would you pay £1000 for school trip to New Hampshire?

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rayscoops, I think paulio's point is that they had to go there even if they hadn't been naughty. They naughty kids had to go to Ebbw Vale as well.

I once won first prize a competition - a night's stay in Swansea's best hotel. The second prize was two nights at the same hotel.

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If he is a good skier might also be worth checking out if skiing is limited to the 4 hours of lessons a day. When we looked into my daughters school ski trip they were only going to be able to ski with an instructor during lessons so max of 4 hours skiing per day, she quickly decided she would rather come with us.

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My first ever ski trip was with school, my family could barely afford to take us to Swansea so I would never have gone otherwise. We were supposed to go to Bulgaria but there was no snow so the insurance paid for us to go to Les Arcs instead (Wooohhhoooo!). I loved the skiing but it was not the whole holiday, it was great to have a hol with all your school friends, minus Mum and Dad for a week, midnight feasts and stuff like that (far to good to consider more than a snog). Your son might not get the snow/skiing he is used to but that might not be the whole deal for him, I found it was a bit of a right of passage.

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ruthie,

A colleague's son went to Loon Mountain (NH) with school a year or so ago. The skiing was ok for him as it was only his third trip, but I don't believe that it was a terribly large resort. Your son may find it limiting.

US laws generally prohibit drinking until 21, so I guess that makes it more difficult for teenagers to get alcohol. Ski school was in english which, I guess, also makes sense. The exchange rate also helped, and with the euro at all but parity, I guess that's still a major consideration.

The east coast US does have a bit of a reputation as cold and icy. My first trip there, last March, it was certainly both. However, there was plenty of snow and, despite the temperature being in single figures farenheit the trails in Stowe were well groomed and not really icy at all.

My first trip away from my parents was on a school trip. I have many happy memories, both about the skiing and the apres ski. Maybe this trip is more than just skiing. but if the skiing is a major part of the trip in his mind, why not have a look at the resort's website and see how expansive it is.

CW Happy

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Sorry, I can't stay silent on this any longer...

Schools get one free teacher place for each ten students they take. This is for two reasons:-

1. Outdoor Education & Residential Visits Law require at least a 1:10 ratio of staff to children, so ski tour operators have to accomodate this.

2. Teacher's are providing 24 hour childcare whilst on the trip which would cost the ski companies MUCH more than providing 1 in 10 free places. Also, very few teachers would take 50-60 students away in their holiday time if they had to pay to go... why would they??? It is a residentail school trip for teachers, not a free "holiday".

School trips look expensive against family trips because most schools book all-day ski school, full-board meals, all kit and lift pass, insurance, and evening entertainments. All-day ski school for six days alone adds up to hundreds of pounds, and wouldn't be included in the cost of family trips.

If parents feel teachers shouldn't get a free place etc they don't have to book their children on a school trip, and for the record, in 11 school ski trips i've run, we have never had a serious injury, in fact only one twisted knee in 11 years. Drinking alcohol is not part of the itinery, and we keep our students busy and entertained every evening to avoid any shinanigans! At times it's ace and I love it, at others I ask myself why I'm not away with family and/or mates instead. snowHead

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Thanks for advice so far. The concensus seems to be thumbs up for school ski trip for social side but thumbs down for NH. I have looked up the travel agent's site that the school are using and the two resorts are Lincoln and Waterville.

cardweg, seems to be the Loon Mountain and Waterville Valley.

Have totalled up the cost and I think it probably is not unreasonable but still seems an awful lot of money.
Think I will put the idea of letting him choose ski with us and maybe bring a friend or go on school trip and contribute to cost. We are not so concerned about setting a precedent as he is the wee one in the family so it would probably be a one off expense.

After all it is free

.... personally, I think most teachers are a bit mad or a bit....... i best not say actually

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ruthie, About 7 years ago I was a student on a school trip to Sunday River in New Hampshire (which I guess will be the resort in question). It was my first taste of North American skiing having only skied the Alps prior. It was similar in price and worth every penny. The service wherever we went far surpassed that of Europe...the local understand that you are the customer and you are their income. I have yet to witness this in the Alps.
OK, so the skiing is on a hill but it is extensive enough for a school trip and it is all about quality not quantity (pistes and tuition were fantastic). Since my trip I have only skied Europe a couple of times preferring the North American experience.
I'd say that £1k is a bargain especially in today's climate....on that note I would strongly suggest that you ensure that the price is fixed; if the £ vs. $ were to slip further you really wouldn't want the extra cost passed on. Oh, and it works the other way too...I guess you'd want any saving due to currency fluctuation to be passed on?!

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I'm from NH and I grew up skiing there. I don't live there anymore and when I go back for visits I would never go skiing. It is a beautiful state but the skiing is just poor. Especially if you have ever been skiing in Europe. It is so much better there and cheaper. I think the prices in the east of the US are the same as out west and europe and the skiing just completely sucks. I remember meeting someone from england and they told me they had gone to nh for a ski holiday once. My jaw dropped. It is a complete waste of money. Go to France instead and visit NH in the summer or fall.

