Skiing in Spain – Sierra Nevada

Ski in Sierra Nevada Spain

Skiing in Sierra Nevada Spain in the Andalusia area of Spain is a wonderful addition to any winter trip to Spain. Andalusia is a beautiful area rich in history, activities and culture. Generally cities have old city walls, amazing cathedrals and fabulous castles. The Sierra Nevada Ski resort is about a 45 minute drive from beautiful Granada Spain. It’s pretty easy to take a few days at the resort to get a ski break. Sierra Nevada Ski resort is family friendly and there are instructors in many languages.

Our trip to Sierra Nevada Spain was Feb. 2018. This post has been updated since that time with more information.

Planning our Eurpean Ski Trip

When I first started planning this trip, skiing was really high on my wish list. I originally wanted to spend 2-4 weeks in a cheap ski town – I was thinking something like Bansko Bulgaria. My problem ended up being transportation. The cheaper ski towns were much harder to get to and did not have cheap flights. Instead we just choose to head to the Sierra Nevada area of Spain (only a few hours from our AirBnb in Olvera) and very near Granada. It was much easier and we got our ski fix.

Sierra Nevada Spain Ski Resort

The Sierra Nevada area is perched on the side of a mountain just outside of Granada. This is a small resort in the south of Spain in the Andalusia area. This means that in the winter you can easily have a very Spanish vacation and take a day or two to get in some ski runs.

The resort area itself is very similar to what we are used to in the states. It was very busy. The magic carpet area had long lines. I think the other lifts were better. Per the instructors the week before was even busier. We did not see a playground like we are used to in the states and I’m not sure about ice skating. They did have a tubing area.

Getting to Sierra Nevada Spain

Sierra Nevada is about 1 hour outside of Grenada (some places say 30 minutes). It’s a 2 lane road going up but is well maintained. As soon as the snow starts the resort starts. I just kept thinking – “were’s the snow.” There may be buses and other transportation options but the drive was not bad, especially if you’re already use to a winter town. You just drive up and up until you get snow.

We did get confused and missed our turn resulting in a panicked turn around that resulted in a ticket – I’m assuming we weren’t the only ones to get that turn wrong. That entire episode was pretty anxiety producing. It took a little patience and exploring to find our condo but the parking was not terribly tricky for a ski area.

Lodging in Sierra Nevada Spain

We stayed in a condo that we booked through Booking.com. Originally we booked a 1 bedroom but we were upgraded to a 3 bedroom (yeah). Unfortunately I somehow missed that it did not have internet (we did not have the days of from work. Luckily our condo was above the main office and we were able to use wifi – until they turned if off at 10pm – (but R works until 11 or 12 when in Europe .. phone hot spot for the back up plan).

Near the condo were several small restaurants, ski rental places, and other small shops that you’d expect in a resort area. The condo was a short walk then chair lift down to the resort main which was perfect.

Ski Lessons and Lift Tickets – Sierra Nevada

After some research, I signed the kids up for lessons. Skiing gets expensive fast, very expensive. In Colorado we know how to get the kids free or cheap season passes, we buy used equipment and we can usually find decent deals on lodging (and lessons if we book way ahead). So even though skiing in Colorado is probably 2 times as much as Spain we make it a lot cheaper by knowing the local deals. Here, no luck. We spent $300 on lesson, bought 2 days of lift tickets for 4 people (and gondola tickets for me), and had to rent equipment.

We did our lessons with the British Ski School and registered about 2 weeks ahead of our visit. The instructors were great and the kids really enjoyed lessons. The cost is about 1/2 of private lessons in the US but still costly (skiing is expensive). They do offer group lessons but they did not have a group that fit our schedule. There are numerous other ski lesson groups. We choose British Ski School just to make sure our kids could understand the instructors.

Getting on the Slopes

The other problem with skiing – it’s not easy (I’m not even talking the skiing part – the getting dressed, getting tickets, getting equipment, walking to and going up the gondola, sunscreening kids, feeding kids, finding instructors and actually getting on the snow part). It’s exhausting. When you factor in getting dressed we’re talking like 3-4 hours just to get to the snow. Luckily we got up early and made it to the lessons just in time. The kids loved lessons – even the 3 year old had a blast.

After lessons and eating a snack there was just enough time for the 3 year old to get on a few magic carpets then we had to make our way back down (R still works – we have to pay these guys somehow).

Our Schedule

Basically we went skiing early morning/afternoon for 2 days then tried to have “downtime” in the condo for the afternoon and day 3. Since we are traveling full-time, downtime is pretty important so it’s not that big of a deal when we don’t have plans for every single day. I would recommend choosing a place closer to the gondala’s vs up the mountain just to make it easier to walk around.

Day 2

We had a later start then I would like (but that is more common than being on time for us). I took A on a few magic carpets for about an hour until her temper was a little raw from waiting in line. M and B went up the chair lifts with R and had a great time. They even went down a solemn course. We had to start making our way down the mountain about 1:30 so R could log in to work – that did not go over well at all with B but eventually the tears dried up and we made it back.

To Sum it up

So I’d say our expenses for the trip were probably over $100/ hr of skiing. I might just need to not think about that so much 🙂 The kids did have a really good time and when we are back in Colorado next year they will at least have been on skis for a little bit. Still probably worth it but definitely a budget buster.If it’s in your budget, it’s a nice side trip. It helped the kids get their snow fix (even though it was just a short snow fix) so was a win for us but if our budget was tighter it would have had to go. Tomorrow – Lisbon Portugal

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Blog Post Prior to our Sierra Nevada Ski Trip

Since we moved to Colorado, skiing has been a big deal for our kids. They’re not black diamond kids but they really enjoy it. It’s not just the older kids – the 3 year old is obsessed with snow. I don’t know how many times this trip she’s said how much she wants to go a misses her “snowy mountains.” We put her on skis last year and she’s hooked.

I let the kids know a couple of weeks ago that I was trying to get them ski lessons and A has not stopped talking about it.

We’re a family of 5 (Physician Assistant mom, IT project manager dad and 3 kids ages 3,6,10) taking a gap year from normal life to travel. For blog posts, locations, and more information on how we did it and how you can to click here.