Package ski holidays are easy — you pay one company, they sort everything, and you pay a premium for that convenience. Booking everything yourself can seem daunting. There is a lot to organise, an overwhelming number of different options and the risk of costing you extra if you get it wrong.
But! Booking each piece yourself and making smart choices you can genuinely save thousands on a family trip – for a family of 5 on a week’s holiday, we’ve saved over £1,000 just by making one of the following changes – but only if you do it in the right order.
The biggest price gap tends to show up in accommodation. Using a Airbnb or booking.com typically saves ~£500 and the selection is usually much better. But lift pass savings, lesson selection, travel options also give you opportunities to save serious money over the package options.
Here’s the order that actually works, and why, along with links to more detailed breakdowns of the options.
- Choose when to go
Unless you’re going to take your kids out of school, there are only 3 real options for skiing with kids: Christmas, February half term and Easter. The overwhelminglyost popular is February in order to get the best chances of snow, but our family almost always skis during the Easter break, saving hundreds on accomodation and travel costs, and we’ve not had to ski over grass yet!
Skiing in Easter for your first family trip (and how to ensure snow in April!)
2. Pick your location first
Before anything else, decide on the resort or region. This drives every other decision — flight options, accommodation prices, and ski school availability all vary hugely resort to resort.For families, prioritize resorts known for strong ski school programs and easy “green run” access rather than the biggest terrain — a resort that’s brilliant for experienced skiers can be a nightmare for a first-timer’s kid.
Related: Best Family-Friendly Ski Resorts for Beginners
2. Find accommodation before you book travel
Once you know the resort, sort accommodation next — not flights. Family-friendly, ski-in/ski-out or close-to-lift accommodation gets booked up fastest, especially over school holiday weeks, and prices climb the closer you get to the date. Locking this in early also tells you which airport actually makes sense, which you need before booking travel.
Look at self-catered apartments or chalets over hotels for a family of more than 2-3 — you’ll save significantly on meals, and having a kitchen for breakfast and snacks cuts costs fast over a week.
Related: Self-Catered vs Chalet: What’s Actually Worth It for Families
3. Decide your travel route
With accommodation confirmed, work out how you’re getting there. This usually means comparing:
Fly + transfer: often faster, but transfer costs and timing (early flights + long transfers = exhausted kids) need factoring in.
Drive: more flexible with luggage (ski gear takes up a lot of room) and no transfer needed, but a longer travel day.
Train: increasingly good options to major ski regions, and often the easiest with kids — no security queues, more room to move around.
Book flights or trains as early as you reasonably can once dates are locked — ski season flights to alpine airports get expensive fast as the date approaches.
Related: Fly, Drive, or Train: How to Choose for a Family Ski Trip
4. Book ski school before lift passes or rental
This is the step most families do too late. Ski school spots for young kids fill up weeks or even months in advance for popular resorts and peak weeks — book this before anything else gear-related, not as an afterthought once you arrive.
Book directly with the resort’s ski school (or a reputable independent one) rather than through a package — this is often one of the biggest sources of savings, since package companies mark ski school up significantly. The mist cost effective in France is almost certainly going to be ESF. They benefit from economies of scale, they’re reputable and most other ski schools follow their levels. Can be £200 cheaper than a smaller independent school.
Related: Ski School Prep: What to Book and When
5. Buy your lift passes
Once ski school is confirmed (so you know which days your kids will actually be on the mountain with you vs. in lessons), buy lift passes. Most resorts offer meaningful discounts for:
Buying online in advance rather than at the resort ticket office
Multi-day passes over single-day tickets
Family/group passes, where available (this discount is often missed when booking as a package deal)
Check whether your ski school package already includes a lift pass for lesson days — some do, which means you’d only need to buy passes for the days you’re skiing as a family.
Related: How to Get the Cheapest Lift Passes for a Family Trip
6. Book ski rental last
Rental is the last piece because it’s the most flexible — availability is rarely an issue the way it is with accommodation or ski school, and prices don’t move much as the date approaches. Booking online in advance (rather than walking into a rental shop on arrival) still saves money and guarantees sizing for kids, so don’t skip pre-booking — just don’t stress about doing it early.
Related: Ski Rental for Kids: What to Book Online vs In Resort.
Why the order matters
Book in the wrong sequence and you end up compromising — booking flights before accommodation means you might be locked into the wrong airport; booking lift passes before ski school means you can’t optimize which days you actually need a pass. Following this order keeps every later decision informed by the one before it, which is exactly where the real savings come from.
I’ve made a handy checklist for when you start planning your next ski trip — it’s easier to follow step by step than to remember from a single read.
