Naturally, the most savings can be made where the ski pass prices are the highest. Well-known resorts Pec pod Sněžkou, Tanvaldský Špičák, Klínovec, Plešivec or Dolní Morava charge over a thousand crowns per day. However, these are the prices valid in the main season for impulsive visitors who only buy their ski passes on the given day at the center’s ticket office.
These prices are the basis of the price map compiled by the data editor of Aktuálně.cz, which includes 202 ski resorts in the Czech Republic and near abroad. Only in this way can the comparison be fair even to ski resorts that keep uniform prices regardless of the form and date of purchase.
In practice, in addition to skiing during the low season, you can especially save by buying a ski pass online in advance. Sales through the e-shop are becoming more and more widespread, this year, for example, the Paprsek center in the Rychlebské Hory launched it. An electronic ticket here saves waiting in line at the ticket office and is also a tenth cheaper. In this case, buying online almost cancels the year-on-year price increase.
It goes for half
In addition, larger centers have dynamic prices in the e-shop, with which you can save even more. For example, at the time of writing this article, Špindlerův Mlýn was offering a full-day ski pass for Saturday, February 28 (that is, the date when half of Prague is on spring break) for 880 crowns instead of the standard 1,690 crowns when paying at the center’s cash desk. That’s a difference of almost 50 percent. A day earlier, on Friday, February 27, you can ski on Ještěda for 380 instead of 990 crowns if you buy in time.
At the same time, the risk that the buyer takes on by purchasing so far in advance is surprisingly small. The fee for any early cancellation is only 30 crowns in both cases.
The variable tariff offered by Gopass, the most widespread ski e-shop in the Czech Republic, reflects not only whether it is a weekend, holiday or vacation. Other factors include the number of ski passes sold for a given date, the current occupancy of the resort, and weather and snow conditions at short notice.
By buying in time, you can safely get under the thousand in Lower Moravia, the prices of ski passes for adults for February here start at 690 crowns. In the case of Tanvaldské Špičák and Klínovce, the discounts are smaller, the one-day season ticket costs 1100 and 1090 crowns respectively in the e-shop, but it is valid any day in the season.
Even in the Černá hora – Pec pod Sněžkou resort, it is not possible to get below 1000 in the main season, the ski pass bound for February 28 is now sold in the e-shop for 1110 crowns. In this case, even the Innogy discount card will not help, because it is only valid for purchases at a brick-and-mortar checkout.
Price increase within acceptable limits
An all-day skiing trip on local slopes will cost a family of four an average of 2,900 crowns. A third of the ski areas kept last year’s price list in force, but some increased the price by more than 20 percent. These are the main findings resulting from a large price map of 200 ski resorts in the Czech Republic and near abroad, prepared by the data editor of Aktuálně.cz.
However, most operators continue to keep the price of a one-day ski pass below this limit even in the main season between holidays. This year, the average is around 850 crowns for an adult and 600 crowns for a child. This is five percent more than last year, for a family of four it means roughly two hundred more than last season.
Related
“The prices of ski passes remain very similar to last year or increase only slightly. Skiers pay an average of 750 to 1000 crowns for a full-day ski pass,” said the Association of Mountain Resorts of the Czech Republic at the start of the winter season. The Aktuálně.cz price map proves her right.
However, a few centers reached more sharply into the price list. In Mladý Buky in the Krkonoše foothills, instead of last year’s 710 crowns, they want 900 crowns, the aforementioned Tanvaldský Špičák raised the price of a full-day ski pass from 990 to 1200 crowns, prices also went up by more than a tenth in the Beskydy resorts of Severka and Karolinka, in Zadní Telnica in the Ore Mountains, on the Paprsek cable car in Rychlebské hory or on Šumava Špičák.
On the other hand, dozens of resorts offer skiing at last year’s prices. These include the most expensive, such as Špindlerův Mlýn, Lysá Hora – Horní Domky, Klínovec or Dolní Morava, but also small family areas such as Kubova Huť, Mariánky, Strážný, Kašperské Hory or Razula. They even discounted ski passes for adults in Kohútka, children’s tickets in Černé dola, and both in Hodonín in the Czech-Moravian Highlands.
