Who we actually book
We Are Not A Gap Year Factory.
Plenty of eighteen year olds book with us and we love having them. So do career breakers in their thirties, parents in their forties taking the winter they never took, and people in their fifties and sixties who have finally got the time. Our oldest clients are often the most committed people in the group.
18 upwards
No upper limit at all
Eighteen is our minimum in Canada, other than in special circumstances. Above that there is no ceiling, and CSIA and CASI have no upper age limit either.
No work visa
Needed for a course
You are not being paid, so there is no work permit and no IEC lottery. For most nationalities it is a short online travel authorisation, done weeks before you fly.
2 to 20 wks
However long you have
A full season is one option, not the only one. Short performance courses and shorter certification blocks suit people with jobs, mortgages and families to get back to.
Advised
Not sold at
We match the resort and programme to your age, goals and budget. A twenty year old wanting a party and a forty five year old wanting quiet mornings do not belong in the same place.
Two routes
The Booking Process Splits In One Place Only.
Whether you will be paid for working. That single question decides whether paperwork sets your timeline or you set it yourself. Everything else, the deposit, the payments, the flights, the kit, is identical.
Courses
No working visa. No age ceiling. You set the pace.
Training, coaching and certification with no paid work, so no work permit is required. Most nationalities travel as a visitor on a short online authorisation. [Confirm your own entry requirements with us before booking, as they change.]
It costs more per week because no wages come back, and in exchange your own skiing or riding goes considerably further. If your goal is to be the best skier you can be by April, this is the honest answer.
Book when it suits you, though rooms and the popular programmes still sell out. Three to nine months ahead is comfortable.
Internships
Paid work, so a working visa sets the pace.
You are employed by a Canadian snow school, so you need an IEC working holiday visa. That runs to thirty for most nationalities, with recognised organisation routes to thirty five.
Wages carry part of the cost, which makes it the cheapest way to spend a whole winter in resort. The trade is that you spend most of it teaching rather than skiing for yourself.
Book January to March. The visa takes longest and the places go fastest.
Over thirty five, or simply not interested in teaching children for a living? Then the visa section of this guide barely applies to you. Skip to the deposit and the timeline, and read the entry requirements paragraph rather than the IEC one.
Start here
Booking Is About Order, Not Speed.
Almost every problem we see comes from doing the right things in the wrong order. People book flights before they know their dates. They wait for paperwork before securing a place. They fall for a resort before checking it suits them.
None of it is complicated. It just has a sequence, and this guide is that sequence. Read it once, then ring us and we will walk through it with you.
01 · What happens after you enquire
Six Steps. No Surprises.
Identical on both routes. Nothing is charged and nothing is committed until step four, and you can walk away at any point before it without owing us anything or hearing from us again.
01
Enquiry and a call
A person on the phone, not a chatbot and not a form response. One minute or one hour, whichever you need. We ask about your ability, your dates, your budget and what you want out of the winter. Bring your questions. Bring your partner or your parents if they are part of the decision.
02
A written quote
Itemised, in writing, with the programme, resort, dates, room type and everything included set out line by line. If something is not on the quote, it is not in the price, and we will tell you what those extras are likely to cost so you can budget properly.
03
Think about it
Go and compare us with everyone else. Build the spreadsheet. Read the bad reviews as well as the good ones. We would rather you took a fortnight and arrived certain than booked on a phone call and had second thoughts in October. Nobody here works on commission.
04
Deposit, and your place is secure
The commitment point. Your deposit secures the resort, the programme and the room type in your name. It is not provisional. Interns should note it is not conditional on a visa arriving either, because some providers only hold a place until your paperwork lands.
05
Paperwork and preparation
Everyone gets the onboarding hub: kit lists, clothing checklist, fitness guide, money guide, travel and accommodation detail. Interns also get the visa guide and support seven days a week through the IEC process. We chase your documents rather than waiting for you to remember them.
