The School Ski trip - Selecting Your Resort

If you're one of the organisers, naturally you'll want your school ski trip to be an unqualified success, and part of the key to that is selecting the right resort. There’s no easy way to concisely describe how to select a great resort for that much-anticipated school ski trip. A lot depends upon knowing the resorts and the pistes – but also particularly how youngsters are catered for.

If you enlist the help of a specialised travel company, you'll be able to relieve much of the pressure with help from their experienced staff. Here are a few things that might be worth taking into consideration.

Transit times. Both you and your students will probably want to maximise the amount of time you’re on the snow during the school ski trip, and one way of helping with that is to look at destinations that are closer. Perhaps somewhere like L’Alpe d’Huez in France might meet that criterion. It’s only about 2 hours from Grenoble airport or roughly 13 hours by coach from Calais.

Off-piste entertainments. Some resorts might have rather more to offer in this respect than others. Take the Jungfrau in Switzerland – there your party can indulge themselves in things like ice skating, swimming, sledging and have fun at discos specially run for younger people.

Nursery slopes. If your party consists largely of beginners, you’ll want to ensure the resort has extensive nursery slope facilities – and not all necessarily do. However, in somewhere like Zell am See (Austria) there are really great facilities for novices on the nursery slopes at Schüttdorf.

Local colour and culture. Some resorts are rather stronger in this respect than others. That’s important because we sometimes forget what it’s like to be young and have a low boredom threshold. Resorts such as Chiesa in Italy have a traditional and authentic town centre with some great restaurants and streets to look around. That might be a real plus for a school tour.

Quality and value for money. Some resorts have invested hugely in renovation and enhanced developments to provide the ultimate in both facilities and value-for-money. One such example might be Jasper in Canada, where a staggering 25million Canadian dollars has been spent over 10 years to produce one of the world’s great resorts.

So, how do you go about making a decision? In the final analysis, some degree of compromise might be required. A resort that’s a longer journey to reach just might offer facilities that appeal to you more than one that is more convenient. Alternatively, you as the tour leader may know your party well and believe that reduced travel times are everything.

However, it is definitely worth enlisting the advice of an established expert in travel for schools. They might help you to see through the fog of confusion that can arise sometimes by being spoilt with too much choice. That advice might prove to be invaluable if you’re to be sure of a successful school ski trip.

Susan Joubert works for Ski Plan Travel, the market leaders in excursions for schools. Experts in arranging school ski trip itineraries, Ski Plan has over 14 years experience organising safe and successful tours. We arrange courses with an extensive range of resorts for the best student experience.

Writer and Online Marketing Manager in London.