Hafjell with kids – sledging, winter park, bobsleigh and swimming on a day off skis

Hafjell is built for skiing, but a week on the slopes is a long time for small legs. The good news is that there is more to do around the resort on a day without skis than at most ski resorts: a winter park of ice and snow, an Olympic bobsleigh track, a swimming pool and one of Norway's largest open-air museums. Here is what suits children, with ages and opening times in one place. Everything about the slopes and family areas is in Hafjell's slopes.

Sledging on the slopes

You don't have to leave Hafjell to go sledging. The family area at Knerten down in the valley has a sledging run and a warming hut where you can buy something hot and grill your own food, and KIDS Gaia at the top by Gaiastova has a sledging run for those who are not on skis. Gaia is free all season, so a parent with a sledge can tag along there while the rest of the family skis.

Tips: Between runs you can go into the warming hut at Knerten. If you bring your own hot chocolate, a short break there is enough to make the children want to head back up the hill.

Hunderfossen winter park – February only

Just five minutes from Hafjell is Hunderfossen, an amusement park in summer and a winter park in February. The park has usually been open Thursday to Saturday evenings, 18.00–20.30, with sleigh rides, sledging and mini snowmobiles for the children. The main attraction is the ice cathedral by the fairytale castle, and there is also a snow hotel to peek into. The evening ends with fireworks at 20.30.

Two things are good to know: the entertainment is in Norwegian, and tickets are bought online in advance. On the busiest evenings they can sell out. Since the winter park is only open in February, it pays to check which week your sports holiday falls.

Bobsleigh on the Olympic track

The Olympic bobsleigh and luge track from 1994 is also at Hunderfossen, and here the public can ride. Bob raft is a rubber bob with room for five or six passengers plus a driver, and it reaches about 100 kilometres an hour. Children can ride from ten with an adult and from twelve on their own. For teenagers and adults who want more, there is taxi bob in a real four-man bob, with an age limit of 16. A helmet is compulsory.

For children curious about speed, the bob raft often becomes the highlight of the trip – and a good reward after a week of ski school.

Tobogganing in Lillehammer

In Lillehammer, about 15 kilometres south of Hafjell, there is tobogganing at Lillehammer snow park. Children can ride from five and on their own from ten. Book a time in advance.

A swim when it is too cold

On a day when the thermometer shows minus twenty, a swimming pool is worth its weight in gold. Jorekstad leisure pool in Fåberg, between Lillehammer and Hafjell, is the largest pool in the area. In winter the indoor pools are open, with a children's pool and a water slide – and a sauna for the adults afterwards.

Maihaugen and the Olympic Museum

Maihaugen in Lillehammer is an open-air museum with old buildings from all over Gudbrandsdalen. Several of the houses and exhibitions are open all year, with activities for children. It is also home to the Norwegian Olympic Museum, which tells the story of the 1994 Lillehammer Games – the same Games that gave Hafjell its slalom slopes.

A plan for the rest day

• Morning: a lie-in and a relaxed trip to the swimming pool in Fåberg.
• Lunch: something hot at the cabin – food for a ski week makes it easy.
• Afternoon: sledging in the family area, or Maihaugen if it is windy.
• Evening in February: Hunderfossen's winter park with the ice cathedral and fireworks.

If you would rather try something other than downhill for a day, there are cross-country tracks for every level – see cross-country skiing in Hafjell. And if you want to compare Hafjell with its neighbours, all five resorts around Lillehammer are in the ski resorts around Lillehammer.