anyone used esprit before ?

[mummydoc]

am planning ski trip feb time with dh and dd1 aged 7. dd went for first tiem last yr and did 5 mornings of about 2 hrs at a ski school - not sure if did much , had private instructor last morning and seemed to be able to balnace and snow plough and just starting to turn at bottom of slope . we think we would like to use a package company this year - esprit look good - anyone taken their LO's and used esprit ski school ? is it good, do they help with nose wipes / skis on/off that kind of thing ? also do you think a 7 year old could cope with am/pm lessons or just am ? she is very sporty and fit ( can stand up on her surf board!) I am anxious she enjoys it as dh and i love skiing and want the whole family to enjoy it tigether for many years hopefully thanks

Had same experience with esprit last year and will never use them again.
We were so sick on returning(food poisoning from poor hygiene ) sadly my 3 page complaint letter never made it to head office ,the lesson is as above, if something is wrong complain while you are there ,we were far to british stiff upper lip about it which I very much regret. A year on it still makes me mad.

We had a good trip last year to la Rosiere with Esprit!
Despite it being half-term, it was not crowded, snow condition were good (despite last year being generally h* conditions),
I liked the other people in the chalet and enjoyed the dinners with them ( DH has bad knees, so i am effectively a single parent as far as ski hols are concerned), and the kids were okay with the ski school (they are not keen on group lessons generally, but these were okay). I wish I had discovered Esprit when the DC were younger - this year they are 10 and 8 and so out of the normal range (which seems to be about 1-7) and would not be challenging enough for DS1.
IMHO they are better than Mark Warner wiht whom we did a few trips in previous years.

BTW - interesting about the food poisoning post - a week after I got back from La Ros I went down with something that had all the symptoms of listeria - I did wonder...

Ollie - you weren't in Selva were you? DH SAYS THERE WAS SICKNESS SPreading through the chalet badly when he was there? sorry for caps.

SKSS we were in Tignes and my rant refers to new year 06/07

hey i worked for esprit and i can honestley say that are totally brilliant the staff work very hard especially chilcare to provide the best possible holiday for the guests, it is true that the people that do go on the holidays are a bit upper class but hey you spend a lot of money then thats the way it goes, we certaintley never lost any children, and i can also say it was the best job ive ever had and carnt wait to go back and do another season , yes the chalet staff and the childcare like to go out at night get drunk but we do a very hard job and like to let our hair down sometimes as long as it doesnt affect our work then whats up with that? the lady whose son quit because of low standards??? its my guess that the standards were maybe to high for him to keep up to so he went home and cried to mummy ......... esprit are a class company to work for and an either better company to go on holiday for but i will say 1 thing me and numerous other members off the chilcare team did not get crb checked before we took the job / at all which i find insane and totally wrong but its a fact that disapointed me greatley apart from that they are great!

DO NOT USE ESPRIT!

Long story, bunch of total incompetents. Daughter ended up v. ill and they did nothing in their care. They won't honour their childcare guarantee and give us any money back. This year was the WORST childcare I have EVER come across.

Also, friend had nightmare with them where DS went 'missing' for 20 minutes out in the deep snow by himself.

To be balanced, have had 1 good holiday with them, but NEVER EVER AGAIN.

Tigerfox, that is seriously shocking that some of the staff were not CRB checked - unbelievable.

I have looked at their brochure many times and in some ways been very tempted by the holidays, but have not yet booked as:

1. They seem to charge a lot (particularly in school hols) for fairly basic accommodation in most cases.

1. Lack of evening babysitting for children under 4 yrs

1. They are completely inflexible over travel. They insist on one taking their charter flights and do not offer a penny discount if you don't take them. As our family like to travel by train or car the cost would be too much to pay the entire holiday cost plus transport on top.

1. I also think they are very commercial and not entirely honest as the Director told me last year that we would have to pay for the flight even if we didn't use it otherwise they would have to pay for unfilled seats. I suggested that Esprit could sell the seats on - he said no they wouldn't do that as they would not want to take people on their flights who were not on an Esprit holiday. YET a month later I saw that Esprit were selling flight only options on their website! Hmm!

I expect that Esprit used to be a lovely company but have grown larger and larger and the personal service and flexibility has been lost somewhere!

Probably still a good company to go with if money is no object and one likes charter flights!

katebee amd others I have had 2 great holidays with esprit, some things i would suggest.

1. Lack of evening baby sitting. Since your children ar elooked after all day it is kind of assumed you may want to spend some time with them in the evening. Howevr if that isn't the ase go for a chalet hotel;. In the chalet hotels (we stayed in Val d'isere last season) There is evening babaysitting every night. Basically the kids have their 'high tea' and then go to bed (or cocoa club) and when the parents go to dinner (7.30 - 8.00) there are baby sitters outside in the corridors on each floor.

Aslo tbh I am always too knackered to go out, so in a chalet the kids can go to bed whilst parents eat.

