How to plan your family ski holidays in Switzerland

It is time to plan a family vacation, and everyone wants to go skiing, but how to plan your family ski holidays in Switzerland? What to start with? Do not worry; we will give you a few tips to make it much easier for you.

When do you start planning skiing holidays?

Planning a ski vacation is not an easy thing. Dedicated snow sports winter resorts are generally quite expensive and not rarely booked well before the first fall of snow.

In general, in order to catch good deals and promotions or even significant discounts, most snow sport lovers make their reservations in the summer. Might be hard to decide in June, when you are still looking forward for summer holidays, what you will do in December, but as they say “in fair weather prepare for foul”. Mostly, because of the big demand, the reservations for Christmas and New Year skiing holidays should be done in the summer.

If you don’t necessarily want to go skiing during the Christmas holidays, you can make your reservation in September-October and still find good deals. However, if you leave the planning and booking for the last minute you might end up finding only little availability and exorbitant prices.

Google is your friend!

Nowadays most of the ski resorts and local agencies have websites. Check them, there you can find very useful information. If you are still in doubt, have more questions or need more information, contact them. They are the local experts, they can give you lot of useful tips and help you plan your dream holidays. For feedbacks about ski resorts check out Tripadvisor.

Find the right Ski resort

There are many resorts around the world with offers for the whole family. You can benefit from special packages and also save money if you book earlier. For a good comparison of the resorts, you can check Find your ski resort. The destination is the question!

There are several aspects you need to have in mind when choosing a winter resort.

Is there enough snow?

A very important thing is to find out how likely is that you will have enough snow to enjoy the skiing at its best. In resorts like Zermatt for example, you can never go wrong, due to high altitude there you have snow even in the summer.

Family friendly?

A very important thing mostly if you have little children is to check if the resort is family & children friendly, if you can find ski school for children or a nanny to take care of the little ones while you are skiing. Also if there are playgrounds and other diversified activities like sledging, tobogganing, ice skating Zermatt etc. to make their vacation memorable as well.

Accommodation?

Accommodation is another very important aspect in choosing the destination. Are you looking for a 5 stars hotel in the heart of the resort, a budget hostel or a ski-in /ski-out cosy chalet right next to the slopes? The preferences are individual and for a big family or a group of friends might be even more difficult to find the perfect place. That’s why again booking early in advance is a smart move, mostly if you are planning to go during the high season.

Snow, slopes, lifts, entertaining?

The next step is to inform yourself what kind of entertaining you can find in the resort. The resort must offer fun for every family member. If is a small resort that offers mostly activities for beginners, an expert skier will get bored quickly. If a family member wants to do heliskiing and the resort doesn’t have facilities for it, the experience won’t be complete. There are resorts that offer all winter activities, so make sure your destination is part of this category.

Skiing holiday period

It is also important to think before about the period for which you want to make the reservation. Take in consideration that during the school holidays and Christmas holidays the ski resorts are very busy and during this period is likely to be hard finding accommodation and prices will be higher as well, so you may need to increase your budget or sacrifice on comfort. If you have the possibility, is better to opt for low season holidays: you have more choice, you spend less money and you will avoid the crowded slopes and have exclusivity for many other services.

Can you find ski lessons?

Very important if you (or another member of your family) are a beginner, didn’t ski for long period or need to improve the technique, to make sure that you can find a good ski school there and if possible an instructor that speaks your language, know the place or can fulfil some special needs that you might request (ex: instructor for people with disabilities). For further consultation contact My Ski School which can book for you ski instructors in any resort of Europe. You could be interested to read about our school here.

Budget allocation for skiing

Regarding the allocation of a budget for skiing holiday, it is very individual. Skiing itself is a fairly expensive sport, so you should take this in consideration, but otherwise follow our tips, check the offers available on the market, book in advance and get the best quality – price deal!

Now that you know how to plan your family ski holidays in Switzerland, be ready to go!

All these tips will help you plan the perfect ski vacation for you and your family, so wait no more and start looking for the best options available!