Skiing in Canada - where to go?

[chicaguapa]

I've heard that Canada is better than France for skiing so I thought I'd do a bit of research. Where's good to go around Christmas/ New Year?

DC will be 7 & 10. They have only been skiing one before but took lessons and picked it up well. But I guess they'd be sticking to blue runs. DH & I would be looking for a good selection of blue/red runs. No blacks for us!

Ideally I'd love somewhere that's close to the slopes/ ski school. We went to Morzine last year and the cable car/ walk up the ski school got DC off to a bad start every day!

Can anyone suggest anywhere please? Thanks.

I have never skied in Canada - I would love to one day, but the one thing that I would be wary of, particularly at Christmas is the temperature. It can be very very cold, and that would be very off putting for children (and adults too!)

I have done most of my skiing in France - never been to Morzine - will be interesting to see what other MNs who have skied in both think, but I can't believe that many will agree with the statement that "Canada is better than France for skiing".

Thanks. Perhaps Easter would be better then? Should have put a after the better comment. There will always be people on both sides of the fence.

Easter is quite late in 2011 - so some Canadian resorts will be shutting by the school holidays mainly because no one goes rather than lack of snow.

We have skied Tremblant (in Feb half-term, extremely cold), Banff and surrounding resorts (lots of skiing but a pain with children as not ski-in, ski-out unless you stay in Sunshine), Silver Star (nice but small) and Big White (our favourite). Never been to Whistler.

Normally we go at Easter, but this time are going for Christmas/New Year. Part of what is great about Canada is no queues, so not sure if it will be like that this time. The teaching for kids has always been really good, plus the other stuff for kids like tubing, mini snow mobiles etc.

I'm firmly in the "Canada is better than France" camp!

For your group abilities Silver Star and Big White sound right up your street - also perhaps Kimberley.

Sunshine is family friendly with loads of easy cruising - but only one hotel on the hill - so isolated if you were to stay there.

Kicking Horse is a definite NO for your group this year.

WHistler is great. Loads of choice of runs, only 2 main lifts, both from the main resort. Massive ski area. Lots of hotels. Lots of restaurants. Something for everyone. Options for all £. No queues (and we went at Spring Break).

Went pre-DS, but there were lots and lots of families. Long flight to Vancouver (10 hrs or so), then 2.5 hour transfer though.

Have also been to Whistler, it's amazing. (I'm slightly biased though as I'm a snowboarder and the mix there is about 50/50, whereas in Europe we're still fairly outnumbered and it's very much a skiing culture).

The town is small but perfectly formed! Lots of choice for eating and drinking. Whistler and Blackcomb mountains are huge with very long easy/intermediate runs from top to bottom, you can go all week without doing the same run twice. We went on 4th Feb last year for 10 days and temps were fine however it was a mild winter.

We went pre-DD but wouldn't hesitate to go back again, everything is set up to be made as easy as possible, from minimal queues to the helpfulness of the lift staff. Lots of patrols on the slopes too. We are probably back to Europe again next year after a year off and to be honest not looking forward to the queues, general rudeness and crowds that you face there, Canada's spoilt me!

Whistler is great - although I went pre-children. DH and I are also boarders and second PP that there is a strong boarding culture there.

The town is great - lots of choices of bars and resturants and lots to keep you occupied if you are not skiing/boarding.

I'd go there every year if it wasn't quite so expensive and quite so far with the children.

Agree that Whistler is fantastic for families. The children's ski school has a great reputation and for adults I cannot recommend doing Ski Esprit (nothing to do with the tour operator) enough. We went last year and stayed in an apartment in the Pan Pacific, but there are plenty of accommodation options.

I have also skied Banff/Lake Louise, which are great but not being able to stay by the slopes is a bit of a drawback with kids.

I would go back to Whistler every year if it was my choice (and there are plenty of people who do) but my DH likes very challenging terrain and variety so...

Big White and Silver Star sound great! Though the flight length is a small concern, and the longer transfer time is putting me off Whistler a bit. Their DS batteries only lasts 3 hrs! I take it it's better to go for 10 days, is it? Which restricts us to the two longer school holidays as DH is a teacher. So maybe leave it to another year when Easter's a bit earlier?

What about Quebec then?

Banff/LL have a longer transfer time than Whistler.

Or what about Vermont? Easily driveable from Boston. New Hampshire?

I wouldn't go to Canada at NY - it would be too cold.

I have been at Easter time (it was a late easter, 2nd week in April) and it was great - in Banff village it was sunny and bright, and up on Sunshine the snow was still perfect. Compared to spring skiing in Europe it is great - no slush and NO QUEUES for the lifts, even on the busy Easter holdiay days.

There is only one hotel on Sunshine itself, we stayed in Banff which was approx 40 mins on the bus to the ski area. We didn't mind this at all - dd was OK with it (she was 10 at the time).

Whistler is brilliant.

Short queues, efficient lifts, and the queues are orderly (i.e no pushing in!!). The peak to peak gondola makes the whole of the two-mountain system easily do-able in a day (whereas prior to its existance you would have to go down whistler to go up blackcomb).

