What ski in ski out means: skis on at the door, in theory
Skis on at the door, a lift without walking, and a run back home: what ski in ski out should mean, why listings use it so loosely, and the questions to ask.
Ski in ski out means you can put your skis on at the door, ski to a lift, and ski back to the door at the end of the day. Nobody regulates the phrase, so in a listing it can mean anything from exactly that to a walk across a road.
What it means for your week
Done properly, it takes away the worst part of a ski morning: the walk to the lift in ski boots, carrying your skis and usually somebody else's. With small children it is the difference between a calm start and a hard one. It also means you can come back for lunch, or for a forgotten glove, without a bus.
How common it is depends on the resort. France's purpose built resorts were planned around it, and our own guides find the phrase largely honest at Les Arcs, Val Thorens and Tignes. It is easy in much of Saalbach-Hinterglemm too. In older towns and villages, Zermatt, Chamonix and Courmayeur among them, true ski in ski out is the exception, and the day usually starts with a stroll, a bus, a taxi or a lift.
Why the phrase is used loosely
Because it sells, and there is no definition to check it against. Places listed as ski in ski out include:
A short walk away. Some are around 100 metres from the piste. Some are across a road from it.
One way only. Pistes only run downhill. A chalet at the foot of a home run but below the lifts is ski in at the end of the day and a walk or a bus in the morning; one beside a piste with no way back to it is ski out only.
Only when the snow allows. A home run without snowmaking can go patchy in a dry spell or late in the season, and wind or a closure can shut it on any day. That matters more the lower the village. The middle village of the 55 resorts we cover sits at 1,350 metres; the highest, Val Thorens, at 2,300.
Words like "slope side" and "near the piste" usually promise less again. Three questions settle it: where exactly do you put your skis on and take them off, is the way there a marked piste or a track, and what colour is it?
The thing people get wrong
Asking whether a place is ski in ski out, and not for whom. The run to the door has a colour like any other. A chalet beside a red is ski in ski out for a confident skier, and a walk or a lift down for the beginner in your group. If anyone is in their first week, ask what colour the last run home is, and whether it is one they can ski tired at the end of the day.
Where to go next
Our guide to piste colours explains what that colour will mean in each country. If you are still choosing the kind of stay, catered chalet, apartment or hotel sets out what each one includes. And if you are learning, our shortlist of high resorts that suit beginners leads with Les Arcs, one of the places where the phrase holds up.
Planning a week in Les Arcs?
The skiing, the villages and how to get there.