Hi, my wife and I fancy a ski or snowboard holiday although neither of us have been on a ski holiday before (although I spent quite some time on a dry ski slope as a kid!). I suppose the first decision is whether we want to ski or snowboard (I can ski so we might look at snowboarding as we’d both be starting at a similar place!), but then what do we do? Are we best getting a package deal or booking the components separately? How difficult is it to learn to ski while on holiday? and is there anything else we should look out for? Thanks.

Boarding = No drag lifts
Package deal in Jan usually best pricrs ,look on Iglu / Ifyouski / Skiworld. Try and find an offer for free lift passes as they as £200ish now.
Learning on holiday, easier than at home. A few sessions at Chill FactorE or MK indoor slope willsave £££ and hours as you will go into a igher group if having lessons . Avoiding the fat , unfit , uncoordinated Brits who cannot even get up if they fall over .
Altitude – more snow sure + Its never cheap .
If you are in the South East consider a ski drive with Erna Lowe .
All ski appartments are tiny .
I paid Eu3.30 for a Coke last year up the mountain

Try
http://www.action-outdoors.co.uk/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New+season+is+selling+fast&utm_source=Newsletter+June+2011&utm_term=Newsletter_update

I’ve been with these many times and still love it!

Unless you are going to Eastern Europe, start saving now – ski resorts are hellishly expensive places.

We’ve got really cheap last-minute all inclusive deals before which were really good value though. From Inghams IIRC.

How easy to learn is a bit of a how long is a piece of string question – some people take to it quickly. A few lessons in advance is definitely a good idea though.

Check out http://www.Snowheads.co.uk

Book a package with lessons for the 1st few days or every other day – after a while you’ll get frustrated and just want to go off and practice.

Choose a high resort with lots of easy slopes eg La Rosiere in France would be good for beginners.

I’d go package for your first trip. The deals they can put together with lessons, passes and rental included can’t be matched by booking your own.

I learned to ski and to snowboard on separate week long holidays with 5 days of half day group lessons for each, I thought it was a good, fun and sociable way to do it and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

I found you fall over a lot more in your first week on a snowboard, but you can tackle more challenging runs earlier in your development than on skis.
Flats are annoying on a board til you get good enough to carry your speed over them.
Drag lifts aren’t nearly as much of a big deal as they are made out to be.
If you fall do NOT put your hands down, many first week boarders with broken wrists.

Alpe D’Huez is amazing for beginners, big wide chairlift served green run area just above the resort is the best nursery slope I’ve seen.

Get lessons before you go. It makes far more sense to learn the basics on a uk dry slope so you get the most out of the awesome mountainous expensive place you’ll have your holiday. Spend your valuable time in the mountains doing someting you could have done in Bracknell of an evening, or swooshing around beautiful places. Your call.

Another vote for action outdoors. Book early for twin/double rooms though.

+1 for lessons beforehand.

Courcheval has lovely motorways greens at 2000 that are great for beginners.

If you stay at La Tania (poss. cheaper) you can catch the bus for the very short trip round the corner to Courcheval, or ski over the top once you are a little more competant.

Get proficient on roller blades (skiing) or a skateboard (snow boarding) now.

I got my arm twisted into going to Les Arcs when I was 18, (a number of years ago) having never skied before.

All the others had been at least four times, most more than that so I was defo outclassed.

I went to a dry ski slope once and thought it will be way easier on snow…

It was.

Morning 1 I stayed around the blue runs by the apartments (Arc 2000) Afternoon 1, my pals took nme down a black mogul run, whatever that is…

After trying to snow plough (as on Blue Peter, my source of information) I gave it up and developed my own style. It wasn’t pretty though but after day 1 I as doing “Step turns” whatever one of those was and by day 3 I was doing “parallel turns”, whatever they are!

If you’re 18, you’ll be fine. if not, just go for it for a day and see how you get on. If you can’t keep up, get a lesson out there.

EDIT > I should add, I was quite good at windsurfing in very strong winds and skate boarding before that. Transferable skills IMO

i winged it on my first boarding holiday. could surf and skate so how hard could it be?

I picked it up quick, I had a good time, I got down red and blacks under some form of control and even rode a bit of powder.

Next time around, went with action outdoors. After the first day of advanced tuition as part of the price, I realised just how shit I was. Back to basics and build back up again…

It will never be a holiday while you learn a new skill, however, if you keep it up it WILL be worth the effort and expense…

Take as many lessons as possible at home so you enjoy more whilst away….

Cant recommend slovenia highly enough for first timers- not too taxing slopes and alot cheaper than france, austria etc

More information over at snowheads.com ( the ski/snowboard equivalent of STW).

The most important information I can give you is book outside school holidays. It doesn’t cost any more to provide the services during the school holidays but for some bizarre reason, it costs 3 times as much.

during the school holidays but for some bizarre reason, due to demand it costs they charge 3 times as much.

I’d agree with most of what has been said above, the cheapest option overall is usually a room in a catered chalet booked through either Iglu (the big screen scraper) or direct from one of the big operators (Inghams, Crystal). It’s not too hard to find lessons in resort and it might be better than being bundled in with everyone else on your transfer coach.

January is good, and March as well if you can afford it!

