School holiday ski dates: which weeks clash
One Saturday decides the season: 13 February 2027, when England's half term, French Zone A and the second week of Paris's break all change over at once. Here are the school calendars for all six markets that feed the Alps, checked against the published dates.
Checked and updated 5 September 2026
If you can only ski in the school holidays, the date that matters most this season is Saturday 13 February 2027. That morning England's half term ski week begins, French Zone A breaks up (Zone A contains the Grenoble and Lyon academies, the French Alps' own school zone), and Paris starts the second week of its fortnight. The Dutch regio zuid breaks up that Saturday too. Four markets in the same car parks, the same transfer roads and the same lift queues.
February 2027 concertinas into three weeks. The week of 8 February takes Paris, Wales, west and south Scotland, Flanders, Bavaria and most of Italy's Carnevale days. The week of 15 February takes England, Edinburgh, Zone A and Paris again. The week of 22 February takes both French Alpine zones, most of the Netherlands and the start of Wallonia's two week break. Book either side of that stack and the mountain is quieter and cheaper; book inside it and you should know exactly which week you are buying.
The tables below cover the UK's four nations, France's three zones, and the Dutch, Belgian, German and Italian calendars. Confirmed dates come from the official published calendars; anywhere we could not verify a date is flagged rather than guessed.
UK school holidays 2026/27, by nation
There is no single UK calendar. England's dates are set by each local council, Scotland's by its 32 councils, Northern Ireland's by individual schools. Only Wales publishes one national set of dates, and Wales is a week out from England in February, which catches families on both sides of the border every year.
| Nation | Christmas 2026 | February half term 2027 | Feb ski week (Sat to Sat) | Easter 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England (dominant pattern) | 21 Dec to 1 Jan, back 4 Jan | Mon 15 to Fri 19 Feb | 13 to 20 Feb | 26 Mar to 9 Apr |
| Scotland, east (Edinburgh) | 21 Dec to 4 Jan, pupils back 6 Jan | Mon 15 to Fri 19 Feb | 13 to 20 Feb | 5 to 16 Apr |
| Scotland, west and south | 22 or 23 Dec to 5 Jan | Week of 8 Feb (Borders 8 to 12; Argyll and Bute closes Fri 5 Feb; pupils back Tue 16 Feb) | 6 to 13 Feb | 5 to 16 Apr (Argyll closes 2 Apr, back 19 Apr) |
| Wales (all 22 authorities) | Term ends 18 Dec (Powys 22 Dec), back 4 Jan | Mon 8 to Fri 12 Feb | 6 to 13 Feb | 22 Mar to 2 Apr |
| Northern Ireland | 21 Dec to 1 Jan | Thu 11 to Fri 12 Feb only | No full week | 25 Mar to 2 Apr |
The French zones for winter 2027
France splits its winter break across three zones, staggered over four weeks, and the published 2026/27 calendar is already out. Christmas is uniform: all three zones are off from Saturday 19 December 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027. February is where it matters. Zone C is Paris. Zone A is the one to respect: it holds the Grenoble and Lyon academies, meaning the French Alps' own local demand arrives in resort the same Saturday England does.
| Zone | Academies | Winter break 2027 | Ski weeks (Sat to Sat) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone C | Paris, Créteil, Versailles, Montpellier, Toulouse | Sat 6 Feb to Mon 22 Feb | 6 to 13 Feb and 13 to 20 Feb |
| Zone A | Besançon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Limoges, Lyon, Poitiers (includes the French Alps) | Sat 13 Feb to Mon 1 Mar | 13 to 20 Feb and 20 to 27 Feb |
| Zone B | Aix-Marseille, Amiens, Lille, Nancy-Metz, Nantes, Nice, Normandie, Orléans-Tours, Reims, Rennes, Strasbourg | Sat 20 Feb to Mon 8 Mar | 20 to 27 Feb and 27 Feb to 6 Mar |
Dutch, Belgian, German and Italian weeks
The continental calendars are the ones the incumbent guides skip, and they move real traffic. The Netherlands splits its spring break in two, and the southern block lands on exactly England's week. Belgium's two communities are completely desynchronised in 2027, with zero overlap between them. Germany's two biggest states have no winter holiday at all this year, just discretionary days around carnival. And Italy has no school ski week anywhere: the settimana bianca is a cultural habit, not a holiday.
