In reply to LJ2606:
Just back from two days skiing in Scotland with my 11 year old. He had never skied in the UK before, I haven't skied here since before he was born, I reckon it was 2000 last time! Some thoughts: Sunday we rocked up pretty early at Glencoe, there was a long queue for gear hire already and it took us nearly 2hrs to hire my son gear. By the time we got in, they were running out of equipment in various sizes. A woman in front of us was literally in tears after they said they didn't have gear for her 4 year old (who had been screaming in the queue for much of the wait). The hire guy was kinda rude "well, I can't whittle some skis for you" - eventually they found one more pair of little skis that could just fit the kid's boots. They didn't have the first size boots my son asked for, but fortunately he was fine in the next size up. There was no communication while we all queued that certain gear was running out. It all took so long that we just needed to wait 10 minutes until noon to buy just afternoon passes, so at least that saved some money.
That evening we drove straight up to Nevis Range and booked gear for the next day, this worked much better although the woman there started by saying "oh... we've been so busy I'm not sure if there will be gear in the right size"! There was also some queuing for lift tickets, to get onto the Gondola, for the lowest tow on the mountain, and always for the summit tow. Nothing ridiculous, but five or so minutes here and there - maybe ten once or twice. Basically all the queuing reminded me why I like touring!
The skiing was actually great fun, but it is Scotland: you will go over grass here and there and probably clonk a rock or two. My skis are older than my son, so I'm not very precious about them, but if you have flash new kit bear that in mind! Wearing helmets does seem sensible though - I always do now, never did back in the 90s when I skied regularly in Scotland!
So the main thing is try and book hire equipment before you get there and be prepared for queuing. There are some pictures on my instagram to give you a feel that it wasn't all bad!
https://www.instagram.com/tobyinhelsinki/