Zermatt & childcare

[doozle]

Hi, can anyone recommend a place to stay in Zermatt that has a good creche and preferable not too much of a pain to get to the slopes for next year?

Many thanks

I love Zermatt and have been several times before we had kids. Don't think it is particularly child friendly, it seems more a couply place to me, but the Hotel Schweizerhof is very close to the Gornergrat cable car.

With kids we have tended to go skiing in Austria (have a look at kinderhotels) - very child and family friendly in our experience.

But I am hoping to go back to Zermatt when the kids are older .

Thanks evamummy.

I have considered Kinderhotels but read mixed reviews - particularly about lack of English speaking staff in creches.

Which ones would you recommend?

Am generally looking at high resorts as we may have to go at Easter.

Zermatt is a real pain to get to in the first place, ski area not well linked apparently, mega expensive, I'm sure there are loads more places which are better for families. This year's bad snow was unusual, even if it is part of a an overall trend of declining snowfall in the European Alps. But at least if there is no snow, Zermatt is beautiful. If I were looking in Switzerland though with children, I'd look at Wengen / Muerren, absolutely love that area.

We've stayed at the Hotel Alpenrose in Serfaus and the Bär Hotel in Serfaus which were lovely but the resorts may not be high enough for April skiing.

Obergurgl/Hochgurgl are higher as Oberlech in Switzerland.

Another good option for late season skiing is Zell am See as there is a glacier in Kaprun next door. Very pretty too - with a beautiful lake below the ski area.

Friends recommended one there a few years back - was either the Schweizerhof or Alex with a kids' club. If you want to go to CH have a look at myswitzerland.com and kidshotels.ch, but simialr set up to Kinderhotles with variable levels of English and staff ratios

Thanks a lot everyone. Evamummy, have you stayed in the Hagleitner at all?

Lizs, I think it was on your recommendation we went to the Alphubel which was just lovely! The Schweizerhof keeps popping up in my searches. I'll check out the kidshotels site.

Yes, we stayed at the Hagleitner last winter actually. It is a lovely hotel with great childcare programmes (kids playrooms, kids cinema, theatre production with the kids etc - the kids really loved it) and a lovely pool/spa as well as very good food. However, it is a short shuttle bus ride away from the main gondola which itself gets very busy in the mornings. When we went it was very busy (new years) so that may have been part of the problem, perhaps if you went off peak it might not be so bad.

The hotels closer to the main life in Zell itself would be more convenient for getting to the slopes imo but we've not looked at those.

Thanks Evamummy, it sounds really nice. I guess the distance from the slopes might be an issue. But I've often fancied Zell Am See in the summer too.

Did you find the language problem an issue at all with the childcare?

Yes Zell looks lovely in the summer too. The lake seems to offer lots of water based activities incl a children's sailing school. And it would probably be lovely walking in the mountains with the lake below.

Language wise, in our experience most staff speak English fairly well, certainly more so than in the French speaking resorts. In fact many Germans love to practice their English on native speakers .

Powderbyrne provide fantastic Childcare with English speaking nannies, crèche and ski schools for children over 3. They go to Zermatt as well as other Swiss resorts, I can recommend Adula in Flims.