Short break

I am in Dublin so my prices are all in Euro.
I can get a flight for about €130 - €150
Transfer for about €50-€100 depending on numbers. If there is only two of you it is as cheap to rent a small car.
I have managed half board in a basic two stars hotel in Morzine for €60 a night.
La Tavern pub in Meribel do B€B for about €70 a night.
The best Value I ever got was B€B in Les Deux Alpes for €30 a night.
In March this year we went to Sauze and paid about €70 B€B in a hotel which was basic but did the job.
You can pay as much ad you really want but with a bit of effort you can find som bargains.

For short breaks, the trick is to maximize your time on the snow. To do this, you need to be thinking of skiing on travel days which means early morning flights out and late flights back. It also means looking for resorts with short transfer times.

I've done it several times to Soll via Munich because the flights from Dublin work out really well.

Also remember, if you are only going for 3/4 days, you do not need a huge resort and the smaller resorts are generally less expensive.

You will probably need to look at off-peak periods to get accommodation for a few days.

Hi Sm4sh,
If you want some really good practical advice, give us your best flight options from where you live. Do you have good access to budget flights to Munich,Innsbruck, Salzburg, Geneva, etc. The flight cost is the big variable, £70 return, or £300 return. Do you have any flying points?

Transfer is the next comparison variable, ie, how close and convenient to a resort would your air route get you? This could be £10 or £50.

B&b is the most predictable. You should be able to get this for €30 a night in most places.

Add dinner at €12 in Austria, and twice that in France.

That is the process I use.

I arrived back from Zermatt, one Sunday. The next day, I just said to my OH, I NEED to go and get the last 4 days skiing in Austria. Next day I was on the plane. Easyjet, train, hitched a ride up the mountain road, then €26 b&b. You can make it happen.

sm4sh wrote:Flights transfers and hotel. Im hoping. does that sound realistic or not? Lift pass and ski hire ill look into after.

You could do 3 nights for just over £400 including everything, depending on how much you had to pay for flights, with the people I'm staying with in a few days.

Their price list says 3 nights in their chalet les Melezes in Tignes les Boisses from Monday 6th January is £289. This includes 3 days lift pass and transfers from Geneva and half-board. Ski hire is extra at around 50 euros for skis and boots for 3 days and they hire them in the chalet. You get 3 full days ski-ing.
All you have to pay extra is flights to and from Geneva (and travel insurance) and you should be able to get those for £100 return per person.

http://mountainsunltd.com/short_breaks/view/tignes-chalet-hotel-les-melezes

It is whether you can get the hotels to buy into booking a room for three days, they will normally hold out for a seven day booking and open up to a three dayer last minute 8)

Unless time is important - ie: can only take a couple of days of work over the weekend. I would be looking at a great deal on a week somewhere.
Early booking offers or take a last minute deal having organised the time away.

I should be able to take any time off work. So thats not a problem. I was looking last night but i found it gets very over overwhelming with all the different resorts. Also found when I did find somewhere cheapish the lift passes where quite expensive.

In regards to flying. Im from Stoke so Manchester, Birmingham, east middland are all quite easy to get to. Theres also Liverpool too.

That sounds like a good deal you have got there Ally.

Just had a quick look at flights to Geneva, They all seem to be morning flights.