Snow Sure! Where to ski with confidence (and kids) until April 2024

After last season’s no show snow, you might be worried about family ski holidays 2024. Don’t be. Ski expert Sean Newsom has found the surest snow-sure family resorts in Europe from now until April 2024.

Reberty, France © Vincent Lottenberg

Reberty, France: great for first-time ski holidays 2024

The rain in the Alps last Christmas dampened demand for Yuletide ski holidays this year, so if you can sneak your family away you’ll find lots of come-hither discounts. For example, at the time of writing, the Family Ski Company was offering 25% off the last rooms in its sought-after Reberty Chalets. These sit piste-side at 2,000m in Reberty – a suburb of Les Menuires – and offer quick access to Val Thorens: the highest resort in the Three Valleys.

With on-site childcare and both a ski school and a friendly lunchtime restaurant next door, this little enclave has almost everything you need for your kids’ first ski holiday. And other good stuff, like swimming pools, soft play areas and fun family toboggan runs, are a short bus ride away in the main resort.

Seven nights’ chalet-board, not including flights, from £990pp. Six days’ childcare, including ski lessons, starts at £669pp. Find out more

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Family skiing, Val d’Isère, France

Val d’Isère, France: one of the world’s largest, snow-sure ski areas

Family-friendly quad rooms in the heart of Val d’Isère make Brit-friendly Hotel Ducs de Savoie a great choice for ski holidays 2024.

Keen, athletic skiers will have a blast tackling the precipitous Face piste, while less confident skiers will love the gentle beginner and intermediate slopes in the Bellevarde and Solaise sectors, where much of the skiing is above 2500m.

Meanwhile the resort’s Centre Aquasportif awaits for a family splash once the lifts close.

Seven nights’ half board from at Hotel Ducs de Savoie, including flights, from £1,286pp. Find out more

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Dog sledding, Val Cenis © Joseph Jeanmart

Val Cenis, France: low crowd family ski holidays 2024

February half-term ski holidays are notoriously expensive. But not if you book a self-catering apartment in Val Cenis – and drive yourself to its cold and mostly north-facing slopes.

Set in the ever-unfashionable Maurienne Valley, at between 1,300-2,800m, they’re supported by 300 snow cannons and offer a feisty mix of challenges for both beginners and intermediates. Highlights include l’Escargot, the longest beginner run in the Alps. And the immenselyenjoyable Bois des Coqs red, which plunges down through the trees towards Termignon.

Book the Alpages de Val Cenis Apartments, and you’ll also be 50m away from one of the ESF (École du Ski Français) meeting points. Group ski lessons here are less than half the price you’ll pay in Val d’Isère.

Seven nights’ self-catering, including Eurotunnel crossing, from £366pp. Find out more

Altitude Fun Slope, La Belle Plagne

La Plagne, France: fabulous family all-rounder for Feb half-term

There are two February half-term weeks in the UK this winter, and for skiing families the second one – from 17 February 2024 – is the peach.

Not only will fewer British schools take that week off, you’ll miss the Parisian school holidays as well. As a result, prices will be lower and the slopes quieter; even in popular La Plagne, whose central plateau offers lots of easy-going, confidence-boosting pistes between 1,800 and 2,700m.

There’s still availability in Ski Famille’s Chalet Delphine too. Set amidst the trees in Plagne 1800, it’s a classic wood-panelled property with four family suites, on-site childcare and a dedicated playroom.

Seven nights’ chalet board, including flights, from £1,393pp. Six days’ childcare, including ski school, from £738pp. Find out more

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Off piste fun, Val d’Aosta

Champoluc, Italy: expect higher than average snow fall this winter

You may have heard of El Niño. The occasional Pacific Ocean climate anomaly is back this winter and – according to meteorologists – it could bring higher-than-average snowfall to the Italian Alps.

But even if it doesn’t, you’ll find enough half-term snow in pretty little Champoluc. Part of the wider Monterosa Ski area, its nursery slopes are set at nearly 2,000m, while 95% of its pistes are protected by snow cannons.

For maximum convenience, book the slope-side Hotel de Champoluc – run by British family-skiing specialist Esprit Ski. Not only is it right next to the gondola up to the beginner area, it offers in-house childcare too.

