A first ski holiday with children

A first ski holiday with children has one job: everybody wants to come back. That means short walks in ski boots, nursery slopes they can see from the apartment, lessons in English that break for hot chocolate, an easy run home at the end of the day so the family skis together, and someone to look after the one who is too young or too tired. Price matters, but a cheap week in the wrong resort is money wasted. The finder scores each resort against the whole group and weights the person with the worst fit most heavily, which for a first family holiday means the children.

What to look for

• Nursery slopes at village level, wide and gentle, with a magic carpet rather than a drag lift. Alpbach, La Plagne, Flaine, Passo Tonale, Soldeu and Alpe d'Huez have the best; St Anton, Sölden and Zermatt have theirs a long lift ride away.
• Easy runs back to the village. If the only way home is a black run or a gondola, the family cannot ski together on day five. La Plagne, Val Thorens, Flaine, Passo Tonale and Soldeu all have green or blue runs to the door; Val d'Isère, Les Deux Alpes and Sauze d'Oulx do not.
• English-speaking group lessons for children, which means either a British-staffed school (Soldeu's is the most British in Europe) or an ESF, Austrian or Italian school with an English-speaking children's section. All 22 resorts here have one; book it with the holiday at half term.
• Childcare for the under-fives and a kids' club for the afternoons: the operators' own nurseries (Esprit, Mark Warner, Crystal and Neilson run them in their family resorts) or the resort's. Cervinia and Bardonecchia have little of either.
• Children's lift passes. Several resorts let a child ski free with a paying adult: under 8 in Passo Tonale, Cervinia, Sauze d'Oulx and Bardonecchia, under 6 in La Plagne, Les Arcs and Soldeu, under 5 in most of the other French resorts. Worth £150 to £300 a child a week.
• Ski-in/ski-out or close to it. Carrying two sets of children's skis through a town twice a day gets old by Tuesday. The purpose-built French resorts (La Plagne, Les Arcs, Flaine, Val Thorens) win here; the pretty Austrian villages lose.
• A short transfer. Three hours on a coach after a flight is where the holiday starts badly. Flaine and Morzine are 75 minutes from Geneva, Alpbach and St Anton an hour from Innsbruck, Bardonecchia 75 minutes from Turin.

22 resorts scored for a beginner family

Two intermediate adults with children of 7 and 10 who have never skied, flying from Manchester, with the package, lift passes, hire and the children's lessons. Sorted by how well the resort suits the group.

Two intermediate adults with children of 7 and 10 who have never skied, flying from Manchester, with the package, lift passes, hire and the children's lessons. 'Suits a beginner family' is the finder's group-fit score, which weights the worst-fitting person most. 'Children ski free' is the resort's lift-pass rule for a child with a paying adult.

Reading the table

• La Plagne is the finder's beginner-family resort: the most blue runs anywhere, nursery slopes in every village, children under 6 free, and high enough (1,970 m and up) to be snow-sure in any week. £1,263 a head in January.
• Morzine scores 90 for the skiing and the town, but it is low: fine in January and February, a gamble at Christmas and Easter. See the snow-sure guide before booking it outside those months.
• Söll at £1,048 is the cheap, friendly Austrian option with gentle cruising and a good beginner area, with the same altitude caveat as Morzine.
• Flaine, Passo Tonale and Soldeu all have 5/5 nursery slopes and runs home, at £940 to £1,143 in January. Flaine is the ski-in/ski-out, 75-minutes-from-Geneva one; Tonale the cheapest with the surest snow and under-8s free; Soldeu the one with the British-staffed ski school.
• Bardonecchia and Cervinia score well on slopes and price but have no organised childcare, so suit families whose youngest is in lessons.
• The bottom seven are not bad resorts; they are the wrong resorts for a first week. St Anton, Sölden, Zermatt and Val d'Isère are for the family's fifth holiday, not its first.

January or half term?

The two price columns tell the story: half term adds £400 to £1,000 a head to the same resort. If the children are under school age, or you are willing to take them out for a week, January is cheaper, quieter, colder, and the ski schools have small groups. If it has to be half term, the cheap end of the table (Passo Tonale, Bardonecchia, Söll, Soldeu, Flaine) holds its price best, and the half term guide shows what the week either side saves.

Making the first week work

1. Book lessons when you book the holiday, not when you arrive: at half term children's group lessons in the British-favourite resorts sell out months ahead.
2. Ages matter for lessons. Most ski schools take children in group lessons from 4 or 5 (some from 3 with a snow garden); below that it is a nursery with snow play. Check the school's minimum age before choosing a resort.
3. Pre-book hire and a helmet. Children's helmets are usually included or cheap with pre-booked hire; buying one at home means it fits and gets worn.
4. A half-day lesson is a full day for a six-year-old. Plan the afternoons: a swim, a sledge run, a kids' club. Resorts with "things for non-skiers" in the finder are the ones with a pool.
5. Mittens, not gloves; goggles, not sunglasses; sun cream in January. Cold hands and bright snow end more lessons than falls do.
6. Keep the first day short. Altitude, cold and new boots are tiring. The ski school knows this; parents who want to "get their money's worth" forget it.
7. Insure everyone for winter sports, including the parent who is "just watching". Winter sports cover is an add-on on most policies, not standard.

Common questions