To not understand the snobbery around skiing?

@Cappuccinowithonesugarplease Have a great time - we're just back and missing the mountains already.

1 2hr lesson won't be enough for your 7yo though. And you'll need some form of tuition too if you've never been before. You'll progress more quickly with a few private lessons, but 2 newbies (with no lessons) won't be able to do anything with a 7yo!)

We had an 11 year old with us, who has skied 3 times before (but not for 3 years) and it took them until day 3 to be happy on skis (and they were pretty good at the end of the last trip). Kids do pick it up more quickly than adults, but 2hrs is nowhere near enough! You've shelled out all the money for the ski trip, so it's worth paying a bit more so you can actually ski (rather than go up and down the nursery slope all week).

@Cappuccinowithonesugarplease lessons! Lots of them. We are competent skiers (will ski almost any marked run in decent general conditions) but still get occasional morning or afternoon lessons especially in new resorts.

As you are going so soon I guess snowdome/indoor Uk lessons are not an option so I’d say book everyone at least mornings for the first couple of days (if you are happy with just repeating practice on the same slopes) or every day if you want to venture further afield. Instructors can recommend suitable slopes for you to go on that will be within your ability.

I learnt as an adult from a strong ice skating background, and it does help but it’s also frustrating at times as skis are nowhere near as manoeuvreable as a pair of skates.

It will be tiring so take some off, possibly mid week, and do sledging/snowshoeing etc.

Do not be ashamed of taking the lift down. Home runs can be the Wild West of crowded pistes full of people without the skill to ski them in crowded end of ski conditions.

Have fun, have hot chocolate and plenty of food. Enjoy!

DH & DS are there now for 5 days:
Flights : £550
Accomadation: £330
Car hire £120
Lift passes : £300

So total £1300 ish for 2 for 5 days.
I reckon a family of 4 you could do it for £2500, not cheap but not 5 figures.

If you do a package tour yes, it doesn't have to. We are a family of 5 and have done two weeks in the three Valleys for @ 5k

My ex used to go with his GF before me. He was a huge snob and thought it made him look middle/upper class. His GF had gone to private school and he mentioned it to everyone (I knew him a few years before we got together). I always just think he didn’t really like it but thought it made him look ‘better’ in other people’s eyes 🙄

You’re in the “almost” pile the previous poster mentioned.

Almost no one takes up skiing as an adult - I said "almost" not none to be clear for the pedants - because as an adult, it's a lot of money to spend on a holiday that you might not like and where there are few other options if you don't like it

Our first ski holiday was when DSs were 18 and 19. I was 44. We had to go somewhere pretty in case I didn’t like it, so chose a picturesque little village in Austria.

i, and the rest of the family loved it, so thereafter we tended to choose high altitude, snow-sure but less pretty, french resorts. We have had a family ski trip every year since then. I skied until I was 72. Now I am 80 but still go with the family which includes grandchildren because I love the whole atmosphere and we stay at ClubMed hotels where the food is great and all drinks included.

It is not a cheap holiday but a great family experience.

The transfer & car hire costs are ludicrous especially from Gebeva & Grenoble.. it's cheaper now to book with a company like crystal or Inghams which have transfers, baggage etc included in the price.

Thank goodness lots of people can't understand the appeal. The ski resorts couldn't cope and would be hell on earth (some of them are bad enough as it is) if everyone loved skiing and wanted to go (and could afford it obviously).

I can't understand the appeal of hot places but we're all different.

I used to go snowboarding but I started cross-country skiing many years ago and I absolutely love it. It's a cheaper alternative to downhill skiing as the equipment is a lot cheaper to rent, you don't need to buy a lift pass and you can pick it up in just a few hours of lessons rather than the several weeks of ski school you need to become a competent skier.

I have never understood the appeal of skiing

Yeah, but horses for courses innit? I'm rough as they come but I love skiing, surfing, running up mountains... anything that's uncomfortable, hard work, yet exciting.

I struggle in hot places as I find it too hot to run, and then get a bit restless. But I understand why others would like it.

I have never understood the appeal of skiing. Never have, never will. I'm retired now and could afford to go if I fancied it, could possibly have afforded it when I was working, but why? Cold, wet, heavy layers of clothing. Risk of broken bones.
I fully understand that it's a signifier of class but skiing's not for me and never will be. Can't think of a worse way to spend a holiday.
Goa, Jamaica and the warmer climes all the way for me thanks!

If people are willing to go to the less 'fancy' resorts like pamporovo or borovets (Bulgaria) you can get really good deals. 5 nights Feb half term, 4 * lovely hotel (b&b), ski lessons, skis and passes and Wizz air flights, 3 people you can get for under 2.5k. Food is generally cheap though we found it good quality.

