the snow centre

Having never skiied before I booked a beginners lesson at the snow centre 2 weeks prior to my first skiing holiday. Straight away I felt at ease and the instructor (cannot remember his name!) was great and very patient with everyone. He explained everything in depth and made sure everyone understood and felt comfortable. The lesson really gave me confidence for when it came to the real thing and although they are not cheap (I paid around £50) I would recommend them for beginners before their first skiing trip.

Very good for refresher and pre-hol prep. Everything you need, friendly helpful staff. Quite busy in the changing area but the kiddie lessons were on a different slope.

Very good value for money if you are or your kids are getting started on Skiing. Or else, a warm up to your upcoming ski holiday. The facilities are decent. The only disappointment ,you can never get a seat near the windows to watch your loved ones .These seats are in very short supply. Food is ok. There is a hand car wash, which is reasonably priced in case your car needs some touching. During school holidays and weekends, it is extremely busy. On one of the lessons the teaching slope was soo busy that kids were hardly doing anything but getting around each other. Choose a day when crowds are less likely. The main slope is fine though.

My boyfriend and I had our first snowboarding lesson here. Having never done anything like this before I felt total support throughout the lesson. Instructor Angela was very patient with me! Thanks :-)

I had used the snowzone in Milton Keynes before. This is more of a standalone attraction and although near a major leisure complex is not surrounded by other things.It is a little smaller than it's competitor but it is not noticeably so. It is a cheaper and in my opinion a nicer environment. Well worth a visit.

A huge thanks to everyone at the Snow Centre for a brilliant birthday party - 22 children aged 6-9, skiing and sledging and food ... and it all went smoothly. A special thanks to Jack Stickings, the rentals manager, who made sure that we had everything we needed and organised in advance so that everything flowed seamlessly on the day. And to the instructors who made sure that all the children enjoyed the challenge of skiing, and the thrill of sliding really fast in a rubber tube... the cafe and food also made it a real pleasure for parents to wait. Thank you !

I booked lessons to get me to a slope ready status as I off to Chamonix on a snowboarding trip with the company I work for.Being a complete novice, I was happy to find that a separate learning slope is provided along with great tuition and instructors. The venue is excellent and services and staff are really helpful, even on my first time on the main slope on my own, Catrina (Slope Marshal) pulled me over to one side and gave me a few more extra pointers as to where I was going wrong - amazing what a little reminder can do for you.....I'm not so embarrassed now eh?Really good - do it - you wont regret it..Gary - Tring

My 9 year old son and I had our first ever ski lesson with Simon at The Snow Centre Hemel Hempstead - fantastic facilities and brilliant teaching. Thank You.

Having not boarded in a couple of years, learning to ski inbetween, and an aversion to tow lifts, I thought I'd get in a lesson before my upcoming trip with more confident boarders. Also to minimise any tantrums on the slope. Id booked a level 4 ladies morning lesson using a 20% off code and turns out I was the only one in that group, so essentially a private lesson. Chesney was brilliant, putting me through my paced and by the end of the 2hrs I was feeling way more confident and happier on the lift, and even had time to learn a couple of little tricks. The snow centre is fab and I've now used both their ski instructors and board ones and have yet to have a bad experience.

The snow quality was excellent, especially at the beginning of the session (7:00am) before it got a bit carved up. Staff were friendly and helpful and the free coffee at the bottom of the slope is a nice touch.

