Skiing is expensive, and the pass is only part of it. But for a family learning, a group of friends out for the day or a student skiing on Sundays, it is the part that can vary five-fold depending on the resort. This article looks at the resorts where the adult day pass is listed under €30 on the latest official list published, and says who they suit.
Skiing close to home
Prabouré, in the Forez (adult day pass: €15 (season not stated on the price list)), and Saint-Hilaire-du-Touvet, on the Petites Roches plateau above Grenoble (€15 (2025-2026 season, the latest price list published)), are among the cheapest days in France. Both are resorts of a few runs, run by councils or associations, open when the snow is there. The Col de Porte, in the Chartreuse forty minutes from Grenoble — adult day pass: €17 (2025-2026 season, the latest price list published) — has only a tiny area (pistes: 2 km), but a resident Météo-France station (COL DE PORTE-NIVOSE, 1,325 m) that makes it one of the best-measured places in France. Complete winters measured: 16; days a winter with at least 30 cm on the ground: 91.
At the Semnoz, twenty minutes from Annecy, the adult day pass: €18.50 (season not stated on the price list), and the 4-hour pass (half day): €15.50 (season not stated on the price list) — the only resort on the list that also sells hourly passes, from two to six hours. A human-sized area (pistes: 16 km; bottom of the area: 1,410 m; top: 1,699 m), a view of Mont Blanc, and chairlifts: for a family’s first day on skis it is hard to beat.
The Vosges, the Pyrenees, the Massif Central
Gaschney (adult day pass: €20 (season not stated on the price list)) and Schnepfenried (€25.50 (2025-2026 season, the latest price list published)) are two resorts on the Alsace side of the Vosges, under an hour from Colmar. La Bresse Lispach (€22 (2026-2027 season)) is the nordic, family-oriented neighbour of La Bresse Hohneck, the big Vosges resort (adult day pass: €41.50 (2026-2027 season)).
In the Pyrénées-Orientales, La Quillane (€24.50 (2025-2026 season, the latest price list published)) is a beginners’ resort on the Capcir plateau. Prat Peyrot, on Mont Aigoual in the Cévennes — adult day pass: €26 (2024-2025 season, the latest price list published) — publishes its list late: the season shown is that of the latest one it has put online.
At Plaine-Joux, above Passy facing Mont Blanc, the adult day pass — €25.50 (2025-2026 season, the latest price list published) — buys a small area (pistes: 11 km) and one of the finest views in the Alps.
The “big” mid-mountain resorts
A step up are the resorts that make a real week: Super-Besse, in the Sancy (adult day pass: €43.50 (2026-2027 season); pistes: 40 km; bottom of the area: 1,350 m; top: 1,850 m), which also floodlights runs for night skiing, like Le Collet d’Allevard; Le Lioran, in the Cantal, at the door of a railway station; Le Mont-Dore, on the other side of the Sancy. They cost more than the previous ones because they offer more: chairlifts, a proper area, a ski school.
What the price does not say: the snow
A cheap resort that opens for only three weeks a winter is expensive per kilometre skied. That is why each resort page shows, out of season, what the nearest Météo-France station has measured on the ground over at least ten complete winters: the number of days a winter with 30 cm or more, fortnight by fortnight. In the mid-mountains that number of days varies enormously with the range and the altitude — Col de Porte: 91; La Bresse Lispach: 16 — and it is what separates a bargain from a gamble.
The table below is our ranking of resorts under €35, computed live on the published lists.
