Slovenia Family Skiing

[rookiemere]

Hi, we aren't skiing as a family this year, so I'm already looking for 2016.

We're tied into the school holidays, so I was thinking of Easter rather than Feb, but I looked at Slovenia and a lot of the Feb half term prices are really good because they still include free child places, also I quite fancy going to Slovenia.

Has anyone been? What are the resorts like? We'd need something that was good for beginners with lots of easy blues for DH and a reasonable amount of moderate stuff for DS and I . Also what is tuition like? I'd like DS to go into ski school for at least a couple of hours each day, more because I'm not a competent enough skiier to really enjoy myself when skiing with him but he'd need a small class and good English speaker to enjoy it.

What sort of food do they have?

Sorry so many questions, but they look so cheap that I am very tempted.

Hi rookiemere, I haven't skied in Slovenia but went to the Slovenian mountains last summer and saw some of the ski resorts. I think that it would be great apart from the size of the ski resorts, they all seemed pretty small. We went up the main cable car at Bohinj and did some walking - I think that ski area is pretty tiny. Kanjka Gora (sp?) is bigger but we just stopped there for a quick pizza because it was tipping down the day that we had planned to spend there.

I think it would be beautiful in winter, it certainly was in summer. The food was very good and cheap compared to the rest of Europe. The hearty end of Italian food so things like dumplings as well as pizza and pasta, loads of pancakes. The Slovenians were all really charming and eager to help (eg when a warning light came on on our hire car they drove out to out hotel with a different car straight away), they mostly spoke really good English. I think that ski lessons would be no problem.

We are keen skiers and I don't think that there is enough skiing for us but otherwise we'd be there like a shot. Llubjana the capital is extremely pretty with lots to see, I think 5 days skiing and a couple of days in Llubjana would be a good holiday. But you need to look at the piste maps to work out whether you are happy with the skiing.

Thanks Birdyarms that's really helpful.

I think we'd be ok with a reasonably small resort because when we went last year DS was 7 and we usually stopped early afternoon, so it's not as if we need runs to challenge us all day long, particularly when it looks like we'd spend about £2000 less than on an equivalent holiday in France.

Useful also on the food - DS is not an adventurous soul and Italian is his favourite, so that works really well.

It is really beautiful in Slovenia. Food is as the PP says.

The one thing to be wary of (and possibly why there are free children's places...) is that Kranjska Gora and Bled are not very snowsure at all owing to their height. KG tops out somewhere around 1300 m IIRC. Krvavec is higher and more snowsure, but even there I've been once when only about 3 of the runs were open during the week owing to a combo of not great snow and the resort only being used by locals.

If you are looking to 2016, and you find out when easyjet/ ryanair flights go on sale and are on your keyboard the minute sales for the half-term week open, then you might get something really quite affordable. Italy would be a good choice as their school holidays are usually different from ours, many resorts have free lift passes for children, and the snowmaking is usually second-to-none. Plus, the food will be spot on.

Thanks phoenixfrights for responding. Yes Italy would be nice as well as DS loves Italian food, I went before DS was born and I loved the instructors there.
We are looking to do it as a package this time. Last time we went we booked flights separately, drove there and arranged our own appartment. I found that once I'd priced it up, we'd probably have been as well to go with a tour company and we would have avoided a horrible 3 hr drive across a snowy pass without being able to get our snow chains on !

However if you could recommend a couple of good resorts in Italy with the best airport, then I'll definitely take a look. Getting flights when they first come out is my speciality!

Slovenia is lovely, really really friendly and nice food (Italian mostly, with some trout, potatoes, sort of "secuni" type Italian stuff rather than pizza/pasta).
But their winter sports are varied, not just all dh skiing, they all do xcountry too and snow shoeing and sledding and skating. Not really a venue for the committed dh skier wanting miles of piste (I think the Slovenians go through the tunnel to Austria for that) but a great multi-sport destination. I'd go with a young family.

Have you thought about Austria? Zell am ziller or mayerhofen are great with young kids.

Thanks museumum - so many options !

Now, the trouble with Italy is that you can't get hire cars with snow tyres from most airports. For that reason it's actually easier to fly into Innsbruck in Austria for many of the Italian resorts.

Where exactly depends on your standard of skiing, and what you're looking for in your ski holiday. If, for example, you were fairly early on in your ski career, somewhere like Corvara/ Colfosco (which is on the Sella Ronda circuit) might suit you.

THere are so, so many options. I always find it hard to narrow down.

Snowtrex is a fairly reasonable company and often they include ski pass, ski hire and lessons in their prices.

Thanks again phoenix - I'll have a look at snowtrex, we are really keen to avoid driving to a ski resort again . In terms of ski experience, DH likes easy blues, DS and I like a mixture of harder blues and reds

Hmm, if you're not keen on driving (and I so understand why) then Italy becomes a little bit tricky. Although having said that many of the Italian resorts offer free or highly subsidised coach transfers from feeder Italian airports. Italy is great for cruisy skiing - Corvara has many very cruisy blues, and if you and your son were so inclined you could take off around the Sella Ronda :)

Hi, we are just back from a week skiing in Kranjska Gora with 5 kids. It was absolutely fabulous.

We stayed in Hotel Lek and it cost 1300 euro half board for 7 of us!!

Flew through the Uk ( we live in Dublin) and got cheap flights with Easyjet. Got a private transfer from Llubjana .

Snow was ok . Might not be enough challenge for more experienced skiers but we loved it!

Pm me any questions .

Thanks foodie too i will do that.