My 2 kids going on school sking trip to New Hampshire this Februry Half term £1100 each, booked before the credit crunch, when it seemed a good price. That price is for everything included. Not the place I would have chosen if going across the pond though but fine for a school trip. Regarding alcohol the restrictions in America are very strictly enforced unlike in the UK so they should be OK, Famous last words.......

You know it makes sense.

Jimbo Read, Hate to be a pedant but Sunday River is in Maine.

Loon and Waterville are both decent places for mountain biking (not far off running into a bear at Waterville to my surprise) but not huge areas. Waterville is also home to one of the US's elite ski boarding schools (don't know whether that's a plus or minus).

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ruthie,

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dk100, how desperate for a hol would you have to be to go with a large number of kids for whom you are responsible? OK, teachers presumably find kids less disagreeable than the rest of us, but I'm sure that a large part of their motivation is to give the kids the opportunity to do whatever the hol is about. The free hol element is no doubt a significant compensation, but it can't be their principal motivation. Can it?

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dk100, one of ours decided to mountaineer from one first floor balcony to another while drunk a couple of years ago. He fell off, landed on the bar terrace and broke his heel, ankle and femur.

I'm sure the teachers who had to deal with it (including the one who spent all night at the hospital) considered the whole thing a well-earned perk.

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I am a teacher and I have been on two ski trips. Both times I paid my own way and made my own way there. I wanted the pleasure of seeing the kids enjoy the sport I love, but was not man enough to take the responsibility and grief that went with it. I was the only member of staff that did much skiing. The others were attending to hassles most of the time as well as being on 24 hour call. The trips take place in holiday time.
I am not prepared to give up ski holiday time to do this work. Selfish of me, I know, but the hourly rate isn't worth selling my ski time for.

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Hi Ya,

I've skier Canada and USA and an looking to go to NH 2010 to Sunday River.

The plus side - less crowded pistes, good piste marshalling, people not allowed to queue jump. Normally enough runs of different leveld to keep people happy for 10 days or so. Inc lesson, just so good.

Ive never skid at easter, so not sure of snow conditions. However the Americans have invested so much money in snow cannons etc so the pistes are always covered.

Most years Europe although closer is just so icy, crowded, expensive lift passes, lesson cost so much. Your are more likey to get skied or snowboarded into in Europe.

I normally ski the west coast USA and Canada, but this pushes the air fare up with extra internal flights. I think it is worth the money to go, at worst the snow conditions will still be better than Europe.

Most companies dealing with schools trips such as Halsbury travel. If 10 people go the 11th is free andso on. So yes the teachers will be going for free but they are meant to be looking ater your children, so take your choice so to speak.

If it is Sunday River they are going to then the hotel, inn etc should be located at the base of the lifts, so no bus transfers.

I would do it, it will improve his skiing ability. Good luck.

After all it is free

happy skier, Well done - some sweeping generalisations about Europe. I've skied extensively in the West of N America and rarely had to take an internal flight - plus an extra 2 hours on the flight length from Uk gets you to much better terrain & snow.

I suspect most Americans would say this about EC v WC skiing "just so icy, crowded, expensive lift passes, lesson cost so much. Your are more likey to get skied or snowboarded into on the EC."

Lizzard I remember my school ski trips many moons ago. Our teachers used to go down the local pub every evening for 2-3 hours whilst we were left at the hotel. Needless to say both teachers and pupils had a great time Toofy Grin

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Chris Bish, But I seem to remember you did also spend a lot of your time in LDA skiing with and spending time looking after your pupils too. It was still pretty much a busmans holiday.

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The price seems OK, we paid £800 for school trip to Tignes, best thing we did, showed our Daughter that skiing with friends is fun, and not as boring as going with Mum and Dad. As has been commented on before getting hold of drink for anyone under 21in the US is harder, ask my wife (over 30 ) who tried to buy some beers without ID. If you work out how much you pay for accommodation, plus lift pases, plus lessons, plus ski hire then its not a bad deal.

I find it strange this whole issue of alcohol availability keeps popping up in this thread. I mean, do you people *really* not trust your kids or something? I don't get it. I really can't see most kids going out of their way to write themselves off every night, or treating it like a weeklong shagathon. A few kids might take advantage, sure, but if the trip is properly supervised it shouldnt be an issue. I certainly wouldnt use it as an reason to host a trip to the US rather than europe.

i dont have kids btw - so yeah i know, my opinion means squat-all wink

You know it makes sense.

School trips are nearly always to a resort with a poor snow record for the time of year they are going. This enables the operator to throw in free teachers holidays, whilst holding up their profit margin. They should carry on till the Rockies if they are going over there.
I have let my first daughter go with School and denied the other two because it was such poor value. They only skied for the 4 hours also, half a day wasted. The accomodation is also likely to be a the bottom end. Poor accomodation is hard to find in Switzerland, but my daughters school found it!

I do however rate the beer and in girls dorm angle.

