Skiing

[Tillysmummy]

Can anyone recommend a good baby friendly skiing resort in France.
Also, im not much of a skiier and will have to have lessons whereas my dh is good. Not sure whether I will enjoy this holiday or not and whether or not I want to waste it on skiing when I haven't done much before but I would like to have a go.

I would be very interested in everyone's experiences with skiing, the creches (dd will be about 18 months then)

I wrote a long answer about skiing here here which might give you some pointers.

Meribel, where we usually go, is perhaps not the best of resorts for a non-skier, although there is a sports centre with a swimming pool and you could take trips down to Brides-les-Bains or Moutiers. Good place to learn though - and there are plenty of holiday companies that offer child care, or you could take dd to the Club Saturnin (the Ecole de Ski Francias creche) - for kids between 18 motnhs and 3 years.

Chalet Tournier, the Ski Cuisine chalet mentioned on the Mumsnet site, is perhaps not the best of their chalets for an 18 month old - there are open, steep stairs up directly from the living area. The other chalets, eg Cecilia or Veronica, are probably better. Their nanny service is excellent - but now getting quite expensive (but it is one-to-one). Nevertheless, we'll be going back to Meribel with them (again!) next year.

Thanks JanZ, i feel a bit mean about sticking her in a creche all day but think she probably will have a whale of a time. She loved her day at Jigsaw yesterday. I have heard of Esprit to may take a look at that. I have heard that with the chalet option sometimes the catering can be a bit dodgy plus we don't know if we could get anyone to come with us so could be too expensive for just two of us.

Your info is really helpful

You don't need to to take a whole chalet! Prices are per person, regardless of how full the chalet is. I've been on loads of chalet holidays and have always got one with the other people who have been staying in the chalet. The catering can be a bit dodgy at the cheaper end but it's rare (we've always been ok but db has had a bad experience with a very low budget chalet holiday).

Admittedly in recent years, we have been going with a company called "Ski Cuisine" and as you wuld expect with a name like that, the food is brilliant. They're not the cheapest though - and you also have to arrange your own travel, which adds to the cost (but we like the flexibility). We either book well in advance and get the early payment discount, or book at the last minute and get a good deal that way. They always tell others booking that we have a baby - so they then can't complain about the baby being around. They supply a cot, high chair, food, buggy etc for a "baby package" price of £95 (if the baby is sharing your room).

The other good thing about a chalet is that your dh might meet some other people who are the same standard as him to ski with.

Ski Esprit no longer go to Meribel (I think), but I have heard good things of them.

The first time we took ds skiing (at 6 months) we went with Simply Ski to Le Praz, which is part of the Trois Vallees ie Courchevel, Meribel & Val Thorens. Simply has been mentioned on other holiday threads. Their childcare is great, ds loved the creche & the nannies. Le Praz is a pretty family village with lifts up to the Courchevel ski area. The chalet food was very good - great to not have to think about cooking!

This year we went with Ski Peak to Vaujany (ds 18 months) as recommended by mumsnet! We were self-catering, ds in the local French creche. There were other English children and a ski company nanny in the creche so he settled in quite well, although this time I only skiied half days.

Both companies are very family-orientated, and both ski areas varied enough to suit all abilities.
We'll probably go back to Vaujany next year.

What time in the skiing season are you thinking of going? Where will be "best" varies according to when you want to go

Some of my favourites (and I'm a qualified ski instructor in "real life", although I haven't done much teaching since DS was born) - which are also good ones for children's specialist operators, and are "real" french villages/towns rather than purpose built resorts (so do have other things to do too) are Les Gets and Morzine.

They're some of the nearest resorts to the UK if you want to drive, and only a one hour transfer from Geneva if you fly (even if you go somewhee else do consider transfer times - it can be up to 5 hours+ for some resorts).

