Find out how travelling by coach on your next school ski trip could be less expensive, more convenient and more sustainable!
Travelling by coach is a great alternative to flying, especially when it comes to school ski trips. It’s cheaper, more environmentally friendly and more convenient, as there’s no airport security or check in to navigate with your group.
School ski trips by coach are much cheaper!
The normal price difference between a school ski trip by air and one by coach is around £250-£300.
Choosing to travel by coach will make your trip less expensive and more accessible to more students.
School ski trips by coach are more convenient
One of the reasons group leaders may choose to fly instead of travel by coach is the misconception that it’s quicker and more convenient.
Actually, this isn’t the case for many groups. Take, for example, a school ski trip to Piedmont in Italy, our most popular school ski trip region.
For a group travelling by coach, they can expect the journey to take as little as 18 hours, door to door. They will be able to leave school at a sensible time and arrive in resort mid-afternoon, usually allowing ski fit to be completed on arrival, before the shop shuts. This leaves more time for skiing on the first full day in resort.
A group choosing to fly may well find their journey takes a little less time – around 13 hours door to door when travelling to Piedmont. However, they often need to leave home in the middle of the night (which is not super popular with parents who have to take them to school or the airport at that time!).
Flight groups also tend to arrive in resort later in the afternoon, after the ski hire shop has closed, meaning an early start the next day to get ski fit done in time for lessons – which is obviously not ideal after a long journey.
Plus, groups travelling by coach usually return home after their ski trip before the groups who fly, giving them more time to relax before school starts again on the Monday.
The journey itself is so much more straightforward for groups travelling by coach too. They can literally hop on at school and, except for a few comfort breaks, hop off at the hotel. Of course, this makes supervision of the students throughout the journey much more manageable too.
Groups who fly need to contend with airport check in and security, which can be stressful with a large group.
The other thing to remember is that if you travel by coach, your coach will remain with you in resort and you’ll be able to use it for in-resort transfers, which will give you more choice when it comes to après-ski activities.
School ski trips by coach allow you to make the journey a key part of the experience If you choose to fly, your group will share the plane with members of the public and will need to be considerate of them, making sure that they occupy themselves with quiet activities – this can be a challenge when you have a group of very excited young skiers!
However, if you choose to travel by coach, you’ll have the coach all to yourselves.
This means that if you do want to make the journey part of the trip experience, you can run group activities such as quizzes and singalongs and you won’t need to worry about disrupting any other passengers! If you haven’t done so already, you may like to check out our guide to coach journeys.
School trips by coach give you a greater choice of accommodation
You may think that accommodation that offers doorstep skiing is the best option for a school ski trip. But having a coach with you means you can consider accommodation options a short transfer from the slopes.
These are often in traditional, welcoming villages, where your students will be immersed in the local culture. And you’ll probably find that by looking outside of the resort, you’ll be able to afford a better quality hotel.
And don’t forget, doorstep skiing isn’t always the super convenient option you would expect it to be – sometimes you still have to walk a fair way to the lifts, whereas if you stay out of resort, your coach will take you from the hotel doorstep and drop you right by the ski lifts!
School ski trips by coach are more environmentally friendly
One of the best ways to reduce the carbon footprint of your school ski trip is to travel by coach rather than flying.
It’s estimated that, on average, coaches emit 10% less carbon dioxide than planes.
In fact, coach engines are constantly optimised for fuel economy and to reduce the emissions of diesel particles. Whereas, unfortunately, we’re still waiting for a viable greener alternative to jet fuel, and planes still burn a massive amount of fuel, even on short haul flights.
So, shall we start planning your next school ski trip?
Please don’t hesitate to contact us for more information on which resorts you can travel to by coach, or to request your tailor-made quote.