Ski-schools in the Czech mountains
photo: (czechtourism.cz)
There are more than 250 ski resorts in the Czech Republic, each of them offering instructors who are ready to teach visitors to ski, snowboard or cross-country ski, regardless of their age and previous skill. They are capable of teaching true beginners as well. As a matter of course in the last few years, the instructors can speak foreign languages and they are able to teach novice sportspeople arriving from other countries.
Large resorts, such as
Špindlerův Mlýn,
Pec pod Sněžkou or
Klínovec, offer English and German speaking instructors, and also instructors who able to speak Dutch. Anyway, you can find well-experienced instructors capable of speaking foreign languages in smaller resorts as well.
For example, in Kouty nad Desnou and Loučná nad Desnou
(map), you can find perfect local instructors who can teach you even if you do not speak any Czech.
Prices for private lessons vary according to the size and the facilities in the resort, and according to the age of the client. For example, the prices for skiing lessons for little children begin at CZK 300 per hour.
You can recognise a quality instructor or school by a certificate awarded by the associations that train winter sports instructors. In the Czech Republic, there are e.g. the
Association of Professional Ski Instructors CR or the Czech Snowboard Association.
You should also pay attention to the facilities in the resort, especially at the premises used by the ski school. This is especially connected with little children who should not learn their first “slips” on common ground. A good ski school should teach children separately, not in the middle of skiing slopes full of other skiers, and they should use teaching equipment designed for children: poles with pictures, little mushrooms, go-under gates, terrain hurdles, etc. Also, there should be a children’s ski-lift and a carpet lift for the smallest ones so that they do not have to climb up the hill. At present, the most modern children’s ski school is the X9 Foxpark Lipánek X9. The ski resort offers a ski and snowboard school and an 11 km-long ice-skating track on the reservoir
Lipno (map).