Choosing the ideal destination for your school ski trip is no easy task. Europe alone has almost 4,000 ski resorts and North America nearly 900! How can you be expected to make a choice? What should you consider? What criteria do I need to follow? Don’t worry, it’s not as daunting as it may first appear and if you read through our handy guide, you’ll pick up some great pointers to make sure you know exactly what to consider when deciding where is the best place to take your students skiing  this winter.

Distance from UK
The distance from the UK to the resort will determine how you get there. Some resorts are accessible by both coach and air, others by air only. Flying and the associated in-resort transfers normally push costs up. Resorts which are geographically closer to the UK and can be reached by coach can help to keep costs down but also expand the choice of accommodation you can use because you have transport available, often meaning better value can be achieved. Within 15hrs drive of Calais you can comfortably reach the Western Alps and the Pyrenees and both mountain ranges offer a huge amount of skiing and an incredible choice of resorts.

Progression
Beginners don’t want to spend a week on the nursery slopes, going up and down the same run. Intermediates don’t want to be confined to a limited selection of blue runs and advanced skiers will hate being restricted by a lack of challenging pistes that enable them to improve their technical ability. You need a resort that caters for all abilities. When we talk about progression, we mean we are describing the step up in challenge as skiers advance. The progression a ski resort should ideally offer is a range of slopes that increase in difficulty whilst remaining accessible through good links and lift systems. A good progression will really make your students feel great about their achievements as more and more of the mountain opens up to them.. This can be somewhat subjective however, so if you’re considering a particular resort, ensure you have a chat with someone who knows the resort well before making a booking. Pila in Italy’s Aosta Valley, and Cerler in the Aragon  region of Spain are two brilliant examples of resorts that offer superb progression.

Altitude
With ski resorts seemingly under the spotlight with continual talk of climate change, ensuring your chosen resort has a good snow record is essential, particularly for early and late season skiing. Don’t be swayed by resort heights alone however as sometimes the resort base can be significantly lower than the altitude of the majority of skiing. For example, La Thuile in Italy has a resort base of 1450m but the vast majority of the skiing is over 2200m. Generally, we recommend resorts that start at no less than 1800m but ideally offer skiing above 2000m. Ideally, the majority of slopes should be North facing as well to help snow conditions maintain throughout the winter.

Popularity
This is somewhat counterintuitive as you might initially think the more popular the resort the better – not the case for school skiing! The more popular the resort, the more expensive and the busier it will be. Ideally, you need to find resorts which tick all the other boxes, but are perhaps not renowned international resorts. This means they normally cater more for domestic markets. Resorts off the beaten track mean you’ll get cheaper prices and quieter resorts offer your students a better experience. Also, just because a resort is less well known doesn’t mean it’s a lower grade to others. As mentioned before, with Europe offering almost 4,000 resorts there are some amazing places to ski which are just not part of the main tourist trail and these are often the ones which offer the more authentic flavour of the country you’re travelling to.

Size
Size isn’t everything! Ski resorts range from smaller places that offer little more than a few kilometres to extensive, linked behemoths that span valleys and even international borders. The question should be more about the general ability of your group and how suitable the resort is, rather than a simple look at how much skiing is available. France’s three valleys boasts around 600kn of piste – great for advanced skiers, but pretty much a waste of time for first time beginners and so you can end up paying for a benefit that your students will never take advantage of. For an average school group made up of majority beginners, some intermediates and a couple of more advanced skiers, a resort that has a minimum of 60km is normally more than sufficient to keep everyone entertained for a week so don’t immediately dismiss smaller offerings. In Andorra, the smaller resort of Pal Arinsal has 63km but is amazing for school skiing. The larger Andorran resort of Grandvalira has over 210kn, but not all of that is included in the standard school lift pass, which is something else to check when weighing up your options.

In conclusion, if you factor in all of the above criteria, you can’t go far wrong. Use the above to draw up a shortlist of potential resorts, speak to other teachers who have run ski trips and see what they recommend. One thing to remember is that what makes a good ski resort for a family ski holiday does not necessarily make it so for school skiing. Different resorts market themselves towards different demographics. For helpful and impartial advice, call Interski on 01623 456333 or drop us an email to schools@interski.co.uk. We’ll be happy to answer your questions and make recommendations.