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

A snowHead

swskier, where did you stay in Wagrain? I was there a couple of years ago and stayed in the youth hostel by the Flying Mozart lift.

A snowHead

I think that children will really, really want to go on school trips, with their friends. regardless. My daughter has just got me to cough up for a coach trip to Calais/Boulogne, leaving midnight, with some fairly random activities and getting back about 24 hours later. Sounds hell to me but she's very excited about it.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

My eldest son age 12 is off to Winter Park Colorado at Half Term(lucky so+so) at a cost of About £1100 all in excluding some spends.I have happy memories of my first skiing holidays with ironically the same school,so when the opportunity for him to go came up I was glad to give him the same opportunity afforded to myself.Although I seem to remember going to some unheard of resort in the Itallian dolomites.
One thing that slightly irks though is that it was sold as' Winter Park' and as more details have emerged they actually are staying down the road in Granby which I am sure will involve a longish bus journey to the slopes and back Evil or Very Mad

Every minute of the holiday is planned to keep the kids happy and occupied with extra curricular activities ,i am sure they will have a ball.
I hope they manage to place all the kids in group lessons that suit their ability ,but I am assured the Yanks are good at making ski school fun for more able kids.
Anyone any experiences of Winter Park or a few must do,s I can pass on to him?

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hedley,

Sounds like a pretty goo deal!!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

johnboy, No its Sullivan in Holywood

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scrubyjoe, That sounds like the best idea yet as he will be 17 by the time next year comes round. He has taken a friend before but the problem then was he was so much better than the friend and this caused a wee bit of friction as he wanted to do runs that terrified the other poor boy!
However he's more sensible now and has learned how to ski with others and fly down a few blacks on his own. Maybe we could organise a trip to the US ourselves as we have never been- that will another series of questions to search the threads on Snowheads about.

swskier, Its an Irish travel company called Topflight. We have been with them privately once and they are very good - top award for Travel Agent in Ireland every year.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I've been to Attitash in New Hampshire for skiing and really enjoyed it. It is small, but the place was wonderful and really enjoyed it. It's not the alps but I don't think that should matter as I also think it's valuable to see other places and also to ski in other places just to compare them. Customer service in NH was as you would expect it. My sister goes back there every year for skiing. There is also very cheap (tax free) shopping to be enjoyed if you like that kind of thing.

Cost seems reasonable considering where you are going. It's not going to be a hardcore skiing experience but as an overal enjoyment package I'd say it was worth it. More so if they've never been to the US before.

I plan to go back there with my children sometime soon.

Oh yes, Bode Miller's from NH so not a bad place to learn to ski I would say.

After all it is free

I work for a company that organises school ski trips to the States. £1,000 isn't bad baring in mind that the flights alone probably cost over £500 per person.

there's a lot of predictable stuff about booze in this thread. Haven't read it all, but bear in mind that in many US States the legal minimum drinking age is 21 and it can be pretty effectively enforced.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

school trips are good fun, usually the first holiday abroad with all your mates in tow, can get a bit boring if your restrained to lessons and rules.. schools are moving trips over the pond instead of europe to try and wipe out the drink problem, on ours they said we couldn't drink.. we still did and they knew about it and weren't bothered as there wasn't a problem, they only stepped down hard when some of the other kids on the trip went on a bender, only takes a few to ruin everyones fun..

There is a lot more injurys, don't know why, even with experienced skiiers, there is still more injurys.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

He didn't go in the end = went to a very nice snowhead's apartment in Les Arcs instead wink

with a promise of a summer trip to New York instead. Sking was absolutely fantastic with great snow and he was allowed to as many blacks as he wanted!

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I would be asking the school why they have picked such a god awful ski area, do any of the teachers actually ski or is there an ulterior motive at play. You only ski NH out of necessity not choice, they don't call in eastern hardpack for fun.....

A snowHead

My kids school went to Tremblant at Easter Shocked

One poor kid broke both legs in a crash and then was stuck in Canada by the ash clouds. I persuaded mine that Tremblant in April would be rubbish.

