English speaking resort creche near decent skiing area...Any country...Austria maybe? Or cheaper French resort

[SkiDilemma]

Following on from my other thread in my quest to meet needs of a diverse group, i am trying to locate a reputable english speaking resort creche for a 2.5 year old.

i'm looking for ideas about lesser known resorts with creche, that are fairly good value and linked to a decent ski area that won't bore very good and confident intermediate skiers (not me!).

any country considered. I especially love Austria, but am flexible as i think we have to start with childcare and word from there.
TIA!

PS i know about the mainstream english speaking resorts e.g. Morzine and all the main child friendly tour operators, but am trying to think out of the box and find a lesser know resort that may suit.

'work' not word

Can you afford Switzerland?

There are crèches in the various resorts in the Jungfrau region, where there is plenty of intermediate and hard skiing. As items Switzerland, the staff are multilingual and well qualified, and the facilities immaculate. It's one of the few places where I would leave DC in a previously unseen crèche. I think they do snow kindergarten too (not ski-ing that young, but definitely out in the white stuff). You can book in by session, rather than having to commit to a block.

wetotter, can you recommend a specific resort?

We used both the crèches at the base and top of the Mannlichen cable car in Wengen in the past. Do be prepared for a less hands on , cuddly approach to childcare though, they will let kids cry. As long as snow cover is good there is plenty to occupy decent skiers in the area.

There are also hotels with in house crèches, although if the profile of the group is older/child free they may feel the hotel is a compromise. Try kinderhotels and kids hotels.ch or the MySwitzerland.com sites for ideas.

We went to Mürren (the other side of the valley to Wengen).

I agree that the crèches can seen a bit stiff (which attributed simply to the German accent sounding a bit strict!) but the DC are well cared for in high standard facilities and will be safe. The one in Mürren is in the village sports centre.

Mürren has fewer km of runs than Wengen, but is reputed to have more interesting/challenging ski-ing (down the Schilthorn and the course of the Kandahar race in particular). OTOH, Wengen has the Lauberhorn race piste, but generally its pistes are wider and more family friendly. Mürren is car free, so if you drive you park at Lauterbrunnen and get the cable car up from there.

You can get differently zoned ski passes, depending on whether you want one side of the valley or whole region. So you could stay in Lauterbrunnen and go up whichever side takes your fancy.

I've never stayed in Grindelwald (yes, the same name as the evil wizard) but I've heard good things about basing yourself there too.

Les Schtroumpfs (Smurfs) nursery in Verbier. It's not a lesser known resort, but thought you might not be aware of it.

www.lesschtroumpfs.ch/enghome.html

I meant not aware of the Smurfs nursery, rather than not aware of Verbier.

We did find the crèche in Wengen at the base of Manlichen a bit tough for our one year old. This was during the 15/16 winter. The lady in charge was a very good administrator but I did not feel she was enjoying that much her job as a direct carer. The place is good in terms of health & safety, etc and the basics. But the lady in charge did let our daughter cry a bit too much unnecessarily in my opinion, I found out the hard way by showing up early. This was compensated by the two junior staff on the other hand that were really lovely and very hard working, and very loving with the children are really enjoying what they do, my daughter liked them both. But it was overcrowded sometimes, so the ratio of carer to child was a bit random and if there are babies on that day, obviously the babies take priority and all the time. So I guess it depends very much on your child. Also note that our daughter does not go to nursery full time so she is used to at least have a point of reference she can go to (and get feedback from). May be different for children spending 5 days a week in nursery.
All in all we survived but in the end it was too much for my daughter who was clearly unhappy to be left there and we skipped the last day of skiing to spend time with her.
The space is quite small, so it can get very crowded quickly. It is very well located though right next to the cable car so as convenient as it can be. The food is OK and if your child is at the stage where he/she needs to be spoon fed, make sure you give strict instructions.
Finally it was ok re cost as they charge you for the hours you use. I am not sure I would go back, maybe ok now that our daughter is older.

I would look at T4 nannies and get an english speaking nanny instead. We used them in Tignes but they link to other resorts. They can take up to 4 kids (not all the time though) if you need change over assistance for classes, but will have 2 or 3 for the afternoon/day. The hotel let her use the common rooms (we got permission before we booked) and she was flexible and lovely. We've done esprit and mark warner and T4 was much better and much cheaper when sharing the cost with another family.

... I realise you're not sharing with the 2.5 year old but some of the other families might chip in if the nanny can assist them too...just a thought