Beaver Creek Ski & Snowboard School is renowned for its children’s program. Full-day group lessons are available for kids as young as three years old; children need to be 7 to start snowboarding lessons. Children and teens are grouped by age and ability, and novice skiers start out on their own beginner terrain at the base of the mountain and on the “bunny hill,” accessible by the eight-person Buckaroo Express gondola. The kid-friendly gondola ride is less than four minutes long — perfect for short attention spans!

After ski instruction in the morning, kids in group lessons gather at The Ranch at the top of the gondola for a healthy lunch; wireless touch-screens at the tables allow instructors to stay seated with the kids while placing food orders. Typically organic produce and hormone-free dairy and meat products are served. Then it’s back out on the mountain for more ski and snowboard fun with their new friends!

Kids love the Adventure Zones that are found throughout the ski mountain, where they might make turns through teepees, zoom across bridges, or even scoot through “caves” or tunnels. Your kids’ instructors will likely lead them to these entertaining spots, but if you’re skiing with the kiddos as a family and want to find them on the hill, look for the smiley faces that mark the zones on the Beaver Creek trail map.