Anyone been skiing in Scandinavia?

[OldBeanbagz]

If so, was it any good?

We are a family of complete beginners and DC will be 13 & 10. Since we're looking at Feb Half Term next year, i was thinking Scandinavia might be good as we could tie it in with a visit to friends in Helsinki.

I've had a winter sports hol in northern Finland. They are a bit short on mountains, so downhill skiing is limited to specific resorts, but there is tonnes of cross-country, skating and sledging. I loved it and found the tuition good (and easy to book online from UK). I'm a low-intermediate at downhill ski, and was a total beginner at cross-country. You get to see lots of reindeer while on the trails, which was a plus for me!

Have a look at www.Levi.fi
We have skied here for the last 2 years with our children and really love it. It's good for beginners, and families wanting to ski together rather than leaving their children in lessons/childcare all day. Has about 50km of piste, which is very small compared to the big resorts in France/Austria etc. but as a group of beginners there is plenty to do for a week to keep you happy and challenged. My children have lessons in the mornings and them we ski together as a family in the afternoons. There are plenty of other activities as well, such as husky sledding, reindeer rides, visit the ice hotel, snowshoeing, sledging, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, northern lights trips, ice fishing, ice karting etc...
Plenty of hotels or apartments to choose from. Good facilities if you choose to self cater, lots of restaurants although tends to be on the pricey side to eat out. You fly to Kittila from Helsinki and it's about an hours flight, and 10mins in a taxi the other end.
If you want to get up at 9 and ski until the lifts shut (which incidentally isn't until 7pm) you would find it too limiting, however it is great if you want a couple of hours of lessons and a few hours of free skiing each day.
The Scandinavian resorts usually have limited opening during the dark months due to slopes needing to be floodlit. I think by Feb half term all the slopes are open, but you can check that on the website.