Skiing for beginner single parent and 2 children

[Newbuildtooldbuild]

Please can I have some help in booking my first ski holiday for half term.

I’m looking for the easiest, hassle free ski trip possible. Im a single parent with two beginner children. (I have only skid once before)

I initially booked a hotel, but realise it is located very far from the ski school!

I like the idea of Austria because it seems cheaper, Innsbuck doesn’t seem far from the mountains etc.

It doesn’t have to have amazing runs- just something easy and simple for newbies!

thank you!

Budget?

Budget ideally £3000-£4000
5 nights in half term
We can book our own flights.

How old are your children?
will you have to buy a load of clothing?

Book with a company like Crystal, nielson, Snowbizz for your first trip. There’s so much to think about and much easier if you have everything organised for you.

How old are your kids?

Skischools tend to have fixed start days for group lessons, some Sundays , some Mondays. Half term can be very busy and flexibility to accommodate other arrival times limited. For novices would recommend using a tour operator and booking a beginner package to minimise hassle of organising skihire, lessons, lift pass etc. Somewhere like Seefeld may suit you as there are plenty of non ski activities available, relatively snowsure and it is a pretty resort.

As you seem to know nothing about skiing do not try to organise this yourself - instead book with one of the package travel companies (Crystal, Heidi, Nielsen, Inghams etc) and let them do all of the organising for you, both before you travel and in resort. Innsbruck is not really a ski resort - the resorts are the villages in the surrounding area.

BUT - for this coming half-term you are probably far too late to book anything. Half-term sells out very quickly and many places are totally fully booked by October. Not just package holidays, but also independent holidays. Flights, hotels and ski schools are booked months in advance. UK half-term also clashes this year with the school holidays in almost all of Europe.

My advice is to look at the websites of the companies above and see what they have available. Austria and Italy are good for beginners. France too, although French ski schools are not to everyone's taste. Andorra or Kranjska Gora in Slovenia are reasonable, affordable alternatives. Scandinavian resorts in Norway and Sweden are great for children, but do not come cheap. Do not bother with Bulgaria or Romania.

Great advice on the thread esp from Havana. I would also suggest you go for a small resort. You won’t need more than 50km. Easier to meet up and cheaper lift passes. I always go independently but I’ve been skiing 40 years. Definitely use a company first time.

Thank you all for your help. I’ll keep looking as I promised skiing 🤦‍♀️😭

But looks like it’s not going to happen as there doesn’t seem to be much available with it being half term, anyway.

You could always try skisolutions.
if there is a space anywhere it will likely be on their website.
Feb half term is probably worst time to go anyway as resorts ridiculously busy and its the most expensive week.
could you go at Easter?

Have a look at nesslerhof hotel in Austria, its 2 mins walk from the ski slopes.

they do ski packages I think.

I’m a single parent and took 2 kids last year, only one was skiing.

The hotel is divine, very kid friendly and breakfast, afternoon food and dinner is all included, not buffet dinner but à la carte options.

i can’t wait to go back, the indoor and outdoor pools were amazing and really warm.

A quick look at the Skisolutions website shows quite a bit of availability but at a price. A budget of £3,000 - £4,000 is not going to be sufficient. For example, the Saalbacher Hof in Saalbach, which is a mid-market hotel that I know well, is available for £3,000 per person, so £9,000 for 3 people, on to which you need to add around £600 for 3 high-season lift passes, plus at least £300 for ski rental and another £600 or so for group lessons (and a whole lot more for private lessons). That price includes flights and transfers. There are a few cheaper options, but they don't include flights (e.g. Ryanair, Easyjet, Jet2 and TUI all want £575-£625 per person for London-Salzburg return, plus baggage) or transfers.

Definitely book a package - we went to Austria last year for the first time with Inghams and they were excellent.

Definitely book a family based package first time around. You can do it independently but it's harder (flights, transfers, acomm with meals, ski school, lift passes, kit (as in boots, skis poles) and lockers, whether the resort is "snowsure" there are a lot of moving parts, and it is especially hard work as a single parent of two kids if things are "not quite right". especially if they are younger. It can be fine (lockers at the base of the lifts), short walk to hotel, book equipment early, taxi airport to resort (ha, at cost of this) but in reality, only if you know the drill yourself, or are not planning on ski-ing yourself. It is a brilliant activity / sport / holiday, and it is the top hol of my kids. it is very expensive to learn, and then gets cheaper. I had skied maybe 7 times before I took the kids, and there were 4 of them between 2 adults (no car, which can help if you are confident enough to drive, and I would not even do this lightly) and paid for skischool, lessons etc. By the end, none needed any instruction, they were completely fine with carrying their own skis etc. and they were up on the slopes on their own with meeting places etc. but god knows it took us a while to get there, and a fair bit of money. If I was you I'd consider doing it next year (not this half term, as people say, most stuff may have gone). It is hard, but very rewarding. xx

Go at Easter, cheaper and warmer. Italy is better priced, go high like cervinia.

