How much money did you spend on ski vacation?

[techcrium]

When I say a "vacation" I meant either flying or driving 8+ hours to a destination that is away from your regular ski location

Where did you go?
How many in your party?
How many days? Lift ticket costs? Food? Drinks?
Rent or lugged gear?

I will start: 28 yr old went to Banff with a group of 4 total
We scored a nice flight deal $265 CAD
Spent 7 nights there and avg hotel $130 CAD/4 people
Food, we mostly bought from grocery store $500 CAD / 4 people
Lift Tickets: Ikon Pass so either $0 or $900 CAD depending on how you look at it
Car Rental: $400 for SUV
Gear: We fit 2 boards & 2 skis + luggage. The SUV was pretty tight at the back!
Checked Bag: $30 x2 per person

Total cost per person: $750 or $1650 CAD

We mostly skied and relaxed in our room due to COVID. I am sure on a normal year, this vacation would be much more expensive from going out to bars and such...

 

[chilehed]

A few years ago I flew Detroit to SLC ~$360 US.
Four nights at the Camelot Hostel ~$136
4WD SUV rental at Rugged Rental ~$450
Ate cheap: the burrito stand down the street, a great ramen place, cooked grocery store food at the hostel kitchen... I don't see how that should get included in the cost of the trip.
I schleped my own gear, and met some family who'd come out from the East coast.
Skied at PCMR because I had an Epic pass, so that gets rolled into the 30 days I was out that season.

As I recall it ended up at around $1k for the trip, and I got in over 65,000 feet in.

I ought to look into a trip to CA sometime.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Good deal! What kind of hotel/condo did you have? Did it have a kitchen/kitchenette? Were you in Banff or Canmore?

 

[pchewn]

When I'm on vacation I don't want to know how much money I'm spending. The point of vacation is to get away from real world problems, like money.

 

[jmeb]

When I'm on vacation I don't want to know how much money I'm spending. The point of vacation is to get away from real world problems, like money.

That's a nice idea. The ideal of a vacation. But it is not a reasonable goal for many of us. Especially in times like these.

My last "trip" was a 6hr drive. Two of us went to Silverton and Purgatory.
- Stayed with a friend for 3 nights in Silverton (cost: about $100 in good wine and steaks).
- Stayed one night in a hotel ($140)
- Skied two days at silverton using buy-one-get-one guided days ($340 for both of us over two days), skied one day in the backcountry (free) and two days at Purgatory (free with our bonus days from season passes.)
- Gas ~$100 total.
- Food -- ate decently, probably 200 each on food/drink.
Total: A bit under $600 a pop.

Previous trip was solo -- flight to Switzerland. Two weeks of skiing, including a guided hut trip. Total trip cost (flight, lodging, ski passes, transport, guided trip, food, booze) was $3,115.

 

[Mike Rogers]

We mostly skied and relaxed in our room due to COVID. I am sure on a normal year, this vacation would be much more expensive from going out to bars and such...

Hotels are pretty cheap in Banff/Louise right now too.

 

[Errand Wolfe]

The term "vacation" is throwing me off. I live within sight of Winter Park, regularly travel hundreds or thousands of miles to ski new resorts but I haven't been on a ski vacation since I lived in Indiana and went to Jackson Hole. I think that was my only true "ski vacation".

There is a bumper sticker slogan up here "my life is better than your vacation" so I guess I'm kinda in vacation/real world limbo all the time?

 

[Ogg]

I did a solo SLC trip a couple seasons ago.
Package deal: 6 days lodging with a kitchen, with direct flights from NYC was ~$750
Rental SUV was ~$300
Airport parking was ~$100
Ikon base pass that I also used in VT. Worked out to $43/day x 6 = $258
I'm not going to count food because I didn't spend any more than I would have at home.
So about $1500 for a 6 day trip.
Not terrible considering I got a couple of powder days but I've got to find ways to make this sport cheaper.

 

[Bad Bob]

Last was 2 winters ago to South Eastern Idaho for 9 months. played golf 4 times a week till it snowed and rode bike, then skied 30 days once the snow fell. Still got to play some golf too.
Lodging was $750/ month for a nice fully setup and furnished mother-in-laws apartment. 6 days scattered through the winter at SV, will never know the $ with their walk up pass system the other 3 areas less than $25/day (being old has advantages). Food and entertainment was pretty darned cheap. Drove my own SUV, this is about 750 miles from home.
Total cost: they paid me a quite a bit. (Oh yeah had to work 5 days a week, my choice of days).
Have really pretty much skied local for the last 50 years, but local was all over the place for 12 of them.

 

[Wade]

With 2 kids who love ski school, I don't really want to think about the answer to this question.

Before getting to flights, accommodation, meals, transport etc.; ski instruction including tips for our Big Sky trip was somewhere in the $4.5K range for 5 days of ski school each for my son and daughter, and 2 days with a guide / instructor for my wife and me (my son also joined us on one of those days).

 

[lonewolf210]

What's the goal of this thread?

My last trip was a trip to Japan with my friend that we did for our 30th birthdays. That was very expensive (though I did manage to use reward points for the flight). I've also done trips where I slept on a friend of friend's couch or in my truck where basically my only cost was getting there.

