Ski for Value

The relative component costs of a skiing holiday have changed over the years. Off-mountain accommodation is now  inexpensive compared to other items such as lifts and petrol, particularly for skiing vacations of more than three or four days. At Kiewa View, snow season rates start from $15.45 per person per night. Even in high season our rates start at $22.32 per person per night. The off-mountain accommodation is the least expensive component of a ski trip. For our cost calculator follow the link below.

Nightly rate per person.

With year 2012 lift, lesson and rental packages costing  $225 per day per person, this is ten times the accommodation cost per day. The secret to obtaining maximum value for your skiing dollar is to pick your skiing days. You will get more value by concentrating on getting the maximum value from the most expensive components of your ski vacation. (Ski Lift Ticket)  Just because you are at the snow it does not give you value to ski every day. Downhill skiing in poor weather, poor snow or when you are tired does not give you good value from your lift ticket.

Instead of a seven day skiing holiday consider a 12 day holiday from Monday one week to Friday the next week, but still only ski the same seven or eight days. Don’t buy a weekly ticket, buy individual day and half day tickets according to the weather, snow conditions and your fitness. Skip the bad days completely. This strategy is particularly applicable for the school holidays which are in Low and Shoulder season. Remember to bring the student cards to take advantage of the unique student rates for lifts and lessons at Falls Creek.

This stretched skiing week will be a lot more enjoyable for most people, will be only slightly more expensive than a week vacation and will be much better value.

While the professional ski instructor may be able to ski seven days a week with little ill effects, it can be a very tiring ordeal for the average recreational skier who skies only one or two periods each season.

Without the opportunities or facilities for extensive pre-holiday preparation the recreational skier will tire after about three or four days. At this point their skiing starts to drop off in both standard and number of runs skied per day. The risk of injury due to tiredness also increases.  During this period the skier is achieving less than the best value for their money in both amount of skiing and rate of improvement. A perfect alternative for a downhill skier for a quite day, is to have a late start and try half a day cross country skiing.

An alternative solution to extending the ski holiday is to break-up the annual one or two week vacation into a number of shorter periods. Instead of one week take two mid-weeks, instead of a fortnight, three mid-weeks. The skier gains in a number of ways by spreading the vacation. Advantage can be taken of an early or late period of the season for one or two of the periods, increasing the chances of a combination of good snow and weather conditions for at least part of the vacation.

A mid-week in each of the early season, late season and middle of the season can be substantially less expensive than a fortnight in the high season and an average of at least two of the periods are likely to have good snow. The skier also gains because starting each holiday fresh and with smaller mid-week crowds he or she will get more skiing per day and make a greater improvement in technique for his or her money.

Sub-Alpine accommodation has a definite advantage in deploying this type of strategy. Not only is the accommodation cheaper but there are far more practical alternatives for your rest day. 

Some of your non-skiing alternatives are

Information and links on these and other activities are included elsewhere in this Activities section of the site or the Mount Beauty section of the site.

If the timing of your non-ski day has been determined by the desire to do something different, or waiting for an overnight  snow fall then you have a a wide choice of alternative activities based from Mount Beauty. Even when it is blowing a blizzard or there are high winds on the top of the mountain there may be trails in the lower forests protected from the wind suitable for walking and mountain biking.