By James Whitfield · Last updated: September 2026 · 13 min read
In This Guide
- Quick Facts
- Which is cheapest for a family of four?
- What does a hire car for a ski week really cost?
- Is the train cheaper than a transfer for a family?
- Do children travel free on trains in the Alps?
- Is the shared ski coach cheaper than a private transfer?
- How much is a private transfer for four with skis?
- Which option gets a family to the slopes fastest?
- When is a hire car worth it for a ski holiday?
- Price your own family's transfer
- Frequently Asked Questions
For a family of four with their own skis, the train is the cheapest way from the airport to an Alpine resort and a hire car is the most expensive. Return, the train costs from about €70 to €188 once the children ride free, a shared ski coach €320 to €400, a private minivan transfer €470 to €660, and a week's van hire €861 to €1,181 with parking. The transfer is the fastest door to door.
This guide prices all four for one family, two adults, children of 8 and 11, four ski bags and four suitcases, on a February Saturday, on three of the busiest ski routes in the Alps: Geneva Airport to Courchevel, Munich Airport to Kitzbühel and Zurich Airport to St Anton am Arlberg. Every line has a source at the foot of the page. For how ski transfers work across every gateway, start with our complete guide to ski transfers in Europe.
Quick Facts: family ski travel costs (2026/27)
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| Cheapest for a family of four | The train, from about €70 return (Munich Airport to Kitzbühel, advance fares, children free) |
| Most expensive | A hire car: €861 to €1,181 for the week, parking included |
| Private transfer, return, minivan | €470 (Zurich to St Anton) to €660 (Geneva to Courchevel) |
| Shared ski coach, return | €320 to €400 for the family, before extra bags |
| Fastest door to door | Private transfer: about 1h55 to 2h15, no change |
| Do children ride free on the train? | Ages 6 to 14 on Deutsche Bahn and ÖBB saver tickets to Austria; under 12 on Saturday TER trains in the French Alps |
| Estate car or van with four ski bags? | A van: four ski bags and four suitcases do not fit an estate |
Sources: TransferBnB route pages, rental desk tariffs, rail operator fare rules, resort parking tariffs, September 2026.
Which is cheapest for a family of four: transfer, hire car, train or bus?
The train, on every route we priced.
| Route, return | Private transfer (minivan) | Hire car (van, one week) | Train | Shared ski coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geneva Airport to Courchevel | €660 | €1,181 with parking | about €188 (Saturday family fare) | €320 plus extra bags, or €356 |
| Munich Airport to Kitzbühel | €540 | €861 with parking | about €70 advance, €229 on the day | €336 |
| Zurich Airport to St Anton | €470 | €1,170, parking at the chalet | about €84 advance, €257 on the day | €400 |
Read across a row and the order never changes: train, coach, transfer, car. Read down the transfer column against the car column and the gap is €321 to €700 in the transfer's favour.
That second gap is the one most comparisons get backwards. The usual advice is that a hire car is the cheap option for a family of four, because four people share one rental. It stops being true the moment the skis come too. Four ski bags and four suitcases need a van, and a van for a February week costs more than two private transfers before the fuel goes in.
The train and the coach are cheaper than the transfer, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What they cost instead is time, changes and the weight of eight bags, and the sections below put a number on each.
What does a hire car for a ski week really cost?
About €861 to €1,181, parking included.
The headline rental rate is the smallest line on the bill. Here is the Geneva to Courchevel week, itemised for a van collected on the Swiss side of Geneva Airport:
| Line | Cost | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Van, 7 days | €756 | February average of €108 a day |
| Two booster seats | €93 | CHF 44 each per rental |
| Cross-border fee to France | €80 | CHF 10.81 a day, capped at CHF 75.67 |
| French motorway tolls | €42.60 | €21.30 each way, A41 and A43 |
| Fuel | €55.61 | 358 km at 7 litres per 100 km, €2.219 a litre |
| Parking, Courchevel 1850 | €154 | Official 7-day tariff, winter 2026/27 |
| Total | €1,181 | Before a second driver or insurance extras |
Winter tyres are included at the Swiss desks from 15 November to 31 March, and the Swiss motorway vignette comes on a Swiss-registered car. Add a second driver and the bill rises by about €104. On the French side of the airport the cross-border fee disappears, but winter equipment becomes an extra: one national rental tariff lists winter tyres at €39 a day and chains at €15 a day. France's Loi Montagne requires one or the other from 1 November to 31 March in the mountain communes, with a €135 fine.
