Shoestring skiing

Victoria, our admin manager, heads to the hills on a budget.

As usual for me I needed to organise last winter’s ski holiday on a budget.  I do this because I try to get as many holidays out of my spare cash as possible rather than one big one! 

Left me more to spend on looking the part!

I chose Les Deux Alpes as I’d heard rave reviews about the skiing and night life and I also knew I could organise really cheap flights with Ryanair from Stansted to Grenoble, which would give an easy transfer at either end.  I also chose to go in March to avoid the school holiday prices and busy slopes.

So we got the local bus to the airport early Saturday morning and when we arrived in Grenoble we transferred to the resort with Ben’s Bus, which is a low cost ski transfer company.  The buses ran according to the flight arrivals and departures so it was easy to hop on the bus at either end without worrying about timing.  It cost approximately £43.50 per person return, which is a bargain compared to car hire or private taxi transfers.

 I booked a cheap self catering studio apartment close to the Diable cable car with an accommodation supplier we work with at Erna Low.  My view was that as long as it was clean and tidy it wouldn’t matter if it was small and when we got there we were pleasantly surprised.  We had a lovely kitchen area, balcony and the sofa bed didn’t take up all the living space.

Our Skiset ski hire shop was located just around the corner and we picked up our lift passes when we picked up our accommodation keys.  It was all very easy.

We went shopping at the local supermarket to buy our food for the week which was where we were in for a shock.  Due to the change in the exchange rate everything was so expensive and we knew then we wouldn’t be able to afford much, but we managed somehow!  So each morning we had porridge to last us as long as possible and we took energy bars up the mountain to try to avoid snacking on food up there where the prices were even more extravagant.  We even came back down to the apartment at lunchtime as we were completely gobsmacked by the prices up the mountain!  This worked easily for us as we were only about 50-100m walk from the cable car.  Then we headed back up the mountain afterwards.

In the evenings we scouted the happy hours and found two great bars which had bargain pints on offer, the Polar Bar and The Secret, so we even managed to enjoy après ski on a budget!

For dinner we tended to cook up something in the apartment to save on the cash, but we also ventured out to sample a couple of the local restaurants.

All in all it was a fun, energetic and bargainous holiday!  As it was a while ago I can’t remember the exact total cost but I vaguely remember it costing no more than £500 per person, including spending money for the week.  That’s not bad for a ski holiday!

Victoria Lincoln, Administration Manager, Erna Low