I’ve been reading a few things recently about the cost of lift tickets – in some resorts a day pass can set you back in excess of $100. That’s a lot of money!
A comparison of prices
Resorts in North America tend to be more expensive than those in Europe, at least that’s been my personal experience.
For example, consider a 13 day lift pass for the Portes du Soleil area, covering Morzine, Avoriaz, Chatel and a number of other resorts. The cost is 352 Euros. A 13 day pass like this will cover you for a two week holiday.
For the same area, a single day ticket is 41 Euros. So by going for a multi-day pass you’re dropping the average down to 27 Euros per day, saving around 35%. That’s pretty good.
- Approximate single day price: 41 Euros = $54 = £35
- Approximate multi-day price: 27 Euros = $36 = £24
Compare that with Breckenridge in Colorado. A day pass there is $89. A 13 day ticket is $832, which works out at around $64 per day, giving a saving of around 28% on the single day price. It’s still more expensive than Europe, but the multi-day saving is pretty good.
- Approximate single day price: $89 = 68 Euros = £58
- Approximate multi-day price: $64 = 49 Euros = £42
Now compare that with Fernie in BC, Canada. A day pass there is 79 CAD, which is pretty much $79, or £52. The crazy thing about Fernie is that there aren’t any multi-day savings to be had, not as far as I know. When we went for two weeks back in 2008, that made for some expensive shredding. Luckily, it was worth it.
- Approximate single day price: 79 CAD = $79 = 61 Euros = £52
How to save money – Liftopia?
Like I said, in my experience, lift ticket prices are cheaper in Europe than they are in North America. If you’re going for an extended stay, resorts that offer multi-day savings will save you a lot money.
If you’re going for longer than 2 weeks, or you’re returning to the same resort again, it’s always worth taking a look at a season pass, you may save money there. Especially so with early-bird season tickets.
Liftopia hook up with different resorts to provide discounts on lift tickets. The discounts vary from resort to resort, and from deal to deal. For example, I was looking at some of the savings for Copper Mountain, in January.
As you can see, they only have so many discount tickets for certain days – you can also see that there are some pretty good savings to be made. That’s pretty good because it can reduce the cost in a similar way to getting a big, multi-day pass, like a 13 day pass. Some of the savings are as much as 50%, sick!
Liftopia seems to cover North American resorts, well. They do have European resorts on the site, but it’s pretty much information-only. After doing some browsing I haven’t seen any discounts for European resorts.
That said, there are still plenty of you out there shredding in North America 😉
So if you want to save some cash on your lift ticket, Liftopia are definitely worth checking out.
Another great way to reduce your ticket costs is to get a job in resort. Consider becoming a backcountry guide or a member of the ski patrol. Happy riding.