The Munich to Kitzbühel week comes to about €746 before parking: a van at €84 a day, boosters from €84, a €14.99 cross-border fee, the €12.80 Austrian 10-day vignette if you stay on the A12 to Wörgl, and €46 of fuel. The P1 car park at the Hahnenkamm adds €115 for a week. The Zurich to St Anton week is the dearest at about €1,170, because Swiss van rates are the highest of the three (€128 a day in February) and the Arlberg tunnel costs €13 each way on top of the Austrian vignette. Most St Anton chalets have their own parking.
The quiet cost is the calendar. The car drives twice, on arrival and departure day, and sits under snow for the five or six days between.
Is the train cheaper than a transfer for a family?
Yes, and by a wide margin.
The train from Munich Airport to Kitzbühel starts from about €17.50 per adult booked ahead, and the two children ride free, so the family pays about €70 return. From Zurich Airport to St Anton the saver fare starts from about €21 per adult, and children under 15 ride free on ÖBB's Sparschiene tickets, so about €84 return. Buy on the day and those become about €229 and €257. Against a €540 or €470 transfer, the train wins on price by several hundred euros.
Most published family comparisons price the train at four adult fares. On both Austrian routes the real figure is two.
The catch is everything that is not the fare. The fastest Kitzbühel train takes 2h36 with two changes, at Kufstein or Wörgl. The fastest St Anton train takes 2h48 with one change, at Buchs. Deutsche Bahn allows hand luggage plus one larger item per person, and this family has two large items each. Kitzbühel station is not your chalet, and nobody publishes a taxi fare from it. St Anton is kinder: the station is a short walk from the lifts, and a local taxi runs €16 to €24 with skis included.
Geneva to Courchevel is the hard one. The train runs from the airport to Genève Cornavin, then on SNCF regional trains to Moûtiers with a change at Aix-les-Bains or Chambéry, 3h45 at the fastest. Then comes the bus up to Courchevel, another 55 to 70 minutes. On a Saturday the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes illico PROMO fare takes 40% off for a group of two to five and carries under-12s free, so the whole trip costs about €188 for the family. Without that offer it is about €331.
That is roughly five hours, three changes and eight bags, against a 2h15 drive to the door.
One timing note. None of these February 2027 trains is on sale yet. Deutsche Bahn usually opens sales for the new timetable in mid-October, ÖBB and SBB sell six months ahead, and SNCF opens its winter TGV sales on 12 November 2026. The cheapest fares go first.
Do children travel free on trains in Austria, Germany and Switzerland?
Often, but the rule depends on the ticket, not the country.
Here is what applies to a family trip from an Alpine airport:
- Deutsche Bahn: children under 6 always free; 6 to 14 free with anyone aged 15 or over, including on international tickets to Austria, as long as they are entered on the ticket. Up to four children per ticket.
- ÖBB: on Sparschiene saver tickets, up to four children under 15 ride free per adult, with no railcard needed. On a standard ticket, under 6 is free and 6 to 14 pays half.
- SBB: under 6 free, 6 to 15 half fare. Swiss family cards cover the Swiss network only, not the Austrian leg to St Anton.
- SNCF regional trains: under 4 free, 4 to 11 half fare, and under 12 free on the Saturday illico PROMO fare in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Is the shared ski coach cheaper than a private transfer?
Yes, by €70 to €304 for this family.
From Geneva Airport to Courchevel, the regional ski coach charges from €47 per adult and €32.90 per child aged 3 to 12, or €319.60 return for the family. Its cheapest fare includes one hold item per person: a suitcase or a pair of skis, not both. A family with both buys four extra bags each way or the dearer fare. Shared shuttles that include skis start at €44.50 a seat, €356 return. From Munich Airport to Kitzbühel, shared seats start at €42, €336 return. From Zurich Airport to St Anton, the scheduled ski coach is €130 return per adult and €35 per trip per child, €400 for the family.
