Tips for families skiing in North America:

• Plan ahead, flights on key dates at holiday times get booked up a long way in advance. By booking earlier you will secure the best flight prices and will also be able to take advantage of early booking special offers at Canadian and America resorts that can save you a fortune!

• Organise as much as you can in advance – buy lift passes, ski lessons and rentals, reserve day care slots and baby sitting and schedule aprés ski and other recreational activities.  This will save you valuable skiing time when you arrive.

• Book tables for evening meals. People tend to eat early in North America and in many resort if you want to eat with your kids at 6pm you will need to book. If staying in a hotel, ask the concierge for their advice and to assist with making the bookings.

• Travel with another family - kids love it when they can ski with their mates and it helps prevent any nervousness about them being left with an instructor and other kids they don't know.

• Try to book multi-day ski school packages for your children, they will get far more out of them. These usually have the same instructor each day. Also you only need to register your child on the first day, rather than every day for daily lessons - less admin time, more ski time!

• Full day lessons for kids (ie approximately 8.30am - 3.30pm) are recommended rather than morning or afternoon sessions (usually only a couple of hours). They get to know the instructor and other kids in the group better, there is more 'fun' built into the day and of course more ski time and more opportunity to learn. They will be worn out and sleep well! You get pretty much a full day to ski, have a long lunch, soak in the hot tub, or go back to bed!!

• Stay in a condo-hotel. These have self-catering accommodation within a hotel - the best of both worlds! 

• Make use of restaurant delivery services, many will deliver to your accommodation.

• Pre-order groceries for arrival at your condo, available at many accommodations - you’ll particularly appreciate this if arriving late as you’ll have supplies for the following day’s breakfast.