2. travel, the esprit flights are pretty good tbh, as the flight is full of families everyone is really friendly, no 'tutting' about kids and reasonable flight times. OK you cannot get a discount for driving, but why not wait until last minute deals come in and then book

3. school holidays are pricey, all companies charge more for school holidays. If you want plush accommadation try La Belle Plagne or some of the newer chalets. I tried pricing a holiday last year, looking at booking a halfway decent apartment, ferry/driving, hotel en route, food/eating out, and there was approx £200 difference!! You do pay for the childcare and the lessons, but tbh it is worth it. I have costed a week in Jan for 4 at £1600 in Alpes D'huez which I think is pretty good. £400 each for flights, accommadation, all food. A decent apartmet would be £600 - £700, ferry £100, petrol £100 - £150, Tolls £60, Hotel enroute £100. = around £1000. Add food bills (and this way I don't have to cook either) and you are looking at £1200 -£1300. If we wait until the offers come in I reacon we will ge the holiday for around £1200 - £1400. We paid £1600 inc lessons and lunches last year

I've just booked with Esprit for the 5* hotel at Belle Plagne which looks very plush with pool, hot-tubs, etc.

£1600 for 3 of us which I think is good. Lessons for dd were extra on top of that - about another £300 I think. But that's her childcare sorted from 8:30am - 6:00pm (if we choose to use it all day, I normally pick her up early afternoon and ski with her).

There is evening babysitting available in the form of coco club. We've never used it before as dd is normally so tired after a day's skiing she is happy to go to bed at 7:30pm. We take a baby monitor with us even though she's 7 just so we can hear her if there is a problem, then we can nip up to the room. If she does want to use cocoa club next time then we have that option.

I'm sure Esprit aren't the best ski company in the world but we keep going back with them. There's normally the odd niggle, the flights are always really early, the transfer seems to take ages as you often have to wait at Geneva airport for another plane to come so those people can use the same bus. But I've always found the childcare good. DD was bored in snowclub in the afternoons last year but this year they have now done it so kids can ski all day if they want instead of afternoon snowclub - so we're a lot happier with that. I normally find the food is good, I think in six years with them have only had one awful meal. We had one holiday where the staff were a bit lazy and didn't bother making a cake every day!!! But most years they've been very helpful and pleasant.

crunchie and stripey - I've realised reading your posts that I wasn't clear about what I meant by babysitting..our children go to bed on the early side 7ish so I was not sure how we would manage the evening meals downstairs with the children asleep upstairs. We are not the types to want to go out partying every night!! The resort we had been looking at was La Rosiere and I think that as the accommodation is chalets the staff do not go upstairs to listen to the children.

We have found that self catering ski holidays work better for us with young children as we can eat in the next room while they are asleep. The company we went with this year, Snowbizz offered good childcare etc in the day and the nannies were available for evening babysitting so one could eat out once or twice a week and self cater for the rest. Unfortunately this company only go to one resort and are already booked up for the weeks we had in mind - New Year or half term.

I appreciate there are many good things about Esprit - the daytime childcare and ski school set up looks great. Some of the accommodation looks really good especially the chalet hotel in Belle Plagne.

Re: travelling - it is true that there are last minute good deals but if one is travelling by train you need to book 2 or 3 months ahead to get the train fares at a reasonable price which is sometime before the cheap ski esprit deals come out. Unfortuantely this year we have to go for the school hols due to not being able to take our son out so it is going to be expensive both in terms of accommodation and travel.

Maybe we are unusual in not wanting to fly to the alps..I'm just disappointed that Esprit don't offer other travel options. If one is happy to fly I can see they would be a good company to go with.

Anyway its good to hear you have both had good hols with Esprit - I will have a look at their website again and see if I can find anything in school hols within our budget which is approx £3000 for 4 people for everything (travel, accom, ski school, lift pass etc)!

Katebee - to be honest with my dd asleep in the bedroom and us in the dining room (which is what's happened every year so far) - it hasn't been a problem at all and not really any different from being at home. Like I said we always take the monitor incase we wouldn't be able to hear her from the dining room. Most people seem to do this and there is a load of monitors lined up at the table It was probably more of a pain when she was little and was more unsettled but the last couple of years she's been fine even if not asleep she's stayed in the room reading till she does fall asleep.

It is a pain though that they don't give discount if you drive. Friends we go with say every year that they're going to drive the following year to avoid the transfers - they never do though. And certainly wouldn't if they realised it wasn't cheaper!

I am amazed to see so many negative comments about Esprit. We have been with them 4 times now and have never had any reason to complain. The childcare arrangements are very flexible and clearly specified in their brochure so you know in advance what is on offer and can plan accordingly. The snow rangers and nannies that look after the children have been great without exception.

I don't think Esprit are particularly expensive for what you get. 3 years ago we didn't go with them as the friends we were going with wanted to book everything independently as they thought it would be cheaper. We went to Morzine and it actually ended up costing £100 more than it would have cost with Esprit (the chalet was a lot more luxurious than Esprit chalets though, but it was 2km out of the resort and we had to be bussed to and from the lifts). The ESF ski-school was appauling for the little ones and we ended up having to abandon our skiing as ds was so unhappy about going to kindergarton - never been a problem with Esprit.

If you want more luxury go for a hotel rather than a chalet. DS is an only child so we prefer chalets as he can make friends with the other children and we aren't bothered about luxury accomodation we just want good skiing and for our ds to be happy.

We have been to Champoluc, Scheffau, Kaprun and Selva with Esprit. This year we are going to La Rosiere with them and have booked ds in for ski-lessons and Snow Club although last year he improved so much in Sprite-Beginners that we expect he will ski with us 2 or 3 afternoons this time (he is now 6) .

we all love everything about esprit (except the price!!)

MsBunny, I have just booked to go to La Rosiere.

Where are you staying and when are you going?