The coach gives back its saving on the clock. Geneva to Courchevel by ski coach takes about four hours with a change at Moûtiers, and even a direct shuttle quotes 3h15 and "often" four hours or more on a Saturday. The Zurich coach takes about 3h10 and needs booking at least 24 hours ahead.
St Anton is where the gap closes completely. Rent skis in the resort, and an estate transfer for the family costs €400 return, exactly what the coach costs.
Same money, an hour less each way, and a door at the end of it.
How much is a private transfer for a family of four with skis?
From €470 to €660 return in a minivan, on these three routes.
A private transfer is priced per vehicle, not per seat, so the family's number is the vehicle's number: from €330 each way from Geneva Airport to Courchevel, from €270 from Munich Airport to Kitzbühel, and from €230 out and €240 back between Zurich Airport and St Anton. Per head that is €165, €135 and €117.50 for the return trip. Skis, snowboards and boots travel free, every vehicle runs on winter tyres with chains aboard, and the driver tracks the flight and waits if it lands late.
Why a minivan and not a car? An estate takes four people with their cases, or with skis on a roof rack, but not both inside, and operators who drive nine-seat minivans put the load at four to six ski bags with two to four medium suitcases. Rent skis in the resort and an estate does the job: €530 return to Courchevel, €420 to Kitzbühel and €400 to St Anton.
Child seats are available on request, so ask when you book. That matters more than it sounds: Switzerland requires a child seat or booster until 12 or 150 cm and applies the rule in taxis too, and Germany and Austria set similar thresholds. On a rental car, two boosters are €84 to €93 of the bill.
These are starting prices from our route pages. TransferBnB is a marketplace, so the final price is the offer a carrier makes for your date, and it is fixed before you pay. For the same comparison on one route in more depth, see our guide to Munich to Kitzbühel by train, transfer or car.
Which option gets a family to the slopes fastest?
The private transfer, on all three routes.
| Route | Private transfer | Train, fastest | Shared ski coach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geneva Airport to Courchevel | ~2h15, to the door | 3h45 to Moûtiers, 2 changes, then 55 to 70 min by bus | about 4h with a change; direct shuttle 3h15, Saturdays often 4h+ |
| Munich Airport to Kitzbühel | ~1h55, to the door | 2h36, 2 changes, to the station | 1h50 plus drop-offs |
| Zurich Airport to St Anton | ~2h, to the door | 2h48, 1 change, to the station | about 3h10 |
Read the table by the column that ends at your door. Only one of them does.
The hire car drives the same roads in about the same time, after the queue at the rental desk and before the search for a parking space. On a changeover Saturday the valley roads are shared by everyone arriving and leaving, which is why our resort by nearest airport table adds 30 to 50 percent for a Saturday morning.
When is a hire car worth it for a ski holiday?
When the car earns its keep during the week, not only on the two drives.
Three kinds of family get their money's worth:
- Staying in a village below the lifts? A chalet 20 minutes down the valley is cheaper, and a car is how you reach the slopes every morning. Check the ski bus first; in St Anton and Kitzbühel it is free with a lift pass.
- Skiing several resorts? A week split between areas, or a day trip to a glacier, needs a car the transfer cannot replace.
- Staying longer than a week? The rental cost grows by the day while the transfer cost stays at two trips.
For a family flying in to one resort for one week, none of those applies. The car becomes the most expensive thing on the trip that never moves, and it still needs a toll ticket, a vignette and two boosters. Our transfer versus taxi comparison runs the same arithmetic for shorter airport runs.
Price your own family's transfer
Post the trip, with the number of people, the ski bags and the child seats you need, and verified carriers who drive the route send offers. You choose one, the price is fixed before you pay, and the driver meets you in arrivals.
Start from the route page for your resort: Geneva Airport to Courchevel, Munich Airport to Kitzbühel or Zurich Airport to St Anton. For any other resort, our ski resort transfers page takes the request. Whether you are four with rented skis or six with snowboards and a baby seat, the vehicle is sized to the family before you pay.