Specialist companies (with creche services) who go there include:
www.skifamille.co.uk
www.hillwood-holidays.co.uk/page4.html

Or there are independent British-run creches there if you go DIY or with a different company:
www.kindercareltd.com/intro.htm (Les Gets)
or www.jackfrosts.com/ (Morzine)

Or for private nannies in Morzine if you don't want a creche situation (JackFrosts do this too):
www.alpinenannies.com/

There's also a British run (so all native English speaking) ski school there:
www.britishskischool.com/

Hope this helps

JanZ Ski Cuisine sounds great, we want to arrange our own travel because DH doesn't want to fly so we wanted to get the snow train.
Thanks Bettys and GillW I will look into all your suggestions. Gill, we are looking at going end of Jan early Feb time. Shame you aren't still instructing, you could teach crap me !

We got the snow train TGV when we went to the Trois Vallees - it's great can thoroughly recommend it though a little hard to keep ds amused for 8 hours!

Tilysmummy - at that time of the season you'd be ok in either Morzine or Les Gets. The resorts themselves aren't that high (which can be an advantage with a little one) but there's plenty of high skiing available, and they're part of a big circuit which gives you loads of options about where to ski.

I also agree with Bettys sugestion of Le Praz as a possibility - another one of my favourites, though it's very small and there's not an awful lot of non-ski activities at that level. If you're looking at Le Praz, and you're thinking of having lessons anyway, I can thoroughly recommend Skivolution - the prices include instruction from some of the very top British instructors (the ones who train the more junior instructors, like me!) so even DH could get some instruction at his level, which would give him someone to ski with while you had your lessons. I don't think the prices are on their website yet for next season, but they'd send you a brochure or discuss what you want with you if you called them.

oops, this thread has no relevance to me at all, thought it was called skiving

LOL Mopsy, same here

Meant to say too that there's a TGV stop for Morzine/Les Gets at Cluses - only 22km away (Eurostar to Paris, then 4.5 hours by TGV if I remember rightly), and there are buses/taxis to the resorts - ask again if you want numbers for mountain taxi/transfer companies.

One other tip is to look at family and/or annual insurance rather than buying it from a tour operator - it'll probably work out a lot cheaper - or at one of the inclusive ferry/insurance deals if you're considering driving - last season P&O, Sea France and Hoverspeed all did these - ferry crossing, personal insurance, and breakdown insurance for £200-£245 for the three of you.

It's actually not a bad drive - about 8-10 hours from the channel and motorway nearly all the way - this can actually be easier with a little one as she'll quite likely sleep all the way if you drive overnight, or you could stop overnight as cheapish hotels are fairly common in France, and some can even be booked online from the UK (in English!). It also gives you the convenience of having your car there and being able to take more with you than the train (where you have to carry it all!) and bring back more French goodies too. Costwise it's probably very similar overall as fuel is generally cheaper in France.

Do ask again if you want details of routes, overnight stops, whatever - I've done these sort of trips (and set them up for other people) so often that I've got loads of info and links!

Ski Cuisine's web site is here - and also, give them a call - they are very helpful.

The skischool we like in Meribel is Magic in Motion (www.magic-in-motion.co.uk) - in fact, it is part of the reason we keep on going back, as we have got friendly with a (married) couple of the instructors there (although she has just had twins - but is planning to be back next year!)

I know of Skivolution's good reputation though - our instructor friend knows and respects some of the people there, who we bump in to sometimes during our own lessons (we take a couple of private lessons every year, just to be sure we keep on progressing).

We've driven in the past (all the way from Scotland!) - twice with ds - but this year are thinking of flying to Paris and then getting the TGV or a couchette. Most of the ski cmpanies will pick you up from Moutiers (Ski Cuisine does for no charge).

We've still not decided when we're going next year - will need to decide soon to get the early booking discount. If we go with our friends, it'll be half term (expensive and busy!), if it's just ourselves, it'll probably be late January.

Janz - who are your friends? I might know them....

Fraser and Sandy

Doesn't ring any bells - but it's the Courchevel crowd I know better than the Meribel ones anyway these days.

I think they avoided doing any of the "formal" stints across in Courchevel when M-in-M was setting up in Courchevel. They were always being booked by previous clients (like us!), so they never had a clear week to work across in Courchevel.

