The title gives it away!  My family and I (two young daughters) would like to go skiing but are limited by school holidays.  We have therefore decided to head to North America and are considering Banff/Sunshine or Winter Park or Breckenridge or Lake Tahoe.
 
We would like somewhere which offers guaranteed snow in late march/Early April, together with reasonable cost (all four of us will probably require lessons as well as equipment and lift passes) together with possibility of entertainment other than skiing (we plan to go for three weeks, ski during week and go off and do something else at weekends when the place is busy).
 
Can anyone give any help or even come up with a resort other than the ones listed above.
 
Many thanks

Hi Mallowsteve
 
I have skied in Aspen, Vail, Beaver creek, and seven resorts around Lake Tahoe. Best holiday for beginners would be either Beavercreek (expensive but ideal) or Lake Tahoe (for lower costs). If you can hire a car then I would stay at Club Tahoe Condominium in Tahoe Village and drive to Northern resorts. We had a great time at Tahoe and also went to the desert one day, saw Virginia City and also took ski-dos out. Easy to get to from San Francisco by car.
 
I have not been to Canadian resorts but costs can be higher. Breckenridge is close to Denver which is good but I hear gets crowded at weekends.
 
Good luck!

Hi Mallowsteve,
 
I’ve skied Breckenridge, which was fantastic. But the height can cause altitude sickness, so I’d recommend somewhere further down the valley for a first trip just in case. I would hate for one of you to feel ill and not enjoy your skiing or not want to go again because of this. It also gets very cold. The locals have two nicknames for Breckenridge, Breckinwind and Breckenfridge. So you need lots of layers and of good quality, which can add to your holiday costs quite significantly.
 
Esrio is also right when he says it’s crowded at weekends. It is and there aren’t enough places to eat and drink on the mountain so it gets fairly manic.
 
BTW we did Hafjell in Norway in 2007 and 2008, which our three youngsters maintain has the best ski school of any resort they’ve been to. Might be worth considering for a first trip as it’s a gem of a resort and they have blue and green runs that start at the top of the mountain and meander all the way down to the bottom. Great fun for all skill levels. Check my review of Hafjell for more info
 
Good Luck and I know wherever you go you’ll have a ball
 
Cheers
Derek

Hi
 
I would definitely avoid Breck. Had a great time with friends there last year but we all got altitude sickness to some degree and I experienced the coldest conditions I have ever skied in. The ‘Big 3’ area of Banff/Sunshine/Lake Louise is brilliant, with excellent ski school, but the fact that all areas involve a bus ride/drive (therefore also an early start), might make them a bit of a pain with children.
 
I would echo Derek’s sentiments on Norway. The areas are great for beginners and really set up for children (in this respect they are more akin to the North American approach than the European one). Short, fun, uncrowded lessons with English spoken perfectly. My daughter learnt to ski in Geilo 3 seasons ago aged 5 and has been hooked on skiing since. We’re now planning on going to Hemsedal next April, for my son and wife to learn as well. I know this website is anti-Scandinavia for the lack of gourmet food and prohibitively priced booze, but with children those items are unlikely to be of that great importance. Yes, the ski areas are limited in extent, but as beginners you are unlikely to be covering great mileage anyway.
 
BTW it seems Norway may be a bit harder to get to now. The majority of resorts were served from the UK by Fagernes airport which is no longer accessible from the UK (the UK airline serving it is no longer operating and/or the runway is deemed to short anyway). You now have to fly in to Oslo, which is 3.5 - 4 hours away. But still worth it for beginners/families in my opinion.
 
Hope you find somewhere!

Nvel75 underplays the hassle of skiing in Banff. The busses are not totally relaible and you may easily find yourself waiting over an hour for one. The ride itself to Lake Louise is about 45 minutes. Then you have the decision of how to carry the novel that relieved the boredom on the bus.
 
John

I am glad that RSimpkinuk57 had no problems with the busses. It was only on a couple of days that the busses didn’t turn up when advertised (ie 20% of the time) and on one occaision when my wife and son arrived for a bus timetabled for 10:00 (ish) none turned up until after midday. IIRC the last bus back also tended to leave before the slopes closed. My reccomendation would be to hire a car.
 
Yes, you can easily hire a car in Banff and day trips include the Ice Fields Parkway and the Athabasca Glacier.
 
For a long skiing holiday may I also suggest Whistler. The skiing is generally better quality than Banff and the resort, though smallish by European standards, is still quite extensive. There are a number of other good looking resorts that could be also worth a visit in the vicinity, Big White and Kicking Horse amongst them. But the real attraction for a break from Whistler is to get the bus down to Vancouver (or take the float plane if you are very rich)and go whale watching or perhaps even sailing. We took a day off from skiing in Whister and hired mountain bikes to pootle about the valley bottom tracks. Just one thing to watch out for when going to Whistler, they do have a big snowboarding festival at Easter and since this corresponds to US universities "spring break" the resort can become very crowded. You may even have to reserve retraurant places before you leave!
 
Hope this helps
 
John

You can see there is a post missing immediately before the last one (John’s). The reply I’m guessing I would have made is also gone.

I had stayed in Banff that year, mid-late March (included Easter), along the main road into town where most of the hotels are. The bus company did an excellent job at providing enough vehicles to cover all the pick-ups. Sometimes one bus would be full up by the time it left the previous stop and another (empty) one would have started two stops further on, but another would be along in a few minutes to fill in the gap.

Around breakfast time, if you missed one departure for Sunshine or Louise, it would be a lot less than an hour before the next. (I don’t remember the exact timetable.) I dare say there were fewer to Banff’s local hill (Norquay), and few to anywhere after the morning peak. There was an after-slopes-close bus back from Sunshine but 16.30 was the last I remember from Louise.

Whistler, with its biggest-and-best reputation, I’d say doesn’t really match the original requirements for late snow (not at the bottom of the mountains, however good it may still be at the top) and reasonable cost!

Richard