During our holiday to Lapland, we went skiing for the first time as a family with Inghams. Many people were surprised when we told them that you can ski in Lapland, but at Levi the largest ski resort in Finland its the perfect location for skiers of all abilities.
That’s what great about Lapland there is something for everyone – from meeting Santa Claus, the Northern Lights and Husky Dog rides you can also ski on some of the least crowded and the best covered snow slopes in Europe.
The closest we had ever been to a ski holiday before was visiting the snow parks at Ski Dubai and the Chill Factore in Manchester. My husband and the girls had never put on skis before and it has been over 20 years since I had last skied at Hillend, a dry ski slope in Edinburgh.
We have always thought about taking the girls (Chloe 9 and Holly 6) skiing and visiting Levi was the perfect opportunity for our first ski experience.
The town of Levi and its surrounding slopes is one of the most picturesque places to learn how to ski. As this was our first time skiing, we decided to book a private lesson through Inghams at the Levi Ski School. A ski taster package for beginners starts from £69pp including ski tuition, ski and boot hire.
Our suite at our hotel the Levi Spa Hotel (you can read our review here) looked toward the pistes and it was just a five minute walk to the ski slopes so it was in a great location. We arrived early at zero point ski rental located next to the front pistes so we could collect our ski equipment with plenty of time before the lesson started.
As we are new to skiing we were impressed with the online system of entering your name, height and weight which generated a print out for your own personalised ski equipment list. When we handed this over to the helpful staff at Zero Point we collected our skis, boots and equipment needed for our first taste of skiing. Walking in ski boots for the first time is certainly an experience, you feel like you are walking like a robot!
Once we were all kitted out with our ski boots, helmet, skis and poles we excitedly made our way onto the nursery slopes where we were met our instructors Heidi and Max from the Levi Ski School for our private ski lesson.
Our instructors went through the basics from the very beginning. First with how to put your skis on, how to move around the snow on one ski on flat ground followed by using both skis – it was definitely a good workout.
We were even shown how to fall correctly, which in my husband’s case was needed as it took him a little longer than the girls to get to grips with skiing, but being able to fall correctly onto your side was really important.
Next we took to the small nursery slope which thankfully was just a short decline. Here we were taught some simple manoeuvres including the snow plough (like forming an A with your skis), turns and stops. After some practice and very patient instructors, we were all able to stand, stop and turn.
To get to the top of our first proper mini slope, we took the “magic carpet” which was a covered travellator that took us to the top of the slope.
Heidi the girls instructor was brilliant with them. Each time they skied down the slope, they got better and more confident with each run. It was amazing to see how quickly the girls picked up the basics of how to ski, and watching them snow plough and turn as they came down the slope brought tears of pride to our eyes.
What was great with having the one-to-one instruction was that the instructors offered us detailed feedback each time on our individual technique as we came down the slope.
At the end of our lesson we spent the rest of the day practicing our new ski skills on the slopes of Levi, and it was one of the best activities we have enjoyed as a family.
Exhausted but with a strong sense of accomplishment we took the gondola and enjoyed apres-ski at the Hotel Levi Panorama , with breathtaking views of the town and the ski slopes below.
I never thought I would say this, but we loved our first family ski experience at Levi Lapland, so much so that we are already thinking about booking a ski holiday for our next holiday.
Video – Learning to ski with Levi Ski School
Inghams offers three and four night Santa Breaks departing in November and December with prices starting from £889 per person staying at the 4* Levitunturi in Levi on a half-board basis including a private meeting with Santa, dinner with Santa, thermal suits and boots, return flights from Gatwick to Kittila and resort transfers. For more information and online bookings, visit http://www.inghams.co.uk/lapland
This is great, thank you for all your info. We are travelling to Lapland next month and staying at the hotel Panorama! I’m hoping to book a ski lesson independently (as we are doing a Tui Package) my daughters are similar ages to yours so I hope they enjoy it as much as you and your family did. ☺️