Christmas is close to universal: the Netherlands and France break from Saturday 19 December, England, Wales and Wallonia from the 21st, and Germany and Italy by the 24th. The last stragglers back are Baden-Württemberg's schools, off until 9 January.
| Market | Winter break 2027 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Netherlands, regio zuid | Sat 13 to Sun 21 Feb | The same week as England's half term |
| Netherlands, noord and midden | Sat 20 to Sun 28 Feb | Lands on French Zones A and B together |
| Belgium, Flanders (krokus) | Mon 8 to Sun 14 Feb | Same week as Wales and Bavaria; official page unreachable, date from a labelled secondary source |
| Belgium, Wallonia and Brussels | Mon 22 Feb to Fri 5 Mar | Two full weeks; zero overlap with Flanders in 2027 |
| Germany, Bavaria | Mon 8 to Fri 12 Feb | Ski week Sat 6 to Sat 13 Feb |
| Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia | No winter holiday in 2027 | Three discretionary days, customarily taken around Rosenmontag, 8 Feb |
| Germany, Baden-Württemberg | No winter holiday in 2027 | Four discretionary days, traditionally around 8 to 9 Feb |
| Italy | No full school week | Carnevale days around 8 to 9 Feb; Bolzano's 6 to 14 Feb is the only near-full week |
The five busiest weeks of 2026/27
Stack every calendar above and the season's pressure points fall out. The dates in this table are the confirmed calendars; the ranking itself is projected, our analysis of how those calendars pile up, not a published fact.
| Rank | Week | Who is off | Why it bites |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sat 13 to Sat 20 Feb 2027 | England, east Scotland, French Zone A week 1, French Zone C week 2, Dutch zuid | The peak UK week of the season: the highest chalet prices, full resorts, and a double French changeover on the Saturday |
| 2 | Sat 20 to Sat 27 Feb 2027 | French Zones A and B, Dutch noord and midden, Wallonia and Brussels from Mon 22 | The densest continental week: UK facing prices ease, but French occupancy and lift queues peak |
| 3 | Sat 6 to Sat 13 Feb 2027 | French Zone C (Paris), Wales, west and south Scotland, Flanders, Bavaria, most Italian Carnevale days, NI's two days | The broadest overlap of the winter, though each market is individually smaller than week 1's |
| 4 | Sat 26 Dec 2026 to Sat 2 Jan 2027 | Everyone: the UK, all French zones, the Netherlands, both Belgian communities, all German states, Italy | Traditionally the most expensive week of the season on chalet rates; it ranks fourth here only because it does not differentiate markets |
| 5 | Sat 19 to Sat 26 Dec 2026 | All markets break between 19 and 24 Dec | Premium priced but softer than New Year; late continental break up dates shave the front of the week |
The quiet weeks that still have full snow
The flip side of a three week February pile up is that the rest of the deep winter is emptier than most people assume. Once Baden-Württemberg's schools go back after 9 January, no school market in any of these calendars is on holiday until Paris breaks up on 6 February. That is the window we would book without a school tie.
- Sat 9 Jan to Sat 6 Feb 2027: four consecutive weeks with no school holiday in any of the markets above. Mid winter cold, the deepest and most reliable base of the season, and the best value to snow ratio you will get all year.
- Sat 6 to Sat 13 Mar 2027: nearly clean. French Zone B's break runs to Monday 8 March and Wallonia's ends Friday 5 March, so only the first weekend carries any school traffic.
- Sat 13 to Sat 20 Mar 2027: fully clean, the gap between Zone B going back and the earliest Easter breaks (Wales and Germany from 22 March).
- One trap: Sat 27 Feb to Sat 6 Mar looks quiet from the UK, and UK facing prices reflect it, but French Zone B's second week and Wallonia's second week keep French resorts busy on the ground.
Easter 2027 is early, Sunday 28 March, so it lands in the final weeks of the season. England's break runs 26 March to 9 April and Wales goes 22 March to 2 April, which is late enough that altitude is everything: aim high, at the likes of Val Thorens and Tignes, rather than at low villages. Scotland's spring break, 5 to 16 April, misses Easter weekend entirely and sits at the very end of the season, so the same rule applies twice over.
Planning a week in Val Thorens?
Chalets, apartments and hotels in Val Thorens, priced for the whole week.