Looking for free on-the-mountain guiding and coaching? Look no further!
We're the only ski holiday company that offers free, professional ski guiding in Andorra, France and Italy throughout the season with fully qualified ski and snowboard instructors.
This isn't ski or board school, but your Mountain Experts are fully qualified ski and snowboard instructors local to your resort. There isn't much they don't know about the area, so you're in good hands.
Anyone over 12 years of age and a good blue or red run skier or snowboarder, our Mountain Experts will guide you around the slopes, whilst making you a more confident skier or snowboarder at the same time. All children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian when taking part in these sessions.
Each Mountain Expert session lasts around 2 hours, and we guarantee each guest a minimum of 2 Mountain Expert sessions per week. You may be able to book more throughout the week, depending on availability.
We aim to run at least 1 session a day for Mountain Collection hotel guests, and 2 or 3 a week for chalet hotel guests. Sessions can be run in the mornings or afternoons, so head to the Snow Brief on your first evening/morning in the resort and sign up for the sessions you fancy.
Guiding - Winter legs
As this may be your first time on snow in a year (or more), this is a great chance to warm those winter legs back up with a gentle introduction to the ski area at the start of the week.
Your Mountain Expert will show you the best runs and hot chocolate stops on the mountain, as well as going through the basics like your posture, body rotation and pressure on your edges - all whilst keeping things fun.
Guiding - Let 'em run
These guiding sessions are really fun. They're a chance to let your skis or board run and explore more of the area.
Your Mountain Experts worry less about the technique (unless you have any questions of course), and focus more on covering some miles.
Coaching - Drills & Skills
As the name suggests, these are coaching sessions where you can really focus on your technique and getting things right. You’ll head off to a quiet spot where your Mountain Expert will give you individual feedback on how to improve your skiing or snowboarding.
You can then practice, watch other guests and end the session with more confidence than you started with.
Neilson Mountain Collection
Our Mountain Collection is more than just a range of leading accommodation in top European ski resorts, exclusive to Neilson guests. Our hotels and chalet hotels are also the perfect places to relax and recharge after a long day on the slopes.
Here, you’ll also be able to arrange your free ski guiding and coaching service with our Mountain Experts - fully qualified ski and snowboard instructors, local to your resort.
Wherever you stay, you'll have access to the best parts of the mountain. Our team will be there to give you a warm welcome and offer expert advice, both on and off the slopes.
Take a look a what snowsports journalists think about our Mountain Experts service...
“I was not anticipating that the Mountain Expert sessions would change my opinion of ski schools, lead to riding a mountain I’d always dreamt about and having one of my favourite days on snow.” Chris Madigan – The Telegraph
“I had come to explore a new area, not expecting my skiing to improve. I left feeling my technique was far better.” Colin Nicholson – Ski & Board
Neilson Chalet Hotel Edelweiss - Mr Andrew Thomson
23 February 2022
Very smooth journey and connection. Staff very friendly and helpful. Mountain Experts a great service.
Neilson Hotel Del Clos - Mr Nicholas Wells
15 January 2022
We have travelled with Neilson many times. They always have such fantastic staff, both in resort and over the phone/email back home. This time we really felt they excelled even more than usual. Polite...
We have travelled with Neilson many times. They always have such fantastic staff, both in resort and over the phone/email back home. This time we really felt they excelled even more than usual. Polite and reassuring pre-departure communication was excellent and the hotel team were so friendly and seemed genuinely pleased to see us.
We are a family of 4 with 2 young children and my wife who doesn't ski. The most important things for us are the childcare and the social group ski guiding with the Neilson Mountain Experts, as this immediately gives me people to ski with. The nannies were brilliant with our boys. Lottie who was drafted in to help out for the week was still very friendly and engaging with our boys in her own time on the flight home. Little touches like this mean a lot.
The ski guiding was brilliant. Sam and Amelia were very keen to take on feedback to make this as good as possible and Chris the local instructor was great. The whole team went out of their way to help sort out our son's ski lessons, which they didn't need to do as we had booked them independently.
All of the hotel staff were very friendly, but James in particular was always happy to have a chat and check we were having a good time despite him being extremely busy. They all did such a great job for what must have been a challenging first week.
