Competition between rental car companies and rising costs for both coach transfers and private transfers means that renting a car to reach your ski resort rather than taking a bus or private transfer will almost certainly cost you less, while increasing your ski holiday convenience, especially if there are more than two of you travelling.

Skiing Holidays offers people to swap their transfer for a hire car on many holidays and here puts forward the case for becoming upwardly mobile!

Previously these savings were difficult to track, but the SkiingHolidays.com search box gives users the chance to ‘play’ with their booking and look at how the prices compare between transfers and car hire, depending on the number of people travelling in their party.

Surprisingly in some cases a rental car can be less for as few as two people.

Check out these outstanding deals for skiing holidays with a hire car:

Skiing Holidays with a hire car to Nendaz....
Skiing Holidays with a hire car to Chamonix....

The Rental Car Advantage

There are more than just the immediate savings of renting a car that can make getting to your resort by car still more advantageous.

Firstly there is the obvious benefits of getting straight off from the airport while others wait for buses and transfers.  Although these are normally efficient, sometimes a coach will wait for an hour or more if it is due to collect passengers from multiple flights, always frustrating as you see your holiday tick away sat on a bus in the airport!

You’ll also save time when you arrive in resort anyway, assuming you’re not in the first hotel the transfer coach stops at, you’ll be straight there while others have to wait for the bus to reach their accommodation.

Secondly, some of these are small things but there’s the benefit of looking after your own luggage and being able to play music you like, run the air conditioning as you’d like and of course stop where and when you’d like en route to the resort.  If you’re hungry you can stop and eat en route, there’s no need to wait until you’ve reached the resort and checked in.

One of your en-route stops may well be at a supermarket to stock up for the week, especially if you’re in self catering accommodation – it’s so much quicker and easier to do if you have car.

Convenience in resort is another big positive factor for having a car with you.  Many resorts are small or modern, well designed affairs, but traditional resorts that have grown large over the years often have the rental shop, the nursery, the ski school office and indeed the bottom lift station all a good way from your accommodation.  Families can spend the best part of the morning trailing from one to another and waiting for the ski bus or paying for a taxi between each, before they even make it on to the slopes.  Then the process must be repeated in reverse by mid-afternoon.  It’s all so much easier with a car!

Destination Choices

How useful a car will be when you’re actually in resort depends on where you go. Some of the compact modern French resorts like Avoriaz or Flaine are designed to be largely car-free, so you may just garage your vehicle for all or most of your stay, although car rental may still be worthwhile to save on the basic cost of the transfer if there are two or more of you and to get groceries for your apartment on route and possibly access more out-of-the-way restaurants in the evening or different routes in to the main ski area that may exist out-of-the-resort centre rather than the busy main lift.

Where a car is useful every day is pretty well any resort where it looks like you’ll need to take a ski bus to or from the slopes, which is most likely to be in a large, established resort like Chamonix or Morzine in France, or Nendaz, Siviez or Davos in Switzerland and perhaps Kitzbuhel or Innsbruck in Austria.

Ski Safari

Even if you don’t need a car in resort, it can be useful to visit other resorts nearby that are likely to be on a joint lift pass.

In most major ski areas regional passes are available for the same price, or just a few Euros more, than the local ticket and entitles you to ski at neighbouring ski areas without needing to buy another pass.  Most skiers are stuck in resort once they arrive, or reliant on a difficult to follow public bus service while car drivers can head to another ski area, hop on the lift, stay for as long or as little as they like, then head straight back.

Examples of this include the dozen resorts around the Chamonix Valley (all on one pass and you can even go to Courmayeur or Verbier on the same ticket if you have a car) or resorts around the Tarentaise Valley like Les arcs, la Plagne, La Rosiere, St Foy, Tignes and Val d’Isere – all within half an hour’s drive of each other.

There are dozens of other examples from Andorra, where a car helps you get between the different bases of VallNord, to Austria, where you can drive between the two sides of the Arlberg (Lech and St Anton) and make the most of downs of other area passes, or in Italy the 13 valleys of the dolomite Superski could keep you busy all winter when you have the means to get between them.

Top Tips

If your accommodation is part of a large resort and/or you’re arriving after dark, it’s well worth spending a few Euros on a GPS unit to guide you door to door.

While rental cars are supplied ‘winterised’ it’s worth double checking when you book that winter tyres are on and/or a set of chains in the boot are available.

If you’re bringing children younger than teenage along with you remember to bring a car seat too, or to add one to your rental.

Finally, check road and weather conditions before you leave the UK so you know what to expect.

Maximising The Value

There are several points to watch out for when renting though, to be sure you don’t spend more than you need to.

Firstly, before you go, check whether your car insurance at home covers all or any aspect of the insurance charges for your rental car. When you arrive at your destination airport, the rental company will invariably offer you more insurance at a supplement, and if you do not know if you need it or not, this can be unnerving.  So being armed with the information you need there is always an asset.

A second common surcharge applies when you return the car without a full tank of petrol, so on your return trip make sure you leave time to fill up, and ideally do it on the motorway some miles before the airport in order to save money and the stress of trying to find a petrol station, as well as a car rental returns, as you head back.

So with all these advantages, make sure you give car rental serious consideration when you next look at the best way to transfer from the airport to your chosen ski resort. Historically it may have been the more expensive option but, increasingly, it’s not any more, plus it can offer many advantages over the coach.