So are we trying to humble brag about how much we spend on skiing, give tips on how to save money, an idea of what the average cost is or...

 

[Sibhusky]

The term "vacation" is throwing me off. I live within sight of Winter Park, regularly travel hundreds or thousands of miles to ski new resorts but I haven't been on a ski vacation since I lived in Indiana and went to Jackson Hole. I think that was my only true "ski vacation".

There is a bumper sticker slogan up here "my life is better than your vacation" so I guess I'm kinda in vacation/real world limbo all the time?

Ditto. Haven't taken a ski "vacation" since I moved here in 2003. No idea what it cost back then. Traveled 2003-2005 around for ski races, but not since. Annual 4 month "Vacation" now costs $1000 for pass + locker.

 

[scott43]

Depends...I've spent upwards of $5k for a week. I guess it depends on the "experience" I'm looking for. Now with kids, that experience is a whole lot different!

 

[Crank]

Some of our ski vacations are budget and some are somewhat luxurious. March 2019 we went with our ski club to Val d'Isere about $2,600 each for the week plus approx. $200 each for 2 days of guided skiing, 1 off piste and 1 on.

Contrast that with Jackson Hole last season where we stayed at the Antler Inn for about $100 per night, used airline miles and our Ikon passes. Out of pocket was probably 1k for the week for 2 of us including xc rentals for a day.

 

[dovski]

So I am a bit of a bargain hunter when it comes to family ski vacations, though this year is definite challenge.
We have an April vacation planned for Banff - family of 5
$899 for Mountain collective passes which give us 3 days at Sunshine, 2 at Lake Louise and 1 at Norquway. There is also the stretch goal of 2 at Revelstoke
$2974 for 7 nights at the Mouse Hotel in Banff for 2 bedroom rooftop suite (alternate Hotel option at the Buffalo Mountain Lodge is much cheaper but location is not as good and suite only has 1 bedroom)
$400 for Rental car
Flights are covered with points
Breakfast is included with hotel but will budget about $1000 for meals for the family while in Banff

Pre-covid our trips to Sun Peaks were much less expensive unfortunately not an option this year.

 

[Dave Marshak]

Vacation spending is totally confidential around here. The budget auditor has been trying to figure it out for years, but I'm not telling.

dm

 

[techcrium]

Good deal! What kind of hotel/condo did you have? Did it have a kitchen/kitchenette? Were you in Banff or Canmore?

lol no kitchen but there was a fridge/microwave so we bought microwavables and sandwiches along with food that could be refrigerated. I had a few days in Banff and final 2 days in Canmore

 

[techcrium]

What's the goal of this thread?

My last trip was a trip to Japan with my friend that we did for our 30th birthdays. That was very expensive (though I did manage to use reward points for the flight). I've also done trips where I slept on a friend of friend's couch or in my truck where basically my only cost was getting there.

So are we trying to humble brag about how much we spend on skiing, give tips on how to save money, an idea of what the average cost is or...

The goal of this thread is to share how much money you spent on a ski vacation so someone looking to book a ski vacation has a decent idea of specific numbers. (e.g. well JFK to ASP cost me $500 direct with American Airlines but includes 1 free checked sports luggage or lift tickets were $200 for 2 days because I bought it from costco). Stuff like that

I tried to Google it but it pulls up very general numbers.

If you want to brag either saving or spending, that is completely fine as well.

 

[dovski]

The goal of this thread is to share how much money you spent on a ski vacation so someone looking to book a ski vacation has a decent idea of specific numbers. (e.g. well JFK to ASP cost me $500 direct with American Airlines but includes 1 free checked sports luggage or lift tickets were $200 for 2 days because I bought it from costco). Stuff like that

I tried to Google it but it pulls up very general numbers.

If you want to brag either saving or spending, that is completely fine as well.

IN that case planning is key as if you plan correctly you can buy multi resort passes that save you a ton on lift tickets. I also find that booking early is key so that you can get the best possible deals on hotels and vacation rentals. Where possible we like to book something with a full kitchen and private hot tub as that makes for a nice relaxed family vacation.

That said there really is not such thing as a cheap ski vacation for a family of five there are just varying levels of cost. As a rule of thumb I find ski vacations in Canada much more affordable than ski vacations in the US, though with covid this is now a challenge. I also found my one trip to Europe was somewhat reasonable if you did not count the cost of getting there ... though I was already there for work That said I had the choice of a 250 Euro a night hotel room near the gondola in Verbier or 60,000 Euro a night for Richard Branson's ski villa there so clearly two completely different possible budgets for the same two day ski trip Much of this comes down to personal preference and budget limitations. Planning in advance can help mitigate some of these costs.

 

[Doug Briggs]

My last ski vacations were nearly 25 years ago. They cost about $1K per week. They were based on a week long tour organized by a local ski and bike shop and extended to 2 and 3 weeks by rearranging flights and travelling by train (and boat for one of them) to other places nearby. The tour accommodations were middle of the road, the extra-tour accommodations were closer to basic but in Morocco they were relatively plush despite being quite affordable, but I think that is just the nature of the place.

Travelling for skiing. Those were the days. Living in a ski town, travelling for skiing has become less of a need and also more challenging financially; mostly I don't have a backup for myself in my IT business.