Skiing with a nearly 3 year old!!!!!!!!!

[Gizmo100]

Hi Im going to finland with my friend and my 3 weeks short of her 3rd birthday daughter! We are going with Inghams to Ruka on a square deal.

However everything seems to be against us because of her age being under 3. The free ski hire and passes is only for 3-7 year old and Inghams have said she wont get them. Also the ski schools are over 3 years plus. I am getting to the point of buying her skies over here and taking them with us because I think the hire shops will also being sticky giving us skies.

I went onto a ski forum before bookign and they said I could teach her myself or get private lessons but I think its down to insurance that they dont want to know.

can anyone advise how they have got round this at the other resorts - Im now having second thoughts of taking her Holiday has all been paid for.

My daughter is very tall for her age and one of the chaps in my work who is a ski instructor said this would go in her favour but I think everything is now so red tapped its makes it really hard for her to learn to ski.

Many thanks

Gizmo100

[DadInsteadofMum]

Red taped here in UK and with Inghams; but tends not to be once you get to resort - have you tired booking directly with local ski school and ski hire (we do this anyway as it works out cheaper)

[DadInsteadofMum]

Red taped here in UK and with Inghams; but tends not to be once you get to resort - have you tired booking directly with local ski school and ski hire (we do this anyway as it works out cheaper)

[weWITCHyouaGigglechristmas]

I learned at 4 - which was really young when i did it thirty-odd years ago. don't they have some sort of creche that she could go into for say the mornings whilst you do a bit of ski-school or whatever, then get her out and ski with her for the afternoons on the nursery slope and stuff? I was thinking of doing exactly this with my little ones........

[VirginBoffinMum]

British ski holiday companies are a total ripoff. We hired our own ski instructor and had no problems hiring gear for the kids over there. I have pix of myself skiing at 2.5 yrs so it's nothing new. However they do get a bit tired and cold at that age, so at one point we parked the little one in the ski instructors' lounge with a bag of gummi bears. It was quite an obliging ski school though!

[Gizmo100]

Hi Thanks for all the replies - I must admit i feel Inghams when i queried the ski hire were just trying to crawl out of it
In a couple of days I am going to email a few ski hire companies in the resort and ask them if they will hire them the skis and boots to me.

I know even Xscape dont let any children on if they dont know how to ski (Im just looking for a quiet spot to teach her!)

If I can get an instructor over there to teach it will be a lot easier and reassuring that we can try her with skiing!

Also will go with maybe creche is the morning and ski with her in the afternoon or vice versa!!

I feel better about the holiday now!

Gizmo100

[weWITCHyouaGigglechristmas]

hope you all enjoy your hols in the snow - i'm sure you will get it all sorted.

Happy xmas too

[happywomble]

My dd skied for the first time at just 3...they can enjoy sliding on skis at this age but are maybe a bit young to learn how to turn etc.

I would have thought you would be able to hire boots and skis for your daughter in the resort and book private lessons..although some children at this age enjoy being in a group more. If your own travel insurance covers your daughter skiing I would have thought it would be ok.

Could you phone the ski school in Ruka and ask if they will be able to give your daughter lessons? (group or private)

If so I would hire the skis and boots rather than buying them as she will only get one weeks use out of them and they are quite expensive to buy.

If your daughter does ski this time I expect 1 1/2 hrs skiing per day will be enough for her so maybe you could book her into the Inghams creche for some of the time so you can enjoy skiing yourself.

[Nighbynight]

I have seen children this young skiing with their parents. When the child gets tired, the parents just put them on their shoulders, still with tiny skis on, and ski away.

Can see why british companies/insurance would freak about this though, lol. God knows how they manage the ski lifts.

My eldest three had a course last year, but the instructor didnt want to accept dd2, who was just 4 at that time. She is learning this year, aged just 5. I think from his experience, he just didnt think she could concentrate for long enough, and follow instructions. But learning with mum would be different, of course.

If you can afford to throw money at the problem, you could just buy her a tiny pair of skis at the resort. The ski equipment shops often have second hand ones for sale. you could use them for several years, just with different boots?

[VirginBoffinMum]

You can also just put your dd on the front of your skis on the nursery slope, if you're confident enough to do this. I've seen this done from about 18 months.

I would agree that 1 to 1.5 hours is probably the max she will be happy at this age.

[LIZS]

You can usually hire equipment locally - forget about using a tour company to do so. But if it is cold and she isn't that physical time spent even on the gentle gradient at the base will limited so it will be relatively expensive exercise. Few European ski schools take under 4's anyway, they can't concentrate for long, get bored waiting turns and wander off, especially if parents watch, distracting the instructor's attention from those who can. Not all lifts will allow her to ride tandem even assuming she becomes confident enough to take up a nursery slope.

[annasmami]

I agree that UK Ski tour operators are not good value (or any good)!

We've taken our kids to various resorts in Austria by ourselves (booked hotels direct) and had no problems getting them into the local ski school or renting equipment, even when they were under 3. For that age I would recommend Kinderhotels because lots of them have a creche and a ski slope outside the hotel so the younger children (2-4 yr olds) can ski there fore a few hours in the morning and spend the rest of the day in the creche. The nannies there take the children outside and bring them back after the lesson and feed them lunch, so you can ski the whole day, while the children have fun too .