Family ski holiday half term 2017 Which resort/ country??

If you want a reasonably priced holiday I'd stay well clear of Switzerland. We are taking out kids (2girls 5-7) to austria. Leogang. It's a great area. Great ski school and it cost us less than half the tour operator quotes that we got. I know the area well and have a good contact for the appartment. It cost for a large 2 bed £400 for the week. Hope this helps.

A lot of questionable advice/advertising above. - No. I am not advertising anything, just being specific. Our apartment wouldn't be suitable and I get no financial inducement from the Agency that I cited.

I get annoyed at the mantra that Switzerland is expensive but France is cheap: Courcheval 1850 on-piste in a hotel in half term is no more typical than the Branson Chalet in Verbier at £125K/week. Choose a low altitude resort anywhere and it'll look cost-competitive but that reflects the risk that you may have no snow. I've heard colleagues complain that Switzerland is expensive and then it turns out they're off to Vail or Banff because they can't find anywhere suitable in France in half term. And so on.

My point was that self-catering extends the range of options available. And I also said that looking at an Agency is something you could try in France, Austria or Italy. If you do that and still find that the package tour operator is cheaper, fine ....

The problem with answering these questions is that you'll get a very random range of recommendations, reflecting the preferences of the people involved. What I was trying to do was to suggest that along with looing at Tour Operators offers (which can be very good value, don't get me wrong) you also choose one or two places and look at a couple of agency websites to see what self-catered booked direct might cost. But I appreciate that not everyone is keen on having to self-build their holiday flights, car hire and accomodation etc.

Having skied in both France and Switzerland, I agree that costs are reasonably similar when resorts are compared on a like for like basis. There is no point comparing a French resort with a base of less than 1,000m with say Zermatt, and vice versa.

The lower you go the cheaper the holiday is likely to be. This rule of course doesn't really apply to Scandinavia where the freezing level is often at 0m.

Regarding DIY v tour operator, I'm a big fan of DIY. In fact, I've only been on one tour operator ski holiday. Didn't enjoy the transfer at all as we were kept waiting in the airport for an hour and a half, were squashed into an uncomfortable seat on the bus, had to wait whilst the coach dropped off people on the way and were required to leave the resort ridiculously early on the return journey.

It is worth checking out the cost of ski passes. In some resorts your youngest would be able to ski for free.

bedrock barney wrote:kept waiting in the airport for an hour and a half, were squashed into an uncomfortable seat on the bus, had to wait whilst the coach dropped off people on the way and were required to leave the resort ridiculously early on the return journey.

Absolutely this... a little planning with DIY and you can travel out of peak times, miss the jams AND get an extra couple of days skiing on the two Saturdays...

For the OP, to make your pound go further; look at driving to Northern Alps, places like Les Carroz and Morillon (Grand Massif) and Le Grand Bornand (Aravis) great for families and won't bash your budget too hard. You've said you can take them out Friday so definitely try and do that; Eurotunnel crossing will probably be cheaper than the Saturday morning. A little less traffic and you can do most of the journey on Friday, overnight somewhere cheap near the mountains, get up into resort first thing Saturday and have a relaxed day skiing...

...keep an eye on our traffic forecast thread for this coming weekend; snow and heavy traffic is going to mean some long journeys tomorrow - so watch it all closely and then plan to avoid the jams when you go next year! 8)

Oh, and Jim makes a good point about the lift passes; "Child" and "Teen" definitions vary massively and - considering the price of a weekly pass nowadays - this could give you a significant saving comparing one resort against another.

Whilst it may be roughly the same to stay in Switzerland it is certainly a lot more expensive to eat out , shop etc there than France and Austria from my own personal experience. We are by no means right but all vowed to never return. When you are paying 6-8 chf for a small bottle of water you can help but feel ripped off. Jus sayin.