Planet Ice 3 Day Learn to Skate Course – Review

Last Updated on 26 April 2024 by Colette

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

This year, Father Christmas decided that the kids had enough “stuff” and wanted to go down a more experience based route for their main present. All three kids were thrilled to discover that he had indeed booked the whole family a series of ice skating lessons at Planet Ice in Blackburn for the February half term holiday!

Planet Ice 3 day Learn to Skate course

Planet Ice offer 3 and 5 day “Learn to Skate” courses at Planet Ice venues across the country. We have two ice rinks which are reasonably local to us (by which I mean under an hour away) so we chose to book the Blackburn one as the course times suited us best.

The lessons run for 30 minutes over three or five consecutive mornings during the school holidays – we decided that three days was probably enough this time.

For around £50 per person you get three half-hour group ice skating lessons, a meal deal (worth around a fiver), a certificate and an all-day skate which I think is really good value.

What age are the Learn to Skate sessions suitable for?

The Learn to Skate 3 and 5 day courses are suitable from age 5 and up (and when I say up – I mean adults too!)

If you want to take younger children for ice skating lessons then there’s the Penguin Club which is a supervised parent and toddler session using skate aids.

What should you wear for your ice skating lessons?

The Learn to Skate course includes your skate hire and boot covers (these aren’t just to look pretty, they help you to get your skates into the right positions).

For our lessons we wore comfortable warm clothing – jeans or trackie bottoms and hoodies. We also wore hats and gloves but found that coats were a step too far so we didn’t bother with those on the second day. I also wore longer, much thicker socks after the first day as I found they made my skates more comfortable.

Can you really learn to ice skate in 3 days?

In all honesty you’d be amazed at just how much progress you can make in three days of ice skating lessons. To give you an idea of our ice skating background, we started taking the kids ice skating each Christmas in 2013 when Amy was a tiny baby. I had skated occasionally as a kid and then once or twice in my 20s, Dave had never skated before. Over the last 6 or so years, we’ve all got a little bit better with each annual trip – but really Dave couldn’t skate without holding onto the side and rather resembled a giraffe on ice skates. Ben could skate a bit by himself but both girls needed a support, the side or my hand to be able to get around the rink.

On the first morning we were quickly split into two groups – basically those who could skate a bit without holding on and those who couldn’t skate at all (this was by far the biggest group but probably still only 10 or so people). Although I would say the majority of people on the course were children, there were enough adults that Dave and I didn’t feel like we were the only ones! Dave and the girls were in the beginners class whilst Ben and I went into the intermediates with another family.

(If you want more focused tuition, Planet Ice also offer 4-2-1 sessions which is a smaller group session with a maximum of four skaters to one coach – obviously this is considerably more expensive)

What did we learn in our ice skating lessons?

Beginners Ice Skating Lessons at Planet Ice

(Handing over to Dave for this bit)

The lessons began with moving us off the barrier and out onto the ice proper, something which Amy was less than keen on on the first morning. We learned how to skate using small steps in a V foot position and how to bend and stretch while keeping our balance. Once moving we learned to turn left and right by shifting your weight on your skates and using your edges. We learned how to use our arms to balance us, aeroplane arms whilst turning, table arms for general skating and forward arms to regain your balance if you were tipping backwards (handy!)  We learned to perform lemons going forward and touched on backwards lemons. We learned to stop using a ski plow type manoeuvre (which worked but won’t stop you quickly especially if you’re my size and careering towards a small child!) Most importantly though, we learned how to get up after a fall. This lesson was practiced thoroughly over the three days. 

Intermediates Ice Skating Lessons at Planet Ice

Once we’d skated back and forth across the rink a few times to find our feet, we started to add in some skills. Over the course of the three days we learned to do lemons, slalom, squats (which progressed to touching our toes), skate backwards and skate on one foot as well as stopping and some turns. I found the lemons and skating backwards to be quite uncomfortable on my calves but I was pleased that this was literally only just while I was doing them – I didn’t particularly ache of an evening which was something I’d been a little apprehensive about. That said, by the end of our practice skating on day three I was really tired – my hips were a bit sore and I just couldn’t really be bothered to skate (I also had some great bruises on the backs of my legs where my boots had been digging in). We all agreed we were glad we had just booked the three-day course!

We had different teachers on each day – which Chloe didn’t like as she said it meant they had to spend time getting to know what we could do all over again and I have to admit I agree with her on that. However the coach Ben and I had on our last session was awesome and I wished he’d been teaching us all week. Ben thought he was ace and we both progressed a lot more in that final session thanks to his great explanations and more technical tips.

