If you are trying to decide if you can afford a ski vacation in Europe or how much to budget for a holiday to Austria in the winter, then you are in the right place. We are giving a full breakdown of what our Austria ski trip cost here.
We’ll include the price of lodging, transportation, food, extra activities and ski lift tickets and give you helpful explanations and tips along the way. So, how much did our European ski trip cost? Keep reading to find out!
This budget breakdown is for a one-week ski trip to Austria in December. We went to Zell am See, Austria, which is about an hour and a half away from Salzburg.
Another thing to note is that we are a family of four. Also, our kids are tween boys, so they eat like adults!
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Costs For A Ski Trip In Austria
This first section will show what our ski trip to Austria cost in a bulleted list. This will give you a snapshot of the total costs.
After this section, I will break it all down and give you more explanation of the Austria ski vacation costs and some other helpful budgeting tips.
Lodging Expenses In Zell Am See, Austria
Total: $2175 – ($272/night)
- $ 158 – Hotel in Fulda, Germany – Dec 20-21 ($158/night)
- $2,017 – Airbnb in Zell Am See – Dec 21 – Dec 28 ($288/night)
Round-Trip Transportation
Total: $894
- $574 – rental car for the week – We booked with AVIS
- $320 – gas
Day-to-Day Costs In Zell Am See
Total: $1305
- $161 – groceries
- $1097 – dining out
- $15 – e-sim card through Airlo
- $32 – miscellaneous items like parking and using the bathroom
Ski Costs
Total: $1226
- $238 – ski passes to Schmittenhohe
- $245 – ski passes to Saalbach
- $246 – ski passes to Kitzsteinhorn
- $497 – ski/snowboard rentals
Extra Activity Costs
Total: $86
- $66 – snow tubing
- $20- Christmas market
- $0 – walk around Lake Zell
Austria Ski Trip Cost Total
Is skiing in Austria expensive? Well, that’s relative.
We spent $5686 total on our week long ski trip in Austria. It is not cheap for a family vacation. You can go to much cheaper destinations and spend less.
However, for a ski trip, this isn’t so bad.
Read more below to hear our thoughts on why we ended up spending this much on a week long ski trip in Austria.
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Takeaways From Our Austria Ski Trip Costs
After looking at our total costs during our ski trip in Austria, let me give you some more details to put all of those numbers into context.
Your total Austria ski trip cost might differ from ours. Everyone spends different amounts on hotels and food.
Maybe you cook all your meals in, saving money on dining expenses.
You might prefer to stay in a nicer hotel and spend a little more on lodging.
I think knowing where we prioritized our spending, will help with your ski trip budgeting.
Lodging Prices In Zell Am See
As you can see we stopped in Germany on the way to Austria. We were driving from the Netherlands and it was a nice halfway stop. On the way home, we drove the whole way back in one shot. This is why it is in our budget.
I did some research by searching various hotel and vacation rental sites like searchandstay.com, booking.com, and Airbnb and found that on average, for a family of four, you will likely spend between €240-320 euros a night for a vacation rental and around €300 euros a night for a family room at a hotel in Zell am See in December.
We booked our vacation rental on Airbnb and it was exactly what we needed. Since we were visiting over Christmas, we wanted enough room to spread out. The home we chose wasn’t fancy, but it was comfortable. We had a nice big room and the kids had bunk beds. The hosts were also extremely friendly and helpful.
From my research, I did find some other great options for families too. If you would like to see a few more choices for family-friend hotels in Zell am See, check out this link: Where To Stay In Zell Am See: Perfect For A Family Ski Trip
Day-to-Day Zell Am See Costs
In the everyday costs, I have included all food expenses and those small things that we sometimes forget to add in a travel budget, like a sim card, paying for parking or using the bathroom.
We did cook a couple of meals in to save a little bit of money, but we still enjoyed many meals out. You could definitely cut down on your budget here by cooking at your place more often.
