Kinderhotels

[northlondonmama78]

Hello,

Weve just come back from one of the Kinderhotels in Austria and absolutely loved it. However, our two are very little (oldest is 2) and the fact that all the kids speak German didn’t affect the holiday. We’re concerned that in future, the kids wouldn’t really be able to join in / make friends as 95% of the guests are German / Austrian. Does anyone have any experience with any of the luxury Alpine hotels where there are more English speaking families? Or any other suggestions for an active family (not interested in Ikos or Sani)?

Thanks!

We’ve been going to KinderHotels for years. They’ve suited every age group, from baby to tween to teen to young adult. One of mine chose German GCSE on the back of it 😁
I promise they make friends regardless of any language difficulties when very young.
They are appealing to me because there are so few English families that go.

Thanks for responding! I worry a bit as all the activities seemed to be in German and our daughter would have been literally the only English speaker. I don’t want her to be in kids club the whole time but if she can’t join in at all, it seems a bit pointless booking a children’s hotel. But good to know your kids had a good experience! This is the third one we’ve been to and other than the language issue, we love them. Do you have any favourites?

My experience is not from Kinderhotels, but from Austrian ski schools where there is usually a mix of kids from all over Europe.

The small children just seem to get on with it - communicating with pointing, signs, facial expressions and some sort of universal kids' "language." As long as the staff are explaining things in English/Dutch/Danish etc as well as in German, everyone seems to manage fine. I've seen non-British kids suddenly finding an English vocabulary - on one memorable occasion, I met a very confused Danish mother listening to her child speaking broken English with a playmate. When she asked her son where he'd learned to speak English, he shrugged and said, "Mummy, the iPad speaks English."

Thanks Havana!!

Hi OP, sorry to slightly high jack your thread, but I was just wondering which ones you’ve been to? Also, have you been to any in September? Thinking of booking last minute and wondering about weather! Kids are 3 and 1!

Hi Maisie, we e not been in September but we absolutely loved all the ones we’ve been to (Hotel Baër and Laurentius both in Serfaus and Garberhof in Dolomites). I would have thought Dolomites would have slightly better weather but not sure. The nice thing is that these hotels are designed around skiing so very well set up for bad weather (eg indoor pool, games rooms, sometimes soft play etc etc). Hope that helps!

We have been to the Alpenrose: https://www.hotelalpenrose.at/en/hotel/
and the Ellmauhof: https://www.kinderhotels.com/en/hotels/detail/generation-hotel-ellmauhof/

Both excellent and there were a few English families there, but not too many :)