Skiing on a budget - Telegraph But never choose a resort just because it's cheap. Resorts in Romania and Bulgaria, for example, though relatively inexpensive, can be disappointing in terms of quality of skiing and accommodation. Always select affordable resorts with well-established mountain and town infrastructure and partnerships with major tour operators for the best value for money. Examples include Livigno, La Rosière, Garmish-Partenkirchen, Sierra Nevada and Mayrhofen. Check transfer costs Before booking a cheap flight, check the cost of resort transfers. They could wipe out anything you save on flights. Taxis are an expensive option; look instead for shared transfers that are easy to book through operators such as Skiidy Gonzales (skiidygonzales.com), which runs from Geneva to several French resorts. Find Transfers (findtransfers.com) is an effective search engine for resort transfers from Geneva, Innsbruck, Málaga and Alicante airports. The Italian resort of Alta Badia (altabadia.org) offers shared return transfers from €30/£24 as part of its Touching the Dolomites scheme, while the Hotel Posta Zirm and Sport Hotel Panorama include free transfers when you book accommodation with them (touchthedolomites.com). On the other hand, if you are footing the bill for five or six family members, it might be cheaper to hire a car - this could also save you money in the resort if you are self-catering and relying on taxis to take you food shopping or out in the evening. Look for free childcare In-resort childcare adds up quickly, so chose a company which includes it in the price. Ski Famille (0845 644 3764; skifamille.co.uk) specialises in family ski holidays in France and Austria, sourcing properties located in safe, convenient resorts and on or close to the slopes; it includes professional childcare (8.30am-4.30pm) in its rates. If you book before October 31 you can save £50 per child on all Ski Famille chalets in Les Menuires when travelling on January 19, February 9 or 23 (which rules out half-term) and March 2 or 9, 2013. Prices start at £795 per adult and £655 per child for these weeks, including chalet catering, five days of childcare, and airport transfers or channel crossings. Esprit Ski (01483 791900; espritski.com) offers free children's places to all guests booking a brochure price holiday and provides children's insurance, ski equipment hire, evening clubs and nightly baby-listening free of charge. Prices start at £1,602 for two adults and two children in Val d'Isère, including flights, transfers and seven nights" chalet-catered accommodation. Stay in a chalet hotel Renting a whole chalet is expensive. The cost-effective alternative is a chalet hotel where you can book one room or several, depending on the size of your party, but still enjoy all the ambience of a chalet. Ski VIP (0844 557 3119; whyskivip.com) operates four VIP CLUB chalets (in Val d'Isère, Méribel, Morzine and Alpe d'Huez), which can be booked on a room basis. The VIP service includes ski hosting and chalet catering with canapé receptions and free beer. Prices start at £519 per person, per week. Inghams (01483 791111; inghams.co.uk) offers couples a €150/£121 bar credit when they book a holiday in select chalet hotels, such as Chalet Hotel Atlanta, Zermatt, from £399 per person, per week, including chalet catering, complimentary wines, flights and resort transfers. Do your own catering If you don't like the sound of a chalet hotel, rent a chalet on a self-catering basis. Increased demand for self-catering has dramatically improved standards and spawned "flexible catering," which enables guests to request as many catered meals as their budget allows. Peak Retreats (0844 576 01230; peakretreats.co.uk), for example, has a large portfolio of self- and part-catered chalets and apartments across France. One week's self-catered accommodation at the Alpen apartments, Les Gets, costs from £337 per person (compared with £581 per adult/£507 per child under 12 if you go catered), including a return Eurotunnel crossing with one car and FlexiPlus upgrade. Breakfasts can be arranged for €10/£8 and three-course dinners with wine for around €28/£22. Powder White (020 8877 8888; powderwhite.com) offers a similar pick-and-mix approach to catering. It has apartments across France and chalets in Courchevel, Val d'Isère, Méribel, Verbier and St Anton and one week's self-catered accommodation