06
Final balance, then you fly
Balance due on the schedule set out on your quote. Flight tickets follow close to departure, and someone from the team travels with the group. From there you are into the onboarding guides rather than the booking process.
What that felt like for other people
02 · How we match you to a resort
You Will Be Advised, Not Sold At.
There is no best resort in Canada. There is only the one that fits your age, your goals and your budget. Getting that wrong is the single biggest cause of a disappointing winter, and it is the part of the call we spend longest on.
We ask about
Your age and who you want around you
Some resorts skew young and lively. Others have a broader mix and a quieter evening. If you are forty five and would rather not share a corridor with a nineteen year old on their first winter, say so and we will place you accordingly.
We ask about
Your goals, honestly stated
A qualification to work from, your own skiing transformed, a career change, or one brilliant winter with no plans beyond it. All four are legitimate and all four point at different programmes. Tell us the real one.
We ask about
Your budget, and your room
Town is cheaper than resort. Sharing is cheaper than a single room. Some people want the cheapest possible winter and some want their own bathroom. Neither answer is wrong and both change the shortlist.
And if we are not right for you, we will say so
If what you want is a two week performance camp in Japan, or a resort we do not operate in, or a programme built for a standard well above or below yours, we will tell you and point you at someone who does it properly.
That is not modesty. A client in the wrong programme costs us more in the long run than the booking was worth.
03 · The timeline
Month By Month, For A Winter Start.
Built around a late November departure. On a course you can compress the top half of this considerably. On an internship you cannot, because the visa sets the pace and nobody can speed it up.
Any time
Get on a call. Eighteen months out is not too early and three months out is not always too late. Quotes are free and they do not expire in a way designed to pressure you.
Both routes. Also when to check your passport has enough validity left, because renewals take longer than people expect.
Jan to March
Best availability, both routes. Resort, programme and room type are all wide open. If a single room or one particular resort matters to you, this is your window.
Interns: join the IEC pool the week it opens, usually early January. Free to enter, and being in early materially improves your odds. Do it even if you have not booked with anyone yet.
March to July
Courses: still comfortable. Plenty of choice, and this is when a lot of our career break and older clients book, once the year's work and family diary is clear.
Interns: work through the visa. Invitation, work application, CV, police report, biometrics, then up to twelve weeks of processing. Resorts finish hiring in July and August, and they hire people who already hold a visa.
Money: the £1,000 stage payment falls twenty weeks before departure, which is early July for a late November flight.
Aug to Oct
Preparation. Insurance, kit, boots fitted properly, travel money sorted, and the eight week fitness guide started eight weeks out rather than eight days out. If you chose the single final payment it falls twelve weeks before departure, so early September for a late November flight.
Courses can still be booked here if a place remains. The IEC office usually closes around September or October, so for interns a late application is gambling with a season.
November
You fly. Sun Peaks on the 20th, Big White the 24th, Panorama and Revelstoke the 25th. Tickets release close to departure, not months ahead.
Interns activate the visa at the Canadian border before leaving the airport, then register for a SIN in resort. Course clients walk straight through as visitors.
04 · When to secure your place
What Runs Out, And In What Order.
We are not going to tell you to hurry. We will tell you what disappears first and let you decide how much you care. Some of these matter enormously to some people and not at all to others.
Goes first
Single and twin rooms
There are very few. If sharing with three or more would genuinely spoil your winter, book early. Our clients over thirty ask about this more than anything else on the call, and rightly so.
Goes early
The specialist programmes
All mountain and freeride performance courses, hybrid internships, and snowboard places generally, since fewer resorts take snowboarders. All capped, all popular.
Goes steadily
Your first choice resort
Each resort takes a fixed number. If you have your heart set on one rather than any, that is a reason to move. If you are relaxed about it, you have longer than you think.
