Ski Trip Anxiety!

My eldest did this two years ago and now both my kids are doing it next year. Its boring for them, but it's a fantastic experience that they never forget.

The coach drivers have very strict driving and rest times.

This is what we’ve found too. Dd going over Easter to Austria for her ski trip - I just assumed flying!

Both my daughters have done the school ski trip - I can’t remember how long but similar time!!

3 coaches full of kids - fair play to the teachers! Each coach had two drivers. They stopped of (it was this thought worrying me more! But they count in and no lost children in all the years!)

Really well organised and both have lovely memories!

@Gemkendall

There's a comprehensive thread about school trips here > School ski trip | Mumsnet

For reasonably priced clothing check out Aldi and Lidl, both of which usually have ski stuff on offer in the "magical aisle" in November.

Hi sorry my son goes next year in feb and I’m having a panic over what he needs for it. School haven’t sent any details over yet but I need to be organised

any advise please :)

I'd dud several trips on a coach as a teen and young adult. Group travel on a coach is quite good fun and part of the experience.

It's your anxiety that you need to deal with.

Worst advice ever!

I did a school ski trip this way and don't even remember the coach journey, just the delicious foreign crisps and the sexy ski instructor.

I think you are having anxiety over nothing OP

I’ve been on a ski trip on a coach, all was absolutely fine. There were 2 drivers and they took it in turns. It was bloody uncomfortable though, never again. I’ve always flown since.

I am doing the same with 40 kids and we are coming from West Wales. It is the cheaper way of going. Not the best but part of the fun. We will have over 30 hrs travelling including the ferry.

As a kid I went to Spain by coach a number of times, including family holidays and 2 school trips. It was fine, fun, tiring, uncomfortable at times but exciting none the less.

You say you only ever hear the bad OP, which is surely the same about air travel? You DON'T hear about the hundreds of thousands of long distance coach trips that take place safely and successfully every year.

I'm driving to the Alps next week and have done it before. It's no riskier than going anywhere in our country. When my kids go on coach trips I find it reassuring to GPS track them using Life 360 or something so you can see progress and that they're moving, or stopped at services etc.

YABU. Been there, done that, several times. We had 24hr coach trips from London to Austria. But you're a teenager so it's absolutely fine. Drivers swap over so they're not tired. It'll be fine, and they'll have a blast.

Funnily enough my daughter is also going from Essex to Italy in February for a ski trip!
My son did it last year too - he had an absolute ball. And the coach was absolutely fine!

I did exactly this as a 13 year old 33 years ago. We listened to INXS non stop for 23hrs!

We also smoked ... WTAF?! All girls private school.

I'm not understanding what you're worried about?

you’re braver than me OP! i don’t think you’re ott to be anxious at all

My DS did a similar trip and loved it, so much so when he got off the coach after the first time he begged to go the second time! He said the coach was the best bit as there were other schools on the coach too. It’s my idea of hell but he loved it. He took a pillow with him and a neck pillow and managed to sleep quite a bit.
He slept for a day on return but still refers to it, 8 years later!

Hundreds of schools and thousands of kids do this type of trip every year. The coaches are modern and have to pass regular checks, as do the drivers, who also have to adhere to strict driving rules. European autobahns and motorways are far less busy than the M1 or M25 and having a professional driver at the wheel is probably about as safe as you can get on the road.

As others have said, getting from Essex to Dover is a doddle - in the past I've repped on trips like this and had groups that had another 12 hours each way just between Dover and their home towns, which have included Glasgow, Edinburgh and Douglas on the Isle of Man.

The kids just get on with it. The first few hours they're running on adrenaline, then there's the fun of the Chunnel or ferry, then the task of ordering a burger and a cola at a French McDonalds, and after a few hours staring out of the window at the French countryside, darkness falls and they drop off.

The skiing itself is all organised by the local ski school and the travel company (these are almost always specialist school travel companies like Club Europe or PGL). Ski hire happens as soon as they get to the resort, then the professional instructors take over and make it a fun week for the kids. As with everything these days to do with children, safety is a priority and the teachers, coach company, ski school and organisers will have done pages and pages of risk assessments.

and they didn’t honour? or you decided to progress?

As someone else said, even if she flew, they’d have to get a coach up into the mountains.

It seems a strange thing to fixate on but that’s the nature of anxiety - it’s not logical, otherwise we’d all be able to beat it at the drop of a hat.

She’s going to do lots and lots of things in her life and there’s nothing about a coach trip that’s more risky than anything else, despite what your brain is trying to tell you.

This is what we did when we went on school ski trips. Italy Austria France all totally fine year after year