Skiing with teens - which tour operators/ hotels?

[karmi2010]

I would really appreciate some recommendations please!

I am a single mum with a 10 years old DD, we are both decent skiers. We used to go with friends with similar age DD but for various reasons they don’t go skiing now. We went with someone I met online last year and it was a disaster. This year we went just 2 of us to a hotel and it is not working either - there are no kids similar age to DD and she is very bored and upset she has no one to ski with or chat after ski.

I know Mark Warner, Crystal Ski and other are really good for families with small children and beginners, but are they also good for families with teens who already ski and do not need ski school?

In an ideal world I am looking for a ski holiday where we will go to a hotel with swimming pool, preferably also spa, which is not too far from the slopes (short ski bus ride will do as well) and, most importantly, where there is a very good chance to have families with tweens and teens who ski already and do not need ski school, so that DD can make friends with them and we can ski together and then DD can spend time swimming or chatting with them in the evening.

Has anyone been to a hotel with lots of teens/tweens (happy to book flights separately)? Or may be some of the package tour operators are more geared towards slightly bigger kids?

Thank you!

No 10 year old does not need ski lessons anymore. There will be some sort of ski school for kids that suits her whether that’s freestyle, off piste, performance ski, moguls etc.

That would maybe meet her need for company her own age.

I’ve done two Crystal holidays with teen ds - both in small family run hotels in Italy, the first was not very friendly, people weren’t chatty and ds and I were the only ones who went into the bar / lounge area to play games after dinner. Last year was a totally different story, the bar was full of people chatting and playing cards and games and really I don’t honestly know what made the difference - maybe check the reviews?
Crystal themselves were great, I’d recommend

We have done 3 Crystal ski hols with teens and 1 inghams. All to hotel with pool and sauna minimum. Kids grew from 8 + 11 to 15 and 18 in that time. Preferred Crystal more down to earth and packagy eg trips and quizzes. But think we may be done with package holidays now.

I think really worth ensuring there is a proper bar area you can hang out in. So many are just a bar/ bar stools.

Also either minimize transfer time or make sure you get some kind of packed lunch or you can end up going 6am to 3pm with no food - speaks from recent experience.

Controversially we don't do lessons. Kids refused ski school first trip. We did dry slope in UK for basics and first 3 trips two to three private lessons in resort. Good ski instructors are ace and do one of two things - observe you and give you small things to work on or take your adventurous kids all over the mountain. Mediocre ski instructors are pointless and do standard drills which may/ may not help and tend to be confusing. It's luck of draw which you get.

We can all get all over the mountain , incl easy blacks, mainly doing parallel - can carve if being flash. But as once a year leisure skiers. Who cares. I'm here for the views, the mountain air, the swooshing and the gluhwein. Will matter more if you are at busy resort or you want to do extreme skiing - you need as a minimum to be able to ski safely.

We went to Sauze to hotel that had plenty of other teens. Kids talked to none of them - I think standard. If you want them to make friends probably need organised activity - if not lessons maybe guided off piste or similar

Actually we went on crystal day trip to montgenevre DD made a friend on coach

Actually at 10 I'd still consider Snowbizz who will also do an hours or so kids club in the evenings.