How do you do skiing as the kids get older?

[StickChildNumberTwo]

We're just back from our third excellent week with Family Ski (catered chalets with other families, childcare, early tea for the kids etc) but as our kids are getting older (now 7 and 11) and we don't need the childcare, we're wondering what people do next. We really enjoy the sociable aspect of being in a chalet, and I self catered a ski holiday once and swore never again so that's not an option. We could go to a hotel but that feels like we wouldn't have space to chill when we get back from the slopes, and no easy ways to meet other kids.

Any suggestions? What does everyone else do? To make life more difficult we don't want to fly from Gatwick which seems to rule out a lot of small companies. Scottish flights would be ideal, Manchester at a push.

most chalet companies have families in the schools holiday weeks. We go s/c though with ours. There are some great apartments with pools and kids clubs in big resorts.

There are catered chalets that only accept bookings if one of the group is a child as they just cater for families - such as Esprit

@NoKnit i agree with other posters that unless you’re a ski instructor your children and even teenagers should continue to have lessons. My 10 year old was in lessons this year even tho she has finished the normal levels (achieved her ESF gold already) and they did a lot of off piste, snowpark, moguls

there are way too many intermediate British adults (like me) because they finished lessons too soon. You never stop learning. For teenagers there are free ride lessons, off piste lessons etc etc.

i hate seeing British families with 9 year olds say “oh he can ski now he can just come with us” because the better they get the safer they will be as reckless teenagers!

with evo2 off piste skiing groups (once done all the normal levels) the kids get a tracker to wear and rucksack to carry with equipment for avalanches and training for it. Great for those kids whose parents are not trained to accompany a week of off piste.

Yes this is true about British adults and families. I an amazed by the abilities of some of them. People who have skied for years and only go on blues or maybe reds. To me it us either piste or off piste.

We actually live in Germany and have skied/boarded here (well Austria/Switzerland mostly) for over 20 years. We're keeping then in ski school for the foreseeable with the odd day with us. It's different on a board though the learning curve much steeper and I reckon it's easier to get to a good level without too much effort. However on skis it takes years which is why we're putting off letting them learn to snowboard. Their time will come I want them to ski well

Yep that’s me. Learned as a child did ski holiday every feb half term and now as an adult stuck cruising the blue and reds! Did ski school to about age 10 (one week a year)

This has been an interesting thread and backs up my instincts to keep DC in lessons through pre-teen years.
I have friends who have stopped at 1star or 2star and felt like a bit of an anomaly carrying on.
I like the balance of morning lessons and family ski in afternoons.
DS will be onto the off piste / black super yeti group next and I think he'll love it.

I would advise you do unless you are really good skiers yourselves. Husband and I only learned to ski in late 30's. We kept DC in lessons until they could ski pretty much to the top level as we were not good enough skiers to teach them. They also went on all school ski trips as well as our once or twice yearly ski holiday. It was money well spent. They are both fabulous skiers now helping their mum down the hard powdered blacks 🙄😁

@astarsheis we're decent intermediate / advanced but certainly not expert teacher level.

In fact I think I might get a couple of 1:1 lessons myself next time as I'm not particularly skilled on the harder slopes/terrain and am aware DS is going to be better than me very soon (probably already is tbf)

Yes that's me. I can do a good black and having a 1:1 even for just the morning on first day always helps. I friend of mine who used to be a ski instructor always did this herself at the beginning of each season just to get back to it.
I do enjoy watching my DC ski now and see how good they are.
They're both grown up now but for some reason still like to come along with mum & dad...🍽🍻🤔

Totally agree with keeping kids in ski school way beyond when they tell you they don’t need it. But going back to the chalet with older kids topic… it’s going back a bit but we had a few of lovely family holidays with crystal ski (always in Austria, always ski in ski out). Very sociable for adults and kids - would definitely recommend.