Would I be mad to take my 2 kids skiing on my own? We are beginners

[24252627a]

I’m considering taking my children (7 and 9) skiing in Feb half term.
Single parent.
Very much beginners. The boys haven’t been before.
I skied for a week even I was a teenager.

Would I be mad?

Don’t have a huge budget- maybe £4000 for accommodation. Flights sorted - family member can get us cheap flights. .

what do I need to consider?

Go for it! It will be fantastic. You need to book lessons for everyone and prepare yourself for the fact that both your children will be skiing very competently very quickly, leaving you behind as you are still flailing around on the nursery slopes!

Thank you for your encouragement. I’ve had a few raised eyebrows at my suggestion.

i don’t even know where to start with buying the kit. Any tips?

The way to enjoy this holiday the most is to all go to ski school all day, every day!

A lot of people don’t do this, and then find it hard.

Lots of people selling barely used kit on vinted / eBay etc

This.

Go for it but don’t self cater - you’ll be too tired. Find accommodation as close to ski school as you can, avoid needing bus trips.

Get everyone lessons for the week.

kit wise, have a look on Vinted. 3 pairs of ski socks and thermals each is fine for a week. A couple of fleeces, salopettes and a jacket. I’d get 2 pairs of gloves each. A fleecy neck muff. Goggles (helmets can be hired)

I took mine alone from the ages of 5 and 7. Exhausting but the best fun!

Definitely get 2nd hand kit, especially for kids. You may be able to borrow also if you have skiing friends.
I got divorced when my kids were roughly 7 and 9 and took them skiing pretty much every year on my own. It's very manageable. Tough sometimes when they get tired and if you are a beginner then maybe you can't help them oht as much. But definitely get lessons and if I were you get a catered chalet because you won't feel like cooking as you'll be so tired !

Great idea. Ski school is an absolute necessity.

Pick your resort carefully (you won’t need the largest resort in the world but one with a good array of greens / maybe blue runs).

I would strongly suggest either on piste accommodation or very close to centre, you don’t want to be carrying all the kit or getting the bus every day.

Potentially Club Med hotels (AI, ski school for kids included, usually v easy ski in ski out, etc). Unsure of budget requirements in school hols though.

Hire / second hand kit, except I would always buy a new helmet as honestly, why scrimp on the thing that may save you and you honestly do not know what the previous hire has done in regards crash and fall). Thin ski socks, not the thick tubular numbers.

Have fun!

Where, France? Andorra great and cheap but long transfer time on coach from the airport. But I loved it there
Italy meant to be great too.
Look at a package ie crystal ski etc so you get accom transfers and ski rental included. Much easier
It'll be so much fun. It's just as much fun being amongst the snow and having hot chocolates and chips on the slopes!!

Lidl and Vinted for bundles of under garments and socks and a ski coat. Goggles from vinted
Asos do cool ski wear and I got a nice asos jumpsuit from Vinted

If you book a hotel that's not that close to lift then hire a ski locker on the slopes so you can dump skis and hop on bus. One with a swimming pool is a nice extra or at least a bath in your hotel/chalet!

Hotel in walking distance to slopes
Ski lessons
and personally I always hire kit, the 4k will be gone before you even get there if you buy skis, boots, clothes x 3. And you or the boys might not even use it again, or it might be a once every few years thing.

Get a locker at the slope lift.
Carrying skis from accommodation is exhausting. They are heavy and the boots make you slow and you will ache like mad as will the Kids A locker means you can walk in comfort It's well worth the euros.

There was a thread last year on what to buy/you’ll need. Use Vinted/Aldi/Lidl and borrow stuff if you can. Agree with not going self catered. Hire skis and boots. Lift passes are ££££ so beware (and they vary by resort). You should be fine for snow in Feb so safe to go to a lower resort, you won’t need a resort with lots of runs/areas for your first time.

Be warned, it’s highly addictive - you’ll want to go every year once you’ve been!

You need to all book in for ski school, adult lessons for you and a beginner kids group for the children and go for accommodation that is a very short walk from the ski school meeting point since you don’t have the extra pair of adult hands to help with carrying equipment. You absolutely do not want ski in/ski out since you can’t ski yet unless you’re certain there’s also a short walking route- sometimes there isn’t. I also agree to not book self catering because you’ll be knackered and it’s a faff. But it’s very doable! Some lessons at an indoor snow dome if you have near you might also be a good idea to get familiar with the kit. Decathlon does good quality skiwear at reasonable prices or you could consider getting the boys ski jackets as their main winter coats if you haven’t already bought them.

