First the bad news. The ski brochures that are currently dropping through letterboxes around the country contain some nasty shocks. Prices have shot up this winter – often by 20% in just 12 months. Add to that the fact that the pound is sinking back towards parity against the euro – ramping up the cost of lift passes, equipment hire and eating on the slopes – and you begin to wonder if you can afford to go skiing at all.
The tour operators insist they have to raise prices. Their contracts with hotels, chalets, food suppliers and lift companies are all in euros, but they charge clients in pounds, so the collapse in sterling (from €1.4 to the pound in October 2007 to €1.05 now) has slashed their incomes. "Nobody in the ski business made money last year, at the very best they might have broken even," said one managing director. "We got into the industry because we loved skiing and wanted to arrange holidays, now we just spend all day checking currency fluctuations. This year no one is taking any chances."
You might think tour firms are always pleading poverty, were it not for the fact that some companies have already gone under. Descent, the most luxurious chalet company of all, held a lavish champagne lunch for staff and journalists in July to launch its 2009/10 season, but collapsed in August with debts of £1.5m. Rumours continue to circulate about other firms being close to the edge.
So brochure prices are up by hundreds of pounds, but that's just the start of it. Last year many skiers actually paid much less than the brochure prices. The recession meant that the numbers going on ski holidays fell by 13% last winter, leaving tour operators with hundreds of empty beds to sell off at bargain prices. This winter, they are reducing the number of beds on offer, hoping to match supply with demand.
Crystal, Britain's biggest ski company, has cut back the number of chalets on offer by 40%. TUI, the parent company of Crystal, Thomson and First Choice, has dropped 14 resorts from this year's ski brochures, while Kuoni has dropped Italy, Austria and France altogether and Inghams has axed its Japan programme. If they have got their forecasts right, last-minute deals will be thin on the ground this year.
The good news? Well, if you know where to look, and how to book, it is still possible to find a reasonably priced ski trip. There are – whisper it – even some bargains to be found. Start with the following tips.
1. Cheap dates
A far bigger factor in saving money is not where but when you go. For example, in January Inghams (020 8780 4447; inghams.co.uk) offers a week's stay in Mottaret, just up the hill from Méribel, France, from as little as £314, self-catering (all prices in this article include flights and transfers unless stated). The same trip to the same apartment during the February half term (the week beginning 14 February) would cost more than two and a half times that sum: £812.
"The cheapest week in the brochures is the second week in January [9/10 January 2010]," says Nick Morgan, managing director of Le Ski (01484 548996; leski.com). "It's always a great time to ski as all the festivities are over, the crowds go back to work and leave you the empty pistes to cruise."
Also good value are the weeks commencing 13 December, 10, 17, 24 and 31 January, and 7 February. Departing 9 January, Inghams has a week in Austria from £305 half-board and Directski (0800 587 0945; directski.com) has a week self-catering in Val d'Isère from £259 (from Gatwick; £269 from Manchester). You might find some good "hangover deals", departing 1 or 2 January. Rocket Ski (01273 810 777; rocketski.com) has a week in Saalbach, Austria, departing 2 January and including flights and transfers from just £349.
2. Head west
Surprisingly, this year might be the time to make that big trip across the pond. While prices in Europe have shot up, in the US and Canada they have stayed level, or even gone down. "It's a question of supply and demand," says Richard Rice, managing director of Ski Safari. "In Europe a lot of operators got their fingers burned last winter and so cut their capacity significantly. In the US, there are very few chalets, it's almost all hotels – so supply is the same but demand has fallen significantly. Resorts there rely on the domestic market, which has been hit hard by the recession."
Whereas local skiers book last minute and for short breaks, British skiers book their long-haul trips early and for at least a full week; this makes them very attractive to hotels, airlines and resorts, which are offering good deals as a result. Sterling has fallen against the dollar but the fall is not as steep as against the euro.
This year's Crystal brochure (0871 231 2256; crystalski.co.uk) has a week at the Sundance Inn, Jackson Hole, departing 30 January, for £659 – £6 less than last year. Ski Safari (01273 224 060; skisafari.com) offers 10 nights in Banff from £749. Canadian Affair (020 7616 9911; canadianaffair.com) has a week in Lake Louise, from £569, while Skiworld (0844 4930 431; skiworld.ltd.uk) offers a week in Breckenridge, Colorado, from £565.
Meanwhile, Whistler in Canada is hosting the Winter Olympics in February, and hotels are offering big discounts for December and January to attract skiers who might fear disturbance from the preparations (though in fact building work is already complete). Ski Safari has £1,010 off a 10-day trip to the five-star Fairmont Chateau, making it £1,439.
3. Added extras
If you can go during the low season, ski companies offer all sorts of added extras to sweeten the deal. Crystal is offering packages including lift pass and ski hire (and flights, accommodation and transfers), starting at £479 self-catering (La Plagne), or £599 half-board (Alpe d'Huez) – not bad when you consider the Alpe d'Huez lift pass alone costs €210 (£190). Luxury operator Scott Dunn (020 8682 5050; scottdunn.com) is offering free lift pass, guiding or lessons, and two free lunches, for low season weeks. The Alpine Club (00 33 6 30 22 62 15; thealpineclub.co.uk) is offering two-for-one deals on Three Valleys lift passes for anyone travelling in January, while Crystal Finest (0871 971 0364; crystalfinest.co.uk) is offering free lift pass and ski hire for some Chamonix hotels for departures on 19 December.