at Chalet Nina in St Anton costs from £509 per person (it would be £649 catered). Powder White can arrange cooked breakfasts for £5 per head and three-course dinners with wine for £30 per head. Go all-inclusive All-inclusive holidays offer good value and the assurance of knowing just how much your holiday will cost. Club Med (08453 670670; clubmed.co.uk), all-inclusive since 1950, launches three- and four-night ski breaks this winter to France, Italy and Switzerland from £575 per person, including tuition, lift passes and childcare. Crystal Ski (0871 231 2256; crystalski.co.uk) offers a number of all-inclusive holidays to resorts across the Alps, and if you book by November 30 you'll be offered deals such as £538 per person for seven nights" chalet-catered accommodation in La Plagne, including packed lunches, evening drinks, flights and transfers. Skiers aged between 18-39 should consider UCPA (0033 969 325095; ucpa.co.uk). This French non-profit organisation packages up tuition, equipment rental, lift pass and accommodation in comfortable hostels, such as the "Ski Passion" weeks in Chamonix, which cost from €536/£430 per person. Pre-book equipment Pre-booking rental equipment online saves you money, secures you the best gear and saves precious time once you're in resort. Skiset (skiset.co.uk), for example, has more than 800 shops in resorts across the globe and offers savings of up to 40 per cent on packages booked online. Making things even easier is Pre-fit Delivery (01367 801000; prefitdelivery.co.uk), which brings its "mobile ski shop" to you in the UK before your trip, and lets you select everything from skis to goggles. It then delivers the equipment to your chalet/apartment/hotel in resorts across the Alps before whisking it away at the end of your holiday. Prices are from £69 for one week's skis/snowboard, boots and poles rental and £79 for jacket, trousers, helmet, gloves and goggles. Also look out for special deals: Ski Republic (ski-republic.com), which has more than 40 outlets in French ski resorts, operates a two-for-one deal when you hire more than one item or equipment package; if you book before November 4, you also get five per cent off. Look for a deal on lift passes You can often make your budget go further by buying a family lift pass. In Méribel (meribel.net), for example, a family of four can save €104/£84 by buying a six-day family lift pass instead of four individual ones. In Italy, Monterosa (monterosa-ski.com) offers free lift passes if booked with accommodation between March 24-April 14, 2013. Operators often offer deals, too: if you book a winter holiday to La Clusaz with Crystal Ski (0871 231 2256; crystalski.co.uk), for example, it gives you a free lift pass throughout the season. Crystal also offers a buy-one, get-one-half-price deal in some Swiss resorts, including Grindelwald, Saas Fee, Zermatt and Verbier. Bring your own Obviously, you can save on equipment rental by taking your own skis and boots but check carriage charges. In World Traveller class on British Airways, for example, a boot bag counts as an extra bag and costs £35 each way. SWISS (swiss.com) offers passengers free carriage of one set of skis/board, boots and poles on all its routes, so does Austrian Airlines (0043 51766 1000; austrian.com), though you have to notify the airline in advance. Alternatively, consider taking the train. Snowcarbon (snowcarbon.co.uk) offers a handy journey planner tool to help navigate routes to 32 Alpine resorts. The site also provides rail-inclusive packages, such as seven nights" self-catered accommodation in La Rosière from £402 per person, including travel on the Eurostar Ski Train which departs from London at 10am and arrives at Bourg St Maurice at 6.51pm, with a transfer time of 45 minutes to the resort. Don't opt for a self-catering chalet to save money until you're sure there is a supermarket within easy reach or a local food delivery service. If there isn't, you'll blow the budget on eating out. Don't forget ski insurance. If you have an accident, the cost of medical treatment can be phenomenal. And read the small print as you may not be covered for off-piste skiing or other snow-related activities. If you don't have children, avoid skiing during the school holidays (February half-term and Easter), when prices shoot up. This applies to European school holidays too - check dates at schoolholidays europe.eu.