 Poster: A snowHead
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I meant to post this a bit earlier but things have been a bit hectic. Hacing survived a skiing holiday my son fell in the garden and broke his elbow!!
Went to Banff for our Easter holidays, which in this part of the world (Leeds) is always the first two weeks of Easter. Choose Banff as we went there many years ago (pre children) and loved it and a good friend of ours has moved to Toronto but managed to wrangle a work trip in Calgary so could join us. It was my son's first ever ski trip aged 5 1/2. It was simply a superb family holiday, and despite the trauma of the arm we are still buzzing from it!
We went for 10 nights, from Monday 4th till Thursday 14th April. All arranged DIY, with flights from Heathrow to Calagry direct with Air Canada
Flights - Surprisingly easy for our first trip to Heathrow. It seems its very hard to fly to Canada (even Toronto or Montreal) from the North of England. The only other option was KLM via Amsterdam and with a small(ish) child we decided driving the night before was worth it for the shorter, direct flight. So we stayed at the Premier Inn, just off the airport perimiter - their park and fly package was cheaper than decent parking at Heathrow. Hotel was as good as one would expect for a Premier Inn, no problems parking, clean, spacious room, and well soundproofed! Breakfast was ok and kids ate free. Next morning we allowed plenty of time to drive to the airport, but even at 9am on an Monday it took only 10min. Went straight to the short stay car park where we gave our keys to the parking company and had a short walk to terminal two. This has recently been revamped and was so easy. Automatic check in machines and bag drop took just a few minutes, and no problems checking in a carseat at oversized luggage. Even security had minimal queues, staff were polite and helpful (honestly!!) when my son set off the alarms. Terminal didn;t seem busy or crowded and we were helpfully directed to the kids play area which passed the time. For a long flight it was fine, food was ok, plenty of entertainment on offer and the drinks kept flowing for the non-drivers. I think being allowed to watch Minions whilst eating chicken nuggets was the highlight of the holiday for my son!! Calagry airport is a good introduction to the Canadians, everyone seemed polite and helpful. Queues for immigration passed quickly, and we were in our car within 40min of landing.
Accomodation. We stayed in the Rocky Mountain Resort, just outside Banff in a two bedroom Condo. Plenty of space for 3 adults and one child. Accomodation perfectly good but a bit dated, it didnt really matter. Resort had a hot tub and indoor pool, a gym (which we never used) and a nice bar/resturant. It was a bit otoo far from town to walk but we used their free shuttle and taxis if we went in for dinner. Lots of childrens activities in the late afternoon, evening such as campfires and treasure hunts
The snow and weather - Despite the locals saying what a poor year it was, it was to us fine! I think a Canadian 'poor year' is different to a European one! when we told them that Christmas this year in the Alps meant closed pistes, and artificial snow they were amazedThere was plenty of snow on the moutnain, almost everything was open (including the inbounds 'off piste'). We had a few days with a bit of fresh snow, leading to a bit of powder and freshening up the slopes. It was VERY warm for Canada thhough, 10-15degrees in town and 0-8 on the mouuntain. But the groomers were pisted perfectly, and once the mountain softend up it was great all over. The lowest runs were getting slushy by mid afteroon but it didn't affect our enjoyment at all! Some of the double blacks look like they had a few rocks stickiing out, but I was never going to be checking them out closely. Sunshine had better snow than Louise or Norquay
The skiing. Simply superb. We visited all three resorts and enjoyed it all, from cruising the easy greens to trying the steeper stuff. The slopes were nigh on empty, even at the weekend we were straight on to virtyually ever lift. Favourite runs were the blues on Goats eye at sunshine, but overall I think I prefered Lake Louise. It seemed a bit bigger, with a bit more variety and a sense of travel, rather than returning to the mid statioin each run. We really enjoyed our first day at Norquay, a good way to warm up after the jet lag. It was small and friendly, and it was like having our own private ski resort. A few hours there was the perfect way to get our ski legs back. The scenery at all three was just stunning. The lack of ski in convenience wasn't a problem. Mostly we just drove and could park right near the lift entrance, and a coupleof times we took the very organised coaches, which drop you right off at the front so no carrying gear for miles.
Ski school and childcare. highly recommended. At Norquay our son had a two hour beginner lesson, he was the only child in the group and by the end of his two hours was snow plogh turning down the nursery slope. At Sunshine he joined Tiny Tigers, whiich is acombination of daycare and ski lessons. I think on their website they rather undersell it. I was concerned it would just be skiing on their little nursery slope, but in fact the instructors come to the daycare and take them out for 90min at a time (morning and afternoon) and take them wherever they want. By the end of eight days he had graduated from green runs to some of the steeper blues, and was loving it all. At Lake Louise he joined the standard childrens ski lessons for two hours in the morning. All were well run, with very enthusiatic instructors who seemed to enjoy teaching the children. He keeps asking to go back so it muis have been ok., We had a couple of private lessons at Sunshine and all our skills wreally came on, till we were confident on the blacks by ourselkves, and ironed out a fair few bad points in our technique
Overall was it worth going all the way to Canada? Yes I think it was. Other than the cost of the flights, it was good value out their (cheap accomodation and food), and the empty slopes, an d amazing teaching/childcare were brilliant. It also made it more of a family holiday than just a ski holiday, with time to swim, walk, sight see, animal spot and so on. And we still managed eight days skiing, my knees wouldn't manage anymore.
Highlight of the holiday - The day MrsJ and Helen went off to ski together and Oliver and I skied together for the first tiume, doing 'proper' green and blue runs together, we had a right laugh together and really enjoyed doing something fun together. And he definiutely wasn't holding me back! In a few years time I will struggle to keep up with the speed or the terrain!!
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