Seven nights’ half board, including flights, from £2,306.50pp. Six days’ childcare, including ski school, from £599pp. Find out more

Snowboarding, La Thuile © Enrico Romanzi

La Thuile, Italy: two snowy micro-climates for the price of one

Come New Year, half of Europe will be on the slopes. So it makes sense, if you’re holidaying with younger kids, to avoid the most popular resorts and ski more obscure mountains instead – such as La Thuile.

Squirreled away in a shady, north-facing offshoot of the Aosta Valley, it holds its snow well and shares its lift system with neighbouring La Rosière, which sits above a different valley in France. So, if you’ve got the strength for some cross-border skiing, you’ll enjoy two snowy microclimates for the price of one.

Book into the Planibel self-catering apartments, next to the lifts, and you’ll also have access to an indoor pool, as well as Crystal’s English-speaking kids clubs.

Seven nights’ self catering, including flights, from £767pp. Six days’ childcare, including ski school and ski hire, from £599pp. Find out more

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Sunny family ski holidays, Andorra

El Tarter, Andorra: great value family ski holidays 2024

Over February half-term, most ski areas offer their best snow conditions – just before spring starts to bite. That includes beginner and intermediate-friendly Grandvalira, whose broad, ego-boosting slopes in the Pyrenees are set between the respectable midwinter altitudes of 1,710m and 2,590m.

Here, in the village of El Tarter, Neilson’s bustling Hotel de Clos offers quad rooms for families as well as energetic, English-speaking kids’ clubs.

The Anglophile atmosphere continues in the ski school, where almost everyone speaks English, and quite a bit of the teaching is done on snow-sure slopes, mid-mountain.

Seven nights’ half board , including flights, from £1,813pp. Six days’ childcare from £370pp. Find out more

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Snow sure Tignes, France © Andy Parant

Tignes, France: a real treat for Easter family ski holidays

Tignes is a treat at Easter. The two main villages, Val Claret and Le Lac, are set at 2100m, so even the nursery slopes at resort level are snow-sure. Meanwhile, its many intermediate pistes – which are deliciously long, broad and steady – rise all the way to 3,456m.

Yes, visibility is an issue if it’s snowing or the clouds come down. But if you base yourself in the giant Club Med hotel in Val Claret it won’t be a problem to sit out the odd foggy day, thanks to your on-site pool and gym, complementary kids’ clubs, giant lounges, and spacious family rooms.

Seven nights all-inclusive from 24 March 2024, including flights, childcare, ski school and lift passes, from £2,586pp. Find out more

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Village Montana, Val Thorens

Val Thorens, France: snow-sure and affordable right into April

Come April, Val Thorens is sitting pretty. Set at 2,300m in a high-mountain bowl, and ringed with ski lifts that rise above 2,800m, it’s home to one of most extensive arrays of high-altitude skiing in Europe.

Most of the pistes are broad and gentle too. So when you add the resort’s 6km toboggan run and its new public pool to the picture, you’ve got the perfect end-of-season playground for when most other resorts are already oceans of slush.

Val Thorens is absolutely brimming with self-catering apartments too, which means it needn’t cost the earth. Load the car up with your kids and ski clobber and set the sat nav for the piste-side Résidence Village Montana, it’s close to all the ski school meeting points.

Seven nights’ self-catering, including Eurotunnel crossing, from £728pp. Find out more

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Obergurgl, Austria © Andy Evans

Obergurgl, Austria: one of the highest resorts in the Austrian Alps

Set at the end of the long, cold Otztal valley, Obergurgl is one of the highest resorts in the Austrian Alps that doesn’t offer lift-serviced glacier skiing. What’s more, 90% of its pistes – many of which face northwest – are backed up by snow cannons; in case Mother Nature doesn’t pull her weight.

The result is a compact, magnificent and intermediate-friendly destination where spring seems a long way off, even at Easter.

Book the ski-in-ski-out Alpina Hotel and you’ll also have access to a pool and family spa in case of bad weather. You are, however, unlikely to need its free childcare. In common with many Austrian resorts Obergurgl’s ski schools run all-day, rather than half-day, lessons.

Seven nights’ half board, including flights, from £1,814pp. Find out more

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