Postby MrsOctober » Mon Apr 08, 2019 9:30 am
Two words. Club Med!
A ski-in, ski-out set-up with plenty food and drink available all day. Tons of stuff to do for kids and adults inside the hotel. The kids club staff can get them dressed for skiing, supervise meal times etc. if that’s what you choose. Morning and afternoon lessons included with a meeting point just outside the restaurant. You walk out through the boot room, put on your boots, pick up your skis and go. It’s so seamless. The hardest part of skiing for kids is all the waiting, walking, climbing, waiting, hunger then the cold sets in.... The Club Med set-up takes all that away. You arrive and they give you a drink, your ski pass and fit you for hire gear. No schlepping down to Intersport etc. You can ski together as a family in the afternoons and anyone who wants to peel off can ski into the hotel as you go past. There’ll be plenty going on when you arrive so you’ll never be lonely if you don’t want to be. It’s a bit more expensive on the face of it but it’s because the figure includes absolutely everything. All food, all drink incl spirits, ski lessons AM & PM, ski passes. Gear hire is extra but only because most people have at least some of their own stuff. And it is competitively priced (we checked the local prices outside the hotel) I highly recommend doing it like this until your kids really get the skiing bug, after that they’ll put up with all the faff because they’ll understand the reward. Having said that, now that we’ve done Club Med twice, it’ll be really hard to go back to catered chalets. Good thermals are key. ‘Polarn o Pyret’, a Swedish brand, have great stuff on their website and M&S also. Maybe borrow some really good, technical outer stuff so your kids really stay warm, dry. The good stuff will have arm-pit zips and inner thigh zips so they can quickly cool down if they overheat. We found this to be a godsend as kids can’t anticipate/regulate their temperature and a spike or drop in their temperature can lead to meltdowns.
We’ve now taken ours 7 times so have tons to say on the subject. In fact we got back at midnight last night from an incredible week at Club Med Aime Le Plagne (one of the cheaper ones) Hope it helps.