The town itself is very, hmmm, very "planned" rather than the more organic european resorts (well, most anyway).

Point to note, is that whistler town itself is low elevation - about 600m. What does this mean? Well, the streets are probably not going to be too icy/snowy, but whistlers location does mean that it can rain. Rain! However, if its raining in town then it is more than likely snowing further up the mountain.

If I was taking kids whistler would be my first choice but for two things - distance and price.

Oh, hotel we stayed at was very nice indeed - Whistler Fairmont.

Don't think i'll be doing that again anytime soon with a baby on the way!

canada is very friendly for families but a long way.They organise the lift queues, they hand out free paper hankies in the mountain restaurants (which have a picnic section and tiolets for all, not just those eating there), the lifties smile at you. They enforce the slow zones to protect beginners. Candians believe skiing is a holiday and should be enjoyed, rather than a sport to punish yourself with. you're right thought, it's a 10 day minimum.

I would suggest puy st vincent with snowbizz in europe for you - that is small, family friendly and very close to the slopes. There are other places similar i am sure, just have a good look around. I like austria too, and i am sure there are several ski-in ski-out places there - kaprun is family friendly i am told and zell an see was wonderful (but not too close to the slopes).
good luck!

forgot to say, we went to whistler(pre-kids and stayed for 2 months) and i would take the kids next year if we could get 2 weeks off and could easily afford the cash. maybe when they are bigger and cope better with the flight....

Silver Star and Big White at new year will be nowhere near as cold as the Banff area resorts.

The flights aren't bad if you go AirCanada. The in flight movie/tv section for kids is pretty good and kept ours happy last time, with a bit of DS time and some books on iPods.

We are going for Christmas for 12 days and then for a week half term as we have decided they can cope with that now.

Previous years we have done east coast if only a week - Smugglers Notch was fun for the children, but dh and I less so.

I'm not expecting extreme cold at Big White this Christmas, but over the years we have acquired lots of things to keep warm, so the children ski in more or else any weather. I might get myself some heated boots this year as I hate cold feet!

We live in Toronto so it does make sense for us to ski in Canada. Big White and Silver City are my suggestions, they are very child friendly with one of the top 5 ski schools in the world. Check out www.bigwhite.com although accommodation can be found cheaper at www.ownersabroad.com or www.vrbo.com. The downside to North American skiing is not so much the weather but the lack of apres ski but then going on a ski holiday with children means that you are less likely to want to apres ski. It still seems odd to me to go into a restaurant and everyone is either asking for or has got a burger and a Bud. My partner and I once skied in Zermatt for one week and then later in the season we came to Big White; one day in Zermatt cost the same as 10 days in Big White! It is a long flight though, London to Vancouver is 10 hours and I kept saying Ärn't we there yet" to my Canadian partner as I really do not like long flights. When we went the loos froze over Greenland. One last thing, go as late as you can. Last year we went in February and in March. American and Canadian school children have a two week March break so if they are travelling for a skiing holiday March break is the time they will do it. This season coming March break is from 11 March to 25 March, although the slopes will be busy, although not as busy as European slopes because they are so vast, the weather will be beautiful. When you book accommodation remember to look at the ski in/out rating because accommodation that is 5 star ski in/out in January/February will be 2 or 3 star ski in/out in March because there won't be so much snow. This is what we found last year as I booked the same accommodation for both trips.

We're going to Silver Star in Feb 1/2term.
Anyone stayed there in firelight lodge?

We're hopping to save on eating out by doing a bit of self catering - are there food shops locally?

It's not very clear!

There is very limited food shopping up the mountain - much better to buy it in Vernon on the way up (most of the mini buses will stop if you ask) or order it on the web to be delivered.

chicaguapa, if the walk to ski school is the motivation to looking further afield to as in Canada, perhaps it is better to focus on choice of resort anywhere first. Canada is a LONG way to go to ski, I am Canada's biggest fan but wouldn't dream of paying for 6 filghts to Canada just to go skiing there, when for less than the price of one flight there, I can get the whole family to ski resorts in western Europe and be there in 8 hours door-to-door.

I can't stand walking too far with 4 children and all their skis falling all over the place, so when choosing accommodation, I looked at distance to the ski school and lifts the ski school use as the number one priority. There are loads of ski-in and ski-out resorts and accommodation in France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland etc.

Thanks Jicky, how do you go about ordering on the web for delivery there?

I've just started to look at the details aand starting to get very excited!

Was silverstar where you did the mini snomobiles? my boys have always wanted to do sno mbile tours but have been too young.

Try www.vacationfoods.com/food for grocery delivery or www.smartstartfmeals.ca for meal delivery.

Or just try and stop at Butcher Boys on the way up the hill - the shuttles will do this - especially if you ask in advance - we sometimes leave sleeping kids in the van (with the driver) and dash round. Also buy wine/beer as much cheaper than on the hill.

It is Silver Star with the mini snow mobiles - great fun and very close to Firelight. The kids terrain park is also excellent (well I skied down the outside but the boys all had fun).