Recommendations for a first ski holiday with a six month old

[LilyGreenJade]

Looking for recommendations for how to approach our first ski holiday with our DC who is due this month. Can go anytime in March/April 2027 when DC will be 6/7 months. Appreciate this is well in advance; will not be booking anything until after Christmas just to ensure everything is going smoothly, but starting to gather ideas!

Would be grateful to hear of experiences/recommendations of childcare options/resorts/specific accommodation. Would be happy with hotel, chalet or self-catered. Flying from Northern England/Scotland possible. No other family/friends available to join us unfortunately to help with childcare. Budget-conscious while I am on maternity leave. DH and I experienced regular skiers. We were thinking of putting DC in childcare each morning, and then spending time as a family in the afternoon at the pool or around the resort.

Thanks in advance.

I don't have any advice OP, but just wanted to say this sounds sooo lovely!!

((can I join please 😅))

Oh this takes me back we went here when DS was 11m he took his 1st steps on that holiday
https://www.skipeak.net/our-accommodation

For France VIP ski have good childcare with a mix of chalets and hotels. Jelly and Ice Cream are an agency in all the big French resorts that we’ve used a few times and they’ll come to your chalet/hotel so you don’t need to restrict yourself on where to stay. Club Med have baby club in some of their ski resorts.

Childcare (as in kids/baby club) with a 6 month old will be difficult if you’re skiing, in my experience they generally expect you to stay close by in case baby kicks off. You will need a nanny/babysitter but most of the big resorts in France/Switzerland/Austria have agencies that offer this. We’ve done it in Zermatt, Val d’Isere, St Anton and Dolomites/Cortina when ours were very young. We did a few days of full day skiing and then the rest half days skiing then lunch with baby and either pool or hiking with babies in carriers in the afternoons at that age and younger. They are too young to play in the snow so there’s not a lot to do with them really until they are around 1 but it was absolutely worth doing still. By March/April the weather will be warmer which should be ideal for non ski activities in the afternoons.

TBH if you can't take a relative or nanny I'd give it a miss for a year. It just won't be that enjoyable.

If you can get someone to come with you it's great, but really you want someone who will meet you each time you stop for a drink or food, which only someone who is there full time for the baby will do.

Dc being babies is the only time we've missed a ski season (apart from Covid) in the last 35 years, so I get the urge to find a way, but I just don't think it's likely to be that workable with such a small baby.

We found it perfectly workable with babies. First took DD when she was 6 months and that was to a Scott Dunn kids club (sadly those don’t exist for skiing any more). DS first went when he was 11 months and we had a nanny through Jelly & Ice Cream that bought loads of the toys to the chalet, took him swimming, for crepes, to see the animals at the farm etc. Might be harder if you’re breastfeeding though as they’re not eating a lot at 6 months so to leave them for several hours to go of skiing you need to be confident they’ll take a bottle.

If you do I’d go with low expectations of how much skiing you will get done. Tbh I’d probably miss a year. It’ll be so much more fun with an 18month old who will find a childcare setting easier and will eat and drink more consistently. By that age they’d be able to enjoy actually being in the snow too.

For a 6 month old unless they’re used to regularly taking a bottle and you pump on the slopes it will likely be difficult to navigate breastfeeding and childcare. Babies don’t just immediately settle happily into childcare with strangers, especially if they’ve never been in that kind of setting before which they are unlikely to have been given you’ll still be on maternity leave.

People who I know that have been skiing with babies have gone with family, so baby has been left with a family member who they are already familiar with and can be more flexible about meeting up for breastfeeds.

Body wise for you you’ll probably be fine but both pregnancy and skiing are physically demanding. A lot of the muscles you use for skiing are those that really take a hit in pregnancy. Most people aren’t quite back to pre pregnancy levels of fitness at 6 months post baby unless that’s something you put effort into, how easy that is to do depends a lot on what kind of baby you get.

I would also skip a year for the many reasons mentioned above. If money was no object, it might work with a personal nanny who knows your baby already and travels with you, but absolutely not on a budget.

We have also used Jelly and Ice cream Nannies - in Lech and in Val Thorens. DS was 11 months and the nanny would bring him up in the cable car to meet us for lunch. He wasn't walking by then, which made things much easier.

Ski famille or family ski would both have suitable childcare options. Ski famille have in chalet childcare.