And what does not run out
The quality of your training, your trainers, or the qualification. Booking in June does not get you a worse Level 2 than booking in January. We are not going to pretend otherwise to hurry you along, and if we ever do, call us out on it.
05 · Deposits and payment methods
How You Pay Us.
A deposit to secure, then the balance on a schedule. No finance products, no interest, no surprise charges. If you would rather spread it differently, ask, because we would rather agree something workable than lose you over cashflow.
The deposit
£300 on any course or internship. That is the whole deposit, it is the same figure whichever programme you pick, and it secures your resort, programme, dates and room type in your name.
It is not a holding fee and your place is not provisional. On an internship it is not conditional on your visa arriving first. You secure the place, then we help you get the visa.
Refundable in the circumstances set out in section nine. Not for a change of heart, and we would rather say that plainly here than bury it in terms.
The balance
A further £1,000 at twenty weeks before you fly, then the remaining balance either as a payment plan or as one final payment. Full dates in writing on your quote before you pay a penny.
Book eighteen months out and you can spread it across two tax years, which a good number of our career break clients do deliberately. Book six months out and it is a shorter runway.
You will never get an invoice for something that was not on the quote. If a genuine third party cost changes, we tell you before it lands, not after.
The standard terms
Three stages. The same on every programme we run.
No small print variations by course, by resort or by age. If you have booked one thing with us you know how all of them work.
Stage one
£300
Deposit, when you book
Any course, any internship, any age. Secures your resort, programme, dates and room type. Not provisional, and not conditional on a visa arriving.
Stage two
£1,000
Twenty weeks before you fly
For a late November departure that lands around early July. Far enough out that it is never a surprise, and you will have had the date since you booked.
Stage three
Balance
Your choice of two
Either equal weekly or monthly instalments finishing two weeks before you fly, or one final payment twelve weeks before you fly. Whichever suits your cashflow.
Method
Bank transfer
Our preference and the cleanest for both of us. Details come with your invoice, and we will never send you new bank details out of the blue.
Method
Debit or credit card
Available if you would rather, and we will tell you on the call whether any card fee applies before you choose. Some people deliberately pay the deposit by card for the consumer protection, which is a fair thing to want.
Method
From outside the UK
Wise, or a normal international transfer. Wise usually beats a high street bank and shows the fee before you send. We quote in sterling, so the exchange risk is yours either way.
One security note, because it happens in this industry
We will never ring or email asking you to send money to different bank details urgently. If you receive that, it is not us. Ring the office on the number on our website and check before you send anything.
06 · What is included
And What Is Honestly Not.
Your quote is the authority on your own package. This is the general shape, extras included, because a price that hides the extras is not a price. Budget roughly thirty five to forty per cent on top of your course fee before you land.
Usually in the price
Your training programme and your trainers.
Level 1 exam fees and Level 1 affiliate membership.
Accommodation for the length of your programme.
Lift pass, or the staff pass that comes with an internship.
Airport transfer with the group.
Uniform, on internships where the snow school issues one.
Our support, seven days a week, from enquiry to the day you fly home.
Every one of our guides, free, whether you book with us or not.
Not in the price
Flights. Roughly £800 from the UK or Europe, £1,000 from New Zealand, £1,200 from the east coast of Australia.
Insurance. Must cover instructing, not just holiday skiing. Around £400 for a season.
Visa costs. Interns only, around £250 all in. Nothing to pay on a course beyond a small travel authorisation fee.
Level 2 exam fees. Paid direct to CSIA or CASI out there, along with membership from Level 2 onwards.
Equipment and clothing. From about £850 basic, £1,200 mid range, £2,000 for performance kit.
Food and going out. CAD 100 to 200 a week, and honestly nearer the top of that in your first month.
Damage deposit on your accommodation, returned at the end if nothing is broken.
Work all of it out for yourself with the season budget calculator. It is deliberately generous rather than optimistic, because a nasty surprise in February is worse than an uncomfortable conversation in March.
