First Skiing Holiday with a 14 and 12 year old.

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MangoJoe

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Hi Folks,

Just hoping to gain from all of your collective experience and knowledge with regard to Skiing Holidays.

Just recently had an idea to bring my kids (Boy and Girl 12 & 14) Skiing in the coming season.

I have absolutely no clue as to destination Country, resort, best duration (Is 5-7 days a good guideline?) etc.

I'm not lazy as to doing my own research I promise! But thought it best to seek advice on here and then seeing if its a good fit for us or whatever.

I also did search and read through some of the existing threads on here and they were helpful also.

Just hoping it will be a nice little break and memorable for the kids.

I suppose things like advice on ski schools & perhaps recommendations on a resort or town with things for the kids to do or go visit in the evening for a few hours is what I'm wondering about.

Thanks for the help folks, much appreciated.

PS Oh - And I should mention - The budget isn't massive - This is something we'd price and then save for!! - If it was good value for money too then that's a welcome bonus!
 
Hi Joe

A few thoughts:-
  • Skiing is an expensive business - there's no getting away from it. In addition to flights, transfers and accomodation you've got lift passes, equipment hire, classes, lunches, etc. But in my opinion it's worth every cent - your kids will love it!
  • If you're limited to school holidays, you really have three options - Christmas, Mid-term and Easter. The Christmas/New Year period is really expensive (and snow is a bit of a lottery that early). Mid-term tends to be the next most expensive time to go skiing - particularly in France. Easter is early enough to be an option next year but you're very much into Spring skiing (slushy from mid-morning).
  • As beginners, there's no point spending a lot of money staying in one of the "A" list resorts (Val d'Isere, St Anton, Zermatt, etc.).
  • If it was me, I'd pick a smallish Austrian resort for mid-term. There are any number of resorts you could choose from but Soll is a popular choice with the Irish.
  • Generally speaking package ski holidays run on a weekly basis (usually Saturday to Saturday).
  • I've travelled with Directski.com before and found them efficient and very good value.
  • The Ski Club of Ireland also runs a couple of good value holidays every year.
  • If you're looking for resources, wheretoskiandsnowboard.com is considered to be the industry "bible". Welove2ski.com is also highly regarded.
Hope that helps.
 
Hi Sarenco - Thanks a million for providing so much detail, I must research all of your points properly this evening when I get more time.

A quick search there mentions Soll as a big apres ski destination - Would there be anywhere in particular that would be known for being family orientated? Would be nice to have a few activities or plans to line up in the evening times with the kids - Dunno what exactly - A show or something (?)
 
Hi Joe

Soll certainly would have been regarded as a party town back in the '80s - these days not so much.

The Austrian resorts that would be regarded as particularly family friendly would include Obergurgl, Lech, Westendorf and Alpbach. The resorts with really full on apres would include Solden, Ischgl, Saalbach and St Anton.

The ski schools in most Austrian resorts put on a weekly demonstration (skiing in formation with torches, that kind of thing) and a lot of the bigger hotels have games rooms, swimming pools, etc. I suspect you will be surprised just how tired you will be after skiing for the day - most of us struggle to make it through dinner!
 
Gordon Gekko said:
I’m a St Anton fan for all kinds of groups; what do you reckon?
Click to expand...
I'm a huge St Anton fan but I don't think it's ideal for beginners. The nursery slopes are fine but there are very few easy blues to progress to - the slopes are just too steep.

Also, it's not cheap.
 
Our kids get 2 days off school for Paddy's day so we find that a great time to go as only need to take them out of school for 3 days, its cheaper and a lot less busy. The Feb mid term and the week after Christmas are dear and busy but the only real options if you don't want them to miss school. I prioritise transfer time and look for a location as close as possible to the ski lifts. Zell am Sie also worth a look.
 
Soll is a lovely place and has nice skiing. I liked livigno in Italy. It's a long transfer though if flying into Milan. You won't need too much to do in the evening as you'll be so tired you'll just want to chill out. Being a first ski holiday I'd budget more than 1k as mentioned above as you'll have all the gear and layers to buy so add a few hundred a head for that. Worth looking in some of the outdoor shops now for end of season sale stuff.
It's a fantastic holiday.
 
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