What do you do on a ski holiday?

[Estherpologist]

This might sound like a silly question, but what do you do on a ski holiday?

My DD and I have just discovered skiing, and I'm about to get divorced, so holidays with just the two of us will be completely new anyway. I could imagine spending 8hrs a day just practising if it was just me, but I can't imagine she will, so what else is there to do (cheaply ) in most budget, beginner friendly ski resorts that could entertain an early teen?

And if you're actually skiing for a couple of hours a day, how much time do you spend doing ski stuff that isn't just going down hill?

When mine were little and couldn't ski a full day we used to go to a resort that had a complex with a huge indoor pool with a slide and an ice skating rink.

But a young teen would most likely ski morning and afternoon and conk it in the evening.

I ski all day, possibly with a coffee stop & a lunch break. Get back to chalet for afternoon tea & cake & a catch up with other peeps about their exploits that day. Then it’s shower time, pre-dinner drink with canapés, dinner & then collapse shortly after in bed to do it all again the next day.

A ski lesson in the morning, lunch and a ski in the afternoon followed by cake and hot chocolate. If you can stay somewhere with a pool or ice skating then that helps if you want an afternoon off.

Wake up, sort yourselves out.

Get yourselves to the slope, have crepes or something at the cafeteria if it's nice there & meet your respective classes for 10am.

Lesson from 10 - 12.30 or 1pm

Lunch from 1 - 2 or 2.30pm depending on how slow you are/how long queues are

Ski again from 2.30 - 4.30pm

Get yourselves out of your skis and back down to your hotel/flat via a nice cafe for hot chocolate

Sort yourselves out

Hotel hot tub or pool, or explore the village

Dinner, movie, showers, laundry, bed.

You'll find that the days FLY by, partly because everything takes a lot longer than you think it will with queues, being slowed down by the boots/equipment etc.

Last time I went I left the kids with my Dad for an hour in the morning and went for a solo practice at 8am every morning too because I wanted the extra time as the kids were already near expert!

@AndyMurraysCat Do you know the other people in your chalet? I was thinking self catering would be more affordable, so haven't looked into that.

Breakfast, then straight out to the slope for three hours skiing. A long lunch, and I like to lie down for half an hour or so to rest my legs, because I am middle aged and unfit. Then another three hours skiing, by which time the lifts are closing and it’s getting dark.

A couple of gins in the bar, and I read for an hour or play cards. Shower and a long wine-filled dinner, then bed.

I’m never short of things to do but going out and about to new slopes, planning routes, browsing in the ski shops for new kit and just relaxing are the other things to fit in. I love skiing.

Kids get more out of the skiing day and progress faster with lessons, even if half a day. Then you can practice familiar runs after lunch. Some accommodation may have sleds to borrow. Some lift-passes include access to swimming pool, ice rink and leisure facilities, and you can use it to access many lifts on foot with walking paths, restaurants or viewing platforms. Late season you may find summer toboggan runs and outdoor play areas opening up.

We ski all day, with teens, I'm at the back struggling to keep up! Ski from 9am ish til lunch on the mountain and then finish about 3pm for apres ski and then shower dinner and drinks. Works for us! A pool is always nice if you have that as an option
Obvs if you are needing lessons then that might limit how much skiing you can do after them but it's quite good fun planning a ski route for the day

Ski in the morning (small kids in skischool). Meet for lunch for an hour. Ski a bit more after lunch until tired. Go back to chalet/hotel/apartment and have a quick shower. Maybe go for a swim/hot tub. Then relax until dinner. Repeat.

@AndyMurraysCat

I ski all day, possibly with a coffee stop & a lunch break. Get back to chalet for afternoon tea & cake & a catch up with other peeps about their exploits that day. Then it’s shower time, pre-dinner drink with canapés, dinner & then collapse shortly after in bed to do it all again the next day.

This!

Most big resorts will have an ice rink, pool and bowling alley if yiu don’t want to ski all day, but the focus of a skiing holiday is usually skiing.

