Skiing Dad, Beginner Mum, Beginner DD (8) and Beginner DS (4)

[imdad]

Hi there,

My wife and I had a few skiing holidays pre-kids. The last was 2007!

I’ve been the odd occasion since but my wife has not. She now would like to have beginner type lessons.

We are looking at booking a few days for me to have a blast forna few hours each day and for us to introduce the children to snow. Maybe my wife and DD could have a lesson.

We’re not really interested in leaving children in clubs or ski-schools.

Any advice on resorts within close flying/transfer time that we can happily play around on large nursery slopes close to hotel/apartment and also have a town to look around when not skiing?

Chamonix town is perfect but not ski in/out with easy access to large, gentle nursery slopes.

Any ideas please?
Thanks in advance

I'm not sure Chamonix is a great resort for beginners - as I recall it's quite spread out into a number of different areas, with buses linking them; if you're only going for a few days you would probably be better booking somewhere like Avoriaz/Morzine which is close to Geneva and a short transfer time, depending on time of year you plan to go (it's not that high so not ideal for late season), with likelihood of booking accommodation close to the nursery slopes. I'm sure someone with more knowledge than me will be along to offer more advice on this.

Similarly, I would suggest separate lessons for your dw and dd; kids learn differently to adults as their centre of gravity is lower and muscle strength is not so well developed. Your dd will probably pick it up quite quickly and have a lot more fun in a group with kids of her own age; she could do half day lessons, so you could get some time together in the afternoons. Your dw could have a private lesson on her own; she may find she only needs a couple of hours to get back into it if she's skied previously. Are you anywhere near one of the snowdomes/indoor slopes to make a visit worthwhile?

Definitely not Chamonix. It's mainly rather steep and the ski areas are spread out.

My recommendation for you would be to look at Italy.

1. Cervinia, Italy. It's about an hour to an hour and a half transfer time from Turin. It's on the other side of the Matterhorn to Zermatt, meaning that if you are feeling adventurous, you can get the lift right to the top and go over to Switzerland. Unlike the Swiss side, Cervinia is not eye-wateringly expensive. That side of the Matterhorn is a kind of lovely bowl shape so loads of gentle slopes, child friendly, good food....It's snow sure as it's glacier. It's not a particularly picturesque village but other than that, it's great. The Zermatt side is entertaining for an afternoon or whatever, even if you're not skiing.

1. Dolomites. Longer transfer time so that may mean it's out for you. But utterly awesome. A range of different village resorts. Loads of snow machines so effectively snow sure for your purposes. Great, relatively (compared to other ski resorts) food, fantastic skiiing, picturesque mountains and villages. Child friendly in the way that Italy generally is.

I mean, Dolomites has relatively cheap food.

Montgenevre is a great resort for beginners and lower intermediates and if you can get direct flights to Turin it has about an hours transfer.

Most flights and package holidays are based around staying for a week. You might find it's actually about the same price to go for a week as it is for a few days and if you go for a package trip you will have transfers included

Mourzine and Les Gets is good. Val disere.

I agree on separate lessons.

Montgenevre would probably suit you perfectly. There’s a company called GoMontgenevre who are very helpful. I know you said you aren’t keen on kids clubs and ski school but honestly no one will have any fun if you don’t have lessons and that means ski school.

I agree with stringbean that joint lessons for your wife and DC may not work that well as kids tend to learn at quite a different rate to adults IME (balance / technique is harder for them but confidence easier). Personally I'd enrol the kids in ski school - I've never used kids clubs on any other type of holiday, but for skiing it works well for us (due to the differences in ability that you've mentioned) - my kids love it.

We've found the Grand Massif ski area to be good for beginners.

I second Italy, courmayeur, dolomites, cervina were my first three skiing holidays, as an adult beginner. DH had lived in Colorado, skiing all winter for years.

When I first went I had never skied before. After the first time I had lessons weekly for a year on dry slopes and was bloody fantastic 😎 in subsequent years.

Very family friendly.

@imdad Just a wee reassurance for your wife.... I had 25 years break from skiing. Thought I would need to start again as an almost 50 year old beginner. Was actually terrified! But it all came back to me, and now go 2-3 skiing holidays a year. I have fallen back in love with skiing and am so pleased as it is a sport we can share as a family rather than sons playing football etc and I could only spectate. My sons were highly amused that I was actually quite good and my technique is better than my husbands (although they are more daring / go faster).

