Tripadvisor has come out with its annual ski survey which reminds us of the old adage that some people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.  Only I’m not sure Tripadvisor, or its researcher Ipsos, knows even the cost part of the equation. Another adage closely associated with Tripadvisor may come to mind.  Garbage in, garbage out.

What value should we attach to a survey whose findings include the bizarre assertion that “For adults, the best value destination for a weekly lift pass is Courchevel, France, coming in at £144” closely followed by Meribel (£187.55)?  That’s the price for two adults, and it makes Courchevel 50% cheaper than Arinsal (£298.16) and 65% cheaper than Val d’Isère (£416.78).   Unfortunately for Trois Vallées bargain hunters, Tripadvisor is not selling lift passes at these keen prices and the actual cost may come as a disappointment: 190 euros per person for a 6-day family lift pass for the Courchevel or Meribel valley, last time I looked.  Did the Ipsos researchers sample a few too many après-ski cocktails before converting the exchange rate?  Ipsos dipsos.

“Bansko in Bulgaria offers the best value ski break” is Tripadvisor’s headline finding, but hang on: “while Bansko is the best value destination, Andorra is the most affordable country.”  What?  Is Tripadvisor trying to tell us that the rest of Bulgaria is more expensive than Bansko – unlikely, I’d have thought – or is this a value judgement: Andorra cheaper but Bansko better? 

As one might expect the Tripadvisor value top ten includes plenty of resorts we don’t much want to visit, while the places we like line up at the bottom.  Tripadvisor’s family holiday week in Val d’Isère costs more than twice as much as in affordable Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s favourite.  Yet British skiing families, even those in the squeezed middle, prefer Val d’Isère.  How to account for this?

Well, Val d’Isère is a ski resort for a start.  If I wanted to take the family for a week of visiting salt mines, Berchtesgaden might be in the frame. For skiing it isn’t.

The detail of the survey throws up some fine anomalies, reminding me of the good old days when the Daily Mail Ski Guide had pages and pages of price tables allowing us to make the most exotic comparisons between the cost of ski wax and self catering shopping baskets from Perisher to Mount Parnassus.   

Now Tripadvisor tells us that ski hire costs 30% more in Sochi than in Val Thorens.  No wonder the market decided the rouble was overvalued.   Hotel accommodation for the family is 30% cheaper in Saas Fee than Livigno, and costs 30% more in Pas de la Casa than Serre Chevalier.  The ski family that likes to start the holiday with a half-day warm-up family ski lesson might be tempted to choose the Spanish Pyrenean resort of Formigal, where this unusual request can be satisfied for a modest £41, compared with £322 in Flims.  Neither number sounds remotely plausible.  

St Anton (Austria) wins the Tripadvisor prize as Europe’s most expensive resort for a family holiday, beating St Moritz and Zermatt easily, although Switzerland is not to be dethroned from its traditional ‘most expensive country’ status.  It seems that St Anton’s surprising chart-topping moment is mainly a reflection of its allegedly expensive hotels.  An “average rate for a week’s stay”, whatever that means, for a family of four, costs 20% more than an average hotel week in St Moritz.  Never mind the fact that St Anton is well supplied with cheap B&Bs and fast food restaurants where the kiddies can be fed quite cheaply (by ski resort standards) …. “For the price of a week in a hotel in St. Anton, a family of four can have almost five weeks in a Sierra Nevada hotel in Spain.”  Yes, and for the price of a week at the Dorchester you could stay for a month in a flea pit in Peckham.   The point being …. ?

As anyone who has been there knows, St Anton is not even the most expensive resort in the Arlberg.  How does it come out of this survey so badly?   Perhaps the hoteliers calculated that Tripadvisor Man, who bangs the reception desk and threatens to write a bad review if he doesn’t get a discount and an upgrade to a suite, is not the sort of customer they wish to attract, and adjusted their prices accordingly.

Myrmecologist Auguste Forel. A good friend in your pocket

“Skiing can be an expensive holiday,” says Tripadvisor’s James Kay, and amen say we all. Luckily the Tripindex costs nothing, and in skiing you get what you pay for, and what Nature gives you. 

Just now, anxious skiers will be thinking that the best ski resort is the one that has snow, a priceless commodity of incalculable value.

Tripadvisor ‘best value’ ski resorts

 Tripadvisor Most Expensive Ski Resorts