Ski holiday for young children Post Reply

[Saab]

We want to go skiing next Easter with another family who have a 6 & 8 Year old. Our daughters will be 3 & nearly 6.
The 6 year old will be fine but I am concerned about the 3 year old. We have researched Ski Espirit which look amazing but unfortunately the 3 year old snow club is separate from the other children and for a week I think it is probably a little mean to leave her with a bunch of strangers when her sister is with the other 2.
So our options are limited - we don't want to leave her at home as a week is really too long to leave her with anyone the other option I was thinking was getting a catered independent chalet and then hiring a nanny - then they could all go to ski school and as I am not so much into skiing some afternoons I could hang out with the kids?
Does anyone have any better ideas or experiences or know of any companies/chalets that this would work for - preferably a high resort as not going until April??
Thanks and look forward to hearing from you

[dansk1234dance]

Hello

I'm sure others can give better advice than I can, but I thought I'd chime in as we returned from our first ski holiday with the kids two weeks ago.

Firstly, I'd say at 3, you could even consider a gentle introduction to skis?

We looked at a lot of different options (our kids are almost 5 and almost 2 years old) and in the end we went for a catered chalet and we hired a nanny there.

The nanny would spend the morning with our youngest and collect the older one from ski school (ski school at this age is only for 2 hours a day).

Next year, I am bringing my own nanny, as the nanny costs out there are pretty steep anyway.

The reason being that at such a young age I didn't want my youngest to be in a creche the whole day and I also needed the flex with regards to my older one, as I didn't want to have to come back after only 2 hours of ski school. I feel the ''kids club' option would only be for us, when our youngest is older, say 4 or so, when she can spend the day skiing with her brother and is used to being in school the whole day anyway.

The season doesn't end until end of April, so as long as you choose a mountain where you can ski up high enough, you should be fine ; )

best holiday ever, enjoy it

[juliantenniscoach]

We did the Ski Espirit option with our girls in different groups and it worked fine. We took our youngest out on skis too for a little taster. They should meet up at lunchtime anyway.

[Saab]

Thanks so much for your replies - we have looked at Avoriaz which looks great so am slowly narrowing my search!
Any other ideas am still looking!!

[juliantenniscoach]

Avoriaz is great for kids, traffic free albeit with a bizarre luggage delivery system. The kids club is right in the middle of the town so easily accessed from all the apartments.

Pretty decent snow record at 1800m but elevation is to 2600m at Les Hauts Forts. Short transfer from Geneva. Good for skiers of all abilities not that great for non skiers though. I did two seasons in the Portes Du Soliel

[2009Kat]

We took our 4yo and 2yo with Esprit. They were very good. The 4 yo was in the "snow club" where your 3yo would be. They basically played/did activities all morning and then went out and did 2 hrs skiing in the afternoon - they had loads of staff on hand to wipe noses/pick kids up/have snowball fights with those that were having "moments". The lessons were in the afternoon as they reasoned warmer and less crowded (we did go in Feb). My 4 yo had a great time but was totally knackered. The only thing was by the time he had finished ski school, it was 4.30pm and we would rather have collected him a bit earlier.
We went in Feb when the weather was cold and snowy so the snow club was great as they had lots of toys etc. The children were soon bored by the few things we had brought with us!

[Mummypips]

Hi,
I'd highly recommend ski famille- we booked through Dom at alpine answers who I found via nvn so felt I should respond! We had a brilliant holiday in les gets which is perfect for families. Such a lovely resort and great skiing. Ski famille was brilliant- we have a 10 month old but they we're great with kids of all ages and work around ski schools etc. the nannies really we're brilliant and Freddie had so much fun that he didn't notice us when we came back to meet him for lunch, so we got some good skiing too!

We're hopefully going back next year as it worked so well. Highly recommend!

Good luck!
X

[Mellomumma]

I would also say go with esprit and not worry about them being in different groups. The staff we have had both times have been fantastic with the kids and they keep them so busy they won't miss each other. All the kids eat together for lunch and dinner as well and there is time after kids dinner and before yours for the kids to play together etc.. The listening service and coco club of an evening is brilliant!

[Saab]

Thank you so much for all your replies - very helpful!
x

[NYE31]

We've just been with Mark Warner, our DS is 2 & a half so too young for classes but he went to snow creche in the morning so we could Ski & then we picked him up after his nap & he had the afternoons with us to go sledging etc.

We arranged a private 1:1 lesson for him & he loved it, Mark Warner also have an evening creche for little ones to sleep or older ones to watch a DVD or you can have a babysitter in your room.

MW do allow children to eat with you in the evening, whereas Esprit are child free from 7.30pm.

[2boysmum]

Also recommend mark Warner, having done both esprit and mark warner. Child care is outstanding

[Debs6]

We have tried the chalet/private nanny and it worked fine last year when we travelled with friends and took a whole chalet. All of the children were too small to ski and were happy indoors or playing in the snow.
This year we took a gamble and tried the Family SKi Company. I have to rate them highly as we managed to ski all day knowing our 4 year old was taken care of by the enthusiastic hard working childcare team. We dropped her off for morning lessons and the staff took get back to the chalet crèche for lunch and afternoon fun. The children are grouped according to age and what worked really well is we stayed in the same chalet that our daughter attended crèche in so she felt really at home.
The company have several chalets in 3 areas but we loved Ardent, a small hamlet where you are ten minutes from Porte de Soleil lifts. The children could play safely as there are no shops,noisy bars and bright lights. Just old fashioned fun and lovely cosy evenings in the chalet.
We had our concerns about ESF ski lessons but if you travel with friends you could organise your own with a british ski school.
We felt this company cared about its customers on a personal level unlike the mass catering/ group emphasis that Esprit is renowned for.
I hope that this comment helps you decide.