07 · Entry requirements and visas
You Probably Need Less Paperwork Than You Think.
This is the most misunderstood part of the whole process, and the misunderstanding costs people winters. So, plainly: only paid work needs a working visa.
On a course
No working visa. At any age.
You are not being paid, so you need no permission to work. For most nationalities you travel as a visitor on a short online travel authorisation, filled in shortly before you fly and approved in minutes rather than months.
No lottery, no pool, no twelve week wait, and no upper age limit whatsoever. If you are fifty two and have three weeks free in February, nothing here stands in your way.
[Entry requirements vary by nationality and change without much warning. Confirm yours with us before booking flights, and we will point you at the current official guidance.]
On an internship
The IEC working holiday visa
A pool you enter, then get invited from. The office typically opens in early January and closes around September or October. The longer you are in the pool, the better your chances.
Once invited you have a fixed window for your work application, CV, police report and biometrics, then up to twelve weeks of processing. Your Port of Entry letter can be deferred up to twelve months and is only activated at the Canadian border.
Our clients get a free visa guide and support seven days a week through the whole thing. Very few of ours fall at this fence, mostly because we chase people.
Age, and what it actually rules out
The IEC working holiday runs to thirty for most nationalities, with recognised organisation routes covering some people to thirty five. Beyond that, paid work in Canada gets complicated, though study and sponsorship routes exist and we are happy to talk them through.
So an age limit exists on paid work. That is the whole of it.
Our minimum age in Canada is eighteen. We will look at seventeen year olds in Europe, and in Canada only under special circumstances, so ask rather than assume either way.
Above eighteen there is no upper age limit on any of our courses, and none on CSIA or CASI certification. We have qualified clients in their fifties and sixties, and they are frequently the ones who listen hardest to their trainer.
If you are over the IEC age and wanted to work, ring us. There is usually a version of the winter that still does what you want.
08 · Flights
Do Not Book Flights Yet.
The single most expensive mistake people make. Talk to us before you buy anything, whichever route you are on.
Flying with the group
We handle the booking, you travel together, and the airport shuttle is included. Someone from the team is on the flight. If anything shifts we adapt it as a group rather than leaving you to sort it at a check in desk.
Departures are late November: Sun Peaks the 20th, Big White the 24th, Panorama and Revelstoke the 25th.
Tickets release close to departure, not before. That is not us being awkward. Releasing them early would expose everyone's booking details to each other. Your flight is booked well in advance; only the ticket follows late.
Flying independently
Sensible if you are travelling from outside the UK, adding a trip either side, using air miles, or bringing a partner who is not on the course. A good number of our older clients do exactly this.
You can still use the included shuttle, but you need to land close enough to the group's arrival. We will not hold the bus for a significant delay, and separate transport to resort would be at your cost.
Get a flexible ticket where you can, and let us approve the plan before you pay for anything. Shorter courses in particular have arrival windows that are easy to get wrong by a day.
09 · If something goes wrong
When You Get Your Money Back.
Stated here rather than buried in terms, because you are about to hand over a deposit and you deserve to know this before you do, not after. Full terms are on our website and they say the same thing at greater length.
Full refund
You are refused a visa. Send us a screenshot of your portal.
You are never invited from the pool.
Visas are not being issued at all that season.
We do not run the course.
You do not get your first choice of resort and do not want your second. Every penny back, and very few providers will put that in writing.
No refund
A change of heart, at any stage.
Injury before or during the course. That is what insurance is for, so ask yourself how much you would want back if you hurt yourself on day one, and buy the policy that answers it.
Going home early. Understandable, but the programme has been staffed and paid for.
Missing a visa deadline you were reminded about. We chase hard, but we cannot submit it for you.
10 · Straight answers
What People Ask Before They Pay.