Re: ski resorts. Morzine is towny with huge ski area on doorstep. The ski school ESF have “learn to ski” weeks with ski passes and equipment included. Seemed like pretty good value.

We have recently been staying in catered chalets where they organise pretty much everything for you. Www.alikats.eu highly recommended.

We have also recently been to Les Carroz and Chamonix. All good, but Morzine or neighbouring Les Gets larger ski area linked to snow sure Avoriaz ticked all the boxes for us.

Definitely don't do Chamonix with 3 beginners. My recommendation is Les Arcs in France - specifically Arcs 1950 or Arcs 2000 which are both ski in and ski out, good ski schools for the kids and great ski areas with a magic carpet for the beginners for the first few days.

With kids that age we also did Les Gets whcih was good for beginners but low so a bit slushy potentially and bit of a pita each morning trekking up to the lift and queuing with kids. Also did Alpes d'huez which is pretty much ski in/out or an easy lift and good for kids. Great wide greens coming back into the resort perfect for beginners.

We are going to Cervinia, Italy for xmas this year and have heard its very family friendly, though mine are now older and approaching better than me even though ive been skiing since teenager. They certainly have better knees!

Depends on your budget. Courchevel is an amazing location with good accessible, easy runs near hotels etc. Look at courchevel 1550 or la tania as it is cheaper than 1850.

Kranska Gora, Slovenia is a small resort, so it's easy for you to ski and all be quite close to each other. For competent skiers, the skiing is pretty good, there just isn't a lot of it! Options of day trips to Bled or Venice if you don't want to ski every day

Another vote for Cervinia. Went for first time for Christmas in 2015 - husband and I hadnt skied since 2004, children were 10 and 6. They'd had about 10 hours of lessons in a ski dome here and then had a couple of private lessons once we got there.

It was brilliant - there are lovely cruisey blue runs to build confidence and the red runs are mostly quite tame compared to some other resorts. You're not stuck on nursery slopes as a beginner, you get to explore the mountain. The bonus is (certainly when we've been over Christmas week) the slopes are very quiet, no speed demons whizzing past.

You also have Zermatt over the other side which is really pretty and has some really special spots worth visiting (the iglu village to name but one). You could go off for some challenging skiing whilst your family skied the easier runs. All of us skied over to Zermatt on Day 4 I think of our first week, so all very do-able even for novices!

We've been back a couple of times since, accommodation all v close to lifts, pizza & gelato for the children, all quite reasonably priced. Love it!

This is Christmas Eve last year (2017). This is Ventina (if I remember correctly), the longest red run (runs for several km) but you can see how quiet it is.

Here

I was going to say Courchevel if budget allows.

Val d'isere also has a nice range of shops to look round and a nice swimming pool. Good beginners area higher up but beginners would need to take the bubble down into town.

Les Arcs or La Plagne

Very interesting thread. I want to go skiing again, having not been for many years.

Passo Tonale in Italy is great for beginners and for "ski to your door". Shouldn't need to break the bank either but there is a 2.5 hour transfer. Look at Crystal Ski as they do lots of packages to this resort.

The beginners slopes are fab, some lovely easy runs plus a few good red and black runs if you get time to yourself.

Look into the cost of a private instructor for a day - it was the same price as kids ski school for 2 last time we went (although we were in Park City UT).

I don't think your wife and dc are likely to enjoy themselves if they have only a single lesson as beginners. You are more likely to put them off the whole idea.

You could look private lessons. We did this with children, and had great fun. But we had several lessons for a couple of hours a day.

I was in similar situation with beginner DH and DDs, they did ski school together am and I joined an advanced group to get some proper skiing in, then we skied as a family pm. You will find it frustrating to be tied to their pace all the time and they will be equally frustrated at not being able to do what you want. We chose la Tania as great for families but access to 3 valleys.

Tbh the whole concept of ski school is designed exactly for people like your wife and DD. They'll be put into a group with skiers of similar abilities and will learn from each other and progress at the right pace for them. My DD has loved her times in ski school - the last 2 years she has ended up in a small group with 3 other english girls the same age as her, but she's still had fun in groups with non-english speakers as the instructor makes it fun. I would not put an adult and child beginner in the same group.

If you all want to ski together I would look at Les Gets or Morzine. Ski school is for a few hours in the morning, then you could all come together at lunchtime and ski the afternoon as a family. I prefer Austria to France but the ski schools tend to run all day whereas they are only half day in France. Andorra also runs half day ski school and has a big English-speaking clientele and beginner friendly slopes.