Beginners thread! (Despite lockdown)

[Wirrallie]

Hello!

Keeping my spirits up by thinking about a ski holiday next year.....

We will be going with our children aged 6 and 5.. and are all beginners!

I don’t know anybody who skis so I really need to know the basics...where is the best place for total beginners (and very shy children)...? How much would a week cost during Feb half term (all the gear and accommodation)?

Any tips please?

Thanks!!

Hi Wirrallie, have you read the “skiing virgin” thread a couple below this one on the board... it’s full of useful tips.
A guide as to your budget can be helpful as a family at half term can spend from 3-4K and the sky’s the limit! Then people know how to tailor the advice accordingly.
Personally I would suggest looking at the Portes du Soleil eg Les Gets or Morzine as a good place to start.
Good luck!

OP do you want chalet, SC apartment or hotel? Drive or fly?

Hello. The ski virgn thread is a great one, but I'm happy to talk on here.

We were complete beginners last year. We went to Rauris in Austria (near Salzburg) on a recommendation from DHs colleague. It was very beginner friendly and family friendly, and the ski school were excellent. My youngest can be very shy, and he settled immediately.

February half term is generally the most expensive week. We had planned to go over that week and when we went to book our flights, easyJet wanted £3000 for the 4 of us to fly from Bristol to Salzburg. We brought it forward a week and flew the Saturday before, which dropped the flights to £330, so we took them out of school for the week. Accommodation dropped from £1400 to £700.

If you didn't want to take your children out of school, Easter is cheaper. For example you can fly to Turin for Cervinia in the Easter holidays for about £350 for 4 (we were thisclose to booking them for this Easter).

We went self catered as we like the freedom to keep our own times and buy food that we know we'll all eat.

We stayed in an apartment a five minute walk from the ski school and lift. It can be a long walk for little ones in ski boots, but as there are lockers at the lift, we'd leave our skis there overnight and in the morning sometimes the DC would walk over in normal boots we'd carry their ski boots. Then they could just put their shoes in the locker. Other times they were content to walk over in ski boots. You get used to them pretty quickly.

Mine were 8 and 6 last February. The youngest in their group was 4.

I've just posted this breakdown on another thread....

Re cost. We booked things independently and went in February, the week before half term. It broke down roughly as:

£330 flights
£700 accommodation (two bed apartment)
£500 passes
£600 lessons including ski/boot hire
£25 taxes (Austria)
£100 (roughly) per day for food/drinks on the slopes
Total £2855

'Big food shop' not included in the budget as it's part of our general monthly budget.

Lessons: DC went into full day lessons for 6 days. Drop off at 0930. Meet at 12 for lunch (wherever their instructor tells you to be). Lunch 12-1. Afternoon lesson 1-3. You can do half days if you prefer. However as beginners ourselves, DH and I appreciated having the opportunity to hone our own skills without worrying about the DC. From 3-4 we'd ski (play) on the nursery slope together. Then we'd head back to the apartment. Have some downtime (Kindles etc) and some tea. Then we might go to the pool in the apartment complex after tea.

The DC had a lesson/ski hire package that was about £150ish each. DH and I hired the equipment and paid for 3 x 2 hour lessons with a private instructor as we didn't want to go into a group. We picked it up quickly thanks to the focused attention.

You'll need to buy the clothing before you go. My salopettes were £3 on eBay, DS2 had an all in one from Decathlon in the sale for £13. DS1 had hand me downs and DH bought a set from Mountain Warehouse (about £80).

Buy your own helmets (Decathlon, £15-20 each). Ski socks (again, Decathlon) and underlayers. I have some merino wool ones I got on Amazon, but I also have a pair of lined leggings I got in Primark that worked equally as well. The DC wore their Sondico base layers that they use for rugby.
Gloves. Several pairs as they can take a while to dry.

It's great you're thinking about it. We booked our February 2020 one in January 2019!

Webcams of the slopes in Rauris here (including the nursery slope at the foot of the mountain)
www.hochalmbahnen.at/en/service/valley-weather/livecams/

Ski school here
www.ski.co.at/en/ski-school-adventure-rauris/
(Useful to look at prices)

We booked our apartment through the VRBO app (like AirB&B)

However, as a pp said, if you want a hotel or catered chalet, prices will differ.