A snowHead

I feel that school ski trips are ideal for children who have no opportunity to ski with parents, not so good for the ones who think they know it all and want to be allowed to hoon around on their own. I went at 16, when nobody in my family or entire circle of friends and relations had ever done such a thing. My teacher son in law has organised several school trips - in fact that's where he learnt to ski. He skied in the beginners class with his kids. The school gave priority to kids who had never been skiing. Nobody broke any legs on any of his trips. Breaking two is horrendous - however did that come about? Were they just allowed to blast round? Was he drunk?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

pam w, nope, he fell, a quite inocuous fall apparently Shocked

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My school trip was my first taste of skiing - I still have fond memories of it and (obviously - because I'm on here) I still love it.

Later in life I've skiied in NH at Mount Tom and Killington - small and unchallenging but nothing to complain about.

as you've been advised the prcie sounds about right.

If he doesn't go will he miss out (are friends going?) and most importantly does he WANT to go? If he does and you can afford it I'd send him......

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

A price of £1000 is a bargain for a school trip at present. With the current exchange rate it's difficult to get anything in France for less than £950 by coach at February half term. Hence the attraction of NA resorts - for £1000-1200 kids get to feel there are going somewhere different and getting much better value for money, even if the ski resort itself is inferior. They can often also get a day in Boston/NY/Niagra Falls as part of the package.

As others have said - it's not all about the skiing. It's about doing it without mum and dad - a totally different experience from family skiing. Ski instructors typically seem to love our 'advanced' groups and give them a great time.

Many schools now also get their staff to take the ASCL (Alpine Ski Course Leader) qualification which allows us to lead our kids around the mountain (blues/reds only) outside of lessons. So typically youngsters get 4 hours of lessons a day and 1-2 hours with us.

All school trips have changed considerably in the last 10 years. You need a documented risk assessment to take pupils anywhere out of school. There is no way that any school should be letting kids 'free ski' on their trip these days.

Non availability of alcohol is certainly a bonus for NA, but I doubt if it is ever a deciding factor in choice of resort. 10 years ago we used to left year 11's (16+) have a beer in the evening. There's no way we can do that now. Kids will do what kids have always done behind their parents' and teachers' backs, but the threat of not skiing the next day seems to be enough to make sure nobody does anything too silly.

It's worth noting that a number of LEAs state that staff should drink at any time either.

In terms of the staff 'perk' you get to:

spend 12 hours on a coach with 40 kids who want to watch Fast and Furious2
if you're really unlucky you get to hold one or more sick bags on the coach
after every loo stop you including the one at 2am have do a double head count to check that there's not someone still on an arcade game in the services
spend 2 hours in the ski hire shop getting them kitted up
get up at 7am to go around their rooms to wake them up
spend 30 mins waiting outside the apartments whilst they go back to get the goggles/helmet/lift pass they've forgotten
wait 30 mins on the first day getting them into their lessons
at various times during the week try to sort out those youngsters that hve got their boots/skis muddled so that they now have a set of skis that don't fit their boots and so they miss their lesson
go skiing with your colleagues for 90 mins - keeping a constant eye on the watch beacuse you've got to be back to meet the groups at the end of their lessons
trudge back to the apartments for a 1-2 hour lunch break
get everybody back to the ski school school meeting point
get to go skiing for 2 hours - hoping that you don't get a call from an instructor that somebody's now in the medical centre
take a group of 10 youngsters skiing for 90 mins - hoping that you don't lose someone along the way.
get back to the apartment at 5p.m. to be out again for a meal at the restaurant at 6p.m - because that's how they keep the price down.
go ice skating/bowling/have a quiz for two hours.
escort group back to apartments
Lights out at 10pm. Wander around corridors until 11pm to check that they are not 'upto something'
Repeat for 5 days. Hopefully, not spending ?? hours in medical centre with a child with damaged limb and subsequent phone calls to parents, insurance company..

I can't wait for next year and would recommend it to anybody - beats a boring Christmas bonus any day!

However, I don't pay a penny and some kids and parents do think it's not right that I get a free holiday. I tend to avoid discussing the matter - they don't have to come!

Help!!

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

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