Zermatt in March. Gudauri for a tenth of the price. Dubai in August.
Reviews of the ski and snowboard days you can book right now: lift-served resort trips, first lessons, gear hire, cross-country tracks and the indoor slopes that ignore the season. What each one costs, how long it takes and what the people who went came back saying.
Four ski days that show what the price range really covers.
An indoor slope outside Oslo, a private hour with an instructor in Zermatt, cut tracks on an Arctic fjord plain, a full day on a Caucasus mountain. Same sport, wildly different bills.
01Snow with a roof onDay Pass for Downhill Skiing at SNØ Ski DomeA refrigerated indoor slope on the edge of Oslo, open in July. Day pass, gear included, no season to wait for.
02One-to-onePrivate Ski Lessons – 3 hours ZermattThree hours with an instructor on the Zermatt pistes, just your group. The fastest way to stop falling over.
03Tracks and huskiesCross-Country Skiing & Husky VisitCut cross-country tracks on a fjord plain an hour from Tromso, with a stop at a husky yard. Skis, boots and poles come with it.
04A whole day, cheapFull-Day Gudauri Ski Resort Day TripMinibus from Tbilisi, a full day on the Gudauri lifts, back for dinner. The Caucasus is where the money goes furthest.
Switzerland is the expensive answer. Pick the valley before the date.
Zermatt, Interlaken and the day trips out of Zurich are three different budgets for the same mountain range. Cheapest bookable day in each is below, so you can see the gap before you commit to a train ticket.
The most booked ski and snowboard days on the site.
Every ski trip we have reviewed →Indoor slopes, first lessons, Arctic tracks and Alpine resort days. These are the ones travellers keep choosing, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
2-Hour or Full-Day Slope Session at Ski Dubai
Ski Dubai review covering slopes, gear, costs, timing, safety rules, gloves, lessons, and whether a 2-hour or full-day pass is worth it.
From · $68
Read our review →
2
Ski Dubai Snow Park Classic Pass
from $72
3
Cross Country Guided Skiing Course
from $99
4
Ski Dubai Snow Plus Pass
from $88
5
Eobi Ice Valley / Elysian Ski Resort / Nami Island
from $48
6
Private Ski Lessons – 3 hours Zermatt
7
Cross-Country Skiing & Husky Visit
from $145
8
Lapland Ski Trekking Safari
from $128
In Lapland the skiing comes with reindeer tracks and no daylight.
Rovaniemi, Saariselka, Levi and Tromso sell a different sport: prepared cross-country loops through birch forest, ski-trekking safaris out to a fire and a sausage, and downhill hills small enough to learn on. Midwinter you ski in blue twilight; by March the light lasts until nine.
Most ski bookings are one day out, not a season.
Transfer, lift ticket, sometimes boots and a lesson, back the same evening. That single package is what almost every trip on this site actually is, and the three below are the ones travellers rate highest.
Six countries that sell most of the ski days on this site.
Alpine glaciers, Finnish forest tracks, a Caucasus pass reached by minibus, Korean resorts an hour from Seoul, a volcano in central Anatolia and a refrigerated hall on the edge of the desert. Pick a country and the best day out in it.
A lift-served ski day costs $13 in Georgia and $384 in Zermatt.
Gudauri, Bansko, Borovets, the Korean resorts and Mount Erciyes run the same lifts, the same rental counters and the same instructors for a fraction of the Alpine bill. Rentals in Bansko start under twenty dollars. Nothing about the snow is cheaper.
Georgia and the Balkans →
What a day of skiing actually costs, worldwide.
Every ski and snowboard day on the site, grouped by the per-person price. Group-only quotes are left out; there is no way to turn one into a per-head figure honestly.
Rental counters, lift tickets, indoor slope sessions and the Caucasus and Balkan day trips.
The standard day out: transfer, lift pass and often a group lesson, in Lapland, Korea, Turkey or Chile.
Alpine resort days, private instructors, ski touring with a guide and the multi-day packages.
Learning to ski is a booking decision, not a talent question.