I think you’d get much more out of it if you all did some ski lessons beforehand. I’m up in Scotland so it’s maybe more accessible than other places but you can get council run lessons on local dry slope as an after school thing for under a tenner including kit. Holiday camps are £80 per child £160 per adult for a week. Kids got loads out of it and were pretty decent skiers even after a week. Snow felt like a treat and they were used to heavy boots, carrying skis, could get on a button lift etc

Echo the suggestions of ski school and go for it - you will have wonderful holidays together as a family and your boys will be very grateful that they had the opportunity to learn while young.

Go for it! It’s the best fun holiday.
kit from Vinted.
Book a catered chalet through a UK agency like Alpine Answers or ski solutions as they will chat with you on the phone about your budget. They know resorts very well and can help you with the transfer side of things too. (Some chalets have a transfer driver both to the airport on weekends and also day to day for the slopes so that there is no walking at all —they drop you at ski school and will have a pick up time in the afternoon). Some hotels have this minibus service too and it massively widens your options if your budget doesn’t stretch to staying beside the piste (which can be ££££ in half term).

Ski school at least 90% of the week for all of you. You need an adult group, they need kids only, as children and adults learn at vastly different rates, and in a different way.
Enjoy!!

Decathlon , dare2b , mountain warehouse or trespass. You can get packages of essentials. February is hellishly busy and ideally use a tour operator so you have support and equipment, lessons, lift passes organised for you.

It will ve fine when you are all beginners. Its in a few years, when they aren't beginners and want to get away from the nursery area but you can't it will be an issue.

(I haven't been able to keep up with line since they were five, and no longer ski at all)

Achensee in austria is a lovely small resort with great ski schools. It also has loads of other activities like sledging, swimming, boat rides etc if the skiing doesn't work out. It is a few resorts spread out around the lake.

There is a kinderhotel at Buchau which has lots for children. And lots of other hotels to choose from.

Look into UCPA family weeks - cheapest way to learn to ski!!. Or go for a catered chalet. You’ll have a blast.

ski lessons for all of you. It’s knackering but so much fun.

Wow thank you all for all this information! So many great tips.

If your budget permits, go for a hotel with a kids’ club. The place we go has a great one which collects the kids after ski school and takes them back for lunch, keeps them for the afternoon if you wish, and will even take them off to the pool while you go to the spa. DS too old now, but he made lots of friends in the club. Skiing is a tiring holiday, so building in rest time is important.

Italy is much cheaper than France; the Eastern European countries will be cheaper still.

As well as Vinted, local Facebook selling pages are a great place to source. My local groups are already full of stuff for sale.

Be aware that you might not be together in your ski classes all week. Even if you all start off in one group, the kids might make much faster progress than you. We first went skiing when our DC were 5y8m and 3y10m, and after two days they were going on the big lift up the mountain with the junior ski school, while we continued to fall over on the drag lift slopes. This was a huge adventure but they loved it. On the last day all the kids skiied down the hill in formation at the end of the afternoon session and showered the parents with snow by doing hockey stops. We still have the photos of DC from that holiday in frames.

In terms of kit, you will rent the actual equipment. You need a really warm waterproof jacket and decent waterproof trousers, but the latter don't have to be super-padded if you take long underwear (or leggings). Hopefully you can get use out of all of that when you return. Good gloves are essential (not wool - they will get wet), as well as a warm woolly hat and a scarf to close up any gaps in the jacket around the neck. And thick socks. Warmth becomes more important as you get better - the nursery slopes tend to be at the bottom, so perhaps only 1200m altitude, but at 2400m the wind can be very sharp and biting.

Take advice from the ski school over whether it's worth buying the full lift pass on day 1. It could be that a few single-ride clippy-tickets for the nursery lift are all you need for the first few days, and then the lift pass (which is so many Euros per day for unlimited rides) for the rest.

Honestly I wouldn't bother with pre-trip lessons. The teachers will be used to people who don't know which way round to put in skis, and dry slopes are a totally different feel to real snow.

Be aware that you will fall over, quite a lot. Skiing involves some unnatural movements, notably having to lean forward even when everything in your amygdala is telling you to lean back. Unless you are super-sporty with total control of your body movements and centre of gravity, you will not be on black or red runs after 6 days, but that's perfectly OK. (One year our instructor told us about someone who had turned up in beginners the previous week, never having put on skis, and she was on the black runs by the middle of the week. He then found out that she was a member of the French Olympic gymnastic team!)

@24252627a It’s timing of lessons that’s your problem! Will your lesson finish in time to collect dc? Mostly dc don’t have lessons with parents unless you pay for a private instructor and your money won’t go that far. I’d check logistics.