Skiing News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Photo: Kentaroo Tryman/Getty Images

Planning Your Next Ski Trip: When To Book the Best Deals

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated May 11, 2025 7:39 AM ET

When is the best time to book a ski trip? Here’s the short answer: right now.

As a general rule of thumb, the sooner you get the details of your trip planned out and everything booked, the better. Due to variable pricing, lift tickets, lodging, and plane tickets all tend to increase as the ski season nears.

Keep reading for the specifics.

Want to keep up with the best stories and photos in skiing? Subscribe to the new Powder To The People newsletter for weekly updates.

The Snow and Early Season Caveat

These days, ski resorts often push hard to get their chairlifts open as early as possible, relying on extensive snowmaking networks. For the early-season frothers, this is great news. Who doesn’t want to hit the slopes in October or November? Maybe you, depending on how you want your upcoming ski trip to look.

During the early season—we’ll call it October through early-December, although it varies from year to year—ski resorts usually don’t have enough snow to open all of their terrain and chair lifts. If you want to get the full ski resort experience, then, booking a trip for January, February, or March, is the safest bet (and no, a long range forecast published in July that said it will snow ten feet in November doesn’t guarantee quality early-season conditions, unless you’ve stumbled across a time traveling forecaster).

By the end of March, the same rule applies as warmer weather begins to melt the snowpack, although some ski resorts, like Mammoth Mountain, California, are known for their extensive late-season offerings in April and May. For these late-season excursions, lift tickets tend to be cheaper, so it’s fine to wait longer before pulling the trigger.

The ski industry has structured its pricing plans such that advance purchases are, for the most part, heavily incentivized.Photo: Imgorthand/Getty Images

Lift Tickets

Many major ski resorts throughout the U.S. adhere to dynamic pricing. This means that, as demand increases, so do ticket prices. There are pros and cons to this system. If you’re caught unawares and suddenly realize only a few days in advance that you need lift tickets to a major ski destination during the holidays, you could be looking at paying $200 or more. Ouch.

But planning ahead can take the sting out of plunking down some cash for a lift ticket. Ski resort tickets often go on sale before the season starts, so you can identify where you plan to ski in advance and save some money.

The Ikon and Epic Pass have folded this practice into their multi-pass programs with the Ikon Session Pass and the Epic Day Pass. These flexible bundles let you grab groups of lift tickets that can be used across the Ikon and Epic mountain portfolios. Skiers who want to ski as much as they can should opt for a full Ikon or Epic Pass instead, or another of the multi-passes available, like the Power Pass or Boyne Passport. Going with any of these approaches lets you choose when to ski, so you can take advantage of the best conditions, rather than being railroaded into a predetermined date.

In short, you should do whatever you can to avoid buying spur-of-the-moment lift tickets, unless a ski resort is offering a specific deal. The ski industry has structured its pricing plans such that advance purchases are, for the most part, heavily incentivized.

You might be able to wait to book until the last minute to score some late deals, but this approach, of course, is risky.Photo: Topher Donahue/Getty Images

Choosing a Place To Stay

In a perfect world, everyone would have a gracious friend who lives slopeside at a major ski resort. Whenever you wanted to go skiing, you could call them up and they would say, “Sure, dude, you can crash in my guest house. I’ll keep the hot tub warm.” We don’t live in a perfect world, though, and booking a ski trip doesn’t just involve travel and lift tickets—you’ll need a place to stay, too.

Timing a lodging purchase is an inexact science, but you can maintain some control over how much you pay by choosing when you schedule your trip (generally, think about reserving a place a few months in advance). The priciest time of the season for ski resort lodging is usually between late December and early January, when Christmas, New Year's, and the holiday break fall.

Spring break, President's Day weekend, Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, and the week of Thanksgiving can be jammed, too, with hotels filling up far in advance. Outside these windows, you’ll tend to find better deals and, as an added bonus, run into fewer lift lines. You might be able to wait to book until the last minute to score some late deals, but this approach, of course, is risky.

Whether you’re flying to Colorado or the Alps, you’ll want to have your travel plans established ahead of time, unless you don’t mind flying by the seat of your pantsPhoto: Witthaya Prasongsin/Getty Images

Booking Air Travel

In what might come as a surprising twist, the online travel agency Expedia released an annual report in partnership with the Airlines Reporting Corporation that found that when booking international flights outside the U.S., buying tickets between 18 and 29 days was the ideal window. The ideal window for buying domestic flights wasn’t as tight, landing between 34 and 86 days.

Regardless, whether you’re flying to Colorado or the Alps, you’ll want to have your travel plans established ahead of time, unless you don’t mind flying by the seat of your pants (you couldn’t pay us to book an international flight 18 days before lift off).

One way to avoid stressing over finding the best air travel prices—and needlessly staring at your computer—is to set a price tracking alert with providers like Expedia, Google Flights, or Skyscanner. These programs will notify you when the price of your desired flight drops. It’s worth noting that flights are generally more expensive over the holidays, so plan accordingly, and maybe think about waiting to ski until after New Year's.

Depending on the time of year, mountain passes can shut down during snowstorms, leaving you stranded.Photo: © Marco Bottigelli/Getty Images

Should I Just Drive?

We love ski road trips. There’s no better way to see the sights (and weird gas stations) than throwing your crew and gear into the car and hitting the road. Plus, you won’t need to worry about flight cancellations. But driving has its own challenges. Depending on the time of year, mountain passes can shut down during snowstorms, leaving you stranded. Don’t get stuck without a backup plan—take a peek at your intended route and keep your eyes trained on the weather.

Lastly, snow tires work. Buy some.

This article first appeared on Powder and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: