scandinavian MNers - can you help me with holiday advice?

[elliott]

after all the snow here this winter, I am feeling inspired to find a winter holiday next year. I have two ds's aged 9 and 7, and my ideal holiday would include:
-opportunity to learn cross country skiing (me) and possibly downhill (boys and dh) - though more keen on cross country than downhill
-other fun activities, particularly outdoor ice-skating on a lake and ice-fishing
-flexible accommodation, ideally catered or with nice meals available within walking distance, two bedrooms, friendly
-might be nice to be part of a group and to have some organised activities/opportunities for boys to meet people and go off without us.

Does this kind of thing exist? Do any tour operators do this kind of thing or would I be better off arranging independently? Any recommendations for location and accommodation?
We don't have skis so would need to be able to hire equipment and also get tuition in English - we are all beginners except DH!

Many thanks!

Would have thought Sweden would be good for all this.I've not had that kind of Holiday,but my Swedish friends do these sorts of things for fun.Call the Swedish tourist board?

I thought so too but don't really know where to start - would be great if anyone could point me to a region, a travel agent or company, or a nice hotel!

Well,the North of Sweden is colder and has more snow than the South.

Are is the nearsest resort to Stockholm, but it can get v misty as it's low-lying.

Galieo in Norway is supposed to be the DBs for families

I think Crystal do hols to both of them.

Thanks for the tips. Inntravel and Neilsen do skiing in Norway (but not Crystal anymore it looks like) but I don't think I need an expensive package - probably could do what we want just by booking independently I guess, if we knew what we were doing!

I have some Norwegian travel stuff lying about here that I can dig out later and see if there's any useful info.

Shouldn't be a problem having tuition in English wherever you go.

Some UK tour operators do organized trips to Finnish Lapland. Although they don't mention it, many of the venues are also ski resorts. So book a trip to Levi, Pyhä, Saariselkä, and you can do all kinds of things there on your own. Here for example some ideas how you could get started with a trip to Levi.

I live in Norway and have heard good things about nordicvisitor.com. Almost all the alpine ski resorts here organise cross country siiking too. Hemsedal, Hafjell, Trysil, Geilo, Kvitfjell are the main ones. www.visitnorway.com is a great website, you can also contact the tourist offices for the resorts and they will be keen to help. Not many foreigners learn cross country skiing and they are mad about it here so they are always very excited and curious when we show interest...! It's beautiful here and quite undiscovered. Expensive though, is the only downside. Worth it for a once in a lifetime experience. Sweden, Finland all have similar places and probably cheaper and trendier but the Norwegians are biggest on cross-country skiing.

skiing. No idea what siiking is...