Ski School in Switzerland: What to Expect

Every ski resort in Switzerland offers ski lessons for all ages and abilities, with highly trained instructors that usually speak English. I was a little confused when signing up my kids for ski school, not understanding the Swiss culture or German at first. To help you be more prepared, here is a explanation of how ski school works in Switzerland and tips for success (your experience may vary!).

See also 10 Must Haves for Kids Ski Clothing

Schweizer Skischule – Official Swiss Ski School organization

This official organization runs over 170 ski schools across Switzerland. Their website is in English explaining their services. Many ski resorts are affiliated with this organization and use their ranking system to organize their classes, shown on the chart below.

If your kids are taking a week long course, they will receive a little booklet where you can track their progress through the Swiss ski school system. After completing the course and mastering the required skills, kids get a stamp in the book and often medal with the corresponding logo. Next ski season, bring this booklet to ski school to get the next stamp in the series.

When registering for a class, they will often ask for your level, which are described here and demonstrated in their YouTube videos. Some ski schools are more flexible than others regarding moving to a different class if your ski level doesn’t match. Best to talk to both the administration and your specific teacher.

What do Swiss ski schools offer

Every Swiss ski resort offers ski school, with highly trained ski instructors and certified through the official Swiss ski school system. Most resorts offer group and private lessons. It is best to call ahead to see what is available and reserve a spot. Do not expect to just show up and find an available class or instructor.

Group ski lessons during school holidays

Group lessons are typically only offered during Christmas break and the Skiferien school holidays, which occur between the last week of January and the first week of March. During this time, most resorts offer week-long group lessons, starting on Sunday or Monday and running for five to six days.

In most cases, ski lessons run daily from 10:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 15:00. Some provide lunch with child care for an extra fee. At some ski schools, you can book just morning or afternoon classes, instead of the full day. In any case, ski lessons should be booked well ahead of your ski trip as they can sell out.

Group ski lessons on weekends

At some resorts, they will hold small group lessons (4-5 participants) on the weekend, if they have enough demand. But there is no guarantee they will have the class unless the minimum number of participants show up. In any case, contact the ski school beforehand to get the exact schedule and ask if you need to book beforehand. Alternatively, you can create your own mini groups for private lessons and split the cost.

Private ski lessons

Most resorts offer private lessons both on weekdays and weekends. Private lessons are priced per student per hour and you typically for 1 or 2 hours. If you have more than one participant, the price per person goes down slightly. It’s best to pre-book these lessons by calling ahead and talking to the ski school directly. Some resorts allow you to book ski lessons on their website.

What does ski school cost in Switzerland?

For children’s group lessons, expect to pay about CHF 35-55 for half day (2-3 hrs), CHF 60 – 90 for full day (4-5hrs). For private lessons, expect to pay about CHF 90-100/hr for one person. Usually there is a small fee to add on additional people, decreasing the per person price. Larger, more expensive ski resorts tend to a bit charge more than smaller resorts, but not always.

In most cases, lift passes and ski equipment are not included in the cost of ski school. You must pay for these separately. Some ski schools arrange a discount on lift passes for students. If not, consider purchasing a multi-day lift pass, which will be cheaper than purchasing a ticket each day. 

What language is spoken at Swiss ski school?

At most mid-sized and large ski resorts, ski instructors usually speak English in addition to German, French, and/or Italian (and usually more languages). Group lessons are typically run in the local language (German or French), depending where you are in Switzerland. But instructors are usually good about speaking to individual children in their mother tongue as needed. For private lessons, request an instructor in your preferred language.

English ski lessons with International Ski Club of Zürich

If you want group lessons held in English, we suggest the group ski lessons organized by the International Ski Club of Zürich at Flumserberg, for both kids and adults. The classes are held in English, though most instructors also speak a variety of languages including German, French, Spanish and Italian.

These lessons are held on four consecutive Saturdays or Sundays in January. We like this format because the kids refresh their skills before the ski holidays, when we like to ski as a family. The lessons go from 10:00 to 15:00, with one hour break for lunch with their class. You need to provide your child with cash for lunch, which is not covered by their ski school fee.

You must sign up for these in late November as they fill up quickly. The current fee is CHF 230/children and CHF 250/adults. This does not include the lift pass, which you must purchased separately before each class. But they provide vouchers for discounted ski passes, which can be used when purchasing the tickets. More info on their website.

