Not travelling on Peak Holiday dates?
If you are lucky enough to be able to travel outside of UK holidays, then there are a couple of tips on when to pick the best snow, how to get the best prices and how to avoid the coldest periods.
The Cheapest Times:
In general the best period for low rates and good special offers is between 5th January and 14th February – in most resorts this is “Low Season”. From then on you enter the US holiday periods of President’s Week and Spring Break which run through March.
Spring Break is not madly busy, but accommodation rates generally increase (by up to 30%) and the properties may not offer such attractive special offers. This can make a massive difference to the price of your holiday, especially at the higher end resorts and hotels.
Some resorts are not as affected by this:
Temperature in resorts:
Some resorts can be affected by quite extreme cold snaps, with temperatures plummeting to as low as -30° C. These can occur at any time between December and March, although they affect far fewer resorts than you might think and cold snaps generally only last for a few days at a time. Resorts prone to cold snaps include:
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Alberta Resorts - Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise
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New England Resorts - Killington, Sunday River, Stowe
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Quebec Resorts - Tremblant
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Colorado - the higher resorts can be affected by bad weather – but…if there's no bad weather there's no snow!
Weather in areas such as Heavenly, Squaw Valley, Mammoth and Whistler is tempered by the Pacific, so you don’t tend to get the really cold temperatures here - temperatures may drop to -10° C, only very rarely getting below -15° C. Other more temperate resorts are Big White, Silver Star and Sun Peaks.
Resorts like Park City and Jackson can get cold snaps of down to -25° C in December and January, but these tend to be on days when there is no cloud cover and the sun is out, which helps a great deal!
Best Snow Periods:
This is a bit of a poisoned chalice as it changes in each resort every season! I know I may regret saying this but.....!
- Early January in Whistler and California is often a good time, with late March having a good record too.
- Early February and March are typically good for Utah and Colorado.
- March is often good for Alberta
- Late February is frequently snowy for the New England resorts.