Every beginner ski trip →
The three things a first-timer books are a lesson, a set of gear and a hill that is not frightening. Get the order right and day two is fun. These three are the ones beginners rate most.
Group class or private hour
A group class is cheaper and slower; a private hour puts you on a real run by lunchtime. Most first-timers do one group morning, then decide.
Hiring skis, boots and a board
Rental counters at the resort are the simplest option and the price barely moves between them. Bansko and Borovets are the cheapest on this site by a distance.
Snowboarding instead
Snowboarding hurts more on day one and less on day three. Every resort that teaches skiing here teaches boarding, usually in the same class slot.
Three kinds of ski day you cannot book at a normal resort.
Lifts and groomed pistes look much the same from Whistler to Bansko. A refrigerated slope in the Gulf, a night ski under the aurora and a climb up on skins before anyone else touches the snow do not.
The Indoor Slopes
Ski Dubai keeps a quarter-mile indoor run at minus two while it is forty outside, and Oslo, Copenhagen and Seoul all run their own versions. Jackets, boots and skis come with the ticket, the run repeats until you are bored of it, and nobody checks the weather. It is where a lot of people in hot countries learn.
- 12-Hour or Full-Day Slope Session at Ski Dubai★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,202 reviews
- 2Ski Dubai Snow Park Classic Pass★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 625 reviews
- 3Ski Dubai Snow Plus Pass★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 440 reviews
Polar Night and Aurora Skiing
North of the Arctic Circle the sun does not clear the horizon for weeks, so guides run cross-country and ski-trekking trips by headlamp across frozen lakes and through birch forest. The snow reads blue, the tracks are already cut, and the aurora is a genuine possibility rather than a marketing line.
- 1Cross-Country Skiing & Husky Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 257 reviews
- 2Lapland Ski Trekking Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 224 reviews
- 3Finnish Sight-Skiing Experience in Lapland★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 50 reviews
Ski Touring and Backcountry
Skins on the base, bindings that free the heel, and a climb of two or three hours for one descent nobody else has been down. Guides carry a transceiver, shovel and probe and expect you to as well. This is the one branch of the sport where the avalanche forecast decides the itinerary, not the lift queue.
- 1Backcountry skiing adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 34 reviews
- 2Backcountry Skiing Adventure★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 29 reviews
- 3Classic Wilderness Skiing in the Pyhä-Luosto National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 23 reviews
Four things that decide whether a ski booking works.
Snow sports run on a calendar, a skill level and a list of what is and is not in the price. Read these four before the date, not after.
- 01Ski and Snowboard equipment rental in BanskoSkis, boots and poles are usually a separate line. A lift ticket on its own gets you up the mountain with nothing to slide on.
- 02Cross-Country Ski Lesson for Beginners in TromsoA first-timer needs a lesson, not a lift pass. Beginner tickets often only cover the nursery drag lift, and a full pass is wasted on day one.
- 032-Hour or Full-Day Slope Session at Ski DubaiIndoor slopes run every day of the year, so they are the answer in August and the answer for anyone who cannot fly north in winter.
- 04Ski touring (ski de randonnee)Off-piste days are weather calls. Guides cancel or reroute on the avalanche forecast, and no operator will take you up without a transceiver, shovel and probe.
Where to ski when it is summer, or forty degrees.
Three answers. An indoor hall keeps a real slope frozen all year in Dubai, Oslo and Seoul. The southern hemisphere flips the calendar, so Chile runs June to September. And in Cappadocia and the Emirates the dunes get skied instead, on a board, behind a camel or off the back of a 4x4.
By country — the mountains with the most to book
When the snow is good, and where to go when it is not.
All year
Dec–Jan
Jun–SepThe newest ski and snowboard reviews.
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From Queenstown: Cardrona Ski/Snowboard Rentals & Transfer
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From Belgrade: Kopaonik national park & Ski resort-full day
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Elysian Ski Day Tour (Ski & Snow Board Full Package)
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Cross Country Skiing Lessons for Beginners (Feldberg)
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From Riga: Cross-country skiing and beating heart memorial
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