Ski facilities for beginners

Most resorts have beginner practice areas, with magic carpets and short hills with drag lifts. Ski schools start in these areas, but you can also use these areas on your own. Some of these beginner areas have a discounted price or use point tickets (each ride up the lift deducts points from your pre-paid ticket). Some resorts have “snow gardens” play areas for kids aged 3-6. More about this below.

Practice hills with magic carpets

Most resorts have a beginner practice area separate from the main ski hills. This may include magic carpets (moving sidewalk that brings you up the hill) and some drag lifts.

It’s very important to pick a place with a good practice area. If it’s too steep or too flat or too difficult to use the drag lifts, you and the kids will quickly get frustrated and everyone will want to quit. Below is the beginner area at Flumserberg, with magic carpets and T-bars, which is our favorite place for beginners.

For the drag lifts, there is usually a discounted beginner pass that only covers those lifts. It’s also common to have a point pass, where you pre-pay a certain number of points on your pass and points are deducted each time you use the pass. This is great when skiing with young children that may only ski for an hour or two. Sometimes the magic carpets are free to use.

When you look on the ski map, the beginner area is often shown as a shaded-in area and special icons for the snow garden (skier under arch) and magic carpet (skier standing on something) and tow rope (skier holding rope).

Snow gardens for smaller children

Many resorts provide a supervised “snow garden” ski experience for children aged 3 to 6. A snow garden is usually an enclosed ski school area with a magic carpet and short gradual slope for absolute beginners, usually aged 3-6 years old.

A snow garden is a good place for very young kids to start. The instructors focus on teaching them how to stand and walk with skis and do very basic maneuvers, like ski in a straight line for a few feet without falling over. After a week in the Flumserberg snow garden, my 4 year old was ready to try the slightly bigger slopes with a t-bar.

However, not all snow gardens are equal and certainly don’t expect that a week at a snow garden will turn a screaming 3 year old into a downhill racer in 2 short hours. I really like the Flumserberg snow garden, but I’ve seen other snow gardens that seem rather useless. Some are completely flat, so the kids can’t actually ski down anything so they just spend their time walking around on skis.

Others don’t have a magic carpet, so kids have to walk back up the slope each time – very exhausting (I’m looking at you Ibergeregg). Others only have tow ropes, that difficult for anyone, let alone a frustrated 5 year old. Other beginning areas are sloped to one side, are too steep, or aren’t enclosed so little beginners who can’t stop have to be constantly rescued (I’m looking at you Sattel Hoch Stückli). So be picky. Flumserberg has the best snow garden I’ve seen so far.

Fun parks for older children

For older children, your ski or snowboard instructor will likely take them to the fun parks, with a variety of obstacles and jumps. I love this because the instructors have lots of experience with fun parks and can help kids learn how to manage these areas safely. I’m useless in a fun park, so better for them to go with their class.

Supervision & Safety

In my experience, ski school in Switzerland is often loosely supervised. I’ve only had positive experiences at Swiss ski schools, but I’ve heard about and seen some strange things at Swiss ski schools (like a sick kid being left alone at the restaurant while the class continued for the afternoon, parents not notified).

When I did drop-in classes at Flumserberg, they didn’t ask for any contact information so no one knows that your child is with a particular class. So you should always put your contact information in your child’s jacket pocket and tell your child what to do if they get separated from their group (i.e. find a staff member and show them the contact card so they can call the parent’s cell phone). If your kid is old enough to work a cell phone, it would be good to keep one in their pocket.

When taking chair lifts, ski school kids are sent up individually with strangers. I know there’s only one instructor so there’s no other way, but it makes me nervous all the same.

Even in the snow garden, there’s sometimes only one instructor for a big group of 3-5 year olds and as you can imagine, there’s a lot chaos and crying. After watching the chaos for awhile, I felt compelled to help out, picking up kids that had fallen and couldn’t get up, unclogging traffic jams at the end of the magic carpet, rescuing lost gloves, etc. I’m sure the class would have survived without me. Perhaps it’s better to just walk away and hope for the best.

What’s your experience?

This article is based on our experience, so perhaps it was different where you went to ski school. Do you have any other tips to add?