yourself: It might be more hassle to book the flights or train/transfers/accommodation and lift passes separately but you could also bag yourself a cut-price holiday by doing so.

Sign up to ski holiday email alerts: As the ski season approaches you will find that many ski holiday companies are looking to fill up their hotels and chalets. They will send out last-minute deals by email. If you are able to take up last-minute holidays you could grab yourself a great bargain.

Budget conscious resorts: Resorts such as Courcheval 1300, La Tania, Les Menuires in the Alps might not be the hottest choice for the rich and famous, but they offer budget priced accommodation that is still close to great skiing. We know these resorts are great value because we have stayed at them.

Stay and drive: Booking accommodation that is half an hour back down the valley can save a lot of money. Many of these villages also have bus connections to the main resorts but if not, consider hiring a car for the week. What you save on accommodation will easily allow for car hire and we bet you’ll still have money left over for a few Vin Chauds each day.

Early or late season: Take a chance and head to the slopes at the start or end of the ski season in Europe. Make sure you book a high resort or one that is more snow-sure (eg go for a resort with a glacier and snow-making) and you’ll still enjoy a week of great skiing but at a time when prices are far lower.

Attack Of La Nina - Ski Video

Attack Of La Nina - Ski Video

GB hope for historic snowsport Winter Olympics

Great Britain's freestyle snowsports team are targeting up to three medals at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Considering team GB has never won a single Olympic medal on the snow it is an astonishing claim.

But Pat Sharples, team GB head coach, is confident recent results in slopestyle, an event making its Games debut in Russia, suggests they can make history.

“I skied for four years without getting on the snow, I loved it and it was what I needed”

Sharples' confidence is backed up by the performances of Billy Morgan and James Woods. Woods. Morgan was victorious at the London Freeze big air event last weekend. Woods won a World Cup event in September, the first British man to do so.

Throw into the mix snowboard cross rider Zoe Gillings, who has had seven World Cup podiums, including a win and snowboarder Jenny Jones, who has three slopestyle X Games golds to her name, and you can understand why Sharples has made the claim.

After disappointing performances at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 UK Sport removed funding for all skiing and snowboarding athletes.

However after a string of top results in world-class events, it has agreed to provide £584,300 worth of support for freestyle skiing and snowboarding through to 2013.

Although grateful for the financial assistance, skiing and snowboarding is still the poorest funded of all the British Summer and Winter Olympic sports, and alpine skiing receives no help at all.

"We don't always have to be on the slope and a lot of the guys have come through learning on dry slopes and indoor centres," Sharples told BBC Sport.

"They have become so good on the rails and boxes because in these artificial centres they're playing around on them and learning new tricks constantly.

Woods added: "I skied for four years without getting on the snow, I loved it and it was what I needed."

"In Britain we're deprived of the mountains and the skiing mentality, it's not a way of life and it's very much considered what you do when you're loaded.

"I've had jobs back in Sheffield and some of the guys even now are working all through the summer so they can get a month away and strive for the Olympics.

"Everyone on our team, we've done our fair share of sleeping on floors and and not eating so much so we can afford the lift pass," said Woods. "I'm not telling a sob story - it's fantastic because it shows the passion and how much we all want it."

GB freestyle funded athletes:

Podium squad:

•Jenny Jones (snowboard slopestyle)

•Zoe Gillings (snowboard X)

•James Woods (ski slopestyle)

Development squad:

•Aimee Fuller (snowboard slopestyle)

•Ben Kilner (snowboard half-pipe)

•Billy Morgan (snowboard slopestyle)

•Jamie Nicholls (snowboard slopestyle)
•Katie Summerhayes (ski slopestyle)