This number could also go up too. We didn’t eat at any fancy restaurants during this trip. The most expensive meal was actually at one of our least favorite dinner outs at Deins & Meins. It had such good reviews, but didn’t live up to our expectations.
If you want to know where we do recommend eating in Zell am See, check out this post I wrote. I have included all of our favorite restaurants here: 6 Of The Best Restaurants In Zell Am See Area
Transportation Fees
We live in Europe, so we rented a car from the Netherlands and drove to Austria from this ski vacation. We knew we would want a car when we were there, so this made sense for us. It took us a little longer to arrive, but we saved on not having to purchase a flight.
If you are coming from the U.S., you can expect a plane ticket in ski season to be around $900-1500 dollars on average to Salzburg. I would recommend setting up a price alert, as you might be able to find a better deal than this.
If you are traveling from Europe, you can snag a ticket for much lower. On budget airlines, you could get a ticket as low as €70, but that price is without a checked or carry-on bag. I would expect you would pay between €150-250 euros per person.
Taking a train is also an option. There are trains from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark that travel to Zell am See, Austria. Prices depend on your starting location, of course.
You can find tickets from Vienna for around €44 euros. From Munich you can ride to Zell am See for as low as €12. From Hamburg, Germany you are looking at an average cost of €50 euros.
Pro Tip: When booking train tickets, I recommend booking in advance for the best price!
A rental car from Salzburg will cost you approximately the same amount as we spent. It will most likely be a little less since we reserved ours for a couple of extra days as we traveled across Europe.
Ski Costs In Zell Am See
Lift tickets on a ski trip to Austria cost the same whenever you go. Unlike the U.S. where many resorts jack the price up during the holidays and peak ski season, Zell am See doesn’t do that. They only variance in price is really early season and then it is only discounted a small amount.
In Zell am See, Austria there are 3 resorts nearby and they are all about the same price for a daily lift ticket. You can expect to pay about €79 for a lift ticket per adult. Kids have a discounted rate.
There is also no discount for buying in advance. The savings for a multi-day pass is also minimal. Since we didn’t know if we would want to ski multiple days in a row, we just bought a daily lift ticket on the days we went.
Keep in mind for your budget, that we only skied 3 days total. Each day was about $240 for all four of us.
We rented our skis from Rent2Ski in Zell am See – Süd. It was near our vacation rental which was very convenient. We loved them! They were super friendly, the skis were high quality, they let me exchange my skis for a snowboard, and made any modifications during the week that we needed. I highly recommend them!
The biggest store to rent skis from in Zell am See is Brundl. They are nicely located right at the base of the ski hills, but they are also a little bit more expensive and it’s busy in there.
Other Non-Ski Related Activity Costs
Most of our activity related expenses were skiing. We actually only went skiing 3 times during our week long ski trip. If we would have gone more, it would cost much more to ski.
We did take one day to go snow tubing nearby at Erlebnisberg Naglköpfl Piesendorf. That was the only real added activity expense. The other amount at the Christmas market was mostly Gluhwein.
You can find other activities to do in Zell am See including ice skating, tobogganing, going to the spa, and much more.
Read about other Zell am See attractions here: 12 Fun Attractions For Zell Am See In Winter
Summary Of Zell Am See Ski Trip Cost
Is Zell Am See expensive? Yes and no. I asked ChatGPT to find the average cost of a ski trip to Colorado for a family of four. It scoured the internet and found that it would most likely cost around $8000-9000 dollars.
So, compared to a ski trip in the U.S., our Austria ski trip cost much less. Even if I added in an extra $1000 for plane tickets, I would be spending less money. The biggest reason is the price of lift tickets. They are so much more expensive in the states.
All of that to say, an Austria ski trip cost can be comparable to the U.S. if not less, so why not expand your search? Discover a little Europe this winter. You an easily combine a trip to a Christmas market with your ski vacation. Why not?
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