AI-generated images.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it cheaper to hire a car or book a ski transfer for a family of four?
A ski transfer is cheaper once the family brings its own skis. Four ski bags and four suitcases need a van, and a February week of van hire with boosters, tolls, fuel and resort parking costs €861 to €1,181 on the Geneva, Munich and Zurich routes. A private minivan transfer for the same trips costs €470 to €660 return.
Is the train cheaper than a private transfer for a family going skiing?
Yes. From Munich Airport to Kitzbühel the family pays from about €70 return, because children aged 6 to 14 ride free on saver tickets, against €540 for a minivan transfer. The train takes 2h36 with two changes and stops at the station, with eight bags to carry. The transfer takes about 1h55 and stops at the chalet door.
Do children travel free on trains to Austrian ski resorts?
On most saver tickets, yes. Deutsche Bahn carries children aged 6 to 14 free with an adult on international tickets to Austria, if they are entered on the ticket, and ÖBB's Sparschiene fares carry up to four children under 15 free per adult. Standard ÖBB tickets charge half fare from 6 to 14. A private transfer is priced per vehicle, so children add nothing to it either.
How much does a hire car for a ski week from Geneva Airport really cost?
About €1,181 for a van to Courchevel, parking included. That is €756 for seven days at a February average of €108 a day, €93 for two boosters, €80 cross-border fee, €42.60 in French tolls, €55.61 of fuel and €154 for a week in the Courchevel 1850 car park. A private minivan transfer for the same trip is €660 return.
Can a family take skis on the shared ski coach from Geneva Airport to Courchevel?
Yes, but the cheapest coach fare includes one hold item per person, a suitcase or a pair of skis. A family with both pays for extra bags or a dearer fare, on top of €319.60 return. Shared shuttles that include skis start at €356 return for four. A private transfer carries skis, boots and suitcases free, from €660 return in a minivan.
Is the shared coach from Zurich Airport to St Anton cheaper than a transfer?
It costs the same as an estate transfer. The scheduled coach is €130 return per adult and €35 per trip per child, €400 for two adults and two children, and takes about 3h10. With four ski bags a private minivan is €470 return; with rented skis an estate is €400, the same as the coach, and either takes about two hours to the door, an hour less each way.
When is a hire car worth it for a ski holiday in the Alps?
When you use it during the week: a chalet below the lifts with no ski bus, several resorts in one trip, or a stay longer than a week. For one resort and one week, the car is parked for five or six days, and a private transfer costs €321 to €700 less for a family of four.
Sources and Data
- TransferBnB route pages for Geneva Airport to Courchevel, Munich Airport to Kitzbühel and Zurich Airport to St Anton, starting prices per vehicle class and journey times, read 29 September 2026.
- Rental aggregator February average rates for the van class at Geneva, Munich and Zurich airports, and rental desk tariffs for boosters, cross-border fees, winter equipment and second drivers, read 30 September 2026.
- AREA motorway tariffs 2026, A41 and A43 tolls from Geneva to Albertville.
- Courchevel Parc Auto, official car park tariffs, winter 2026/27.
- Kitzbühel Tourismus, P1 Hahnenkammbahn weekly parking, 2026.
- ASFINAG, Arlberg tunnel section toll and the 10-day vignette, 2026.
- Swiss Federal Office for Customs and Border Security, motorway vignette price and validity, 2026.
- European Commission Weekly Oil Bulletin, petrol prices at 21 September 2026, and TCS Swiss fuel prices, 19 September 2026.
- Service-Public.fr, Loi Montagne winter equipment rule and fine, 2025.
- Deutsche Bahn, child fares on international tickets to Austria, and luggage allowance, 2026.
- ÖBB, Sparschiene child rule and age bands, 2026.
- SBB, child fares, 2026.
- TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, illico PROMO Saturday group fare, 2026.
- Rail journey times and sample fares from rail booking sites, read 30 September 2026, converted at the ECB reference rate of 29 September 2026.
- Scheduled ski coach and shared shuttle fares, luggage rules and timetables from the operators' own pages, read 29 and 30 September 2026.
- Ski Arlberg, St Anton station and parking, 2026.