Kinderhotels in Austria for skiing holidays?

[cloudjumper]

DH and I both love skiing and used to go every year before DS was born. He's now 3.5, and we would love to go skiing with him next year. Came across Kinderhotels, and they look very appealing. Has anyone been? Which ones are good? Ideally, we'd want somewhere with really easy access to the slopes, don't fancy a bus transfer to go skiing etc.

Also, how do the transfers to/from the aiports work, do the hotels do that individually? I am a bit paranoid about this, tbh, I don't like the idea of travelling in a minibus or the likes with DS and no proper car seat...

We've been to Kinderhotels and had a fantastic time. The best one we've used for access was the Sporthotel Achensee, which is literally next door to the lift, so no transfer time at all. The children's lessons are excellent.

That hotel does individual transfers to and from, with appropriate car seats.

They look great, and we booked there last year. Everyone raves about them........unless you have a poorly child! We arrived late on a Friday night, and on the Saturday morning a single spot heralded the start of a common childhood complaint that we had so far managed to avoid. Never mind, we thought, we were there for 10 days and our daughter (who had already had the pox) would still be able to go to ski school and he wouldn't be contagious after about 4-5 days so we would be able to get out and about again. That is what a normal person would think! The hotel doctor (more about him here. This is not my review, or the review of anyone I know, btw,) actually put it is writing that we leave the hotel that day for the safety of all other occupants. For chickenpox! Fortunately, we were rescued by my lovely german friend who was staying in her MIL's house just down the road, and had a fab holiday after that. I still cannot believe they kicked us out! (Well, to be fair, they did offer us the option of being quarantined in our room for the whole 10 days, with a tray of food being left in reception for one of us to go and collect - they would not bring anything to us or enter the contaminated room! I suggested that he would be OK in the restaurant, and that my daughter should be able to use the facilities as she had had chickenpox in the past, to be met with a panicked reply of 'nooo, no! You must not leave the room except to leave the hotel altogether! Our doctor says he will be ill for the whole 10 days. We cannot see your son in the hotel, cannot!'

I'm sure they are great when they work, but from my own experience, I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. There are more sympathetic ways of dealing with a family with an ill child.

Just to clarify, my son got chickenpox, not dd. She'd had it previously.

Thank you for your replies, this is great, and will definitely keep this in mind for the future.

However, after much deliberation, we have decided that this time, we will not be going with Kinderhotels - purely and simply because of the price.

Yes, they offer a lot and sound amazing, I would have loved to have gone. But they are just so eye-wateringly expensive - we managed to get a deal with Esprit for a week's skiing in France, staying in a chalet-hotel with breakfast and dinner, ski passes for us, ski lessons for DS and flights all included for much less than a week at a Kinderhotel with just the food, no flight, no lessons, no ski passes, no transfer included. It was too good an offer to not take it...

backinthebox Wow, that is indeed harsh! It's Chickenpox, for crying out loud, not Smallpox! Did you get your money back from the hotel?!

Ski Esprit are fabulous. We've been with them too, and no quibbles. My son was only a baby when we went, and he got a tummy bug. No problem.

We had a very muddled outcome, but weren't left out of pocket.