How old were your children on their first trip and do you regret it?

[NameNumber2]

We are considering going on our first family ski trip next February half term. DH and I are capable skier/snowboarders. DDs will be 6 nearly 7 and 4.5. We are not sure if it is too early for our youngest.

What ages were your children on their first ski trip and do you regret the timing?

Both mine were in the mountains before they were 2. In ski school (kindergarten) at 3 and on the mountain (off the nursery slopes) at 5. Ds (10) is now confident on black runs and off piste in a year or 2 he will be better than me.

I started at 3 years. I learned to ski before I have memories. I just remember ski-ing on piste rather than learning on the nursery slopes.

Ooooo good to know just 2 years to go and counting.

I am a little nervous about putting them in ski school when they won't know the staff or the routine. Any tips for this? Thanks for your experiences so far.

DS and DD were both 4 when they first skied. Don't regret it for a second, they both absolutely loved it. DS is now 8, DD 5 and we were away skiing over the half term and we all had a blast, best bit was being able to ski with both children.

My 2 were fine in ski school. My top tip would be to make sure that there will be other English speaking children in the class and that the class sizes aren't too big (I watched one ESF instructor unload 16+ 5/6 year olds from a chairlift this year!!). We have always gone with a company like esprit or snowbizz who have maximum class sizes and you know there will be other English speaking children.

I think we put our eldest into ski school before they were ready - around 4/5. the youngest didn't start until 5/6 and as a consequence picked it up quicker. but now they are teenagers they all ski well - better than me. so the only downside was that we paid for lessons that were a bit of a waste of time and I suspect they may not have enjoyed it enormously - but it hasn't put them off.

my view is that, like almost everything to do with families, you will never get it absolutely right for everyone individually so you have to go with what is best for the family as a whole.

I always think of the children who grow up in the mountains - seems most of them start pretty young and most do every weds afternoon school skiing from age 5 where we go.
My 3.5 year old skied for the first time this year. We checked out the ESF classes, specifically aimed at 3 and 4 year olds, then took her along to one and stayed and watched (none of the other parents did!). It was in a special cordoned off area with special ski lifts (one like a travelator, one was a continuous rope pull). She loved it and went back every day voluntarily, one day in proper snow! The lesson was all in French and the other children were all French. We told her to watch carefully and copy. She picked up a few phrases as she went long which was fab. TBH I didn't think she would put on the boots, let alone like ski school. She can't wait to go next year. Anyway - log winded but I would say that I expect your 4.5 year old would like it. We just went at our dds own pace. She was cream crackered every afternoon!!! Hope you have a blast if you end up going xxx

DD1 was 3.9 and took to it straight away, although we struggled to find lessons for her as an under-4 (Val d'Isere). We ended up paying through the nose for an English-speaking class with a 1:3 teacher:child ratio.

We're just back from our latest ski trip where we tried putting DD2 (just turned 3) in ESF's Club Piou Piou. They have a 1:6 ratio in theory but in practice there were about 20 of them between 4 teachers and no dedicated key carer for each child. There were other English-speaking children there but they made little effort to group them together or speak English to them. DD2 hated it and in retrospect we should have held off for a year and then put her in a smaller class.

DD1 is now 5.9 and making great progress. She ended up in a mixed English/French ESF class last week but got on fine and was skiing all the way back down to the bottom with us quite happily by the end of the week on some narrow icy blue runs.

We waited until DS was 7. Reason being he doesn't like kids clubs and I wanted to wait until he was old enough to cope with lessons and carry his own skis.Skiing is expensive so didn't want to make a mistake by trying too early.

DS was 4, DD was about 3 or 4 months, so stayed in the creche at the bottom of the slope that year. At one or two she liked playing in the snow playgrounds and going sledging, and had her first ski lesson at three.

Three or four seems like a good age to start learning to ski to me - I was 18, which is way too old - but I wouldn't expect them to want to spend all day, every day for a week out on the slopes at that age, so you need a resort with other stuff to do.

Thanks all, I will have a look into English companies with small class sizes I had assumed that they would all be massive multi lingual groups!

Mine were 3 and 5. The oldest would have coped with group lessons, but youngest wouldn't have at 3, so we got them a private instructor for a few hours each morning while we skied, and then skied as a family in the afternoons. I was experienced enough that I could help them down any tricky bits right from the start. If you don't want them in ski school/crèche all day then you have to accept that your own skiing will be somewhat limited at times! But I wouldn't have it any other way, I have loved seeing them improve as the weeks have gone on. Off for our 4th time at Easter :-)

Mine were 8 and 10 which was great as they were in the same beginners class. Think they would have hated being separated.

It's a personality thing. You're the best judge of your child but even then it is still hard to say!

We put our oldest two, then 6 and 4, in ski school (plus afternoon creche for the 4 year old) and they were absolutely fine. No wobbles, and they improved so much beyond where they had got in their fortnightly lessons at Hemel it was unreal.