Fraser is a short, pushy Scot (probably why he gets on well with dh!) in his 40s and Sandy (30 something) is originally from the Wirral.

We have no say in when ds goes on skis for the first time: Sandy will decide. She says she has seen too many parents push their kids too fast in their enthusiasm to pass on their interest (obsession!) that they end up putting the kids OFF skiing!

In fact in January (ds was 16 months, only just walking), he cried every time we tried to get him to walk in the snow!

We'll certainly not push DS to ski if he doesn't enjoy it - I've taught kids who're there because their parents want them to be, rather than because the kids enjoy it too. There's a big difference though between being left for an hour or two in ski school, with strangers, in cold weather, and in a strange environment and just getting them used to the idea of having skis on and sliding before that.

My DS has been to resorts, dry slopes and race meetings with us since he was only a few days old, so he probably thinks skiing is just as normal a thing to do as walking! This is him at about 8 months - you can tell from his face that he loves it, although he's only doing 5-10 minutes at a time, and always with the pole (a sort of parent/instructor powered mobile lift!) to control him.

I'm impressed! Ds wasn't even crawling at 8 months!

I agree with your comment about getting used to sliding and the feeling of skis. For that reason, once ds is 3 I'd like to put him into the Jardin de P'tits Loups (if Sandy agrees!) so that he can get used to playing around on skis and in snow.

Is your dh a ski instructor too?

Yes DH is an instructor too - but we both have "real jobs" most of the time! We definately don't "teach" DS though - it's just a game as far as he's concerned, and if he happens to develop some confidence on skis as a side-effect of it, then that's a bonus.

DS was already crawling when that pic was taken, but the critical thing really isn't so much crawling as being really solid taking their own weight when standing holding on to something. There's a window of opportunity between then and starting to walk (when they get confused by not being able to easily move their legs independently) that's actually quite a good time to introduce the idea. Even with the specialist equipment we've got it's actually harder with 2 year olds than it was with DS at 8 months, so you're probably right now to introduce it at about 3. You might find next season though that if you can find an almost flat area which isn't busy he'd enjoy just standing on the front of your skis and sliding with you a little way.

We ski in Whistler Canada every year, but we ski in Morzine every Christmas. we've just booked for the 4th year.

Morzine is great, lots of little villages on the mountain with little restaurants - the goat village is a good place to eat.

Have to be careful when yoiu go, the snow hasn't arrived until the 20th Dec the last three years!

We fly with BA or Swiss, just booked for £95 each (Ds 15 and DD16 so adult fares)

GillW - that photo of your ds is one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

Can anyone advise the best sort of 'arrangements' for a ski holiday for 4 adults, one 3 year old and two x 6 month babies? My feeling is that ds (the 3 yr old) would not be happy in a creche and will want to try skiing/ play in the snow/ sledge etc. Is he too young - when can kids have lessons? Also any recommendations (I'm still trawling through all the other threads...)

gillw, cute, cuter, cutest!

Mo2 - Three isn't necessarily too young - but very few ski school/ski kindergartens will take them that young. Some three year olds will take to it well, others will struggle at six. A lot depends on the individual child - if they're physically quite co-ordinated, confident and have a reasonable concentration span they may well enjoy it a three. But I wouldn't bank on it!

Can you give us some more clues what you have in mind? Are you looking for a creche/nanny facility for the two youngest ones? And how are you thinking of travelling - air/drive? What region are you thinking about? The Alps? North America? Scandinavia can be good for avoiding language difficulties (important for children this young trying to learn). It's probably not one you'd have thought of but Hemsedal in Norway would probably be near the top of my short list, as it has, if I remember rightly, a FREE creche, which will help your budget with two little ones to cater for, AND a ski school which will take 3 year olds (see here - there are other companies who go there too.

Most places we went to in Switzerland last year (Villars) had snow creches from 3 years where the kids learnt to ski but also played games in the snow, sledging etc & at bottom of mountain was creche/daycare for younger kids (also 3 yr old if they wanted)

can give more info if required