KIDS and SNOW minus the EFFORT – Nail It These School Holidays

School Holidays in Victoria is fast approaching and for those parents who love the snow but can’t be bothered with the amount of preparation, gear, travel, costs and supervision that goes into a family snow trip? This is for you.

Like all those fancy diet magazines that tell you to substitute your 3pm caramel slice for a handful of nuts, these substitutes aren’t so dumb. I hope.

Substitute a hotel for a lodge.Lodges are a great way to save some cash on a family snow trip. Mind you with half the cash you’ll get twice the fun as there will be like-minded people to socialise with, roast marshamllows in the fire and palm your kids off to when you’d rather be sipping on a beer than taking your kid for another run down Bourke St. You’ll also save on food as you wont always be eating out but can bring your own groceries that don’t carry the burden of the magical ‘Alpine Tax’ that somehow boosts a 2L bottle of milk to $5.70. That cow better have healing powers.

Substitute buying new gear to hiring and borrowing. You will most likely be able to scrounge a few old jackets off a mate with older kids that will be perfect for your own children to borrow. No need to waste money on them for a week trip when come next years trip your daughter will be a foot taller and no longer like pink because she’s a strong, independent 11 year old. You can hire skis, bindings, boots, poles, jacket and pants for your kid at Oz Extreme for 7 days for less than two hundy bucks, not bad I say.

Substitute you standard day lift pass for a lift and lesson pass if you’re a beginner. Mount Buller have this great initiative where for the same price as a regular day ticket, you can get a two-hour first time lesson for free. The only catch is you’re limited to the beginner runs for the day but realistically if you’re tackling blue runs on your first day you’re probably a wizard. If you’re a bit more advanced or a bit nervous and would prefer a lesson tailored to suit you, book in for a private lesson although here’s the trick – book an off peak time for the lesson (generally before 10am and after 3pm at Mount Buller). I’m not trying to boast about Mount Buller in my posts but I used to work in ski school there so I know more about it than other mountains.

Substitute ski school for snowboard school. If your kid wants to snowboard but you’re not sure about it, let them! Not only is it way cooler but for the same price as ski school, snowboard school has three times less kids per group. You might end up in a group of 10 in ski school with varying abilities, especially in the morning sessions, but in a snowboard school group there might be about 3-4 kids, more time with the instructor so you’ll get more progression for the same mullah!

Substitute morning ski school for afternoon ski school. Same amount of time on snow, although the AM session seems longer but the kids go in for lunch so actual skiing time, yes, the same. The best part about this is half the kids only do a morning session meaning less kids in the arvo group – still enough to make friends but not too many that the instructor can’t even remember your child’s name let alone figure out their skiing ability and issues. The PM session generally won’t include lunch but they’ll survive on pre-ski school jam donuts right?! But seriously this also means that you parents can knock off skiing at lunchtime and have a long, merry lunch or maybe a trip to a day spa for a post skiing massage and hot tub. Just don’t forget you’ll have to still be capable of walking over to pick them up at the end of the day.

Substitute parents for grandparents and leave the kids at home, they’ll be right.