About £4000 with everything possibly, but could be a lot more. Skiing is way more expensive than you think it will be! You will also want a good resort with things to do, as your kids will be tired and at that age, May not want to ski all day every day. We have a quote for £3800 for March including kids club and ski club for two under 4s. It would be close to £6000 in feb half term for what we would have in March.

Here's a few tips from me as well!

I would suggest looking at Easter rather than half-term as the prices are sky high for half term, but if you do have to go in the HT a good trick for cheaper flights is to do a few less days and depart on the Mon rather than the Sat and come back Thurs or Fri.

If you are all beginners you could look at a smaller resort so its not so busy on the slopes and you wont be paying a premium for a lft pass for a huge area you wont be using. Here's a few suggestions:

France
Valmorel
Combloux
Vars

Italy
Pila
Bardonecchia
Civetta

Austria
Nassfled
Soll/Elmau

or
Kranjska Gora in Slovenia

I would try and find accom somewhere that is close to the slopes and as your children are quite young a resort that doesnt have a really long transfer.

If you would rather do a package (which might be a good idea for your first trip) you could try a package with some of the bigger operators like Crystal or Neilson to some of the places Ive llisted or Montgenvre in France, Madonna in Italy or Ellmau in Austria. In half term this would be about about 4k. In France Ski Famille is really good for families.

You can hire all your equipment but you may need to buy your own ski clothes. Ask around though you can often borrow a lot from friends for your first trip.

As your kids are close in age and quite shy it would be great to get them private lessons together for a few hours. It may seem a little more expensive but it works out the same in the long run as the learning is faster in a small group.

If you decide to get flights not a package make sure you get a quote from someone like Alps2alps for the transfer price before you book flights as sometimes the transfer cost is massive.

Give me shout if you want to know anymore :-)

I'd definitely agree with others that Easter would be best. Not only because its cheaper but because its just easier with small children. They don't need to wear quite so many clothes, they won't get cold and miserable. The sun will probably be shining and it stays light for longer so you can go sledging or wandering after skiing in daylight. It will, however, reduce options of resorts. You'll need to go high. We've been to La Plagne, Les Arcs, Tignes/Val D'Isere and Alpe D'Huez at Easter and all been fine. Although ADH is south facing so you need to go up high to avoid slush in afternoons which may not be an option with beginners. Although skiing is tiring and when our kids were that age we didn't ski much into the afternoon at all. Definitely get lessons in the morning for that reason. If not Easter then I'd probably go for a smaller resort - you won't need the miles and miles of runs that the big French ones will give you. The lift passes will be cheaper too. Sweden is supposed to be great for families and Austria is a lot of fun although I went pre-kids.

One of the most important things I look for these days in accommodation is how close it is to ski hire and, more importantly, ski school. You WILL end up carrying your skis and their skis and dragging tired kids in ski boots back to chalet/hotel at the end of the day. It's much easier if there is no hill involved and is close as possible. Do some detective work and find it on Google maps and then find the ski school meeting point and see what the terrain is. We stayed in a place in La Plagne once and it said it was really close to ski school but it was down almost vertical steps and couldn't ski anywhere near the chalet on the way back unless you were an expert and went off piste. Oh, and you can buy ski carrier straps for a few pounds - best investment ever. Makes carrying multiple pairs of skis much easier!!

Amazing! Thank you all so much for the tips and advice. I shall do some research....

Oh, and I agree with SkiYetiMagic about private ski lessons. Can't speak for lessons in any other country than France but ESF is very French. Personally, I like the no nonsense approach, when kids fall over the instructors literally just pick them up and carry on but some feel they can be a bit too brusque. My eldest is pretty outgoing and loved it. Made friends with kids he couldn't understand. My youngest less so. Although he was, in hindsight, probably too young. He was 3 when we started and quite clingy
I had to drop him off crying every day and felt really awful . When we started, I didn't let my eldest play out in our quiet cul-de-sac at home but third day at ski school and he was getting on chairlifts by himself (the lift staff ask the others on the chairlift if they'll keep an eye on them and lift them onto the chair and the ski school spot on the chair has a special handle to stop them sliding off) and skiing all over the mountain.

If your kids are shy, private lessons might be a bit less daunting for them. And they are so close in age there will be little difference in ability.