Skiing school for kids

Sports and Hobbies
21
Also in Thalwil and on the other side of the train station than the one already mentionned http://www.ski-rental.ch/en/

Many families go there to rent skis for the children.

Renting for a season is very cheap and if you plan and going several times and only half days (which sounds like a good idea) it is easier if you already have everything ready. So renting for the season might be better.

22
My kids started at around 3, but it was stressful and not worth it.

So we waited another couple of years and they had Wed afternoons off in day care and kindergarten. So together with another one of their classmates, we drove to Flumseberg with a sandwich lunch in the car, for afternoon lessons (so a group of 3 kids). At some point we switched to Friday, but the same process. I think they learnt much quicker at this age and it was less stressful. Going mid-week means less people on the slopes, and I could sit in the restaurant or in the sun while checking emails.

After maybe 5 of these lessons, and some slow skiing with me on the weekends on the Flumseberg blue slopes, it was February and we went for a week to Austria, and enrolled them in the regular kids ski school. As they could already ski a bit, it was nice that they didn't get stuck in the nursery at the bottom and can explore the blue slopes and a couple of red ones too. They didn't learn as much in the group compared to private lessons, but they made loads of friends.

23
I bought us quality but used skis, etc. I only invested big in reliable spine protection and helmets with visors. Got skis, sticks and boots for a few bucks, upgraded often because the little ones grow so fast. There are specific flee markets in our area for toys, bikes and ski gear.

We did not have the resources for classes, so my kid watched a group and repeated stuff on their side once. Then she spent a half day on a kiddy slope. Then she took off to black slopes and forests.

24
If you are in the city there is also:

https://www.skirental-zueri.ch/en/

And also SportXX at Brunau does ski rental for the season and being Migros they have very favourable rates.

Get it either early or late - any weekend past the Herbstferien and Nov will be super busy!

K

25
Thanks EnglishForum!

Plenty of useful information. I think I'll pop up this thread once again closer to the season and share my experience

26
Be careful with Migros - as I found out a few years ago, they advertised same prices as the thalwil shops but without poles and boots.... But we are talking small differences and if you don’t live near thalwil and have a Migros nearby then of course.

27
I also want to recommend the Arosa ski school inklusive deal. We've done this a bunch of years and we've always had great experience with the instructors and found it a super deal.

28
Having tried several places over the years the Ski School in Engelberg is second to none, really good instructors and most have good English.

France is fine lots of slopes for different levels but the ski schools are a bit of a kindergarten where parents dump them and the quality is a bit not what you pay for.

29
We used this place on the recommendation of a previous member

https://www.prime-engelberg.ch/en/skischool/

We did semi-private from me and the missus and nickatbaselJnr was in a small class with half a dozen other kids. He was able to ski at the end of a few days.

Cheers,

Nick

30
There's a great kids ski program at Alt St Johann in Toggenburg. It runs every Saturday or Sunday in January, five hours long and includes lunch. Our boys have done it the past 3 years and it was great.

It's under "Kids Camp" on this page, they have not announced dates yet it seems but I expect they probably will.

https://chaeserrugg.skischool.shop/en/pages/kids/

Good luck!

31
thanks for all the shared info, that was helpfull

32
We went to Thawil Pro Rental and rented boots, ski and sticks for 100CHF (plus 50CHF deposit) for the whole season.

Ended up having 5 half days (2 hours) group course at https://chaeserrugg.skischool.shop/en/pages/kids . for 200CHF. Since my kids didn't ski at all we started with Kids Village. The location was Alt St Johann.

There were three kids in kindergarden, three kids in village and five kids in older group - so in total around dozen kids in the whole kids area. Each group got separate instructor assigned, so there was enough supervision. During the lesson (2 hours) there was a tiny break with a hot drink.

My kid was able to progress quickly and liked skiing in general, so seems like I have to learn skiing and join her on blue slopes - so I've joined ISCZ Flumserberg ski school

33
I'm a third vote for Arosa, (and the inclusive ski school for kids under 18) for anyone coming back to this thread. We stayed at the Sunstar Arosa (thank you husband's work for the discount) and my kids went skiing for the first time a few days last week. If you discount a major mistake the ski school made (after the first day at Green level, they changed their lesson tickets for Blue king/queen instead of prince/princess and took them to the top of Hornli the next morning), I was very pleasantly surprised by the instructors (and most of them spoke English) and how fast my kids learned.

As for the gear, this blog post was really helpful as to what you need:

https://swissfamilyfun.com/10-must-haves-kids-ski/ (ignore the ad-aspect)

I would suggest going to a Brocki (secondhand, like salvation army) for used gear although it might be a bit picked over this time of year. I have to give a huge shout-out though to a really nice store (half-outlet?) that we went to today in Regensdorf https://www.v-sport.ch/ - got my daughter a pair of ski pants for 40chf (originally 189 I think). Decathlon is pretty inexpensive and has everything albeit a bit picked-over.

Good luck!