Long weekend skiing with a 3yo?

[Gattabianca]

We've got a week holiday planned in March (can't wait!!) but would love to squeeze in another ski trip

some restrictions on when I can take leave from work mean we could only go for a long weekend. We have a 3yo who will be skiing this year.

Has anyone done this with a young child or got any suggestions that would work?
We'd want somewhere with a short transfer, ski-school and child care for under fives in the morning and family activities for the afternoon. I was thinking PdS resorts would be good. We usually ski in France but maybe a kinderhotel would work?
Any ideas??

[VictoriaButler85]

You should try Scotland. They speak English so child friendly activity could be easily arranged and would make child care easy to arrange in the event of illness so you could still have a good time.

[juneau]

Yes, PdS resorts would be good. We've stayed in Les Gets and found it very family-friendly and a nice, short transfer from Geneva.

Regarding the 3-year-old and skiing I would just say 'Don't expect him/her to do very much'. If you're thinking of dropping off at the Jardin de Neige, fine, but our DS, who was 3 last winter very quickly got cold and fed up. They tend to find being on skis really hard at first and fall over a lot, so somewhere that combines play with a bit of messing about on skis would be better. Our DS managed about an hour on skis on one day only and he spent most of that in tears, so keep your expectations low!

[Gattabianca]

Thanks for suggestions!
Forgot to say we will be going late in season so need somewhere snow sure. I have looked at Scotland before but don't think it would work for us.

Juneau, yes that's exactly what I want -combined childcare and ski school - we are going to Puy St Vincent with snowbizz for our week holiday. So want something like that but for a weekend.

I don't think he'd be happy in Piou Piou club but Austrian schools seem to have a better reputation for littlies, that's why I was wondering if a kinderhotel would be a good option.

[juneau]

We've never tried a Kinderhotel, but that's mainly because they're always full in school holidays. If you're not tied to them then yes, absolutely I would try one.

[Laquila]

Les Gets is a lovely resort, felt v family-friendly to me although at the time it was just me and my husband!

[Gattabianca]

Thanks Laquila - Les Gets would be perfect but we would be going in April so it's a bit too far from the snow sure bits of the PdS to work I think. Somewhere like that but still with decent snow at the end of the season....
Im wondering if this may be too much hassle for just a couple days of skiing?

[angelcake20]

How about ski2 in Champoluc? British run and pretty flexible. We've skied there for several long weekends, including at Easter.

[trixymalixy]

I think you'll struggle to find something like snowbizz for a long weekend. they usually run for a full week. Your best bet might be a nanny but that might be dear. What about Tignes or val d'isere, they both have late season skiing?

We found that a weekend skiing pretty much cost the same in terms of accommodation and flights as a full week does though......

[Gattabianca]

Ski2 looks great! You have to be there Monday - Friday for the 3yo childcare/ski school so it won't work for us this year - but I have bookmarked it for the future.

Trixy I think you are right re: cost. Weekends don't seem to be any cheaper than full weeks. I can't fly to Chambery which rules out a lot of the high French resorts.

[SunnySomer]

We skied in Engelberg in v late March and put then 3YO DS in the kindergarten attached to the ski school. The care was outstanding (though he didn't ski - not sure if it is essential to you that she skis for those 3 days?).
I think Engelberg is a couple of hours from Zurich by train (and you'd need to change). By car maybe 1.5-2 hours.

[citykat]

Gattabianca please report back on your snowbizz trip- am going with them late March and v excited

[CaurnieBred]

How about Solden: I find the Austrian care better than the French for the kids. It has glacier skiing so you should be ok for late March. Ski school info here Bambini. Shouldn't be a huge transfer from Innsbruck. Haven't skied there myself though.

[Gattabianca]

Yay more suggestions - I'm having fun googling all these resorts
citykat I will report back. Will it be your kids' first time on skis too? I'm so excited. I'm following Snowbizz on fb, they have been posting lots of pics. Can't wait!!

[MaryWortleyMontagu]

We did a week last month with 3yr old dd in serfaus, Austria and we had a great time! She was in ski school in the mornings but they did do other activities as well as skiing and they didn't push it if a child didn't want to ski. You could also choose the number of days you wanted to book for so you don't have to book a full week of ski school if you don't want to.

[MaryWortleyMontagu]

Oh and transfer is only an hour from innsbruck!

[Nevercan]

Kuhtai is 2020m and 40 mins from Innsbruck. Nice small family friendly resort

[Gattabianca]

mary Where did you stay in Serfaus? I've been looking at the kinderhotels there, which look perfect BUT you can only book for a week. 😪
never I like the sound of Kuhtai, I've looked at it before. Did you use a ski school there?

[MaryWortleyMontagu]

We stayed at a pension - pension laerchenhof. Personally, I find the kinderhotels overpriced and we wouldn't have used the extras (childcare, evening babysitting etc) so for us it wouldn't have been worth it.

[snowgirl1]

Flaine in France is about 1 - 1.5 hours from Geneva airport and has a nursery for age up to 3 years - but it's not a ski school. There are lots of self-catering apartments in Flaine so you could probably find accommodation for a long-weekend. I've never tried AirBnB myself, but met someone in a ski resort earlier this year who got an apartment through AirBnB.

Chamonix in France is also only about 1.5 hours from Geneva and, if you want something more ski focused for your 3yo, then there's a Panda club