A non-skiing snow holiday?

[VenusClapTrap]

Do people do this? Go to places like the Alps in winter to go hiking, tobogganing, ice skating etc, but not skiing?

Neither Dh nor I have ever been bothered about skiing. He is afraid of heights and is rather risk averse. I went skiing with school a thousand years ago and thought it was ok, but no more than that.

Now the dc are 12 and 10, I’m finding the idea of beautiful winter mountains and a bit of healthy outdoor activity appealing. I know skiing holidays are ridiculously expensive (which is another reason I’ve never been interested) but do mountain holidays become more affordable without all the ski faff and paraphernalia?

Anyone done this and can recommend locations?

Many resorts are set up for non skiers and not skiing can reduce the cost overall. There may be specific passes for the buses and lifts. Seefeld in Austria, Saas Fee or Bernese Oberland in Switzerland for example.

Interesting question. My husband and I can both ski (he snowboards) and would like to take our kids for the first time soon, but tbh it'd be a more attractive prospect if it were easier to mix it up a bit with other stuff whilst out there. (There's always the chance that one of your kids will hate ski-ing!)

It is possible but in the Alps many of the classic walking trails are either very difficult to navigate or impassable and mountain refuges are closed for winter. Unsurprisingly most alpine villages that act as staging posts for walking in the summer tilt entirely towards the boarding and ski season.

Have you considered trekking in the Atlas mountains in Morocco, they are more geared towards walking all year round given the minimal ski options on offer. You can use Marrakesh as a base, plenty of trekking companies based there and you are only a few hours away from the trail heads. Walking up Mount Toubkal in winter with youngish kids is probably too much but there are plenty of lower altitude walks where you can get the 'mountain backdrop' without the hardcore mountaineering. Have a look at the The Mgoun area or some of the berber village treks.

What about Scandinavia? We went to Lapland before Christmas to do a Santa Holiday which also involved tobogganing, husky sledge rides, reindeer sleigh rides, snow mobiles, etc. Could be an alternative that enables you to do winter activities without the Alpine price tag?

Ice Hotel at Kiruna in Sweden. You can go snow mobiling, dog sledging, see the northern lights etc. Have a look at www.arcticdirect.co.uk/

We did this when our kids were a similar age. It was not cheap but an absolutely amazing holiday. We had flights on top but otherwise didn’t drink so there were no other costs.

wildernesshotels.fi/wilderness-hotel-nellim/packages/nellim-winter-adventure-week

Lapland

We went to finland last January, although very cold, one of the most beautiful places I have been to. Although we did ski I have said I would love to go back just to do the walks and enjoy the views. If you look at Crystal ski they normally do some good offers for Finland after Christmas.

Friends did Norway with ‘ski activities’ rather than skiing as the theme and it sounded amazing all the stuff they did. So that country (don’t know name of resort, sorry) caters to it. But was expensive.

Some of the ski resorts may need to diversify into other activities - this is in the Times today

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ski-holiday-hopes-go-downhill-as-alpine-snow-melts-away-kd9wf076k?shareToken=28b490f440f2571e8dd35814b1a14748

We’ve done this in Switzerland a few times. A lot of resorts now have winter walking trails all laid out and lots of other activities like sledging, snow shoeing etc. You can buy lift passes specifically for this too and obviously the mountain restaurants and bars are open to you as much as the skiers and snowboarders. Look at Saas Fee, Zermatt and Grindelwald as they are high up and still have snow when other places don’t. Can also recommend the Glacier Express to St Moritz combined with a few days there as a magical experience.

If you aren't fussed about skiing you could get a Ryanair flight to Tampere. There you could either base yourself in the city or rent a cottage in the Finnish lake district. In Tampere there is a free ice rink in the city centre where you can rent skates. If you get really, really confident you could try nordic trail skating on a lake. There are lots of walking trails around the city plus museums etc. Plus you could go to an ice hockey match at the Nokia stadium. No mountains but forests and lakes.

When you say he's afraid of heights that would only stop you downhill skiing. Have you considered cross country skiing?
A lot of places will have snow shoe trails and winter hiking trails but you may have to pay full price for the ski ticket anyway (use of cable cars, upkeep of trails etc).

Cross country skiing is dramatically cheaper. No queues either! And no heights!

Switzerland has amazing sledging. All the way down mountains on tracks (small roads in the summer). It's brilliant fun!

Snow shoring is also nice (and gentle).

Lapland is wonderful and if you are interested in cross country skiing then it's the best place (guaranteed snow).

Not exactly but we have been to Hintertux in May which has a glacier and all year round snow and ice Palace. Activities vary on time of year.

We have also done skiing at Easter with hotel with swimming pool and they are normally pretty good value then and non skiers can do swimming and hot chocolating up the mountain. We did smaller resorts in France.

Thanks everyone. Some great suggestions that I will investigate further. That article about the lack of snow is shocking! Food for thought.

The Atlas mountains look amazing but not really the snow holiday we had in mind.

Scandinavia is out, sadly. It’s my favourite part of the world actually but we’ve been to Norway a lot over the last few years (mostly in the summer) and Dh wants to go somewhere else - preferably somewhere less eye wateringly expensive!

I took dd for a long weekend to the Arctic a couple of years ago to see the northern lights and experience the Hurtigruten boat, and that was fabulous, but it’s such a short day up there. I think I’m looking for blue skies and white peaks this time.

Dh and I both do fancy having a go at cross country skiing, so it’s interesting that that’s been suggested. Why is it cheaper? I’m not sure we’d risk basing a whole holiday on it though as we might not take to it (I suspect my fitness levels might not be up to doing too much!). It would be nice to have a go at it though in amongst some other activities though.

Lots to research!

We’ve just been skiing in smaller resorts in the Queyras (southern French Alps) where the snow has been pretty good. There are lots of people cross country skiing or snow shoeing. It’s cheaper because you do t need a ski pass. And that’s about €30/day each in small resorts and more like 75€/day in bigger places. Google Arvieux or Ceillac.

Quebec area in Canada or Chamonix - that way you get a good town as well. We also enjoyed Zell am See and Seefeld (easy into Innsbruck on train (15 minutes)

I'd agree with this. Many of the things that make the winter mountains fun are only really accessible if you are skiing. You could do snowshoeing though?

You don't usually need a ski lift pass for cross country skiing but may need to pay a fee to use the tracks and hire equipment.

Cross Country skiing is cheaper because you don't need to buy a lift pass. However, it is dependent on there being a good amount of snow low down (which is where the cross country ski trails tend to be).

Thanks, that makes sense.

Snow shoeing sounds nice.

I know all DC are different but, having taken our DC skiing for the first time at that age, I can't imagine how they would have reacted if they hadn't got to ski at all. I think it's good to have back up plans for if they don't like skiing, get injured, just want a day off and I only skiied for half the week last year but all my DC wanted to do was ski.
The same applies to all of the children I know who have been skiing and, whilst many of them are sporty, several would usually prefer reading, art, playing computer games and so on to sport. There's just something about skiing.

Ours honestly aren’t bothered. We actively encouraged dd to go on her school ski trip as she won’t get to do it with us, and she declined.

I would go to tromso in the artic circle. We did that and we went on dog sleds rides, visited the reindeer and seen the northern lights. Nice snowy place not all about skiing. All the tour buses leave from the same car park in front of the radisson. No need for a car