Falls Creek family holiday on a budget

Bargain and snow holiday don’t often go together, especially when travelling with 2 children in the school holidays. We travelled by plane to Melbourne Airport then the coach to Falls Creek. We stayed at Snow Ski Resort in the Bowl. How much did this cost?

The Coach from Melbourne Airport to Falls Creek -  2 Adults  & 2 Children     - $596 return

Accommodation at Snow ski apartments for 5 nights - $1695

So before you have even got your toboggan out it has so far cost $2291 + flights.

The coach was very comfortable, and stopped at a really nice and reasonably priced restaurant / cafe where you can pre order hot food and pick it up straight away when you get inside. There were no toilets on the coach so I was a bit concerned that there would be issues with the children, but there weren’t. The Coach stopped twice on the 6 hour journey, once at the restaurant and again at the depot at the bottom of the mountain, there you could buy food and use the bathroom.  On the way back down the mountain I was glad for the stop at the bottom of the hill, My Daughter was motion sick and crying. I had a bag ready, luckily it wasn’t used but after a walk around the depot she was fine and we continued back to the airport with no drama.

Once we arrived at Falls creek we were dropped off at the transport gate, there were people and luggage everywhere it was hard to move and no one seemed to know what they were doing. I found a staff member who was pleasant and helpful. He gave me a map of the village and said the wait for the over snow transport was going to be over an hour and our best bet would be to walk. So with both kids and 4 suitcases we set off up the hill. The climb took about 30 mins. Cant say I would do that again. If it was just the 2 of us I would but it was hard for our son to drag a suitcase up a snow covered mountain! However by not getting the over snow transport we saved $50. We also dragged the suitcases down the hill the morning we left, that wasn’t too bad, total saving there $100.

I would recommend sending 1 person on the over snow transport (cost $33 one way) with all the suitcases with any children under  5 (free) then the walk up the mountain isn’t too bad especially if you don’t have to drag a suitcase. Also there is a free chair lift to take you from the bottom of the hill up into the bowl. Snow Ski Apartments is right next to the lift.

The accommodation looked pretty average, but it was warm, clean and comfortable, although the bed was really hard. We were up 3 flights of stairs so that was another challenge to drag the bags up there after dragging them up the mountain. The manager did help with one of the suitcases and came in and set the temperature. All the staff we came across during our stay were very helpful and pleasant.

We hired toboggans, they were $30 each for a four night hire. Well worth the investment, the kids loved them. At the opposite end of the village there was a dedicated toboggan field, to get there you take the free over snow bus, it looks like a tank. Then you get a regular mini bus the rest of the way. It took about 20 mins to get over there including the waits between buses.

We did not go skiing, the weather for the last 3 days was really foggy and I didn’t feel comfortable to go skiing for the first time when I couldn’t see really far and I was concerned the kids would get lost. To go skiing for 2 days, including ski hire, lessons and lift passes was going to cost close to $1000 to book through the travel agent. There are so many ski hire places I am sure with a bit of leg work you could find a better deal. As mentioned before there is a free lift from the bottom of the hill up to the bowl, but it does say repeat riding requires a ticket, I didn’t see any tickets being checked. Also that lift doesn’t go up to the top of the mountain, but it goes higher enough for the new to skiing.

We filled in our day by going out in the morning on the toboggans and throwing snow balls and making snow men and just playing in the snow, we would come in for lunch and hang our suits in the drying cupboard then head out again a few hours later.

Overall it was a great holiday and we will be going back in a couple of years when the children are a bit older and we will be going skiing this time.

Other Tips for saving money on this trip.

Hiring a snow suit is around $20 a day per person, depending on how long you are going see if you can borrow or buy a second hand suit, there are so many good ones out there as alot of people buy them and only use them once or twice.

Use one of your suitcases for food that will travel, cans of baked beans, canned vegetables etc, muesli bars, cereal, coffee, tea, sugar, 2 min noodles, pasta.. anything you think you will need. There are 2 shops in the village, the on half way down the mountain is super expensive, over $6 for a packet of tim tams! The Foodworks at the bottom of the hill is cheaper but everything is at a premium and there are no specials. We shopped there and then got the free chair lift back up the hill. Snow ski also had some items in the reception for sale. Surprisingly the price of milk was cheaper there. $4 for 2 lt, compared to $4.39 at the bottom of the hill.

Unless you plan on going to the snow a few times, rubber boots with thermal socks will be fine. The kids had a pair of $15 Woolworths winter boots, with 2 pairs of socks, the tops of the boots were not quite waterproof  but they were ok. I had a pair of ankle high rubber boots, not the smartest move, as if you stepped in deep snow your boots fill up, luckily the knee high thermal socks for snow were quite water proof, so it took about an hour before my feet were wet and cold. Next time we will get knee high rubber boots or proper snow boots.

See if you can find a private rental, it will probably be alot cheaper.