Research carried out by Santander Cards states that the average price of a ski holiday to Chamonix this year is around £1,200 once you factor in hiring the equipment and getting a ski pass.

However, there are many deals on offer which should allow you to spend a lot less than that. Below are three deals for January, including flights from London.

Chamonix for two people
Two people can stay in a studio for four at Residence Maeva La Riviere for £305 between January 16th and 23rd. This includes British Airways flights from Gatwick.

Chamonix for four people
For the same week, you can get flights from Gatwick and accommodation in a studio for four in Residence Maeva La Riviere for only £207 per person.

Chamonix for six people
Including flights from Gatwick, six people can stay at Lagrange Prestige le Cristal d’Argentière for £244 for that same week.

All of the above ski deals can be found if you head to Expedia’s Chamonix page.

Although Chamonix can be a relatively expensive ski resort, there are a number of bargains to be had, particularly if you look for last minute deals. Otherwise, here is some of the cheaper accommodation available.

Chamonix accommodation for two people
Odalys Résidence Le Grand Balcon is the cheapest option for two people. It is just outside Chamonix itself at Les Houches ski resort. Les Houches is covered by the Mont Blanc Unlimited ski pass and there are regular free buses.

There are self-catering chalets for four available at Odalys Résidence Le Grand Balcon for just £40 a night in January. This is with a sofabed and bunk beds though, so would perhaps be better suited to two.

Chamonix accommodation for four people
Again, Odalys Résidence Le Grand Balcon is the cheapest. If the £40 a night rooms mentioned above don’t take your fancy, there are also four person chalets with separate rooms for £48 a night.

Alternatively, Residence Maeva La Riviere is in Chamonix itself and has four person studio apartments available for around £69 a night.

All of the above deals are available through Expedia’s Chamonix page.

We’ve found a couple of good deals for Avoriaz ski holidays this January.

Manchester to Avoriaz
A week at Pierre and Vacances Residence Quartier de la Falaise in Avoriaz with flights from Manchester is available for just £271 per person. This is based on four people sharing and includes flights with Jet2.

London to Avoriaz
A week at the same hotel as above between Saturday 16th January and Saturday 23rd January is available from London for £256 per person, this time with flights from British Airways. Pierre and Vacances Residence Les Balcons du Soleil is also available for £268 per person on the same basis.

Birmingham to Avoriaz
ski holiday packages from Birmingham are slightly harder to come by. Nevertheless, the same ski holiday as from Manchester between Saturday 9th January and Saturday 16th January is currently available for £314 per person with Swiss Air flights.

All the above deals are available through Expedia’s Avoriaz page.

I can’t speak for other people, but these are the highlights of Chamonix ski resort as far as I’m concerned.

1. Half price beer – I think it was at the Monkey and it may actually have been two-for-one, but it amounts to the same thing, doesn’t it? Was it the Monkey? Do I remember pictures of monkeys on the walls?
2. Pictures on the wall of the pub – Maybe it wasn’t monkeys. I distinctly remember life-size photographs of people. The girl was hot. The lad, less so.
3. The tree in the middle of a slope – It’s not right in the middle and to be honest, it’s pretty easy to avoid. Nevertheless, despite having a full minute to react because he was only moving at about 2mph, my mate Tim hit it. He thought no-one had noticed, but a friend in a chairlift had a bird’s eye view of the sad debacle.

If you’re actually half-decent at skiing, I believe that Chamonix is also a great destination for a ski holiday.

I’ve been skiing three times. I’ve been to Chamonix, Livigno and Les Deux Alpes.

Chamonix
I couldn’t ski at all. It was hard. It was dispiriting. There was a lot of fear at the top of slopes, because I tended to visualise losing control and it was a bit embarrassing falling down so much. That said, falling over is far and away the most fun element of the actual skiing. More fun than watching other people fall over, even.

Livigno
This was a bit better. I could ski semi-competently and could experience far more of the mountains as a result. There were no lessons – which was good – and food and drink in Livigno is cheap, so that was good too. There was still a good deal of fear, but satisfaction at overcoming it.

Les Deux Alpes
I don’t know what’s the next step up from ’semi-competent’ – ‘competent’ seems a bit of a generous assessment – but whatever it is, that’s what I was for this ski holiday. There was lots to explore, but there was disappointingly little falling over. In the end, it felt like repeatedly turning left then right and going down a hill. That’s basically what skiing is, but it doesn’t feel too exciting.

I’m still quite tempted to go again this year though. Why? I’ve boiled the ski holiday experience down to the two main plus points:

• Apres ski – There is no better feeling than being a bit knackered and settling down somewhere comfortable with a beer
• Food - If you’re out doing activity all day, you can justify eating a ridiculous amount of food

Not according to many Trip Advisor users.

Highlights include:

“When I got there I saw this hideous eye sore stood right infront of me I had to check with the English lady next to me that it was the Eiffel Tower.”

Who doesn’t know what the Eiffel Tower looks like? Americans, that’s who.

Another user say it’s “not all it’s cracked up to be” and somewhat confusingly brands it ‘a cop out’. A cop out from what is not made clear.

An Irish user says it’s just “a big lump of metal”.

Here is a short list of things that you could buy for less than the price of a pint of beer in the Alps:

• 500ml of beer – because although that’s what they sell, it’s actually less than a pint, so it’s EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE THAN YOU THINK
• A meal for four in India
• Five perfectly reasonable bottles of wine from the supermarket in France
• An EasyJet flight to Geneva Airport
• Geneva Airport itself

If you, like me, suffer from all three major types of retardation, you too might have suffered the following fate – although I doubt it.

I’m going to Morzine in the French Alps next week. The weather has been changeable and it isn’t likely to be hot. I’ll settle for sunny and I’ll be disappointed if it’s anything else.

Coming up to a holiday, the obvious thing to do with your break at work is to check the weather for the place where you’ll be next week. Never do this for a place you’ve just visited, but always do it before you go. Looking back only depresses you.

So I just checked Morzine and I was pleased to see that it’s literally getting hotter by the day. Then, after letting this sink in for a moment, I realised that it was getting hotter by precisely one degree every day.

Instead of the temperature, I was looking at the date. Bring back fahrenheit, I say.