The 4 year old was used to going to nursery several days a week and had not long changed nurseries so was perhaps a bit more robust than usual. She has a history of being clingy so we were pleasantly surprised. Toward the end of the week we'd sometimes spy on her out on the mountain a few valleys from base cheerfully in a crocodile with her classmates - she had no problems coping at all and followed the instructions of her teacher just fine. A nightmare skiing with us though, ha - hence we only took her out the once of an afternoon. It was Enough. Yet DC1 would have been fine at that age out with us - again, it's just a personality thing. Two years later and I still wouldn't fancy taking DC2 out with us this year!

However I am a bit wobbly about whether our third child, who will be 4.75 when he skis in mountains for the first time next year, will find it. It could go either way. He doesn't settle into new childcare settings well at all, and that's without the complication of something as alien as a mountain environment and skis.

Most places definitely do lessons from four years old and a few do from three years old. I think that says all you need to know about how capable children are at particular ages. Although with the three year olds I think they spend some time playing in "snow gardens" and sledging with plenty o breaks for snacks etc and so on rather than the full length ski lessons which is daunting even for adults!

Just definitely research the ski school in question to find out how well the little ones are treated!

Ours started at 4 and 3 3/4. They've both loved it and have achieved their first two awards during the first week.

We've been several times with Family Ski who have dedicated ski school helpers for the lowest groups and who work very closely with ESF in their resorts (Les Lindarets is the one that we have experience of). That means that there's always a friendly English speaker looking out for them - helping them up if they fall, putting gloves back in, helping to go to the loo at break time etc. that has made a massive difference imo.

We're just back from a trip with 5y10m and 3y9m.
Even though the eldest sometimes is clingy going into school, she loved it and even asked to join the group for lunch. Younger dc found it tiring and I think the v young class was a bit repetitive and boring for him but we had a great time, they did enjoy it, no regrets. I think 4.5 will be fine, they are used to being at school etc.
Try Austria meant to be more child friendly than France. I would not have put them in ESF.

Yes, 3 & 5 here as well. Not sure the 3 yr old got much out of it as she was only on a small nursery slope but it did mean that she flew at 4. The 5 yr old hated the first two days but was bombing round the hill on the 3rd. We did go with an English company whose lessons were exclusive to them and they only had lessons in the morning. Afternoons were spent skiing with us or playing or a couple of afternoons in English crèche at 3 and 4. At 12 the then five year old is the best in the family and has been happily bombing down blacks for several years. It's a fantastic family holiday.

Mine started at 4 & 7 in a specialised English speaking venue (cats say more as it may out me). The 4 year old didn't retain anything she had learnt in Year 1 to Year 2, the 7 year old did. They had lessons for 5 years (1 ski week per year)
They have both returned from half term skiing 11 years later and this is the first time the younger one has been the best skier.

I think they do need to be used to childcare to be able to cope with ski school. The kindergarten lesson are only 2.5 hours long with a hot chocolate break in the middle, but the ratios are 1:8 and they are taught how to get themselves up and carry their skis at 3 !!! So I guess they need to be quite robust. On a practical note if you are in France get the ESF to keep them for lunch and pick them up at 2:30pm so you get a long morning. They will have had a good lunch and a rest by then and you can ski as a family in the afternoon.

In Austria ski school is 10-3 which is much more civilised :) I believe they also take them at 2 !! BTW it was chamonix where the ESF took our 3 year old. I also thought they needed to be 4.

We have our first family ski holiday this year. I found the Snowheads forum helpful for advice and recommendations. We have chosen a French resort with a ski school that has English-speaking instructors and small groups. They confirmed there were already English children booked into the class which helps.

We did look into Austria but decided the day was too long for our DS who is just 5, as it was 2 hours in morning, lunch, plus 2 hours in afternoon. Having never skiied before, we decided mornings only was enough.

The other thing we found in Austria was that there were Russian children in the class who all spoke perfect English.

DS started at 5 in an English only class and English staffed kids club doing wrap round care. By the end of week one he was off the kindergarten slope.

It was the right age for him, he was strong enough and coordinated enough to enjoy it, and he loves going fast. A year younger he would not have been so capable.

We went week before half term lo 6 went to Austria. Lo loved it great at turning did reds well by the end of the week I was amazed

Our DD first went at 3yrs;

The best thing to do is link up with a company specialising in family ski holidays - this may fly in the face of your previous ski holiday habits but believe me when I say it is soooo worth it. we've used Esprit & Mark Warner as they link up with ski schools with english speaking instructors and they are very good at the 'booting & suiting' at the beginning of the day and fetching them back & entertaining in the afternoon. I personally think Esprit are better as they seem to have a higher ratio of male carers. Club Med are OK although DD was disgusted that as a 6yr old she was expected to take a nap in the afternoon. They also keep the kids up late into the evening which can be a bit of a pain. Avoid Powder Byrne - not as good as Esprit and twice the money.