Canada & USA - what's good for families?

• Great offers – eg. free lift passes and rentals for children, free nights accommodation and free room upgrades.  Book early and skiing in North America need not necessarily be much more expensive than a European holiday.

• Excellent ski schools – North America is renowned for its flexible ski school programmes with enthusiastic, english speaking instructors.  Full day ski programmes, teen camps and speciality programmes are the norm eg. Whistler’s ‘Ride Tribe’ for 13-18yr olds and  Othello’s Rail Rider for 9yrs + in Aspen.

• Excellent day care – for infants and toddlers. Always high quality, well organised and reliable. Certain resorts even offer electronic pagers or mobile phones to parents.  Flexible programmes are available that combine child minding with ski tuition eg. Sun Tots programme for 3 – 5 yr olds in Sun Peaks.

• Facilities for kids in resort – many resorts have themed ski areas and boarding parks for kids eg. Sun Peak’s Adventure Park.  One-stop children’s centres housing day care, ski school, rentals and child-size ski accessories are increasingly common eg. the new Treehouse Kids Adventure Centre in Snowmass and Big White’s Children’s Centre.

• Non ski activities – eg. tubing, ice skating, snowmobiling, dog sledding and sleigh rides.  Many resorts organise weekly family activities such as Sun Peaks’ ‘Pizza & Movie’ nights and their ‘Kid’s Casino’ nights, or the ‘Family Fun races’ and ‘Wii nights’ organised by Big White.

• Family-friendly accommodation – condominiums  are spacious ‘home from homes’ with full size kitchens including dishwashers and washing machines.  This gives you the convenience of cooking at home if you wish and is great for those on a budget.  Some condo complexes have games rooms, mini movie theatres and swimming pools.

• Quieter & safer slopes – slopes are generally quieter than in Europe and the lift lines shorter, which means more times on the slopes!   Pistes are well patrolled and there are designated beginners areas that are safe and protected.