Europe ski place for children’s first time

[Codlingmoths]

Hi all, wondering if we should consider taking our kids skiiing in Europe in the next few years, we are not a skiing family, have no gear and would all need lessons so it would need to be a friendly resort that caters to that! The 3 dc would be 5 to 12 or 7 to 15 type range, we are in Australia so I have no idea when we would go but we have family we’d want to see :) near Geneva or in France would be convenient as we speak some French and have family, but asking about anywhere really, and budget would be very relevant, we aren’t super wealthy and it’s obviously a big holiday from Australia. I’ll bump this in the uk daytime :)

Family in France and trying to put some of the holiday budget to seeing them is a big factor, so not looking at Japan.

I don’t think we are wealthy Aussie families so perhaps will skip Val d’Isère! I have family who very much are and are skiing now and I don’t think we’d be able to keep up on the spending, they have all the gear already obviously. Will look at Les arcs , Val Thorens and tignes, if it seems a potential go will sound family out and see if they want local / time of year / interest in Italy.

If you decide to come outside of Easter (Jan or Feb instead) then Les Gets would be a great fit. It’s got lots of family activities outside of skiing and good beginner set ups. Also is a short transfer from Geneva. But def don’t go there at Easter.

you want a high resort - Avoriaz (also part of the portes du soliel ski area, same as Les Gets) is high. So is Val d’Isere (very beautiful resort with amazing skiing, but a long transfer from Geneva - about 4 hours by coach). The Le Fornet ski area there is brilliant for beginners and you can get the cable car down when they are tired rather than having to ski the whole way back. Tignes (less “Moncleur” than VDI but much less beautiful and same transfer time) would also be snow sure but in my opinion is worse skiing for beginners than Val d’Isere and not so pretty to walk round - lots of seperate 60s built areas rather than one old pretty high street.

La Rosiere is also a lovely, sunny family friendly resort that is pretty high (1800m resort height, up to 2800m ski height). Bits can lose snow quickly due to the sun but usually can find routes down; it’s a 3 hr transfer from Geneva though.

Chamonix also beautiful and close to Geneva but too low that time of year.

Basically it’s tricky to go to one of the closest resorts to Geneva at Easter because most are too low. Avoriaz is probably your best bet. If you decide to go earlier in the season (would be significantly cheaper in Jan or in Feb outside of UK half term which is usually 7-14ish of Feb) then you have much more choice, I’d recommend Les Gets.

The thing is, once you are in a large French resort the prices are generally the same when it comes to spending money. If you go into a supermarket or buy hot chocolates or whatever in Val d’Isere it’s going to be the same price as Les Gets or Tignes or Chamonix or wherever (roughly speaking). VDI is popular with the Russians because they all have their glitzy massive chalets there and shop in the expensive designer shops, but you arent going to rent one of their chalets or shop in those shops!

the more “home grown” resorts will have cheaper accommodation. Morzine in particular has a lot of independently run chalets which are cheaper to rent than catered chalets in the higher resorts. But this is because property there is cheaper, because it is lower…and so not where you’d want to go at Easter. Same goes for Chamonix.

La rosière is absolutely close enough, I’ve been to family weddings there and transferred from Geneva. Thanks! Ditto chamonix, we’ve met up there some years ago.

Ah I see. I thought it would be more locked into £50 mains for the kids meals for lunch type set up at some, but if they are all similar in the big places once you’ve paid for accomm etc, that’s easier. All these things are so much simpler to navigate once you understand how they work….

Slightly off topic, but we found that our children both preferred austrian ski schools compared to french. The groups are usually smaller, instructors more likely to have good english and in general, they seem to be more relaxed and fun. ESF or Clubmed groups tend to be large and saw a few youngsters crying on the slopes of Meribel or La Plagne in esf groups or clubmed, but never see anything like this in Saalbach or Zell am See. So I would check the size of group when signing up if it is their first time and they need a gentle introduction. Or even private lesson for two together as they can go at pace appropriate to them.

I know what you mean…I think you get that type of meal deal going on in the little low down resorts in France or smaller resorts in places like Austria. It’s not something I’ve seen much of in the bigger French resorts you would need to head to if you are looking at early Christmas skiing or late Easter skiing. Your accomm is going to be the biggest difference to your budget in those types of resorts, so it’s wherever you can find a good deal.

It might be worth emailing Iglu who are a big ski holiday sales company here and asking what deals they have running at the moment. They can look on their systems across all the providers (crystal, total, VIP etc etc) and see availability. It’s much easier than trying to do it yourself and they can advise on resort. I used to work for them: www.igluski.com/enquire

Agree with this. ESF (Ecole du ski francais - French ski school) is not for the faint hearted and often puts kids off if you have a child who is a bit nervous anyway. Even though they say they will put your child with an English speaking instructor, that does not mean that the lesson will be given in English. My kids have learned quite a lot of French through ESF but ideally I would have put them in a British ski school like Oxygene or Bass or Evo 2. I think they would have had more fun, learnt more, and the group sizes are much smaller.

Reasons we didn’t were because of cost, and also the different levels of lesson not all starting at the same time as ESF does.

A lot of ski schools separate age 5s and under into separate toddler classes. I wanted my children to be in a group together and found Oxygene (which operates out of several resorts) does proper lessons from age 5 rather than age 6. There were a couple of other companies too but you have to look quite hard for them.

You could try Arc 2000 for French Christmas skiing. It’s high up, and catered chalets means you have breakfast, after room snack and dinner included to easier to budget for as only lunch out needed. Get one with on site pool access

As for 5-7 year olds skiing, of course it’s normal. We live in ski area in Europe, virtually every child learns to ski from 3 years . It’s part of the kindergarten curriculum. My own 5 year old is already a confident skier . We ski every week all winter, and he will spend 2 full weeks in Jan with kindergarten going daily. He would be pretty bored going for a walk at the beach as alternative.
The slopes are full of kids skiing

If you go late in the season I can recommend Val Thorens. We used to stay in Lombardes booked through Les montagnettes. Really nice self catering chalets. New generation are a good English speaking ski school based there. VT is snow sure for late spring.

Exactly, mine both started at 3 and that’s quite normal in a family where everyone skis!

I hate ESF for that reason but companies like oxygene are good alternatives.

OP would NZ not be a better option? I think Japan too. However if this is an excuse to visit family, that’s a different matter. I’ve had many a trip out of Geneva and there are loads of options. I think small is better than the mega resorts as you won’t need them yet.

Go up to Avoriaz, really magical no car resort, great for all abilities, you'll love it.