Bear in mind each day on the in resort is probably costing you around £100, so do you really want to spend all that time learning? The Snowdomes all offer some kind of “learn to ride in a day” package (was around £80 when I did mine in ’06) so it might be better to get the most painful/embarassing bits out of the way at home first. Having said that, you’ll learn more in a 1 day small group / private lesson in resort as you’ll not be spending as much time on dreadful lifts. (not all drag lifts are evil, but the snowdome ones are). I guess it depends how close you are to an indoor centre. Having ridden a little bit of dryslope I have to say it’s not a great way to learn for real snow, and not much fun either.

It’s worth researching what kind of kit you need, you stance direction, angles and board length, so you can make sure the hire shop don’t set you up with something dreadful and totally unsuitable (happens quite a lot).

Most of all, have fun!

I’d start at the top, then work my way down..

I’d second the idea of learning as much as possible at a local dry slop or indoor centre before you go. Dry slope is a really good place to learn – if you can ski on a dry slope, you’ll find real snow much easier.

As beginners, you don’t need hundreds of miles of slopes, so you don’t need to pay for the lift passes of mega resorts – a smaller resort will suit you fine

If you don’t mind driving, look at Snowtrex who do some very good prices for self catering trips – The Maurienne Valley in France is worth looking at, for instance. I’m not familiar enough with austrian resorts to recommend one, sorry

It will never be a holiday while you learn a new skill, however, if you keep it up it WILL be worth the effort and expense…

This. Don’t look far anywhere flash for a first time. Go on a package somewhere small and cheapish like Bulgaria or Slovenia (forget Val d’Isere, Courchevel and all that for now)and even though the learning curve is relatively fast for snowboarding, nothing beats a full week of lessons and plenty of motivation.. Its all about how much you will appreciate the larger resorts in several years time.

Boarding = No drag lifts

Absolute nonsense. Get some lessons.

Resort wise, have a look at Scandinavia. Not cheap but there are generally other things to do in the resorts like skidoo’s and/or forest walks which may be nice if you don’t want to ski/board all day every day. They can be a lot more picturesque than some of the Eastern European resorts as well, somewhere like Ruka in Finland might fit the bill well.

I would certainly get some lessons in before you go so that you can spend your time on the holiday skiing/boarding rather than learning to stand up. Snow domes are more expensive but you do learn on real(ish) snow, dry slopes are often dirt cheap but perhaps not as much fun. I’ve skied for the last 10 years and I still have a session or 2 at the dry slope before I go on holiday just to remind myself how to ski. If you do get lessons here, get them soon, I know a couple of very good instructors who head off to the resorts in November but work on the dry slopes before then.

My advice would be to first decide when you want to go, not where.

It’s not much fun learning when its actually snowing! It’s cold and you can see bugger all….Much nicer in the sun…. 🙂

So book to go later in the year, early March (but be advised there are no grantees with the weather in the mountains)

Secondly where, easy access to the lifts and a pretty resort would be my priority first time away with the Mrs. If you have to get a bus every morning its a PITA and its nice to know that your hotel room is not far away, if you had enough for the day. Why pretty? Because if it all goes wrong and your not skiing you want to be somewhere nice.

Lastly is the Mrs over 30? If so…. Ski.

Boarding is not for ladies (unless extremely, with a capital X, sporty)

When learning you fall over ALOT and it hurts. Falling over is inherant to snowboarding… you spend lots of time on your ar5e impossible not to.

Have fun, you’ll love it.

No where better than being in the mountains in bright clear sun, at the top of a run you’re just about to drop into… happy days.

or a skateboard (snow boarding) now

I don’t agree with that at all. I skateboarded as a kid from the first year they were around (bought one on holiday in Cornwall long before anyone in North Yorkshire where I live had ever heard of them) and can still get on one now (some 35 years later) and do most of the tricks I used to do without thinking.

But it didn’t help me at all when learning to snowboard – the technique is completely different for turning. Perhaps it helps you with balance but that is about it. In fact I reckon it caused me more problems because I was trying to port my skateboarding technique to the snowboard.

If you book late and the snow is good the try les gets, great for beginners good ski scholls and just a short run from geneva airport. However book late as in bad seasons snow can be limited- on a good year portes du soleil is great. Go for january too. Not too busy!

Oh and if you board choose a resort with lots of chairlifts rather than drags!

Oh and go somewhere where the beginner slopes are in the resort , not a half hour cramped bus ride away! Chamonix has lots of buses. I think the beginners lesson are in la tour which was 1/2 an hour away iirc. I snowboard a week a year and i avoid anywhere you have to hang around for buses. Ski to door/ resort is what you want!

drag lifts are fine on a board. long flat sections aren’t.

Here: http://www.wtss.co.uk
Then purchase the guide

Btw. Cham is one of the least convenient resorts In the alps and best suited to experienced riders.

Going high for snow sure is over simifying things. The central an eastern alps are2-5 degrees colder than the western alps which equates to about 900m difference in freeze level. So an 800m resort in Austria is equivalent to 1700m in France. If a resort has a big top to bottom drop and its main slopes areinot south facing you will always find somewhere with decent snow in a bad season.

Drag lifts are fine on a board but not good for beginners! Snow is now looking good! Cant wait til january for my powder fix!