skiing - can anyone recommend a good resort?

[mummysurfer]

we fancy going skiing in jan 2005 (not been before) with dd 8 and ds 5. we's like a hotel that offers half board, not too afr from airport,near slopes with ski school and other things on offer in case kids hate it.

ahs anyone any recommendations?

thanks

How near an airport do you need to be ? Are you after package or prepared to it independently with flight and car hire/train transfer ? Presumably you want snow sure.

We're thinking ....

under 2 hours from airport and an easyish journey (dd suffers with travel sickness). we need guaranteed snow.
would prefer a package as we're novices but if someone has done it independently and knows how to go about things then fine. i also presumed a package would be cheaper, don't know if we're right or not.
have you done this?

We live in Switzerland so tend to do things independently although did do ex-UK packages a few years ago. Last few years we've met an increasing number of independent travelling Brits so it can be cheaper but possibly depends on age of kids and when you want to travel. Agree packages are convenient when you are not sure what's where and for arranging equipment, lift pass and ski school.

Trouble with being snow sure is that the journey tends to take you to altitude and often requires a twisty coach ride so you might find a train transfer better. For easy transfers you could look at the resorts around Geneva,such as Avoriaz and Morzine in Portes du Soleil, France to which Ski Esprit go, or Villars in Switzerland (had friends recommend these), or from Zurich Flims, or Lech in Austria, or from Salzburg Zell am See or Kaprun but then you'd have to take a bus to the glacier if snow is poor lower down (went there pre-Kids). The resorts we have visited in the past few years tend to be further from airports than 2 hours as we drive ourselves (Saas Fee and Wengen).

There are also some recommendations on the MN Home page "Find the best" , although I'm not sure how updated these are. Hope you find something suitable.

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thanks

lizs - a train transfer sounds like a good idea.

froot - which company did you book with?

ski talk in june...

Lik LIZS I'd suggest Morzine as a good option - pretty close - about an hour - to Geneva airport (or go by TGV straight to Cluses and it's only minutes away by Taxi). It has access to a big ski area (Portes du Soleil) for the parents, is a real Alpine town not just a ski resort, and has a sports centre/swimming pool, etc. And has a British ski school . Plenty of Chalet operators around Morzine and neighbouring Les Gets (also very nice, and one of our favourites, but a bit smaller and less going on than in Morzine) are listed here