Is Perisher a good choice for an Australian ski holiday?

Originally published in 2018. This post was revised and updated in February 2025.

Learn what it’s like to ski at Australia’s largest ski resort and use the Epic Australia Pass.

Skiing in Australia is expensive. Yes, it’s expensive in most places, but by comparison, it’s more expensive here. An average day ticket in Australia is $30 more than everywhere except the United States. And with limited accommodation options, the prices add up quickly.  

There are still benefits to a domestic ski trip, like the ability to stay on mountain and not needing to deal with long overseas flights. And, let’s be honest, your dreams are filled with the feeling of your edges grabbing the snow, so you’re going skiing, whatever the cost. That doesn’t mean you don’t want value for your money.

One way to do that is to start planning your ski trip now. Planning at the start of the calendar year allows you to take advantage of early bird pricing for season passes.

As the largest resort in the southern hemisphere, Perisher offers plenty of on-mountain and in-valley accommodation. It was also the first Australian resort to join the Vail Resorts family and its Epic Pass. When we booked our 2018 ski trip, inclusion on the Epic Australia Pass was the key reason we chose Perisher. 

Epic Australia Pass

When I originally posted this blog in 2018, the Epic Australia Pass cost $779. It was an incredible value. It still is.

Currently on sale for $1,079, you need to pay $49 by 5 March 2025 to lock in the price. The balance is due the week of 28 April 2025. In comparison, single-day tickets bought at the ticket window were more than $230 last year or about $160 if you bought ahead online. The pass usually pays for itself in less than 5 days (depending on the time of season you go).

If you are planning an Australian ski trip and an overseas trip, or are even considering the idea of a second weekend on the slopes, the pass is a no-brainer. It is valid for 12 months. For the 2025 ski season, you get unlimited skiing at Perisher, Falls Creek and Hotham plus varying access to more than 75 ski resorts across Japan, North America and Europe during the 2025/2026 winter season. Plus, there are ‘bring a mate’ passes and food and beverage, equipment hire, and lodging discounts.

(Note: There are now several Epic passes and the inclusions on the Australia Epic Pass are not the same as those on the USA-based Epic passes. Look carefully at the inclusions, including dates the pass is valid – some have holiday blackouts, to make sure you are choosing the one that will give you the best value.)

In 2018, we knew we would be in Colorado for our March 2019 wedding. Purchasing the Epic Australia Pass meant we could ski at Perisher, Keystone, Breckenridge, A-Basin, Vail, Beaver Creek, Park City and Whistler all on the one pass. We used the pass for about 5 weeks over the 12 months, making the pass worth less than AUD$28 per day.

The pass has RFID, so you need to keep it in an outer pocket to access the lifts. This does mean that you don’t have to keep digging into your pockets every time you get to the base or have a lift ticket flapping about in the wind as you fly down the mountain.

Another cool thing about the pass is the Perisher dashboard and epic pics. Gates read your pass each time you load a lift, then log the information on your dashboard so you can track your day and share that with friends. You can also get your official on-mountain photo taken (these are a must in my family) and instantly added to your dashboard when the photographer scans your pass.

What is it like skiing Perisher?

Located in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains, Perisher Ski Resort is made up of four areas: Perisher Valley, Blue Cow, Smiggin Holes and Guthega. Together, they have more than 3,000 acres of skiable terrain. The areas are linked by lifts and cat tracks, so it is easy to get around the entire resort. However, you will need to take multiple lifts and runs to get back to Perisher from Guthega and Blue Cow.

According to the resort’s website, the terrain is 22% beginner, 60% intermediate and 18% advanced. Our friends who were beginner and intermediate skiers and riders had a good time and found the mountain to be a good mix of easy and challenging runs.

However, if you are an advanced skier or snowboarder, you will not find Perisher challenging. In four days of skiing, hubby and I easily covered the entire mountain more than once and had to search for small snippets of interesting terrain.

One of our favourite spots was off the Ridge Quad Chair. This is where you’ll find some of the mountain’s longest runs. The resort’s skiable vertical is just 355m. (Mt Buller, Hotham and Thredbo all have more vertical.)

