Ski transfer with a 4 month old baby

[Brammama]

Hi, I’m new on here and just wondered if anyone has taken a baby on a ski resort coach transfer and how they did it. As she is only 4 months old she wont have a seat for the flight but I’m concerned that the transfer is 2 hours on a coach, should I take her car seat and try to belt it to the coach? Is there enough space? The other suggestion was to have her on my lap, me seatbelted and then her sling/harnessed to me? I have no idea what would be safer if the belts are only lap belts. Have looked into a private transfer but the company offered a mini bus (very expensive) and this may not even fit a car seat either.
Any wisdom would be amazing, thanks.

Take her car seat. You can take them on planes fine. Putting her on your lap with belt is really dangerous, and hiring car seats often means they are sub standard.

Just take hers and belt her in.

Hi! I’ve been booking a ski trip recently too and have had this same problem. We phoned a few coach transfer companies and were told that a car seat wouldn’t fit in the seats and the only option would be to have them on your lap. My little boy will be over a year by then so far too wriggly for staying still round all those corners! At four months he might have been ok. I suppose you could take the seat and see, but you’d have to be prepared for it not fitting.

We looked into flying to places where we could transfer by train, but timings made it difficult. We were going to hire a car from the airport (taking our car seat with us/hiring one), but luckily we have family driving out for our trip, so we are going on the Eurostar and taking the train all through France to then be picked up from Moutiers (car seat will already be in their car). Could be an option for you for next time if your flights are already booked (with a taxi up the mountain from Moutiers/Bourg if you can find one that brings car seats). Or go to Les Arcs and go up on the funicular!

I’d be interested to see if anyone has any other ideas too. It’s the one thing that’s caused us a problem, which is annoying. As a chalet host, we had guests bringing babies, but I think they all drove themselves or paid out megabucks for private transfers in cars.

I’ve done it and took car seat. Came in handy in resort too as at 4 months they can’t really sit in a high chair. Just be aware that you haven’t actually paid for a seat on the transfer bus for the infant - so if the bus is full then car seat will go in hold and baby on your lap. Ditto one year old. Ultimately you have to decide if you are prepared to take risk of a couple of hours journey without car seat.
I have done it- but I am on the life is for living side of things- we each have our own risk appetite.

Wonder why they didn’t mention that to us, kilburnfrenchie? that could have solved our problem! I guess you could pay for a seat if they can tell you they’d have room to fit the seat in? I was just coming back to say that we are tied to easter school hols this year so need to go to a high resort and will be travelling after the ski train finishes. If I’d had my pick of when to go in the season, we’d have gone on the overnight ski train direct from St Pancras to Bourg St Maurice and gone up on the funicular to Les Arcs. Nice and easy (takes longer than flying, granted, but you can walk up and down the train with a grizzly baby).

Agree that the car seat might not work as your baby might not have a seat on the bus. Who are you travelling with? What do they say to do? Can you tweet them?
We know someone who ski transfer bus crashed and the only people injured were those not wearing seat belts...sounds obvious but as an adult it's so tempting not to wear the belt as they aren't compulsory in the UK and it's not always automatic to put them on.

We did it last year with a 4.5mo old and a 3.5yr old. Didn't take a car seat and ended up with not only the expected coach transfers but also a coach trip from Heathrow to Manchester.... Lack of car seat on the coach wasn't an issue though, DD was quite happy on a parental lap. DS had a harder time of it, being old enough to find it all quite boring.

We are also grappling with this with an older, wriggly but under 2 year old dc. A sales rep for one company tried to persuade me that they have to sit on your lap because that is safer (safer than what???). We have gone for a resort with only an hour transfer but even then I am thinking about booking a private taxi transfer - I just can't see the coach being safe or dc staying on lap after being on lap all flight.

Jasper safer than a small child using an adult 3 point type seat belt I believe, when the diagonal strap goes across their throat.

When we did this with DS only as an 18mo old he slept through the coach transfer after a mid morning flight and all the excitement of the airports.

Wow, thanks for all the responses, we are looking to book with Neilson, they have said that the car seat probably wouldn’t fit but I might do more investigating, a bit worried that the bus will be full too. Having worked at a ski resort and taking kids on trips a lot with work the whole bus no seatbelt thing scares me! Thanks for everyone’s help!

What resort are you looking at?

You shouldn’t have a problem belting an infant seat into a coach because they’re only small. Ive done it a few times on the London to Oxford bus.

We took an ERF (so reasonably big) seat for my 2yo skiing last winter. No issue at all on the transfer out; a lot of grumbles from the driver and holiday rep on the transfer back but we were able to belt him in at the seat by the back stairs which has more space.
I hate to be that parent but no way was I putting my 2yo on a coach with only an adult belt.

We took a 6m old to chamonix last year and booked a seat on the bus and took own car seat, expensive and a pain to lug the car seat around bur far safer.