This looks reasonable value les coche is a great learners resort.

https://www.sunweb.co.uk/ski/search?Participants%5B0%5D%5B0%5D=1994-03-20&Participants%5B0%5D%5B1%5D=1994-03-20&Participants%5B0%5D%5B2%5D=1994-03-20&Participants%5B0%5D%5B3%5D=1994-03-20&ParticipantsDistribution=1%7C2%7C3%7C4&DepartureDate%5B0%5D=2025-02-01&DepartureDate%5B1%5D=2025-02-01&Country%5B0%5D=13&Region%5B0%5D=52335&City%5B0%5D=725&Duration%5B0%5D=8-8&TransportType=Flight&offset=0&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=04.+-+France+-+Paradiski&utm_content=05.+-+France+-+Paradiski+-+Les+Coches+-+Ski+Holiday&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyL24BhCtARIsALo0fSAy43zWo_LA0dpjYlWm-5hlf3ZZHgFW825jLtPPEPiyYwCoevtdraIaAgZCEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'm not saying they are. I'm saying that to someone who has never skied before, they will be less confident in looking at options that they haven't heard of, or don't know of people going to. The more you know about something, the more like you are to try out the less conventional ways of doing it - that's universal. And I didn't even mention any areas or mention safety! I was actually just thinking of the independent ski schools you might need to use rather than the big boys that are attached to the resort hotels for example, or an Air B&B that might be in a weird part of the town that is a trek to the lifts and you don't realise that's an issue.

I know bog all about skiing, despite having taken my kids, and a lot of the conversation around it reads pretty much like a foreign language. If you know nothing, you don't even necessarily know what to look up or ask about. Going with a mainstream operator who sorts it all out for you and tells you 'ideal for families' is very reassuring and the easy option if you want to feel you're less at risk of a bad holiday, but it comes at a premium.

A first time skiing family deciding they'll put a whole package together has an awful lot to get their heads round, and opinions will ALWAYS differ on the best way to do things, however much you read on the internet.

@HarrietBond I think it's completely untrue to say that the well known resorts are safer, and unfair on instructors in places like Central and Eastern Europe to imply that instruction or safety there is lacking. The quality of the (English language) lessons I received a few years ago in the Tatras mountains, in a small resort with four or five lifts, was vastly superior to that of the lessons I've had in Val Thorens.

In fact, a lot of the cheaper places are probably safer to learn and for an inexperienced skiiers to build up confidence, simply because you're less likely to be taken out by someone falling out of La Folie Douche or trying to create content for social media and not looking where they're going.

In 2024, with access to Google and Mumsnet, this sort of information isn't hard to come by, and you don't need to have grown up skiing to access it.

The thing about the cheaper options is that people who haven’t skied before are far less likely to do them. You don’t have the confidence to know where to ski, can you learn there, will the teachers speak English? You need to invest up front in clothing you don’t really understand. It’s pretty daunting for some. And if you’ve got kids, you’re responsible for them too. Unless you’re going with people who know what they’re doing, the companies feel like the easier and safer option. But you pay for that.

I think people still have a perception of skiing that it's all ski in / ski out chalets in the French Alps with maids and hot tubs and champagne.

Out of our large group of 12 adults who go regularly I'd say that only one came from a wealthy family and he learned as an adult. The rest came from normal (and in some cases working class council estate families) and either caught the bug on a school ski trip or learned as young adults.

That being said you clearly need to have a fair amount of disposable income. No one else in my family, siblings, cousins etc ski so no, it's not open to everyone.

For context ski trip for my son to go on for 8 days(selected with 87 other pupils to attend out of 200 that applied for the trip!)
has cost me and his dad just for the trip £1564.00 that’s without all the kit needed, £120.00 in money to take in euros and sterling, travel by coach and also ferry to Austria, we was given payment plan to pay it over the course of a year for him to go, otherwise he would not be able to go ion the once in a life time trip. Also he has had to have compulsory dry slope ski lessons in a block of six which is costing £13. each at a discount for lesson. Unfortunately we haven’t had a family holiday this year so that he can go with his mates that’s also got picked to attend, we couldn’t afford to take him let alone fork out thousands of pounds just for one holiday!

some ppl can’t afford extravagant holidays each year, have to vigorously save in order to go anywhere where as I know quite a few ppl that seem to be able to go on multiple holidays each year and not have to worrry about the cost or destination and seem to go abroad, this country and also have 2+children!

Yes they do lessons for adults!

I went on a school ski trip (normal
comprehensive school). I had to save up and also put all of my birthday and Xmas money towards it. My ski wear was second hand. After all that, I didn’t really enjoy it!

went skiing again for a day when I lived in France (near the Alps), had lessons in the morning and skied in the afternoon. Just confirmed I didn’t really enjoy it, so have never done it again, although friends used to ask me regularly to join them. I prefer sunshine on my holidays!

I also agree for many who go skiing, that’s their “winter” holiday. There will also be summer holidays, UK holidays and a half term holiday if my local friendship group are anything to go by (I live in a pretty affluent area).

I sort of feel like it might be helpful to define “well off” and also “extravagant” in order for us to understand your frame of reference!

As I said in that post - I did say almost not none. I know it won't be universally true because nothing ever is.

But it is generally true.

This is so not true ! I grew up on a council estate and our holidays were a caravan in Cornwall! I didn’t learn to ski till my mid 30s ! Been skiing every year since !

There is no way anyone is getting gear hire and lift passes for 4 people for 324 euro !! Is this an error or am I reading it incorrectly ?