We also found fun, slightly challenging runs off the North Perisher T-Bar. Another good spot was below the Olympic T-Bar. We dropped off the Blue Cow Expressway towards Pretty Valley Double Chair and continued over the Perisher Home Trail. Here, we had some steep but short runs – about 10 to 15 turns – that held good snow at the start of the week.

The Lift System

The lift system at Perisher is one of the resort’s biggest downfalls. Of its 46 lifts, a whopping 71% are surface lifts – conveyor belts, T-Bars, rope tows or J-Bars (also known as Button or Poma lifts). The surface lifts allow the resort to stay open on windy days because surface lifts can run in stronger winds than standard chair lifts. However, the surface lifts traverse ski runs, which means you spend as much time looking downhill to avoid upward traffic as you do looking uphill to check for regular skier traffic.

For someone who grew up skiing in North America, this is just weird.

The surface lifts also increase the risk of an on-mountain collision. During our week, we saw a few near misses that could have ended up needing ski patrol.

Another issue with surface lifts is that they are more difficult for beginners and intermediate skiers to ride. So, even though the resort is mostly intermediate terrain, the lift system makes the day harder for these skiers and riders.

Also, riding so many surface lifts hurts! We could only do about three T-Bars before our legs, knees and feet needed relief. It meant more breaks than we would normally take or being stuck on a chair lift with less interesting terrain.

Perisher Valley Village

Before booking a holiday to Perisher Ski Resort, it is important to know what kind of holiday you want. If you are looking for quality time with family and friends and everyone is happy to book the same accommodation, then Perisher is a good choice. If you are a couple or like variety in your dinner venues, another destination may be more suitable.

The village is a collection of chalets and lodges spread out in the valley with no town centre. There is one hotel with a day spa, but that is the extent of the off-mountain activities. If there are non-skiers in your group, they will have little to do.

The only two buildings that aren’t accommodation are the Perisher Centre and the Skitube Terminal. Perisher Centre is at the base of the eight-pack chairlift. There, you can find the ticket office, equipment hire, ski school, a few small shops, restaurants and an ATM. Across a short bridge, is the Skitube Terminal where you can find a few more small shops, a grocery store, the post office, the police station, the pharmacy and the medical centre.

The roads aren’t groomed, so the only way around is an on-snow option:

• Walk or trudge through the snow
• Ski – if your destination is downhill
• Cross-country ski
• Snowmobile (if you have one registered to be in the national park)
• Pay for an oversnow (a snowcat or truck with wheels replaced by a rubber track system like a tank).

Most lodges include arrival and departure oversnow from the Skitube Terminal to help you move in with your luggage and ski gear.

On this trip, we stayed at the Matterhorn Lodge with half board. The Matterhorn’s meals were tasty, prompt and well-portioned. Dinners included soup, a main meal and a dessert. There was no choice for the main meal, so it might not be a good place to stay if your group has picky eaters. In 2010, we stayed at Sundeck where we had at least two options each night.

Most accommodation options at Perisher include half or full board in their rates. This, combined with the difficulty of moving between buildings, means most people stay at their lodge after skiing. Few people go somewhere else for dinner or après ski.

One night during our trip, we tried to make a dinner reservation so we could eat with another couple not staying at our lodge. We could only find reservations after 8 pm – after the lodges finished serving their in-house guests.

Getting to Perisher

Perisher is in the Snowy Mountains and the Kosciuszko National Park. It is about a six-hour drive from Sydney or Melbourne. It’s a 14-hour drive from Adelaide. If you want a shorter drive, you can fly to Canberra, which is a 2.5-hour drive from Perisher.

If your drive is via Jindabyne, then you don’t need a national park pass. If you come from the other direction, you must buy a pass to cover each day your vehicle will be in the park. All 2WD vehicles must carry chains.

There is no overnight parking at the resort. Therefore, if you drive, you have to park your car at the Bullocks Flat Terminal and take the Skitube.

The Skitube is Australia’s only alpine railway. It takes passengers through the mountain via a tunnel. Once you arrive at the Perisher Valley Terminal, you need to take an oversnow to your lodge.

If you don’t want to drive, there are several shuttle options from Sydney and Canberra.

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Have you been to Perisher?  What did you think?