1 week out west could be $5k or 30K if you are rich rich.

I would say minimum for a family of 4, 5-6K not including lift tickets or gear rental. We bring our own gear. We get Epic passes and ski locally a lot so they aren't a one week use. We have gone to Breck the last 3 years (March 2021, First week of April 2022 & 2023).

Flights- we like Southwest for free checked bags/skis. Prices $400-600 per person.

lodging 1 week- I book early and have gotten great deals 1200-1800. Stay in ski in/out- Trails End (2021, 2023) Cedars 2022. Can also save by staying in Frisco or Silverthorne- good option if you want to check out other resorts. When you go makes a hug difference too. Conditions are great and lodging is a lot less first week in April.

Rental Car- we love Turo. AWD SUV (honda pilot) $600, picked lodging rentals that included free parking.

Groceries- $300- Could pick up further from mountain on drive from Denver. Cook 3 meals in, eat lunch in rental except on days we went to other mountains

Dining out- $800- Can vary. In 2023 we spent a lot more dining out because we went to Keystone and vail for a day so at the crazy expensive mountain food.

Random/option things- lessons, other activities (we went snowmobiling one year $600).

3 trips last year. One trip was my son and I and the third trip was me on a buddy trip.

All in, airfare, lodging, IKON passes, food, car etc. was $5700 total. So $1900 per person for 5-6 days out West per person.

Have been taking trips for decades. Airfare is up, food is up, lift tix cost forces you into a EPIC or IKON or maybe both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are drastically understating the Food cost. No one is feeding a family of 4-5 people, especially with kids or teens, 3 meals a day plus snacks on $500 for a week. You’re spending at least about double that.

+1
Even getting groceries costs 20-25% more than at home!

But if you're only budgeting for 20% more, $500 is plenty. That would mean the equivalent of a $2500 budget at home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Breckenridge - April 2023 - $4500. We have military Epic Passes so that brings the cost down a lot. We get a condo (walking distance to slopes) and eat a lot of meals at condo.

Wow…cheap. How many in your group? For us to fly to Denver, for family of four, it’s about $2,800 ($750 for each RT fare). I don’t think we could do Break for less than $7500.

Two adults, one teen - this year is projected to be around $5100 because FCPS’s break is a week earlier and the condo price is higher. Our epics are somewhere around $159/season. The military price can’t be beat.

Really?!?! Where is that advertised? I have to see it to believe it. We have a condo at Breck and get the Epic Breck Local pass. This year it was $649 for an adult. We're on auto renew, so we're guaranteed the lowest price. We still manage to spend about 4k/trip with $0 for lodging and the adults own their own gear. We rent gear for 2 kids and the youngest does a few days of ski school. We eat most meals in the condo, a couple lunches on the hill, and maybe one dinner out. Yesterday lunch on the hill for 3 of us was $90! It was gyros that weren't hot enough, a bowl of chili, and cokes, nothing fancy. Coming back to the condo today for lunch. I am also baffled by the folks that spend $2500 for a week of lodging. I think to rent our place it's closer to $6k/wk, depending on the week (ski in/ski out).

I only spend about $2500 for lodging. To save money we often spend the first and/or last night at a motel near the airport. We also ski at places with cheaper lodging but great skiing (big sky, winter Park) and stay in a small one bedroom for a family of 4. We also are fine taking a short shuttle rode to the base if needed now that our kids are older.

Anonymous wrote:People are drastically understating the Food cost. No one is feeding a family of 4-5 people, especially with kids or teens, 3 meals a day plus snacks on $500 for a week. You’re spending at least about double that.

+1
Even getting groceries costs 20-25% more than at home!

Anonymous wrote:People are drastically understating the Food cost. No one is feeding a family of 4-5 people, especially with kids or teens, 3 meals a day plus snacks on $500 for a week. You’re spending at least about double that.

I assume it's $500 on top of what you'd spend if you were home?

When we go skiing we get a condo, and I cook there, because I love cooking and have bum knees so it's how I amuse myself. We find that food prices are a little higher, and we buy more luxury ingredients because it's vacation, and everyone eats more because of all the exercise. But food isn't a huge expense compared to air fare, lodging, lift tickets, etc . . .

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Breckenridge - April 2023 - $4500. We have military Epic Passes so that brings the cost down a lot. We get a condo (walking distance to slopes) and eat a lot of meals at condo.

Wow…cheap. How many in your group? For us to fly to Denver, for family of four, it’s about $2,800 ($750 for each RT fare). I don’t think we could do Break for less than $7500.

Two adults, one teen - this year is projected to be around $5100 because FCPS’s break is a week earlier and the condo price is higher. Our epics are somewhere around $159/season. The military price can’t be beat.

