Family ski holidays for families that don’t like chalets??

[tailsandscales]

Does this exist??
We’re just back from a week with Esprit (first and last holiday with them) and were very underwhelmed. Aside from all the problems we had with this particular Esprit holiday, I just don’t think chalets work for us. We want to ski together in the afternoon and eat together in the evening but also want an evening kids club for DS (5) who is very sociable.
In the past we’ve travelled with Snowbizz. They were great but I don’t want to go back to Puy St Vincent. We’ve also done DIY but not much opportunity for DS to make friends.
I have no idea where to look for our next ski holiday. Any suggestions very welcome!!

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

Club Med?

[LIZS]

Try kinderhotels or kidshotel.ch . The individual hotels affiliate to the organisation so there is no consistent standard or facilities but they are geared up with local childcare and can dovetail with ski-school timings. It will be a more international mix though, which may or may not suit you.

[tailsandscales]

Thanks. Club Med is well out of our price range and I think includes a lot of stuff we don’t need. DH is talking about learning to ski so might be better value for us if he does.
LIZS - these hotels look completely perfect (tho possibly still out if our price range). There’s so many hotels. Can you recommend any in particular. We might need to forego our second week this season and save up for a kinder hotel for next year.

[Ilikesweetpeas]

Could you book a hotel with someone like Crystal? That’s what we have done for feb. We don’t need childcare as such but there is a kids evening disco which DC will probably enjoy.

[Tillymintsmama]

Mark Warner? They do hotels and chalets.

What was it you didn't like about chalet style?

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

I think superficially CM seem expensive, but if you factor in lunch, lift passes, transfers, booze and plan to be vary vary drunk it isn't so bad. I agree though that the lessons element tip it into better value. I think there offers outside of France are best.

We looked at Kinderhotel one year, but it was far more expensive. As Lizs said though, they are a collective of independents and vary.

[dontcallmethatyoucunt]

their! the shame

[SueSueDonahue]

Yup, esprit are pretty blah!

Try a kinder type hotel. Book independently. Stop overpaying for crappy resort staff of any company.

Support local Austrian/Italian/Swiss hotels that offer the things you want ☺️ There are loads out there and the bonus is, you'll be skiing with locals not brits.

(Your kids will cope, even if childcare and lessons are in another language. They really will.)

[LIZS]

In the past (and that is 10 + years ago now) we stayed at the hotel Alphuebel in Saas Fee. They offer all day childcare, skischool collection, activities if generally best for younger age groups, evening entertainment, guest ski race, shuttle to the slopes. A slightly less busy option, right by the lifts, is the related hotel Waldesruh. The budget buster is the Ferienart. You can book English speaking lessons direct with skischool although in practice groups may include different nationalities and languages.

[Youcanstayundermyumbrella]

We have stayed in Kinderhotels and people who ski a lot have always been impressed by how cheap our holidays were, so you don't have to pay a fortune. Some of them cost way more than others. I would say too that they meet your brief exactly.

[Youcanstayundermyumbrella]

We did price up Esprit but it was almost twice what we've paid in the past for a Kinderhotel. Couldn't believe it!

[tailsandscales]

Thanks everyone. I’m very excited about kinderhotels now.
I don’t mind about childcare and/or ski school being multi-lingual. He was fine in French ski school last year. I doubt he’ll even notice as he never listens to anyone anyway. 😂

[famousfour]

There's a hotel in Alpbach which has a kids club. And a pool. Might be worth a look. I'm sure there are others which are similar.

[tailsandscales]

Ilikes I didn’t know Crystal did that. Is it only specific hotels?

[Bythebeach]

A bit like a kinder hotel, we love falkensteiner hotel cristallo in Austria.... great kids club, kids and adult pools, decent food. It is not an extensive ski area but perfect with small kids and was still enough to keep DS now aged 12, 9 and 5 happy this year although eldest prob grow out of it soon.😢

[tailsandscales]

I’m going to have lots of fun today googling all these hotels suggested. 😀
DH is keen to go to Italy. Has anyone stayed in an Italian hotel they could recommend with this type of set up?

[Youcanstayundermyumbrella]

The Italian Kinderhotel-branded hotels are among the more expensive from memory.

There are lots of hotels without the branding with similar set ups. Search for 'family hotels'.

The Kinderhotel website has a central search function, if you haven't already found it, that will show you availability and prices for all of them on your dates, just to start you off!

[Linguaphile]

We love kinder hotels. Have only stayed in one but it was amazing. I do agree though that they are surprisingly expensive. Somewhere like Serre Chevalier with Club Med might prove cheaper.

My good friend just went to this place in Austria with her four children and reckons it's paradise. Might be worth a look? www.allgaeuer-berghof.de

[Linguaphile]

Oops, actually it's in Germany, not Austria!

[FlippingFoal]

Have you considered Bulgaria? I stayed in 4 star hotel with doorstep skiing and it was incredibly affordable. Great snow and great mountains. I stayed in Borovets

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

You could go with Family Ski for the lessons and childcare but book a chalet just for you (there's a couple of small ones in Ardent) so that you can decide to eat your evening meal together.

[pameladoove]

I love kinderhotels - I've stayed at one in Zell am See and another in Achensee and both were fantastic.

However, they can be difficult to get into at half term or xmas, as they save rooms for their returning customers. Easter may be easier.

Simon Butler skiing is just brilliant in megeve.

[pameladoove]

Oh, also stayed at the Alphubel in Saas Fee and loved it - it was on the recommendation by LIZS a few years back!

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

We did Christmas at Sporthotel Achensee this year. I don't ski so can't personally comment on that but DS (5) loved ski school and I loved the hotel facilities etc generally - we've been previously in the summer too and I would totally recommend, will be back again.

I paid €2200 for one week, one adult and one child. That included his 6 days of skiing, I'm not sure whether it also included a lift pass for me - I think not but could be wrong.

[tailsandscales]

Family Ski’s childcare doesn’t really work for us. It’s very expensive and we would only use the ski school part of it, as we want to eat lunch and ski together in the afternoon. And even if it did work for us, we can’t afford it
Borovets looks good for our budget but I think the ski area may be too limited and have too many drags for snowboarding DH.
We’ve decided to forego our 2nd week skiing this season and up the budget a bit for next year.
The Swiss, Austrian and German (not considered Germany before) hotels pps have recommended on this thread sound amazing. Just need to find somewhere exactly like that in Italy for less than £4K, including passes, ski-school, etc (I’m not sure this exists) or talk DH out of Italy for next year. Thanks for all the recs!