[quote Estherpologist]@AndyMurraysCat Do you know the other people in your chalet? I was thinking self catering would be more affordable, so haven't looked into that.[/quote]
No, but it doesn’t take long to get to know people in a chalet environment. It’s pretty sociable with a lounge & in-chalet bar (much cheaper than going out). Plus you can mix up which table you sit at to eat breakfast & dinner. Chalet = fun!

My friend went with just her DD to Bulgaria for the Feb half term. It was pretty cheap for 4 star half board with a spa. They had lessons in the morning then a bit of tootling around the slopes in the afternoon.

I'm currently away with friends and it's unseasonably warm, so we're out on the slopes as early as we can muster, but finishing shortly after a late lunch 2.30-3 , then a bit of a relax and mumsnet (now) followed by a dip in the pool, maybe a chocolat chaud in the bar as it's free in the afternoons then dinner at 7.30pm. Because we're so tired from the exercise we're in bed by 10pm.

Friend booked their ski trip through Balkan holidays.

Got teens here too so we do ski pretty much all day. On the slopes by 9. Quick coffee mid morning. More skiing. Lunch and then more skiing. Will sometimes have a pit stop before last run home. Couple of beers for apres around 5 then quick shower before dinner. Generally in bed by 10 ready to start all over again the next day. I needed a holiday to recover this year! 🤣

All the PPs have pretty much covered it. The days fly by. There's generally lots of restaurants dotted about on the mountain, so plenty of time to stop for a drink and admire the view.

If you've just discovered skiing, then you'll need lessons anyway. You don't say how old your DD is but what worked well for us on our first holiday was DC in ski school and DH and I had a private instructor for 3 mornings. We then spent the afternoons practising what we'd learnt.

Factor in a rest morning too. We dropped the DC at ski school one morning and then went to the spa for a few hours. We met skied after lunch. And one day DS2 wanted a rest morning, so he stayed in the apartment with DH and DS1 and I skied.

You'll probably find that you'll naturally find your groove and know when you want to just wander round the village in the afternoon or have a morning off. You'll also want to be on your skis as much as possible.

Where are you thinking of going?

Oh, early teen. Sorry missed that.

I always recommend Rauris in Austria for beginners and families. It's a small resort, so a good chance to get to know all the runs and focus on your skills rather than worrying what's round the corner.

A couple of the s/c complexes have a pool thats free if you're staying there. It's a small Alpine town. Very pretty. They have a 2km long toboggan run if you fancy something a bit different one day. They have floodlit nights so you can go on it after dark a couple of times a week.

It's easy to get to from Salzburg and if you're willing to take her out of school, we found it fairly reasonable for the week before February half term.

No option of shared chalet though. Not really a thing in Austria.

We're skiing now.

Kids in lessons 9-11.30. Adult fast ski time (we're experienced skiers and don't need lessons ourselves) and peaceful mountain coffee & croissants. Today the kids didn't want to stop after their lessons so I did another hour with them. Lunch 1-2pm. Ski 2-4pm with a 15 min sugar before final descents. Swim. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

I'm probably a bit late in responding to this post. but we are a regular skiing family, so I had to comment. Starting out you will tired even after a few hours, but once you master the basics, probably within a week, you will ski all day with a few stops for refreshments. Im sure a teenager will love the apres ski, Austria is generally better for this, but some French resorts have some fantastic bands and DJ, where dancing in your ski boots is massive fun.

We tend to book Club Med these days, we always book with Ski Line as they give discounts.

Club Med have teenage clubs, spas and being all inclusive, you wont be handing out pocket money all the time.

We normally have an enormous breakfast then ski hard with only a quick stop for coffee until 2 or 3. By that point the snow gets less good and we're knackered so we get a drink at the bar, ski back before the drunks get kicked out, then shower, nap, pool, shower, nap, dinner, bed. We might have 1 or 2 private lessons for a couple of hours during a week, but we're good skiërs.

Two important things to remember: you're on holiday and you shouldn't need another holiday to recover immediately after; and there's no shame in taking it easy. Injuries happen at the end of the day or 3 days in when you're tired and have done one run too many. Better to enjoy the view from a café than the clinic!