Really?!?! Where is that advertised? I have to see it to believe it. We have a condo at Breck and get the Epic Breck Local pass. This year it was $649 for an adult. We're on auto renew, so we're guaranteed the lowest price. We still manage to spend about 4k/trip with $0 for lodging and the adults own their own gear. We rent gear for 2 kids and the youngest does a few days of ski school. We eat most meals in the condo, a couple lunches on the hill, and maybe one dinner out. Yesterday lunch on the hill for 3 of us was $90! It was gyros that weren't hot enough, a bowl of chili, and cokes, nothing fancy. Coming back to the condo today for lunch. I am also baffled by the folks that spend $2500 for a week of lodging. I think to rent our place it's closer to $6k/wk, depending on the week (ski in/ski out).

Anonymous wrote:People are drastically understating the Food cost. No one is feeding a family of 4-5 people, especially with kids or teens, 3 meals a day plus snacks on $500 for a week. You’re spending at least about double that.

That stuck out to me too

People are drastically understating the Food cost. No one is feeding a family of 4-5 people, especially with kids or teens, 3 meals a day plus snacks on $500 for a week. You’re spending at least about double that.

Just did 6 nights in Steamboat.
2200 airfare for 5
4200 lodging
Ikon passes
700 car
Food - we ate in - 500

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Breckenridge - April 2023 - $4500. We have military Epic Passes so that brings the cost down a lot. We get a condo (walking distance to slopes) and eat a lot of meals at condo.

Wow…cheap. How many in your group? For us to fly to Denver, for family of four, it’s about $2,800 ($750 for each RT fare). I don’t think we could do Break for less than $7500.

You need to shop better for airfare and plan ahead!
We were just in Breck Dec 16-24 and tickets were $291 on frontier. We paid an extra $40 each way in baggage fees since it’s frontier so $371. Spring break is far cheaper.
Car rental was $750 for a large four wheel SUV.
Lodging was a ski in ski out 4 bedroom for just under $9K.
Of the Colorado resorts, I think Breck is far more reasonable for ski-in and ski out accommodations.

I’m not above saving a dollar, but I won’t fly Frontier. For Denver, it’s United or Southwest for me.

We did Breck last winter and got flights on United for $350 in March. United direct is the way to go but if you have to go over spring break, it’s going to be more. Other times it’s usually in the 300’s.

We are going to Whistler over break. Family of 3

Flights: $2100
Condo in village: $2300
Shuttle RT: $150
Epic pass: $1560 for 2 adults and 1 child (we always buy early for lowest rate)
Food: will be cooking in and eating out and I’m estimating $500

So basically 7k.

Above was a late booking 2 months ago so if we had planned earlier, might have been able to get flight prices down a little to $1500.

But I would say there is no way you can go out west for a week for less than 6k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to fly to Manchester NH and ski for a couple days at Waterville Valley. That is much cheaper than going out west and better than local skiing.

How much time and money do you really save though over going out west?

What's great about skiing in New England is that a car full of people ends up being MUCH cheaper than 5 or 6 plane tickets.

it was a combo of saving money and time. We would leave early Monday morning, ski most of Monday, ski Tuesday and take an 8pm flight back home Tues night. That way we only paid for one night of a hotel and two days of car rental, got cheap mid-week lift tickets (the ticket price system is different now that most mountains are on Epic or Ikon). Doing an equivalent thing in Utah would cost a lot more.

That's an ambitious two days. Respect.

Could do a similar thing with numerous VT mountains. BTV to Bolton Valley is 36 minutes.

Might be more helpful to include data that indicates time of year too—major holidays and long weekends will be more $$ than other times of year.

We just did a Sat to Sat trip to Colorado (week before X-Mas) family of 4 that ended up totaling around 15k for

RT flights on Southwest
6 nights in condo walking distance from ski lifts
rentals for all 4 of us
lift tickets (5 day passes)
4 days of ski school for 2 kids
airport transports
food

also significant to note that I booked the trip in July

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to fly to Manchester NH and ski for a couple days at Waterville Valley. That is much cheaper than going out west and better than local skiing.

How much time and money do you really save though over going out west?

What's great about skiing in New England is that a car full of people ends up being MUCH cheaper than 5 or 6 plane tickets.

it was a combo of saving money and time. We would leave early Monday morning, ski most of Monday, ski Tuesday and take an 8pm flight back home Tues night. That way we only paid for one night of a hotel and two days of car rental, got cheap mid-week lift tickets (the ticket price system is different now that most mountains are on Epic or Ikon). Doing an equivalent thing in Utah would cost a lot more.