Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP that you have to plan on doing at least 2 trips in a year to make the epic pass somewhat reasonable. Skiing is outrageously expensive vacation. I think single day at vail is now $280.

You can also buy epic passes for a set number of days, price depends on where you plan to ski. I think Ikon also offers a four-day option.

Agree with PP that you have to plan on doing at least 2 trips in a year to make the epic pass somewhat reasonable. Skiing is outrageously expensive vacation. I think single day at vail is now $280.

We ended up buying a ski condo out west we rent out. We ski 3 weeks a year and go for a month in the summer and the rentals nearly cover our mortgage on a 1m condo. We buy the epic passes and have the gear. We talked about what kind of vacation property made the most sense and it was definitely skiing for this reason. It’s just astronomical to go for a week. Having the epic pass really helps cut down on costs and if for instance we don’t want to ski Breck which is our mountain, we can rent our own place out and find something comparable and go to another mountain. I think people should consider going 2 different weeks if they can in a year to take advantage of the epic passes. Like go over NYE then Spring Break or stay for the whole winter break over Xmas. The cost of the pass goes from being $150+ a day to $30 a day.

The trick is to buy an epic or ikon pass when they first go on sale. That brings down the lift ticket cost. It is also much easier to use frequent flier miles for domestic travel.

This was my trip to Italy over Christmas for 4 people with 8 days of skiing:

Flights to Geneva x4 - $3200
Transport to and from resort - $400
Lift tickets x4 - $1000
Private instructor every day (everyone is a good skier but we still do this) - $400/day so $3200
Accommodation (2 bed apartment) - $1800
Food - lunches and snacks in mountain restaurants every day, dinner 4 days in restaurants and 4 days in apartment, breakfast in apartment every day - $1500
Ski equipment rentals - $800


Total - around $12000. We could definitely have avoided the instructor splurge but we enjoy that, so if you remove that then more like $9000. We could also have chosen more luxury accommodation (or spent even less if we chose a one bed apartment) so some of this is variable.

Anonymous wrote:I thought from the title this post would be much more interesting than it was.

I was looking for this comment because so did I!

I thought from the title this post would be much more interesting than it was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, there was a recent thread with lots of responses a few weeks ago. Search for it, and people were also comparing east coast/ west coast/ Canada / Europe. Bottom line was it was expensive no matter where you go and main determinant was timing- winter break was expensive everywhere.

We're in Utah now and we skied the Alps about the same time last year. To stay "it's so much cheaper in Europe" means lift tickets. We just paid $275/day/adult for Deer Valley (anyone else would find a better deal, but this was the day-of purchase price). In the Alps, we paid about 250 euros for 5 days skiing per adult. Our half-board loading was less expensive (maybe by 1/3)? Flights were more expensive to Europe but not by much (we had better luck getting deals to Europe in the winter than Park City). We add about to 3 days in a European city when we go.
No one is saving much money skiing.

Bolded is the truth.

Anonymous wrote:Op, there was a recent thread with lots of responses a few weeks ago. Search for it, and people were also comparing east coast/ west coast/ Canada / Europe. Bottom line was it was expensive no matter where you go and main determinant was timing- winter break was expensive everywhere.

We're in Utah now and we skied the Alps about the same time last year. To stay "it's so much cheaper in Europe" means lift tickets. We just paid $275/day/adult for Deer Valley (anyone else would find a better deal, but this was the day-of purchase price). In the Alps, we paid about 250 euros for 5 days skiing per adult. Our half-board loading was less expensive (maybe by 1/3)? Flights were more expensive to Europe but not by much (we had better luck getting deals to Europe in the winter than Park City). We add about to 3 days in a European city when we go.
No one is saving much money skiing.

Here it is:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1175699.page

Op, there was a recent thread with lots of responses a few weeks ago. Search for it, and people were also comparing east coast/ west coast/ Canada / Europe. Bottom line was it was expensive no matter where you go and main determinant was timing- winter break was expensive everywhere.

Anonymous wrote:There are so many factors to consider. It would be difficult to give you a breakdown without more details like number of people and where you want to go. If you want to go west like CO, depending where you go single daily lift tickets can cost over $200/day. Group lessons start at over $100pp, private lessons way more than that. You can find lodging that can cost over $500/night or if you do timeshare or AirBnB, possibly that much for a week depending on time of year. Flights are really expensive right now so that could be another $500-800pp.

I was looking for other people’s experience, but here are my stats:
2 adults, 2 teens
Skis are owned
Lessons not needed
Comfortable hotel, but no luxury needed
7 days, 5 on slopes
Major ski resort in the west: CO, UT, etc.

The reason I am asking is that everyone tells me I’m saving so much because I ski in Europe but it costs a lot there too, in the major resorts and I don’t feel like I am getting away cheaply. Might want to ski in CO/UT next year and need to know what I am not considering in terms of expenses.

These are prices for a week trip to CO, UT or MT

Epic passes: ~$2200 for family of 4 (no military discount, combo of unlimited passes for kids and set number of days for adults)

Flights: free with southwest points

Transportation: ~$700 (either car rental or shuttle to mountain)

condo: ~$3000 (less for Big Sky or Winter Park, more for Park City area). We typically rent a one bedroom walking distance to base or next to the parking lot so we can use the parking shuttle. Sometimes for a long weekend we stay outside of Salt Lake City and drive to Park City, that makes lodging more like $200/night and we eat dinner at fast casual restaurants.

Food: About $90/day for lunches, we try to bring some snacks and hot chocolate packets in our pockets to avoid paying $5 for stuff like that. We tend to eat breakfast and dinner in condo

Lessons: We no longer do many lessons but when we do they can be crazy expensive. Our kids are the same level so we sometimes do half day privates instead of full day lessons. Those end up being as much as $900/day including tip. But now we just do one or two when we go to a new resort. When my kids were little and we paid for 4 days of full-day lessons, the cost was close to the cost of a week beach rental.

There are so many factors to consider. It would be difficult to give you a breakdown without more details like number of people and where you want to go. If you want to go west like CO, depending where you go single daily lift tickets can cost over $200/day. Group lessons start at over $100pp, private lessons way more than that. You can find lodging that can cost over $500/night or if you do timeshare or AirBnB, possibly that much for a week depending on time of year. Flights are really expensive right now so that could be another $500-800pp.

Can anyone provide a breakdown of the costs? Flight/transportation, hotel, ski rental/instructors, food/incidentals, lift pass? How many adults and kids? Which resort in the West/Canada. Thank you!!!