Where to go skiing right now? As beginners and not for megabucks!

[OhShutUpThomas]

I took the kids skiing in Scotland earlier this week and they LOVED it.

I really want to try take them for a ski holiday. We could only spare 4 days from home at the mo sadly but there must be somewhere?

Good ski school
Nice green runs
Nice village/town
Prefer France

Thank you!

We've just come back from 4 days in Stockholm. Stayed in a great hotel 5 minutes walk from Hammarbybacken ski area.

It's a small set of slopes but perfect for a family of beginners/improvers. Bunny slopes have conveyer belt type lifts which are completely free so you don't even need a pass if you stay here. Ski hire on site through skistar.

We flew from Stansted with Ryanair. The whole trip cost about £900 for 4 of us including flights, hotel, ski hire and local transport passes.

Great thing about Stockholm is there's loads more to see, so we did 2 days on the slopes and 2 days exploring the city and culture.

Les Arcs and La Plagne are linked. English speaking ski lessons not an issue. The transfer is a bit of a slog for 4 days skiing. Snow has been amazing this past week, although tricky for walking round the resort itself! I'd go for somewhere like Alpe D'Huez or Les 2 Alpes and perhaps use a tour operator if you can to keep it simple.

I'd go to Italy

Far cheaper - less busy

Perhaps Bardonechia

have a look at Pila. Contact Carole at Pilaski, she can make it very easy

I meant if not staying in the main resort (to keep cost down) and needing to go by bus/lift to a skischool meeting point. Might be a bit much with several dc.

We go to Puy St Vincent most years! I always book with Mount Vacation. They’re a Slovenian company, but we have never had any issues. They even let you pay in installments throughout the year, and lift passes are included in the accommodation costs. I couldn’t understand why people thought skiing was such an expensive holiday until we went somewhere else last year!

We usually drive, but you can fly to Turin.

Les Gets is good for beginners and the town has a nice feel.

I’ve been to Austria and Italy skiing as well but I prefer being in France for the food!!

My ex is very involved in skiing, and he always said that Mayrhofen in Austria is really good for beginners.

Les gets has two pom / button lifts at the very bottom of the mountain that you can take up and then do a couple of short green runs back into the village.

it is also only 1hr 15 from Geneva so one of the closest French resorts to get to from the UK if you are looking to only go for a long weekend / short week.

Extremely beginner friendly slope options if you do go up on the cable car or chairlift as well.

It may not work for a short trip, but we've done Trysil in Norway a few times, lovely open easy runs and it's often quiet during the week, we've been completely on our own on some slopes quite often. It is about a 3 hour drive from Oslo though, but a lovely resort for newbies.

Thanks so much everyone!
I’m looking at Sainte Foy, any experiences please?

Skiing in Scotland is much trickier the saying goes if you can ski in Scotland you can ski anywhere!

I would say Italy La Thuile is beginner friendly and cheaper ski passes. Montgenevere is good for France (fly to Turin and hire a car).
Or a little known resort of Grand Bonand in France but would be self catering quick from Geneve but you need a car.

Le Gets is very family orientated I would say not very reliable for snow last few years but this year there has been a huge dump down

Innsbruck is easy by easyJet. From there you can easily get the train or bus into the mountains - either to stay or for a day trip. Eg Seefeld has skiing, hiking, ice skating, tobogganing, thermal outdoor pool etc and is very child-friendly. Lots to do cheaply on the lower levels without a lift pass.

How exciting! Are you thinking this March or next year? The snow is currently so good that I’d say anywhere with a good deal. The southern French alps are fab. Fly to marseille and if you don’t like gondolas…. Les Orres, Reallon, Risoul, Vars (one gondola but there are alternatives). Puy st Vincent -home resort of Charlotte bankes our gold medal snowboarder..,,

Depending on the age of your kids puy st Vincent with Snowbizz is fantastic and really good value.

Just got back from Lake Bohinj, Slovenia - Vogel mountains. Lots of snow. Flew to Ljubljana, then bus or transfer to Bohinj. Perfect family ski place and really reasonable also people were lovely. Can provide more details if needed

Not France but when we learned many years back, we went to Mayrhofen for a few years. Really lovely.

Once we were more experienced we enjoyed Alpe d’huez, Val d’isere, and Banff is fun if you fancy a trip!

One thing to consider is where you're flying from, especially with a short trip. For example, we live in the Scottish Highlands and while it's a more expensive country, Norway worked out the better option for a short trip as we could fly direct to Bergen from Aberdeen and were at the ski resort within an hour or so. The other option was a flight to London and then onwards. So, perhaps time spent travelling might make it worthwhile to pay a tad more. In saying that, France, Austria, Italy tend to be pricier than Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia and possibly Germany or Poland (not sure if poland has skiing, but thought I would mention it). There's also Sierra Nevada in Spain where you could combien ski holiday which a beach day or two!! Cheaper airlines are WizzAir, Ryanair and easyJet, to name a few. You can sometimes find great last minute deals which include hotel, ski passes and equipment hire.

As for what to look for in a resort, especially with kids is short walking distance to the slopes or ski in/out, other activity options and what the hotel offers like a pool or games room, ideally nursery slopes at the bottom rather than the top, plenty of greens and blues, actual travel to the resort from the airport (public transport being cheaper than private).

How that helps!

Just to chip in here that if you can only spare 4 days away from Scotland, I don't think you should be thinking about going anywhere in Europe. It'll take you a day getting there and another one returning when you won't be able to ski. You can probably sort out your ski and boot rentals (and perhaps lift passes) on the day you arrive, depending on the time you arrive. But you won't get any time on the slopes. Making all that endeavour for just two days on beginner slopes seems quite disproportionate. I'd either go back to where you had a good experience and spend time taking some lessons (although they are usually run in week blocks) so you can feel more confident traversing the "difficult" parts of the green runs.

Love Saints Foy, we used to go there on day trips from Val d’Isere on powder days as a large bowl of the area is avalanche protected but not pisted.

i would say as beginners there aren’t many green runs and I’m not sure what the beginner area is like? There are an equal amount of blues and reds.

no drag lifts for the lower slopes if you don’t want to do a chair lift straight away (I don’t think?).

also a long transfer from Geneva for just 4 days skiing. Around 3 hours depending on the roads.

its small and pretty though.

🎿@OhShutUpThomas Boravets resort in Bulgaria is perfect for what you are wanting.

I’d take a look at flights to Geneva. You can get airport transport to a number of different ski resorts cheaply from there. We’ve just been in Avoriaz for the week, we got an Airbnb quite reasonably priced considering it was school holidays. The resort is car free and ski in/ski out which is great.

Thank you so much.

I have another beginner question whilst I’m here please!
My youngest daughter has quite pronounced dyspraxia and really struggles with things like this. She is very determined but just has no balance or coordination and falls constantly.

Would ski school be appropriate? Or private for all the children together? Is that hugely expensive?

I'd definitely try Snowbizz because they will move children between the groups if they aren't keeping up with the other kids, and vice versa if ones progressing they will shuffle them up.

Although you're looking at going outside school holidays which should help. Smaller groups.

We had an issue in La Plange a couple of years ago with ESF and a child in the wrong level. Took the fun out of it and put us off other ski schools.

I think 121 lessons for a whole week would be really expensive

How old are the kids? I'm assuming primary aged?