If you’re like my ski friend, you’re probably counting the days until the start of this year’s ski season. As much as you love the hobby, it can be expensive. Collect tickets, gear, clothing, lodging, food, and more. It is very expensive to double or even triple the price when children are turned away. Fortunately, we have found many ways to use the budget for our families. Here are my fundraising tips for a family skiing vacation.
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1. Tips on skis to save
In many skiing resorts, children don’t need to ski until a certain age, but this age can vary greatly. If your child has to ski with you and is not in a skiing school, you won’t save much if you don’t pay for the ski holidays. Most resorts start between the ages of 4 and 7. So check the holiday rules carefully if you have children in this age group, which is sometimes free and completely expensive elsewhere.
2. Ask for interchangeable parent cards
Some resorts offer skiing that parents can share if they turn off skiing and childcare. These tickets save a lot if you are too young for ski school and don’t have a babysitter to take care of your children while both parents are skiing. Resorts call them a lot of different things – parenting issues, parenting tickets, etc. – but they all work the same way. You pay for the adult card and transfer it between the two adults. In my experience with ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area, not all resorts advertise offering these passes, so call a cashier before confirming.
3. Take advantage of the discount on ski passes
Never wait for an elevator ticket to purchase tickets. Never. With minimal planning, it’s extremely easy to pay a lot less than usual. Many stations offer discounted day tickets by purchasing them online from the station’s website.
You can often find discount cards at local ski shops (for example, Sports Basement in the San Francisco Bay sells discount cards at many ski resorts in the Tahoe area). As compensation for the staff, your employer can offer a discount on ski passes for the skiing areas in the area. And don’t forget the other discounts you may have access to: military fees, AAA fees, and many more.
If you’re traveling to a Vail-owned location (Park City, Breckenridge, Keystone, Northstar, Heavenly, etc.), you may not have heard of Undercover Tourist, a leading travel agency that sells tickets to Disney and other golf courses. entertainment. … Incognito Tourist sells Epic tickets for 4-7 days for multiples per day, but you can get tickets at a discounted price if you book elevator tickets overnight.
4. Buy season tickets or other flexible tickets
If you need to ski for multiple days in a season, look for discounted multi-day passes for your favorite location: a season pass or a discounted multi-day package. For example, my husband and daughter purchased local Tahoe passes from Vail Resorts this fall because this year we are skiing in Northstar California for most of the season (Note: I am Northstar Ambassador for the 2016-2017 season and I have kindly offered Northstar to pass me). . We found out we broke my husband’s passport only after 3-4 days of skiing so this is great value for money. The pass is also valid at two other Vaili resorts in the Thai region, Sky and Kirkwood, and also offers a 5-day vacation at Vaili resorts in Colorado and Utah. We saved even more when shopping at the best prices in the early fall.
5. Go to a smaller mountain
As much as you love the comfort of big resorts (and my husband loves stiff competition), there is often a serious budget to combine with visits to smaller resorts. When your children learn to ski, ski schools in smaller ski areas are often much cheaper.
6. Go with friends and share accommodation
Apart from tickets for the ski lifts, accommodation is the biggest cost factor for a family skiing holiday. Sloping hotel rooms can be very expensive and often mean you don’t have a kitchen to cook and cut your food costs more. Book a vacation rental instead and save even more by going to the mountains with another family.
We have friends who have booked ski rentals in the North Lake Tahoe area for the past few years and have many rooms for 3 or more families. We’ve all saved tons by collecting them for a few weekends and sharing the cost of their biggest site. Also, people after skiing have more fun for adults and children with a large group.
7. Buy neutral and confidential ski equipment
As tempting as your three-year-old daughter’s adorable light pink ski jacket might be on the slopes for the first time, you may be making a mistake next year with the birth of your little brother when you buy it next year. Somehow I had the soul to buy a lot of black neutrons and other neutrons that we will use with my son. While I certainly saw that many little siblings were forced to wear the same pink jacket, it’s a fight I didn’t prefer to be there every winter.
8. Rent ski equipment and clothes and trade with friends
Since I live in an area where there are many ski areas, we have many skiing neighbours and friends. We go down, borrow everything and borrow under the sun. It is very difficult to carry ski equipment for children before they grow up, so it is certainly possible for many children to use it. Also, check out local parent exchange groups and hand-picked garden sales.
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9. Rent ski equipment before starting
As in amusement parks, here you will find the highest prices, from food to equipment rental. Renting them closer to home than in the mountains is a great way to save on ski and boat rentals. There are a number of ski shops on the San Francisco Bay where I live that lend equipment to passengers travelling to Tahoe and possibly the same in your city. If you have to ski multiple times during the season, consider a seasonal ski rental package that includes skis and boots for the whole season and only bring them back in the spring when the season is over. These packages are often very inexpensive.
10. Reach your local goal
When my current 7-year-old daughter started skiing, I could only buy snow and ski equipment outdoors or at a special ski shop. These prices have risen rapidly. Over the past few winters though, I’ve found that wisepicker has a huge range of ski boots, ski jackets and gloves at very affordable prices. As far as quality goes, of course, these things didn’t come close to The North Face or Roxy. But if your kids grow up in ski wear for one or two seasons, it doesn’t matter! Our local destination is already available in early November, so I recommend buying now rather than waiting a few weeks for your Christmas or MLK weekend. Or buy ski suits for girls or boys online.