Thank you so very much. I will look at this hotel and if full will look at Easter as a few people have suggested.

@Newbuildtooldbuild which airport would you be travelling from? I used to do a lot of skiing when a kid and go now occasionally. They have one of the best slopes to learn in my opinion. Well maintained and wide.
I also work with a few ski suppliers so could help with checking availability etc.

Easter is a nice time too. A bit more expensive but nothing like skiing with the sun if you don't mind the goggles tan :)))

In all honestly Austria isn’t the best for beginners. They don’t have green slopes and some of the resorts are quite challenging even for intermediates. Even if a resort tells you it’s good for beginners it’s best to look up on Reddit or similar and see what the real reviews are like.
we always go with Crystal and have had good experiences. If you do decide on Austria, as someone who has many times there then Kaprun is one of the better options for beginners. A decent amount of drag lifts and smaller beginner runs and a decent ski school. It’s also a glacier so there will be snow even at Easter.

Austria is excellent for beginners. Not only are there well-maintained slopes but the ski schools are mech better and friendlier than Italian and French ski schools. The whole approach to teaching is focussed on having fun while learning, as opposed to the French "technical boot camp" style.

Kaprun is a good option at half term, but not at Easter, when the lower slopes will have hardly any snow cover. Beginners should not be anywhere near the Kitzsteinhorn glacier at Easter - it will be icy and very busy and as far as beginners are concerned should be avoided.

I took 3 kids single handedly to Beitostolen last Feb half term. It’s a perfect beginners resort and we paid £800 each. I had to book flights via Frankfurt which was a bit of a ball ache and then a coach transfer from Oslo city centre but all very do able. It’s very small but super friendly and easy to get around. Literally one central lift and some smaller lifts. We stayed at the Radisson which was great, super cosy and easy going with a pool
too.

If you can’t find a package overseas look at Cairngorm mountain Scotland, you can book ski lessons, equipment even clothing rental and book a hotel In aviemore or colombridge, public bus goes straight to the slopes (or did when I went) no need to book skiing every day, if you drive up there’s other stuff to do. Snow is currently good

I'd look at Easter, more availability, less crowded, better value for money and nice lunches in the sun. Look at Peak Retreats, Ski Weekends, as well as Inghams, Crystal, etc. Good resorts might be Montgenevre, Livigno, Risoul, La Thuile /Le Rosiere, Ste Foy. Montgenevre has an amazing ski school, Apeak, and lots of slopesode accommodation.

It's too late for this season as they sell out quickly, but UCPA family weeks are excellent. It's nice hostels in France with equipment and lessons included.

I second UCPA, for sure the best value trip you can get. If you look at Action Outdoors family week they sell UCPA spaces to the UK market. Half term is fully booked but there are some spaces for easter. Its cheap and cheerful but a great price and loads of kids of all abilities to ski with and hang out.

Such authority!! 🤣
Austria is great - definitely my preferred place to go because yes, the slopes are maintained well, ski schools are excellent and the lifts are super slow and safe. But it isn’t the best place for beginners - there are no green runs and some of the resorts such as Obergurgl which are rated as ‘excellent’ for beginners are actually not at all. Very steep slopes and tricky even for intermediate skiers.

I wouldn’t advise anyone to go to Austria as a first timer on their own with kids who have never skiied before without thoroughly researching which resorts are the most suitable - and that isn’t by google search as that isn’t reliable. I’ve had several local ski instructors tell me that often in Austri what would usually be classed as a ‘red’ run is called a ‘blue’ because there is a cafe or restaurant at the bottom of it and they don’t want to put people off going there. Each resort have to have a certain number of blue runs but they are often a lot steeper or narrower than you might expect.

Never been to Kaprun in Easter but have been several times in mid to late March and always had a great time with no issues at all. There are also plenty of blue runs for beginners at Kaprun that are absolutely fine - two of my DC learned to ski there and had none of the problems you suggest.

I third UCPA!