Has anyone been on a cross-country skiing holiday?

[EqualFranknessWithYourLadyship]

I bought some skis a few years ago and had a little slide around - just wondered about taking it further - it must be cheaper than ordinary skiing and give a pleasing sense of journey?

Yes switched after a skiing accident which resulted in a fear of downhill skiing. What do you want to know?

Yes, I fell over which resulted in multiple fractures on the second day. I recommend insurance 😁

Where can you go?
is it as pretty
Is it cheaper?
less crowded?
if it’s lower is there more risk of poor snow?

Ouch!

Yes, we did this all the time as children. It is a lovely, peaceful thing to do. I would love to go again if I could afford it. We went to Finland, apart from once when we went to the Jura in France.

I did one in Italy once and enjoyed it, but I found the downhill sections tricky as the skis are so long and thin.

I was thinking Finland just before Easter. Will there still be snow?

I’m also interested in XC skiing. I’m a nervous and accident prone downhill skier and often look with interest at the nearby cross country tracks.

What would be the best way for a family (or a mum and son while we left the others on the red rubs) to get started?

Any recommendations for good stations that offer good XC skiing with downhill options too?

I’d be interested in that too

Go to Crystal ski website and search for Finland. Most of those resorts will have xc and downhill options.

Norway is also great for cross country www.visitnorway.com/things-to-do/outdoor-activities/skiing/cross-country-skiing/?lang=uk

(og I may say so as a Norwegian ;) )

it will be cheaper, since you don’t pay anything for the actual skiing.

but might be a good idea to take some classes to improve technique and make you more confident.

And the Norwegian krone is quite weak against the pound at the moment, so Norway won’t be quite as expensive as it normally is ;)

There are some specialist travel companies such as www.tracks-and-trails.com/ who do group holidays including instruction. In Norway there's some hotels in national parks that do a complete service such as Venabu .venabu.no/en/venabu/. Headwater/Exodus holidays do package holidays.

Crystal and Inghams used to do specific cross country skiing holidays including instruction but now you have to dig around a bit in the resort info to see what else is there on top of the downhill skiing.

At Easter there's less snow at low levels in Europe so head North (Finland/Norway/Sweden).

Thanks!

Yes I did it once, it was great fun. I am not sure, but I suspect it's much less environmentally damaging than downhill as well.