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Bipolar Bear, I don't have kids, but I work with teenagers. If I was running a trip for school kids, then I would expect that at least some would try and get hold of booze. Therefore it would be in my thinking when deciding where to go. The fact that in a number of European countries the legal age is 16, and many schools will have a 6th form, then it becomes a very sticky issue. As for "proper supervision" - either you can supervise the kids 24/7 and then they don't get any, or you can let them have a bit of independence and run the risk. Or, you can go to the US and it not be an issue. Believe me, when you work with kids, you have a wide range of parents. one will complain that their 17 yr old was allowed a beer with dinner, while another will object that their 13 yr old wasn't allowed to smoke!! You can't please all the parents all the time, and if you please 50% half the time then you're doing well.

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ruthie,

Is the school Dalriada by any chance?

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twoodwar, I wouldn't agree that the accommodation is always poor. I've been on 8 school trips, and only one had what I would call poor accomodation. Some of the others have been in Youth Hostels, therefore the kids are sharing with 3 or 5 others.....but they've always has en-suite. This year we're due to stay in a 4* hotel....so I hope that will be good.

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ruthie, have you reached a decision?! It's a tricky one. I promised my eldest that we would consider a school trip for him this year as would be great fun with his friends. As it happens they are going the same week as us, which was already booked so he's not going. He's a good skier so unlikely to progress a huge amount from what they can offer on a school trip but we thought that the whole experience would have been good.
When you consider what's included it sounds like it's about right for a school trip but still a huge amount of money. What does your son think? Our's came to his own conclusion that he would rather ski with us and perhaps be able to go on some other trips offered. (Next weekend he's off to France on a WW1 battlefield trip for 4 days, sounds like a great itinerary)

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Bipolar Bear, some parents quite rightly don't trust their kids when it comes to booze. We holidayed in Greece in Oct this year with our 14yo kids. They got together with some other teenagers in the hotel and went into the local village most evenings after dinner. We trusted our kids to behave themselves and they did; my son had a beer and my daughter stuck to soft drinks (she is, in the current argot, 'straight edge'). As my daughter advised her grandparents over Xmas diinner, her brother didn't get pissed and she didn't get laid, which obviously relived my parents hugely. Their companions, however, routinely drank a great deal more; although the quantities were no doubt exaggerated, they overdid it. Their parents deprecated it, but appeared, pathetically, to regard it as beyond their control. They wouldn't trust their kids to behave sensibly on a school trip, and quite rightly. Were those lads to go on one, they would undoubtedly do their best to get hold of alcohol and then drinking too much of it.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I think £1000.00 for a USA trip sounds reasonable for what you get. I would imagine a similar trip to Europe could be done for less than £700.00 though. Suppose if you have the dosh let him go

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Hi thought i'd give my two pence on this as someone whose been on two school trips, one last april and one in feb half term 2004!

2004 was my introduction to skiing, we went to winter park, CO for £960. We only skied 5 days as the days we day we "adjusted" to the altitude, this meant we took a trip to a massive shopping centre! We recevied 5 hours instruction a day for 5 days. Also in the total cost we got a trip to a local restaurant in winter park and snowmobiling on small snowmobiles which allowed us all to drive them! I had a great time on this trip and have loved skiing since!

last april my school, which is a different to the previous mention as i moved, went to wagrain, austria. It cost just under £700. We were in a youth hostel type hotel just outside of wagrain, with a bus picking us up everyday to take us to which ever area we wanted to go to! We had about 6 hours instruction and day. The hotel had great sports facilities so this was a large focus for the evenings! To some up this trip i regard it as the best skiing holiday i've had, it was my 7th week. My skiing really improved during the week, we spent most of our time of piste in lessons as we were the top group. I think saying you don't improve on school trips is unfair, our school had 6 or 7 groups for c.60 students. There was two "advanced" groups ours being the "advanced advanced" and there was only 6 of us, all of us being 6th formers so it was a great laugh!
http://uk.youtube.com/v/0DM85LfiLUA

That's a video of our group one day!

I think school trips are excellent but i don't think i'd pay to go to NA and end up in NH!!!

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I have never done a trip with my family (and never would want to). I go skiing with a mixed group of 10 friends (mixed sex and ability) and it is hands down the best week of the year. Now ruthie, your son is a few years younger than me so heres my suggestion as what to do.

Dont send him on the trip to NH. Instead organise a trip to the Alps for yourself and some family/friends. Tell your son that you are planning this and then get him to inform 2-3 friends that were going to go on the school trip to come with you. Get one apartment for yourself and/or friends then another for the group of your son's friends. They'll have there independence but still being somewhat supervised. I think that would work better for both you and your son. Better value too!

After all it is free

swskier,

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well even with the previous school we were split into lots of groups. We had such a large group of beginners that they got another instructor in and split us into upper and lower beginners!

Do you know which company the school is using? I went to winter park with Pinnacle and Wagrain with PGL so it shows that i probably wasn't just our school or even just the company!

Help!!

would you pay £1000 for school trip to New Hampshire?

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