A First Family Ski Holiday in Trysil

After an easy flight of just under two hours we landed to a sunny and super-efficient Oslo. The airport terminal was reminiscent of a trip through Ikea. Clean, crisp design with plenty of Scandinavia flair. A friendly immigration officer who spoke impeccable English welcomed us to Norway and then we set on our way to collect our bags. From disembarking the plane to collecting our baggage and walking through to customs took just 35 minutes. Not bad with a toddler, 9 month old, mum, dad and the mother-in-law in tow too.

The theme of efficiency and ease of travel as a family flowed throughout our journey with an equally easy journey on to Trysil, our destination for the next seven nights. We were all rather taken with the superb child seat set-up they had on board the coach.

After a beautiful scenic journey passing Mjørsa - the largest freshwater lake in Norway - and miles of pine forests we arrived in Trysil. Our home for the week, the Radisson Blu Mountain Resort & Residences is a modern ski-in ski-out hotel set in the Fageråsen area of Trysil. We’d opted for a two bedroom apartment which gave us a double bedroom, bunk bedroom and a sizeable kitchen and living area. The set-up worked a treat, allowing us to put both girls to bed and have the living area and kitchen to relax in the evening without fear of disturbing them.

We started day two with some trepidation. Axel would be Ellen's instructor for the week and Ellen's earlier statement, "I don't like boys", had made us somewhat nervous. We thought a nice Norwegian lady would have fitted the bill rather better.

We had also that morning experienced what could be best described as a few “threenager” moments with Ellen refusing to wear her ski boots or helmet. We countered this with a rather cunning ruse - ski rental kindly swapped our initial pair of ski boots and helmet to a shiny red pair, just like Valle the snowman mascot.

Valle had already proved to be a winner with his cheeky and playful demeanour and huggable exterior. Fortunately our worries didn't last long. Axel the ski instructor was a hit, and just like Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses he rocked. He had her eating out of the palm of his hand. Well actually, he had her feeding the snow characters in the dedicated kids area from the palm of her hand.

So what made this trip so special and work for the family? It was all about the clever little touches that they do so naturally in Norway. It started with the child seats on the bus: such a simple idea and so well executed. The children's penguin duvet & pillow in the apartment. A bag with goodies from Valle on arrival: activities book, multipurpose neck warmer / scarf that can be worn in 13 ways. Valle skis and the picture of him wearing all the gear: helmet, goggles, boots & skis really helped encourage our daughter.

And of course we had to build a snowman named Olaf accompanied by Ellen singing 'Let it Go' from Frozen.

• Sit on the left side of the bus going and the right side coming back for the best views of Mjørsa. Also, if your children are into diggers & tractors there are plenty to spot en route!
• Go sledging. It gets children used to sliding on the snow, the motion, noise and feeling. Ski rental often have a few available that you can either borrow or rent.
• Ski boots. If you're struggling to get them used to the boots, try taking the inner liner out and get them playing around indoors in just these.
• If you’re staying at the Radisson Blu Mountain Resort & Residences it has a wonderful on-site bakery: fresh bread, local honey, butter and fantastic pizzas.
• Go along to Valle's activities during the week, they’re all free and great fun. There’s a disco, treasure hunt, you can ski with Valle, and we had a fair few free hot chocolates and even a hot dog courtesy of Valle and his friends. The highlight for Ellen though was actually a free snowmobile ride, again courtesy of Valle and his friends.
• Oslo Airport. Going home follow the “Family Track” signs. You get a dedicated family security check which was so much easier than the regular security channels. There’s a handy car seat that you can strap any infants into whilst you await your belongings to come through the scanner and get yourselves re-organised. There are prams too that you can borrow and once through security look out for the mini-aircraft climbing frame with slide out of the tail that proved to be a hit with our toddler.
• Trysil has a long snow season (guaranteed December-April) and is perfect for a ski break even if Easter falls late in the season like 2017. We stayed 16-23 April and had great snow conditions.