The 6 Big Benefits of Midweek Skiing

Whilst some skiers and indeed some travel companies may still be living in the past, the days of the fixed week-long ski holiday are thankfully now long behind us.

The growth in low cost airline services and other transport improvements, coupled with more flexibility from hotels and chalets, means it’s much easier to ski smartly – travelling when you like and doing so two or three times, or even more, each season, perhaps taking advantage of favourable snow reports to fit in a quick trip on top of a longer planned excursion.

A weekend ski break is one way to do this but increasingly people are taking midweek ski breaks too and taking advantage of lower prices and more stress-free travel as a result.

Here are six reasons why you should consider a mid-week ski break:

Quiet Airports and Roads

The traditional ski holiday used to run from Saturday to Saturday until someone noticed that the airports and roads to the resorts were empty on Sunday, so quite a few companies switched to offer less stressful travel.

Now as Sundays get busier too, the next step is obviously to avoid traveling at the weekend altogether and either already be in your resort at the start of the weekend, or travel mid-week.

Everything about the experience is normally better – quieter airports so less queuing at bag drop, security and getting on the plane, then emptier roads for your transport to resort from your destination airport.  In short it’s all much more pleasant.

Fit in Four Days from Three Nights

It’s perfectly possible to fit a four day ski break into a three night midweek ski holiday.  Time your flights well and thanks to those empty airports and roads you can be on the slopes on the Monday morning after the weekend crowds have headed back to the cities.  Then time your return flight equally well and you can ski all day on Thursday before getting an evening transfer and flight home, ready for a long weekend of post ski break relaxation.

Pay Less

With most people still wanting to travel at weekends, airlines and other travel operators are keen to encourage more people to travel midweek when they have lots of empty planes and coaches but no one to fly/drive anywhere.  The result, thanks to the miracle that is our supply-and-demand economic system is that travel is much cheaper for the much quicker, quieter, pleasanter experience than for the weekend crush and queues.  Odd isn’t it?

Have Someone Else Manage It For You

Organising all the logistics of a ski trip can be complicated and time consuming so it’s usually simpler to take advantage of expertise when it’s available. SkiWeekends.co.uk have not bothered to set up as new company called SkiMidWeeks.co.uk but they do organise midweek ski breaks, with flights out of Mondays to a big choice of hotels – right up to luxurious five-star options - and catered chalets in the 3 Valleys (Courchevel, Les Menuires, Reberty, Meribel, Val Thorens and Brides les Bains), Paradiski (La Plagne) and the Portes du Soleil (Avoriaz, Les Gets and Morzine).  

Get Everything Included

To maximise the pleasure of your stay and minimise the time you spend on ‘stuff’ that isn’t fun – like getting your lift pass or rentals organised, or finding somewhere to eat, it can be a good idea to have everything organised for you before you arrive. Staying at the Hotel Verseau below Meribel in the 3 Valleys you’ll be provided with chalet board catering, meaning you can rest assured of a good breakfast, afternoon tea when you get in and a big three-course dinner and there’s a ski hire shop which runs from the hotel, so you can pre-book your equipment and have it ready for your arrival.

Ski Longer

By taking advantage of the ever growing range of low cost flight options through the week you can use mid-week travel to extend a one week ski holiday if you like, and make it in to a 10 or 11 day trip. For example go out on a Monday one week and return on a Thursday the following week – much more skiing, including taking in the quietest day of the week on the slopes in the big destination resorts – ‘change-over day Saturday’ (when everyone one else is stuck in traffic or at airports) all for not a lot more cost.

So there you have it. This could be the season to ski smart and pay less to travel when it’s quieter and enjoy more days of the slopes this winter, without breaking the bank.

Patrick Thorne