View from the top in Swedish ski resort Åre. Photo: Jonas Kullman/Skistar

Downhill, cross-country, heliskiing; you can do it all in Sweden. From the resort of Åre (voted one of the ten best in the world by travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller in 2009), to the small hill and two lifts that is Hammarbybacken near Stockholm city center, there is a ski experience to suit everyone. For those so inclined, you can even ski on midsummer day, in the off-piste paradise of Riksgränsen, the world’s northernmost ski area.

Åre’s top ranking aside, it would be exaggeration to say that Sweden’s skiing can rival the best on offer in the Alps or North America. But there is one area where it definitely does excel. In a country famed for its advanced welfare model, where equality and the family are the focus, Sweden is one of the best countries in the world to take a family ski trip.

All inclusive

Of course, there is no shortage of ski resorts elsewhere in the world where a typical day consists of dropping your child off at the kids’ club in the morning (where they are entertained, fed and taught to ski) and picking them up at the end of the day when you get to spend some quality time with them. That is if you don’t want to use the evening babysitting service, too.

In Sweden the emphasis is firmly on the family as a unit. As in much of Swedish life, kids come first and families do things together. And that includes zipping down the piste. Having said that, Swedes do recognize that kids need to learn to ski, and that, perhaps more importantly, parents rarely have the wherewithal or the patience to do it themselves.

Back to school

Learning to ski in Sälen. Photo: Skistar Sälen

The town of Sälen in west central Sweden has carved out a niche for itself as a resort catering to families with children. With 50,000 pupils annually, their ski school is one of the biggest in the world and they have Europe’s largest children’s ski area. The instructors here undergo a rigorous recruitment and training program which leaves them better equipped to relate to and inspire kids than most parents could ever hope to be. What stands out though is that children who attend the ski school do so for an average of just 90 minutes per day. The rest of the time, it’s down to the parents.

You will be hard pushed to find a resort that has more kids out on the slopes than Sälen, whether on the nursery slopes, main pistes, off in the woods or in the fun-parks, dodging wooden trolls. And the activities don’t stop just because the skiing does. Along with the weekly sled “world championships,” ski shows, free concerts, scooter safaris, horse-drawn sleigh rides and kid friendly restaurants, there’s an enormous indoor entertainment complex with adventure pool, cinema, bowling, games room and more.

Linda Morrel, head of sales and marketing for Sälen resort, sums it up neatly: “Everything we do here, all the activities, the events, any new concepts, is done with the needs of children and the family at the fore.”

Practically perfect

The practical details are taken care of, too. Safety is excellent at all major Swedish ski resorts, with modern, well-maintained lifts, clearly marked and signed slopes and excellent on-site medical facilities. Most have accommodation that is well integrated with the lift system (the holy grail of ski-in-ski-out) so kids don’t have to walk too far in their ski gear.

And with features such as accident insurance included in the price of ski school and free lift passes to under-eights with helmets, parents needn’t worry too much about their bundles of joy. In fact, for most parents, the only worry is how to cover up the humiliation when passed at speed by their own seven-year-old.

Rob Hincks

Rob Hincks is a British born travel and food journalist based in Stockholm.  He has spent the last four years allowing the ski instructors of Sälen to nurture his daughters’ talents on the slopes while he nurses bowls of goulash soup and glasses of gluwein.