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Family canoe trip vs ski trip… the showdown.

A quick comparison between 2 of my favourite family activities…

As an avid canoe tripper and life-long ski bum I often get asked the question of which is my favourite family activity…canoeing or skiing? My short but confusing answer is that I love canoe trips more in the winter while I am on ski vacations, and I love ski trips more in the summer while paddling on canoe trips. My long answer ends up offering some great information about both types of family activities which I thought was worth the write up. Enjoy!

Family Canoe trips

My absolute favorite thing about family canoe trips is being unplugged from our devices that have become so intertwined with our daily lives. I got my first cell phone in 1996, the same year I went on my first canoe trip on the Churchill River. Aside from a few locations on the Churchill system near Missinipe and Stanley Mission, cellular phones thankfully do NOT work still to this day. For the grownups, our phones come with us on our canoe trips to be used as cameras but do not get used for games or music at all.

Our kids do not get to bring their electronic devices on any of our canoe trips and I can’t think of a single time on a trip
where they even asked for their device because there was so much other stuff going on.

Canoe trips have a great way of reducing camping to the simple things in life: water, fire, and shelter, with the added benefit of allowing us to eat well, which is probably the single biggest difference between backpacking and canoe camping. I love that our kids can be involved in filtering water, gathering firewood, setting up camp, and helping with meal prep and cooking. These tasks are demanding however, and we have learned that we need to use their effort sparingly in order to maintain interest and to keep the trip fun for them.

Choosing the canoe routes and determining how much paddling that will be done each day has been something that I would like to be able to involve my kids in more, but for now it falls under my responsibility and decision, since our kids are still quite young. I do make sure I show them the various maps and talk about things we will see during the trip, so they begin to have an understanding of the process. Our family of four still fits in our 18’6 Clipper Mackenzie so our kids don’t have to paddle a lot in any given day but our friends that have done a few trips with us, have their 13-year-old paddling in the bow so we need to consider their ability and endurance when planning our total daily mileage. Our kids are 7 and 10 years old so in a couple more years we will move into two canoes, (one 16’ and a 17’) which will require us to revamp our trip planning.

 

We would love to have the kids more involved with the selection of campsites, but we have only been in a few areas where camping was abundant enough where they could have a choice about the site.  When travelling with others the responsibility weighs on the adults having to make the decision for the whole group. Same philosophy goes for other group decisions about what time to get started paddling in the morning and when to stop for lunch or quit for the day, these seem to default to the grownups as well.

Canoe trips have a higher level of remoteness and therefore solitude to them. Even our week-long trip last summer with 12 people, 6 adults and 6 kids, in a very remote part of northern Saskatchewan was quiet and peaceful which allows us to melt into nature.

Family Ski trips

My absolute favourite thing about family ski trips is that we can all take turns in deciding which run we will ski down or which chair lift we will ride up. Our kids love to pick the runs and there is nothing better than chasing them down and racing back to the lift. I would say with certainty that kids love to make decisions, and this is a key reason why they love to ski.

Ski vacations offer the perfect day length, which is a big draw to why the family ski vacation is so awesome. Lifts open between 9-10am so it’s not a super early morning to wake up for. Lunch can take place early or late and can be a big restaurant meal on the hill, homemade lunch in the condo or chalet, or just a quick snack break. Lifts usually close between 4-5pm so there is plenty of evening time for après-ski snacks & drinks, eating dinner, having a hot tub or swim, or head into town to shop, eat or hang out with the locals. Once February comes around the daylight hours are long enough that activities like Nordic skiing or snowshoe outings can take place after the lifts close, or during longer ski vacations entire mornings or afternoons can be dedicated to these activities.

 

The activity level of downhill skiing is great for the family as well. Sure, everyone will get tired, and our youngest will still wear out sooner than the rest of us but resting on the lift rides and using gravity down every run makes skiing easier for the family then mountain biking or hiking all day. Over the years we have found a few tricks to help even our youngest get to the end of the day without meltdowns or falling to fatigue.

Kids skiing with other kids is so cool!!! The only thing that sucks about it is when we are no longer invited to tag along with them. It is fun though listening to their stories about which runs they did and how “epic” their jumps or crashes were.  This of course goes against the concept of a family ski vacation, but it does evolve into families skiing with other families; that way kids and parents all get to enjoy themselves and spend time together to create the “epic” stories.

 

Quick comparison of both types of vacations:

  • Both can be done all over the world, but ski trips would be much easier to plan and execute.
  • Both can be done at all ages and abilities but the “roughing it” of canoe trips/camping would take a toll on the body more.
  • The enjoyment of both activities is subject to the weather. Most folks think about the cold in winter ruining a trip, but I would argue that cold rainy days are tougher for the family to deal with then the cold winter weather (which you can dress for and take warm up breaks inside buildings!)
  • At first glance the cost of canoe trips seems less expensive than ski trips, however when you start adding up the equipment costs, and winter accommodations versus canoe fly-in’s the price of both vacations start to even out.

So hopefully you are heading away on a February Family Week Ski vacation where you can sit around in the evenings and plan your summer canoe trip! We have posted our spring canoe lessons on our website (shameless plug) and our dates for our super popular Parent & Kid Canoe course will be posted shortly.

If you ever have any questions about either Family Ski Trips or Family Canoe trips, stop in and we are always happy to chat.

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