Skiing with kids at Mont-Tremblant: what worked, what didn't

Why we went and what we were expecting

My daughter was nine and my nephew was six when we took them to Mont-Tremblant for a week in January 2020. Neither had been skiing before. My sister and I had both skied in the Alps as children, so we knew vaguely what we were signing up for — the lessons, the crying, the moments of breakthrough joy, the expensive hot chocolate. What we didn’t know was how Tremblant specifically would handle families, and the answer is: better than we expected, with some caveats.

The resort is about 130 kilometres north of Montréal, roughly an hour and forty-five minutes in reasonable traffic. We drove up on a Saturday, which was a mistake — the road through the Laurentides is beautiful but heavily trafficked on winter weekends when every Montréaler with a ski pass is making the same trip. We spent two and a half hours in the car. On subsequent days we moved at 8am, which was fine.

We had rented a two-bedroom condo through the resort’s own rental programme — about 280 CAD a night in a unit in the pedestrian village, ski-in/ski-out access. This is not cheap, but with two adults and two children the alternative of two hotel rooms would have been similar money with considerably less space. The condo had a full kitchen, which matters enormously with kids: breakfast made in-house rather than sitting in a restaurant at 7:30am with two impatient children saved time and money every morning.

The ski school, honestly assessed

Both children went into the resort’s ski school — specifically the Kidz Club programme, which takes children from age three to twelve and divides them by ability level. My daughter, at nine, was placed in a group that progressed faster. My nephew, at six, was in a group with five other six-year-olds whose collective attention span was measurable in minutes.

The instructors were patient. I want to say this clearly because I was watching from the observation area on the first morning with the particular anxiety of someone who is paying for something they can’t control. The instructors were genuinely good with children — warm, funny, firm without being harsh, and bilingual in a way that the children accepted without question. By day two, both kids were turning with some degree of intentionality. By day four, my daughter was on the blue runs and clearly experiencing the thing that skiers call “getting it.”

My nephew had one extended meltdown on day three — afternoon lesson, tiredness was a factor, his boots were slightly too tight (we adjusted this), and he declared that skiing was stupid and that he wanted to go home. This lasted about forty-five minutes and resolved itself when his instructor produced a biscuit. On day five he was doing small jumps off the side of the trail and demanding to go faster. I’m not sure what the lesson is there except that six-year-olds are not predictable and the boots need to fit.

The Family Zone and what it’s for

Tremblant has a designated Family Zone, which is a section of the mountain specifically designed for beginners and young children — wide, gentle, low-traffic, with clear sight lines so parents can watch from the base. This is where the Kidz Club lessons happen in the morning, and where most families with young children congregate. The queues here are shorter than on the main lifts, which matters when you have a child who has just figured out how to put on skis and needs twenty minutes to get on a chair lift.

The Village Scandinave is adjacent to the family area and has a good café with hot chocolate, which we visited every afternoon. I am mentioning the hot chocolate specifically because it cost 6 CAD each and was very good and the children talked about it at dinner every night.

What the adults did while the children were in school

From 9am to noon and again from 1pm to 4pm, while both children were in ski school, we were free. This was wonderful. I have been to Tremblant before without children and found it a good but not exceptional mountain — 96 runs, decent vertical at 645 metres, but not Alpine scale. With children, it felt like a completely different kind of trip, and the morning school hours became something to look forward to.

The best runs for intermediate skiers are on the north side — Edge, Flying Mile, Beauchemin — with good pitch and usually better snow than the south-facing runs, which can get icy in the afternoon when the sun has had at it. We avoided the south side after noon.

The ski patrol was visible and competent. I saw one collision on a blue run that they reached in under two minutes.

Where we ate

With children, dining out for every meal is both expensive and logistically challenging. We cooked breakfast every morning in the condo. Lunch on the mountain we did at La Forge, which is a midmountain cafeteria with a view and serves adequate mountain food — soups, sandwiches, poutine that was fine — at cafeteria prices (about 15-20 CAD per child including a drink). Dinner we alternated between eating in and going out.

The best dinner we had was at Antipasto on the pedestrian village — an Italian restaurant that sounds wrong for Québec but is genuinely good and, crucially, has a children’s menu and high chairs and does not make you feel unwelcome for arriving with six-year-olds. We ate there three times.

Le Cheval de Jade in the village also serves proper Québécois food — duck, game, maple — at dinner, which we did once as a treat without the children (my sister watched both kids). That meal was excellent and I would go back.

We did not stay at the Fairmont Tremblant, which is the large hotel on the hill. I looked at the prices and found them beyond what we wanted to spend. Friends who have stayed there say the rooms are good and the breakfast buffet is convenient for families. It is genuinely ski-in/ski-out. If budget is not the constraint, it is a reasonable choice.

What worked and what didn’t: the summary

Worked: two-bedroom condo rental, morning ski school, Family Zone, afternoon hot chocolate, Antipasto restaurant, building in a rest day mid-week (day four, no skiing, we explored the village and the Nordic spa separately from the children, who watched films in the condo).

Didn’t work: arriving on Saturday, the afternoon lessons for the six-year-old (he was too tired after morning lessons and a lunch, and we switched to morning-only on day three, which helped enormously), and our assumption that children would sleep past 6:30am when they’re excited about snow. They won’t.

The family guide to Mont-Tremblant has the logistical details — booking the Kidz Club, where to rent equipment, what to pack for children in -20°C. The Mont-Tremblant destination page covers the resort more broadly.

One last thing: if the children are old enough (roughly six and up, independently mobile), the snow tubing hill at the resort is a major hit and requires zero skiing ability. My nephew spent an entire afternoon there and described it, accurately, as “the best thing in the world.”