It came to my attention recently that I was missing a trick. Rather then the usual random posts about what people were eating, or pictures of babies (I'm of that age range) on my Facebook I was seeing glorious pictures and videos of snow covered hills and smiling faces. All these people had one thing in common: They all had skis on......Intrigued as to how I would going about learning this new discipline, I asked for and received many recommendations and one of them was The Snow Centre. Deciding to strike while the iron was hot (Im lucky to not work much during the week) I booked in on a Tuesday morning for the 5 hour beginners lesson. This certainly isn't a cheap option, (£159) but this seems to be about on a par with most other facilities and included the boots and ski hire, free refreshments and lunch. Clothing Hire was £7 for the jacket and trousers while if you were totally bereft of any form of skiing things, gloves and thermal socks where also available for £9.50 and £4. I turned up just later then the 30 mins recommended minimum check in time, due to traffic. This then meant that due to the queues for the check-in (your can do an automated check-in but not recommended on your first visit) and the fact that the staff where having to bounce between the ski hire and clothing hire counter, I was a little late being ready for the start of the lesson. However, instructor Jackie Andrews was on hand straight away and found me in the ski equipment queue to tell me where she was and also to take my lunch order! Jackie was great in how she divided her time between all of us although we were very lucky that only three people showed for this group. All instructions where simple to follow and explained perfectly for the layman. I did have a basic understanding of the principles having previously ice skated on a very regular basis. This helped me progress fairly quickly, and along with one of the other beginners (a former snowboarder who was swopping disciplines) we began to motor on pretty comfortable. Sadly our third member was a little more 'Bambi-on-Ice' but as myself and 'Snowboarder' were pretty comfortable this meant we could repeat descent tasks while Jackie could work closer with the third member to help him improve.The training slopes were fairly busy. At the time there were other group lessons (up to 10 people) as well as private ones going on for ski-ers and snow boarders alike so things could be a bit crowded. However, once the basics had been covered it was fairly simple enough a task to keep out of peoples way and avoid any potential collisions. The ride to the top was serviced on the training slopes by a travellator and a rope lift. Both were a challenge in themselves to unmount from, but the travellator was far easier. The rope lift after a while had the added downside of being pretty tough on your hands, as most gloves began to slip on them meaning after a few goes your hands would go dead. We got plenty of respite (5 hours can be a pretty long time!) with food and drinks being served in the Lodge upstairs. The drinks came sharpish, and the food was perfectly fine (in fact it was so big I didn't manage to finish it). Once back at it, I was very happy after the 4 hour mark that Jackie thought we could try the main slope, half way up initially then all the way up to the top. This meant shifting over to the button lifts to get up that were very simple to use, although without poles (you don't get these in the beginning lessons) it was sometimes a bit trickier to get to the actual pick-up point. After 2 full runs on the main slope (including my first couple of falls!) we had run out of time but it was a great barometer on how far we'd progressed and afterwards we received a progress card where Jackie signed us off as Level 4 one shy of being able to go on the main slope unsupervised. One more lesson and I'd be pretty much there. If I had the choice I would have wanted to book my next lesson again with Jackie as I think it can be preferable to stay with the same instructor if you're given the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately the online booking facility doesn't allow for booking with a specific instructors groups or privately which is a pity. Having read other reviews it maybe possible to do over the telephone but keen to get on with things I booked my Main Slope Lesson (also using the handy 20% discount code I received via e-mail shortly after my 1st lesson). And while I may have wanted to stay with my 1st instructor, I needn't have worried.....For this 1.5hr lesson our instructor was Sarah Mills, who was also excellent and quite a lot of fun. The only shame was I don't think many of the other participants (7 in this group) had been to The Snow Centre before and where unaware of their minimum requirements for hitting the main slope so had just jumped in. Therefore Sarah had to evaluate everyone thoroughly first which took some time up in the lesson which was unfortunate, but necessary for obvious reasons. However, I was actually glad to be given a little more time to find my feet again, and after around 30mins we were on to the main slope. Sarah was also great at explaining the situation and made it easy for those of us who are a bit slow at following the terminology to understand (I never want to spill a glass of wine...). Again she paid close attention to those that weren't quite getting there as fast, but seemingly with eyes in the back of her head, was able to spot my repeating flaws (namely not getting my weight forward enough). By the end she explained to us nicely what our standards where and what we needed to do on our next visits to really improve as well as giving us a 10% off code as well. I had never touched a ski before coming to the Snow Centre but thoroughly enjoyed my time, and I intend to go more often. Im reliably informed too that after easter things become a little quieter so perfect to get some independent practice in. it slotted in perfectly to what I was looking for and gave me the opportunity to learn a new skill quickly and easily. I still need to learn plenty but you can guarantee you'll be finding me here in the future trying to do so.

This was my first time at the ski center and it was a 'good' experience. The center was easy to find and looked great. It was busy even at 5.30 on a Sunday and a little unorganised but the staff were helpful when asked what I should be doing. The equipment I hired was of good quality and the instructor that I had on my group lesson was very helpful and professional. Overall it was a great experience and I enjoyed it very much.

Ive just come back from a main slope ready lesson with Sarah Mills. She has helped me regain my confidence and i have left being able to ski. The centre has great facilities for all levels and the staff were very helpful. Thank you Sarah.

Great experience, thoroughly enjoyed my first Ski lesson!Friendly instructor. I went on a Thursday evening during half term/ it was very busy but didn't affect our group lesson luckily! The only downside I would say is the price of the lessons- on the pricey side!Also the availability seems very limited and booked up.Looking forward to my next lesson!

Asking people to arrive at least 30 mins before their booking is fine if there is not a 20 person queue for skis and only 2 relaxed people slowly muddling through. There was a lack of helmets, mess everywhere, and when you do miss the start of your ski lesson, don't expect your teacher to really notice your absence. I did not notice any teachers making people,warm up. There are so many people squashed into the learners area, which by 2pm is hellishly chopped up, then accidents are bound to happen. So messy, so disorganised and I definately won't be back.