If you’re trying to pick a fun family holiday then you might want to pick something you’ve not done before or something that’s likely to create a fun environment with your family members so you can create some fun memories. As the weather is still chilly, you may find it could be really fun to head away on a snow holiday! There are many benefits to going away on a ski holiday, such as creating a lot of fun memories together, enjoying the great outdoors, improving and learning new skills and even the possibility of team building. If someone in your family is much better at skiing, perhaps they could even give other family members “lessons” which is a wonderful way to build relationships and bond. The great thing about skiing is that even those who are beginners can get out on the mountain and have a fun day. For the younger family members, ski school can be a great way to learn some new skills and have fun on the slopes. Make sure you are renting the right equipment for your body. You may need to ask yourself, “What size snowboard do I need?” Here are my top 4 reasons to choose family skiing holiday:
1. A Challenging, Exciting Holiday
Skiing (or snowboarding) is one of those activities where you have to push yourself to make progress. I realized quite quickly that it was actually much more challenging to go slowly than to go fast. As such, it’s all about letting go, trusting in yourself and a little bit of blind faith. This means in a matter of days you can greatly improve your skill level, with a little bit of help from your family members, maybe some private lessons or group classes, or even just a little practice by yourself, you can make huge improvements in your skill levels. You’ll have fun carving up the slopes by yourself, but you’ll also enjoy doing some runs with your family members and even seeing who can fly down the mountain the fastest. You’ll enjoy deep conversations with family members and strangers on the chair lifts up to the slopes, as well as plenty of quiet time to reflect on all the important things in your life while you look out over the beautiful white wonderland while you carve lines into the blanket of snow. In a matter of days, you’ll see yourself make huge leaps and bounds in your skill level!
2. Create Precious Memories
The truth is time goes really fast and often it’s the family vacations that we will hold closet to our hearts, the times where we’re all together with ample free time to spend together. As you get older and kids move away from home, you’ll realize how hard it is to get everyone together again. As such, family vacations are really precious moments that need to be treasured. So whether this family vacation is one where everyone’s coming back together, or one before the children have left the nest, it’s important to enjoy the special time with everyone together. A ski holiday is a special way to spend time together, because of the fact you’ll be in a location with colder weather, after a long day skiing you’ll generally be staying somewhere with colder weather, so the evenings may be spent keeping warm around a fire. Take marshmallows, make hot cocoa and spend time together talking about the funny mishaps that happened on the mountain! While there’s tons of fun to be had on the mountain, half the fun is the adventures and closeness that will happen in the evenings around a cozy fireplace.
3. Amazing Family Photos
If you struggle to get good family pictures, then this is the one family photo where you won’t have to worry about that. The white mountain will be the perfect background for some of the best family portraits you could ever wish for! You can take photos of you and your family together in front of the lodge where you’ll have lunch, a selfie on the chairlift, at the top of the mountain, in the car ride up the mountain – the options are almost unlimited. You may be surprised to know that on some of the bigger mountains you can even hire professional photographers who can follow you down on your ski runs to take really great photos of you “in action” – this would make for some incredible family portraits! If you have a GoPro you can even get special attachments to attach it to your snowboard or skis to get action shots of you going down the mountain. These days smartphones take incredible photos as well, so you’ll never be short of an opportunity to take a few good photos of you and your family enjoying this incredible winter wonderland vacation.
4. Something Different
It’s so easy to sign up for the standard beach holiday package and don’t get me wrong, laying on a beach is lovely and I’m a big fan of warm weather, but going on a ski holiday is so much more active that it brings out a lot more energy and opportunity to bond. Ski holidays can actually work really well if you have children of different ages, especially if you visit a field that’s much bigger as they will have more services.
For example, if you’re traveling with young children, such as toddlers and you go to one of the really large ski fields, they may have ski school for toddlers or even a preschool designed to keep young children entertained with games and activities so they can have fun while you’re enjoying the slopes. Big ski fields also sometimes have other activities for nonskiing children such as sleds so that they can enjoy being in the snow, even if they’re not quite yet interested in skiing. For slightly older children who are not yet confident skiers, ski school is a great introduction and the instructors are experts, super patient and can often help children gain confidence in a way that parents can find difficult. It may be worth giving the children a few days worth of ski school before getting them to join the rest of the family when they’re feeling a bit more confident on the mountain!
Skiing is one of those activities that can turn into a lifelong passion. It’s such a fun holiday that will be certain to have a ton of fun memories from sitting around a fire in the evening, the funny mishaps that are bound to happen on the mountain, the beautiful chair rides up the slope and the amazing smiles on your children’s faces. You’re also sure to collect a ton of amazing family photos as souvenirs to take home with you.