What did we achieve?

We had each set ourselves goals for what we wanted to achieve over the course of the three days – for Dave and the girls this was all about being able to skate independently, I wanted to have a go at skating backwards and Ben wanted to be able to skate on one leg.

By the end of the first day, Chloe and Dave could both skate by themselves. Chloe’s progress was particularly impressive and she was whizzing about all over the place – what was interesting was that most of this came in our practice sessions once the lesson was over so I would absolutely recommend making the most of this time. Just having time on the ice to work on our new skills made a massive difference to all of us – we probably spent around a further two hours skating each day on top of our lessons. Amy lacked confidence and both Dave and I got a bit frustrated with her as we didn’t think she was trying hard enough but she definitely got more of a feel for it on the second day.

Did we fall over?

Of course we did. Though less than you’d think. I only hit the deck once and it was my own stupid fault for trying to teach Chloe to skate on one leg – whilst standing still. Unfortunately I grabbed Chloe and took her down with me – terrible mother. Dave found he actually fell more later in the week but this was because he was trying to do harder things (like backwards lemons) but still only fell a handful of times. Chloe has a cracking bruise on her knee as she seemed to fall in the same way each time. Ben fell on the first day and bumped his head which really knocked his confidence but by the second day he was ok again. His falls were the most impressive as he was getting up quite a bit of speed by the end of the three days so he tended to fall quickly, spin around onto his knees and get back up again. I think he probably fell the most of all of us but that’s what you get for being cocky!

Is the 3 day ice skating course worth the money?

Absolutely yes. At around £50 per person for three days, you’re getting a 30 minute lesson, your lunch and an all-day skate. Bearing in mind that it costs about £13 per person with skate hire (depending on the time of day and which venue you book!) for a typical skate, plus £4.50 for the meal deal – so that’s around £15 per person (therefore £47.50 over three days) making your actual tuition pretty much free!

We have actually said we would consider booking to do the same course again next year – particularly as the February half term is traditionally a rubbish one weather wise!

It’s worth mentioning that the meal deal is pretty basic – a fizzy drink, chips and a choice of burger, nuggets or hot dog. I’d have loved to have seen some healthier options included too – you could buy jacket potatoes but I wasn’t about to spend extra cash unnecessarily.

Would we have done anything differently?

We were booked onto the 10am course which meant we were straight into our lessons when we arrived (on a super fresh rink). Dave said he would have preferred to have had 20 minutes on the ice before his lesson just to find his feet each day as he felt he spent the first part of each lesson remembering how to stay upright and move on the ice. I have to say I agree with him as, no matter how confident we were by the end of our lesson and a couple of hours practice, the following day we were all wobbly and lacking confidence for a short time – it is very much a case of “finding your feet”. Ben and I definitely found by day three we could crack on pretty quickly but I do think if we were to book further ice skating lessons, we’d booked the later session so we could sneak on the ice for 20 minutes of warm up first just to make sure we got the most from our taught sessions.

And so what next?

Both Dave and I are keen to make sure we don’t now hang up our skates until our annual Christmas ice skating trip with the Butlers – but skating sessions are definitely expensive (probably about £50 a time for our family) so I can’t see that we’ll be going every month! I think Chloe would quite like to have more lessons, you can book weekly Skate Excellence courses in blocks of 4, 5, 6 or 18 weeks starting from £56 and we’ve suggested she might choose to ask for something like that for her birthday.

I could quite fancy having my own ice skates as the hard plastic ones you hire at the rink are obviously not the most comfortable and add to the cost of your skating session every time.

I had planned to vlog our experience but frankly there was enough to concentrate on without taking cameras on the ice – however, you can see some video clips on my instagram story highlight!

Why not read these posts next:

Where to ice skating in Manchester this Christmas

Tips for ice skating at Skate Manchester, Cathedral Gardens

Experience gift ideas for teens

If you have enjoyed this post and found it helpful, here are a few ways you can say thanks and support We’re going on an adventure:

Click here to buy me a virtual coffee – it’s like a little tip jar but with caffeine!

I’d love for you to tag me in any photos of your adventures on Social Media if one of my posts has inspired you to visit

Click here to leave We’re going on an adventure a Google Review

Share this post with your friends – you’ll be helping me and them!

Follow We’re going on an adventure on Facebook or Instagram