Am I too old for this? +
Almost certainly not. There is no upper age limit on any of our courses and none on CSIA or CASI certification. Our clients range from eighteen to their sixties, and the older ones are usually the most focused people in the group because they have chosen to be there rather than drifted there.
The only genuine age limit is on paid work: the IEC working holiday visa runs to thirty, with recognised organisation routes to thirty five. So if you are forty and want to qualify, do a course. If you are forty and want to be paid to instruct in Canada, ring us and we will be honest about what is realistic.
I am seventeen. Can I still come? +
In Europe, usually yes. In Canada, only under special circumstances, and eighteen is our normal minimum. That is not us being difficult. Employment rules, accommodation, insurance and licensing all get considerably more complicated with a minor abroad for a whole winter.
If you turn eighteen part way through the season, ring us early and we will tell you honestly whether it works. Sometimes it does. Often the better answer is to go the following winter, or to look at Europe first.
Do I need a working holiday visa to do a course? +
No. This is the most common misunderstanding we deal with, and it puts people off who have no reason to be put off. A course involves no paid work, so it needs no work permit. For most nationalities you travel as a visitor with a short online travel authorisation, done shortly before you fly.
No lottery, no pool, no twelve week wait. Confirm your own nationality's requirements with us before you book flights, because they do change.
Will I be the oldest person there? +
Possibly, and it matters less than you expect once you are on the hill. Training groups are set by ability, not age, so you will be with people skiing at your standard.
But it is a fair question and we take it seriously. Tell us on the call and we will be straight with you about the likely age mix in each resort and on each programme, and about accommodation. If you would rather not share with three twenty year olds, that is a room type conversation and an easy one to have.
How far ahead do I really need to book? +
For a course, three to nine months is comfortable and people book later than that successfully. For an internship, January to March of the same year you plan to travel, because the visa can take up to twelve weeks and resorts finish hiring in July and August.
The exception in both cases is room type. If you want a single or a twin, book as early as you can, because there are very few of them and no amount of goodwill creates more.
Can I pay in instalments? +
Yes, and it is a proper payment plan rather than a finance product. No interest, no credit check, no third party lender. A £300 deposit secures your place, £1,000 falls due twenty weeks before you fly, then you choose how to clear the balance.
Either equal weekly or monthly instalments running until two weeks before departure, which is what most people spreading the cost from a salary choose. Or one final payment twelve weeks before you fly, which suits people paying from savings or a bonus.
Same terms on every course and internship. If your circumstances genuinely do not fit either option, ask, because we would rather agree something workable than lose you over timing.
Is my deposit safe if my visa does not come through? +
Yes. If you are refused a visa, never invited from the pool, or visas are not being issued that season, you get a full refund. Send us a screenshot of your portal and we deal with it. That is exactly why we secure your place on deposit rather than making you wait for paperwork you cannot control.
I only have two or three weeks. Is that worth doing? +
Often, yes. Plenty of people with jobs and families take two or three weeks and come home with a Level 1, or with their skiing measurably better after a performance block. It is not a lesser version of a season, it is a different product for a different life.
What two weeks will not do is take you from a cautious blue run skier to a Level 2. If that is the goal we will tell you what it realistically takes rather than sell you the short course and let you find out.
Can my partner come, even if they are not on the course? +
Usually. Accommodation depends on what is available and it is easier in some resorts than others, so raise it on the first call rather than after you have paid a deposit. Several of our clients have brought a partner who skied, worked remotely, or simply enjoyed a very long holiday.
Will you pressure me on the call? +
No, and nobody here works on commission. We will tell you what is genuinely running short and what is not, and we will tell you if we think a different programme, a different resort or a different company suits you better.
If a provider is too eager to close you, that is worth noticing. It applies to us as much as anyone else.
One next step
Tell Us Your Age, Your Goals And Your Budget.
We will tell you which resort and which programme fits, and we will tell you if none of them do. One minute or one hour, free, and nobody on commission. Bring your partner, your parents or your spreadsheet.
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