Family skiing

A snowHead

My sister, who skied a time or 2 when at school, has asked my advice (doh!) regarding a ski trip for her, her husband and 3 children aged 4 -8. Hubby and kids would all be beginners. At this stage she's just wondering what it would cost and I can tell her different options but haven't a clue regarding kid's ski school. So what does ski school cost? (I will strongly suggest lessons before they go).

A snowHead

I'm about to post a review of a half day we spent in Niederau, as we're hoping to take novice 8yo skiing next year, and I'd heard good things about it. It seemed perfect. The kids looked to be having a great time in ski school. There seem to be several ski schools, of which this is the price page for children's ski lessons from one of them: https://www.ski-school-tirol.com/index.php/kinderskischule.html.

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

So... We are a family of 5, 3 kids 4 to 11. We will be skiing with Esprit in Les Arcs at Easter. It will cost us north of £5000 in total. ( I've stopped counting...) Whenever friends or acquaintances ask us " ooh, we'd love to go skiing" - I am very honest about how it adds up very quickly!

My wife and I don't need lessons. Eldest 2 are in morning lessons, 4 year old is in morning childcare and afternoon ski school. Kids lessons are £209 for the week.

I'm forward looking and it will get cheaper as we move towards self catering and self drive (an option I prefer) - in the mean time, I regard the extra expense as an investment in our future.

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ESF group lessons cost 173 euros for mornings, or 136 for afternoons in Val Thorens (270 for full day, but don't expect many go for that with kids). Not sure if ESF prices are standard across resorts, but VT would be one of the more expensive ones in any case I'm guessing. You can also get a reduced lift pass if you buy it with the lessons.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Thanks guys.

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@Tom Doc, who knows what brexit will do the the value of sterling, but do not rule out switzerland. We have VERY cheap accommodation in self catering chalets near us, with the prices lower in the surrounding villages where you need a car to drive 10 mins up to resort - very family friendly ski zones - beginner slopes facing south with excellent sun, a good cafe right there etc - and an excellent independent ski school with a commitment to only 5 in any group lesson, but with prices the same as the 'huge group' schools. This is all in Crans Montana in Switzerland, the school is Swiss Mountain Sports, and you can get there by road, plane to Geneva or within 20 mins of resort if Sion service suits you, or train fro Paris - all without the terrible queues going into the three valleys in France.

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

For complete beginners I would choose private lessons over a ski school. I "learned" in big groups, got largely ignored, and developed a pretty terrible "technique". I'm now going backwards undoing all that damage, with one-to-one lessons. With my kids, I put them directly in to one-to-one tuition. For your group of 3 it would cost between EUR 58-65 per hour, and on the first trip you don't need a huge number of hours, maybe six maximum. There is only so much they are going to learn in their first week. The first year my kids went I actually ended up booking too much tuition. Now we have settled in to a pattern of two 1-hour lessons the first two days, then 2-3 days off, then a final 1-hour lesson on the penultimate or last day.

After all it is free

We (2 adults and 4 kids) did self catering (with pool) in Les Menuires this Feb half term. Self drive, 2 kids had morning lessons with ESF for 6 days and we all had 3v passes, we have our own kit. Not much change from £4k

It can be done much cheaper at different resorts. The 6 lift passes were over 25% of the total of the holiday and the same price as the accommodation. We pay a premiuim to go to the 3V, no doubt about that.

It is however the best week of the year by far!!

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

I would recommend booking a package, with someone like esprit. Everything can be booked through them, skis, lessons, lift passes, wrap around care for the kids, food, night time baby sitting. Esprit also send "Rangers"out on the kids lessons, for the toilet trips, nose wiping etc etc, which we found invaluable. The rangers are incredibly enthusiastic and my now stroppy teens still sing some of the warm up songs they learned on their trips. Depending on time of year I doubt there will be much change from 5k, but funnily enough we didn't find esprit any more expensive than other package companies.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Oh and don't rule out all the clobber she will need to buy before hand, get to the sales at decathlon, and lessons before hand are a must.

snow reports

We ski with a little one, he started when he was 3 (Tignes with Crystal Whizz Kids/ESF Piou Piou). Mark Warner has great childcare, we've used them in La Plagne (x2) and also L2A. Also used French childcare in Belambra hotel (Arc2000). This season now he's 7 he can ski all afternoon (confident red skier), so no need for childcare - we just booked morning lessons. Oxygene in La Plagne are excellent, he always improved significantly when we've used them, less impressive with ESF L2A and Italian ski school in Claviere. This winter we also did a Kids coaching session a few times at the snowdome Tamworth. Price - typically £650 - £750 per person (I'm a bit of bargain hunter!).

Agree with the idea of going with a tour operator in this position, and also recommend finding somewhere on or very near the slopes - the hassle factor with the gear in the morning can be significant and its a lot easier if you are a short walk to the slopes rather than a bus ride, even with the TO staff (Mark Warner and Esprit were great for us).

You know it makes sense.

Thanks for all the replies. I can tell her how I'd do it but she has 3 times as many kids as I do so the budget becomes a bigger factor. There's lots of research for her to do!

@valais2, the parcel arrived - thanks, he'll get great wear out of it. I suspect it'll see more use at equine things then snowy ones though!

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

I would agree with suggestions to use a family friendly TO like Ski Esprit for the first time. Chances are, It would be more expensive than DIY. We went with Ski Esprit for our first family ski holiday. But as we work out what works for us, after the first few trips, we now mainly do DIY.

A snowHead

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Family skiing

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