What are the additional costs of a skiing holiday?

[roisin]

Given the 'package' includes ski/boot/pole hire, ski instruciton, lift pass, travel, full board accommodation.

I presume we would need to budget for:
spending money (11 yr-old - how much?)
ski clothing - if I can't find anyone to beg/borrow some from, how much should I budget?
anything else?

Ski clothing allow at least £100 unless you manage a bargain on ebay or tk maxx et al, to include jacket(£35+), trousers(£25+), gloves(£10+), 2-3prs socks (£5 ish per pair), hat, sunglasses and goggles, handy size sunscreen/lipsalve plus a couple of long sleeve tops/fleece and thermals, depending on time of season which he may already have. This site is worth a look but it's potluck as to what sizes are in stock.

Spending money would be for drinks/chocolate/snacks mainly so at least £5 a day for that plus any entrance fees to ice skating and so on, say £50-75 per week.

is this just for an 11 year old? he will need some money for snacks - chocolate (both solid and hot/liquid) are a pretty important part of ski-ing holidays. other than that I can't really think what else he'll need.

for ski-clothing try ebay, tk-maxx, and. as you said, begging/borrowing (maybe not stealing ).

he will need jacket - dds' jackets cost about £40 - but is their winter coat - ie they wear them all the time and don't have anything else - too late for this winter but you could maybe get something that will see him through next winter. I;ve never bought salopettes new. got a pair for about a tenner on ebay that have done 4 years service (2 for each girl) and otherwise borrowed - so can't help on price there.

depending on when he's going you might want to get him thermals - leggings and top - I got dds' from Millets - the leggings were on offer - 4 for the price of 3 so I got 4 different sizes - two of which they'll grow into in a couple of years. iirc you;re looking at about £10 for top and similar for leggings - but can end up paying less if you find an offer.

he will need good gloves - you can pay anything but probably about £20-30 for reasonable quality from a good sports shop.

goggles and/or sunglasses (it goes on....) maybe £10. but at that price they might not be very trendy for an 11-year old

socks - look for offers - you can get them for £3-£5 each. he can probably make do with 2-3 pairs.

tops/fleece/sweatshirt - don't get him anything special. you really don;t need wicking, all singing-dancing, £15 or more tops. just his usual t-shirts will be fine.

hat and scarf (best scarves imo are the fleece neck things) - again you can pay pretty much anything but maybe £15 for both - and they'll last a lifetime.

suntan lotion/lip salve - he'll need a diddy tube to keep in his pocket (no need to buy a bigger one too -the diddy one will be enough) - can be quite expensive - I think it's worth buying good quality stuff designed for ski-ing - very high factor, waterproof, for sensitve skin etc and (guessing a bit here) that will probably be £5-8.

thanks - that's really helpful

My instinct is to say he can't go this time (and he will only have been at the school for a term) as I don't want him to think he can always go on everything. But it's a small school and I don't know if they run a ski trip every year. (It's only open to yrs 7&8s, which surprised me.)

I went skiing with school, and it was such a great opportunity, and then went several times when I was older. But we would never go as a family.

Hmmm .... prevaricating, as usual.

I don't know I thought your 11 year old was a boy...

Jura - thanks for the offer, but he is a boy!

My best bet for borrowing some kit is vehemently opposed to private schools in principle, and I haven't yet dared tell them that we are abandoning the state sector for ds1 from September

Our boys wear their home anoraks. They are also wearing their sister's ski trousers from the 1980s! and ski gloves from them too. You certainly need some ski socks. They probably have a wooly hat already.

If it's a school trip they will normally tell you how much pocket money.

We go as a family hence all this passed down second hand kit which I will keep for grandchilren too.

roisin - the school where I used to work did 2 ski trips every year - one for year 8, and one for years 9 - 13 ... imho, it's better, as the younger ones need a bit more babying than the older ones ... the evening activities tend to be more aimed at them too.

• decent gloves, thermals, sunglasses and sunscreen are an absolute must ... the rest can be hired from many shops if you don't manage to get an ebay bargain.

• he'll also need to take swimming stuff - make sure he has a pair of skimpy trunks as well as swim shorts as many European Swimming pools don't allow bathers to wear shorts.

• as for money, with the younger ones, it's often better if the school run a "bank" for the children: we used to - all the children's money was lodged with an appointed member of staff (we'd have about 8 children each to bank for) - we'd dole out their money on a daily basis, usually after tea - we'd usually recommend they brought no more than 100 Euros with them - they only really need money for buying drinks when on evening activities, although some will be provided. Most of the time they'll also want to buy chips at lunchtime - the packed lunches they usually get are good, but not really sustaining enough. (sorry, that was a really long sentence!)

If you're not sure for this year, then why not ask the school if they'll be doing a trip every year?