Two faces of family ski holidays!

As a travel agent I promote booking holidays well in advance, for many good reasons. However, I am not one of those people, especially when it comes to the uniqueness of a European ski holiday. The last two ski holidays I have taken with my family have been booked a mere two days before departure. It's enough to get the palms sweating in panic, I hear you. I revel in it! Booking a last minute ski holiday means I can keep my eye on the snow conditions and can also usually bag a great price. It does, also, mean that there is very limited availability and you do have to take what is left! More on that later.

Back in April 2024 the snow was still looking good and I had been keeping an eye on availability with Inghams. We finally pressed book on a package to Val d'Isere, staying in the 4 star Hotel Le Savoie right in the centre. We managed to get interconnecting double rooms and I have to say the hotel was fabulous. Great location and spacious rooms but the best bit was the food. Half-board was included and the food was really rather good. The evening meal was a six course delight that we all loved, even the children. The only issue with such good haute cuisine is that the children came home expecting amuse bouche as standard! Inghams staff were super, friendly and attentive. I wouldn't hesitate to book with them, even well in advance. You know what you are getting from the skiing there too and while the lift pass prices are on the expensive side, the skiing is great and there is lots of opportunity to get high up where the snow is very reliable even late in the season. The town has lots going on, we even went for a swim on a few days. All in all, it was an excellent trip and I would highly recommend this hotel and Inghams.

As 2024 started to close in, Christmas came and went and there was the dreaded Twixmas. With nothing planned, I checked out the snow conditions across the mountains and it looked good! There had been a lot of early season snow to make a good base for snow sports. It was time to go and play again! I started having a look around and found a deal to Borovets in Bulgaria. Having primarily skied in the French Alps, going to Bulgaria was a bit of an unknown. We took the leap and pressed book. This time we were booked into the Saint George, a 3 star hotel with Balkan Holidays. The hotel was located a few minutes walk from the lifts but still quite convenient and actually we were quite happy to be away from the crowds in amongst the pretty trees. There had been loads of snow so the resort looked picture perfect too. Borovets was around a 90 minute transfer from Sofia Airport, an easy drive with no problems at all. The logistics actually all worked out quite well, even if the infrastructure is not as polished as the French Alps.

The ski resort itself was surprisingly good, the snow conditions were excellent and there were just about enough challenging slopes to keep everyone happy. There can be a bit of queueing for the lifts as there are only 3 main lifts out of resort, but if you remain patient they soon pass! There are a lot of beginners here as it is billed as a beginners resort so the green and blue runs are very busy with many ski schools snaking their way down the mountain. I personally think it’s a better resort for more intermediate skiers as there are a lot of quite steep red runs to contend with! Once we had deciphered the piste map we managed to find the best runs to get about the place. The least favourable part of this trip was the accommodation, which was functional at best. We had two double rooms, they were nice and warm but both bathrooms had leaks! The curtains didn't draw fully too which was a bit annoying! They had a restaurant of sorts but it was lacking in atmosphere sadly. There wasn't anything wrong with the food on offer and I actually enjoyed the meals they served up. Luckily there were lots of eating opportunities in the town, from spit roasted lamb to kebabs to Chinese food! Not a vegetable in sight all week though so not a destination for vegetarians. We got lucky and found a bar at the bottom of the slope which not only had really great owners but you could use their sledges for free (happy kids!)!

Val d'Isere and Borovets are at the opposite ends of the ski spectrum in pretty much every way, but we enjoyed both. Is one better than the other? I would say they both have aspects that would win over the other! Variety is where it is at.

I'm all skied out now and hoping for my next holiday to be full of R&R (this will never happen, road trip to Norway anyone....?!). As a family we really do enjoy these ski trips and are very lucky to be able to just go. It also enables me to advise my clients on the best places to go and how to get the most from their winter ski trips. Let run your skis…Shoop Shoop!