The families we write for ski, and they start their children early, in Courchevel, Zermatt, St. Moritz, Lech and Aspen. The children who love skiing at ten are the ones whose first week at four was short, sunny and finished with hot chocolate. The ones who hate it were left in a ski school of thirty on a cold morning with a stranger. The difference is planning and money, in that order.
When to start
Ski school from three and a half or four for a child who is confident on their feet and happy to be left. Proper skiing, meaning a morning on the slopes with the family, from five or six. Before that, the mountain is for sledging, snowmen and the crèche, and the child who is not pushed at three is the child who asks to go at five.
The resort
Choose a resort with a village at the bottom of a gentle slope and the ski school and the nursery slope within walking distance of the house. Not a resort where the beginners' area is a lift away. Lech and Zürs, the Austrian family hotels of the Arlberg, Courchevel 1650 rather than 1850, Zermatt's Wolli park, Pontresina rather than St. Moritz, the family villages of South Tyrol: the Family Trip Matcher has them with the ages they suit. Snow-sure altitude matters more every year; a resort below 1,500 metres in February is a gamble.
The instructor
A private instructor for the first mornings, every morning, at 100 to 200 euros an hour, is the best money in the ski budget. Two hours with one child or two siblings, a break, and the afternoon free. Group ski school works from six for a sociable child; it is where the friends are made. Book the private instructors in September; the good ones in Courchevel and Zermatt are gone by October, and the families who have had the same instructor for ten years book the following year on the last day.
The day
Skiing from ten to twelve. Lunch, indoors, sitting down. A nap or quiet time until three; a four-year-old who skied all morning is finished, and the afternoon lesson is the one where the tears come. Sledging, swimming or the snow garden at four. Dinner at six, bed at seven. The parents ski from eight to ten before the lesson, and after three if a nanny is with the children. A ski week with a nanny is a holiday for everybody; without one, it is childcare at altitude.
Kit
A helmet that fits, goggles not sunglasses, mittens not gloves, one layer more than the adults, sun cream on the face every two hours and boots hired for this week, not last year's. Children's ski boots that are too big cause more first-week misery than any instructor. Hire in the resort, fitted, the afternoon you arrive.
The chalet or the hotel
A catered chalet with a nanny and a chef gives you your own rhythm and the children's dinner at six. The Austrian and South Tyrolean family hotels give you a kids' club, a pool, half board and other children, and they are the most child-friendly hotels in the world. The five-star palaces of St. Moritz and Gstaad give you neither and are for the week without the children.
The rule
Stop while it is still fun. A child who is asked to ski one more run after the tired point learns that skiing is something parents make you do. A child who is taken in for hot chocolate at the top of their happiness asks for more tomorrow.
