More ski resorts open

After yet another weekend of snow, more European glacier ski resorts have opened now. This excellent start to the season means that popular resorts such as Tignes are starting to build a healthy base of snow and are skiable now.

Even better, next week looks like most of the Alps will see some heavy snow making it a promising start to the season.

So fingers crossed for weeks to come!

November offer at Little Skiers....

FREE NIKWAX WITH EVERY JACKET, PANTS OR SKI SET

We want your fab new ski gear to remain in pristine condition, hopefully lasting your children as their school winter coat as well as their ski holiday jacket.

If your kids are anything like mine then you will be regularly washing their ski jackets. My little boy regularly comes home with his red trespass ski jacket (as modelled on our site!) caked in mud as apparently you must skid when playing football.

His jacket's waterproofness is maintained by Nikwax, who are renowned for their technical washes and waterproofing agents. Never ever wash ski jackets in detergents as they strip the waterproof layer, allowing water to soak in. Every 3 washes I then follow the wash with a nixwax waterproofing in-wash and his jacket is as good as when he first wore it last winter.

So with every purchase of a child's ski jacket, ski pants or ski set we will send you a full sized Nikwax wash to try and you will never risk your clothes with anything else!

www.littleskiers.co.uk

its snowing in the Alps!

October has been a great start to the ski season. Many ski resorts in the Alps have opened already thanks to heavy snow falls. Austria took the lead, with an incredible snowfall of 1.8m in the Tux glacier area, closely followed by the Molltal glacier with 1.4m. Other ski areas getting fresh snow include Kaprun, Cervinia, Tignes, Zermatt & Saas Fee.

Lets hope it continues...

Metro Ski & Snowboard Show - got your tickets??

We are looking forward to next weeks show, starting wed 21st Oct until the 25th oct.

Its a fantastic way to kick-off the skiing season - our top of the list attractions are:

• 50ft kicker - can't wait to see the tricks & stunts by top UK & international skiers & boarders - and make me feel inadequate!
• following that, we will be visiting Warren Smith Ski Academy to have a 30 minute assessment on my skiing and hopefully how to to improve it

So if you haven't got your ticket yet, treat yourself at www.metrosnow.co.uk

Full details of all the attractions are on the site

Fantastic offer on Barts hats - this weekend only!!!

Buy a Barts hat & receive a fleece neck warmer for free...

To celebrate our fab new range of Barts hats & accessories, for this weekend only, with every Barts hat you buy, you will receive a free fleece neck warmer worth £5.99!

Barts is renowned throughout the european skiing world for their stylish hats and accessories. Soft, thick chunky knits, cute designs or trendy beanies, it is a crime to save these hats for the ski holiday!

So, for this weekend only, starting today & ending midnight Sunday, all Barts hats purchased (including adult hats) will receive a complementary fleece neck warmer in either black, red, off white or pink which are currently selling on line for £5.99*

*while stocks last. Should stocks sell out over the weekend we will endeavour to secure new stock in within a week. Please state in the comments box when at checkout, which colour neck warmer you would prefer.

PLEASE VOTE FOR LITTLE SKIERS....

PLEASE VISIT www.thegoodwebguide.co.uk and complete the simple feedback form on what you think of our website, Little Skiers - please be nice!

voting ends tomorrow...

Booking with a travel agent?

Fellow parent & Little Skiers customer, Geoff Caddick, has some interesting thoughts on booking your ski trip independently.....

Why not do an exercise to comapre what you can do yourself versus what the travel agents and ski comapnies offer? The hard works is up front in researching putting together a package but this can be fun.

The rationale: If you hate sitting on coaches that often linger at airports waiting for several groups to arrive on different flights and then throw your children around on mountain roads when they do set out, often with dire alimentary consequences .... and .... the flights being offered are leaving UK at ungodly hours....... and you arrive at a resort where half of France is in residence for a with with prices set to match the pockets of rich Russian oil tycoons.... then you might want to look at ski trains or even fly drive via airports with scheduled flights. You could be surprised by how good a deal you can get on car hire and airline tickets. Plus there are some real little hotel gems out there. I own up to having limied experience of catered chalets as they seem to focus primarily on afternoon cake baking versus real food provision!

Admittedly it helps if you speak a little of one or two languages but European tourist offices are very helpful and usually cater for UK mon-glots. Plus there are some great ski resorts guides available from your local book shops and the tour operators web sites are often useful if read carefully and sceptically, especially when they say that the resort caters for all abilities. Always review the piste maps carefully!

I have booked ski holidays this way for the last few years and really love working to a more relaxed and family specific agenda. This is especially useful - if like me - you have 4 children and on-line booking tools don't cater well in terms of detailing hotel family rooms.

The other big plus is you can target smaller resorts with less ski traffic and more local charm if you wish.

Again, this is something I do based on ski guides and mini "reccies" of different areas when at a neighbouring resort.

In summary, I would say that this DIY strategy is worth exploring if you have the time and drive and you are willing to go beyond the single single booking transaction that gets you into an all found package in the mainstream resorts.

Good Luck!