4. Avoid France
One good thing to come out of this winter's price hikes is that British skiers might stop following the herd to the same old French resorts, where prices have risen steeply in recent years. One skier told Escape that the same apartment for four in Les Menuires, for the same week of the year, had risen from £970 in 2007, to £1,400 last season, and £1,770 for the coming winter. The Three Valleys lift pass (covering Courchevel, Méribel and Val Thorens) costs €232 for six days, while six days in Val d'Isère is €218. In its survey of living costs in popular resorts, the guidebook Where to Ski and Snowboard found Austria and Italy dramatically cheaper than Switzerland and France. At the cheapest Alpine resort, Scheffau in Austria, the bill for the same basket of food, drink and lift pass cost less than half that in Courchevel.
5. Lesser known resorts
If you do stay in France or Switzerland, you can avoid the worst excesses by heading away from the well trodden path. Peak Retreats (0844 576 0123; peakretreats.co.uk) specialises in lesser known resorts, and has some great deals – a week in Saint Jean d'Arves, part of France's Sybelles area, costs from £97 self-catering, while a week in Samoëns is from £135 and £124 in Termignon, all including Eurotunnel crossings. Head further east for incredible deals – Mountain Paradise (0161 408 8988; mountainparadise.co.uk) has a week at Tatranska Lomnica in Slovakia's Tatras mountains from £399, including flights, B&B and lift pass.
6. Back-door retreats
The cheap way to ski in the most famous resorts is to stay in a nearby village that has a lift connecting to the same pistes as its illustrious neighbour. New lifts have opened up more of these back-door resorts, and many people prefer the authentic atmosphere they offer. Ted Bentley Chalet Holidays (01934 820 854; tedbentley.co.uk) has a week in a luxury chalet in Nendaz, Switzerland, part of the same ski area as Verbier, from £499, including half-board, with afternoon tea plus wine and transfers, but not flights. Ski Peak (01428 608070; skipeak.com) offers half-price lift passes for January departures, and prices from £618 including flights, transfers and half-board, to Vaujany, a charming village linked by lift to Alpe d'Huez. Pfunds, Austria, gives you access to Ischgl, and four nights, with breakfast and four-day ski pass, costs from €233 (without flights), staying at the Haus Schuchter (00 43 676 411 66 44; haus-schuchter.at). Brides Les Bains is the poor relation in the Three Valleys area, but it really can be cheap: Ski Weekends (0844 406 0600; skiweekends.com) has a week from £199 half-board, though that is by coach.
7. Beyond the Eurozone
As skiers search further afield for a bargain, the big winners this season could be Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Serbia and Macedonia. None have resorts as large or slick as those in western Europe, and have so far been recommended only for novice skiers. However, the first experts are now exploring the east, realising that if you ski mainly off-piste, it doesn't matter what quality they are. Balkan Holidays (0845 130 1114; balkanholidays.co.uk) offers ski packages to Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. The biggest saving is when you get there – a week's lift pass in Kopaonik, Serbia, costs £80; in Poiana Brasov, Romania, it's £60. Inghams (as before) has "all-inclusive" weeks in Poiana Brasov from £349, including three-star hotel accommodation, flights and transfers, or £443 to include lift pass, ski hire and lessons.
8. Self-cater and self-drive
Interhome (020 8780 6633; interhome.co.uk) is a rental agency for private landlords with a huge range of chalets and apartments in the Alps. There are some cracking properties, including wooden chalets high above the bustle of the resorts. Alternatively, Erna Low (0845 863 0525; ernalow.co.uk) offers packages of self-catering and ferry or Eurotunnel crossing, and has some very low prices – a week for six sharing an apartment in Vaujany in January costs £76 per person, including Eurotunnel crossing.
Driving yourself will save money and take you to less well-known destinations. For example, the drive from Calais to Chamonix is 560 miles and takes about nine hours. Norfolkline (0844 847 5025; norfolkline.com) has returns from £38 for a car and four passengers, travelling from Dover to Dunkirk. Details of all ferry services are at sailanddrive.com.
9. Book direct
Tourist boards, especially in Austria, increasingly offer to book your accommodation direct. St Anton, for example, has hundreds of options bookable on its website, stantonamarlberg.com, or by calling 00 43 5446 22690. Many are pensions and B&Bs that are extremely cheap. Some tourist boards also arrange transfer buses to meet budget airline flights.
Alternatively, rental sites such as HomeAway (homeaway.co.uk) act as a billboard for landlords with properties to rent. Chalet La Moraine, for example, a stunning property in the Chamonix Valley, sleeps 10, and costs from €2,500 per week (homeaway.co.uk/p67149).
10. Fly wise
With the euro exchange rate raising the cost of hiring skis, it makes more sense than ever to take equipment with you from the UK. However, from Wednesday, British Airways will charge to transport sports equipment, and a pair of skis or a board will cost at least £56 return (the maximum length is now 190cm, excluding some freeride skis). Ryanair charges £60 return for online bookings, £80 if paid at the airport. So, three cheers for Swiss, which continues to carry skis without a charge, and BMIBaby, which also carries them free, although "for a limited time only".
