Are Snow Domes worth the money

kakdulac

My family and I are going to Switzerland skiing. My brother has not skiied before and wants to have a few lessons before we leave. I have seen Snow Domes on the net and wondered if they are good and value for money?

stef240377

Are you close to any of the Snowdomes that are in the UK? If not then surely it would not be cost effective to be travelling somewhere to have lessons on top of the cost of the holiday as most of the resorts now offer packages to teach people to ski anyway.

My local snowdome has offers on atm where you buy one hour and get the next free adults is £13 kids £10. I know they also offer pakcages too.
http://www.snowdome.co.uk/whats-new/special-offers/

Others offers also available.

gillbee

I think it depends on what your brother wants to get out of his holiday & the level everyone else who will be with you.

For value I would say that a week of group lessons in the resort would be better value than learning in the snow dome. It also gives the opportunity for other members of your party to do more challenging runs while your brother is in the ski school. Unless you are all at a beginner level then you may find you feel held back spending the whole day with a learner which I'm sure your brother would pick up on. We snowboard with friends that are a level or so below us and find if they take morning lessons then we can do our own thing and in the afternoon we are happier to take it easy and help them learn.

That said, if he can afford the lessons then it will allow him to get more out of his holiday. Have you considered trying lessons on a dry slope? These tend to work out cheaper than the domes. I've never done dry slopes before but from what I hear, it's a little harder than snow which forces good technique.

Hope this helps.

davetrousers

Providing you live within a viable distance of one of the snow domes, then I would say yes it is a good idea.

But, I would also say it is worth having 'lessons' whilst away as your instructor will also act as a guide and take you on different pistes, whilst offereing guidance etc.

Little_Otter

Hi
I agree will Gillbee - when I booked my first skiing holiday I was a complete beginer (actually I won my first skiing holiday)
Myself and OH booked a set of lessons at our lcoal snowdome (Chillfactore - Manchester) it is very local to us fortunately, but still cost £150 for 3 1hour 50 minute lessons over 3 weeks - 1 a week.
My OH picked it up like a duck to water, I didnt on the other hand - so when it got to our hol - (we had lessons included in the holiday), he was at a more progressed level than me and we ended up in seperate groups.
I think that he may benefit from a short 'taster' lesson, just to show him the absolute basics, stop/start - but the best lessons are to be had when he's there, its better conditions, not boring, and real runs (not just up/down 1 slope)

MrsTinks

I used to teach skiing when I lived in Norway and we live near a Dome - I would say there is little comparison between skiing in a dome and on a real slope... the "snow" is really crushed ice and often underneath it is PURE ice which not only hurts but is also incredibly difficult to learn on...
The only benefit I can see is that he would start exercising the right muscles earlier (so only works if he's doing in the last week or three in the run up to the holiday!) and therefor won't suffer as much from the muscle ache and soreness as he might normally when you get there.

Get a good instructor out there and he'll be zooming round in no time So he might have 2 or 3 mornings of lessons but in the afternoon he can ski with the rest of you and you'd still have a fair few days with you all together