Skiing with 5 yr old and 11 month old

[mumhum]

Hi, DH and I are both good skiers. We skied with DS1 when he was 11 months and 23 months, he settled well in Esprit creches in Belle Plagne and St Anton. This time DS2 will need creche and DS1 lessons and some childcare. Esprit prices seem to have shot up and really pants flight or transfer times. We have done MW for summer holidays but not ski, but they seem to have a lack of evening childcare for very little ones (we used Esprit baby listening and 5yr old likely to be very tired at end of day), and again not great flight times. We have found early flights and returns work best with little ones. Any advice?

We've skied in Obergurgl with Esprit with DD and used their listening service, transfer time was good but Esprit are on the expensive side, as you say.

Also skied with Le Ski in La Tania who have childcare, but not in the evenings - but they do tend to have very civilised flight times.

Neilson have ski holiday which offer evening childcare in Les Deux Alpes (we haven't skied with Neilson) - one evening free, then you pay per evening used. But I think their evening childcare is from 11 months, so it depends how old your DS2 is?

I've heard lots of people talk on MN about a company called Family Ski, so might be worth looking at them. I think they offer chalets, so evening childcare might be less of an issue as you're closer to your room than in hotel.

We're looking at Crystal (probably Tignes) as they have childcare, drop at ski school etc. and some of their properties offer a snuggle club 3 nights a week. IIRC the flight times were quite good.

For us, transfer time is probably going to be the thing we compromise on and we'll relent and let DD watch TV programmes loaded onto the ipad.

Be interested to hear what others might suggest, or what you decide on, as it's so difficult to find a holiday that has good skiing, is reasonably snows-sure, reasonable transfer time, good childcare/ski lesson combo for children, evening childcare option and is affordable!

We went to Puy St Vincent with Snowbizz this year. DD (4) went into the Totons group for ski lessons. Ski school is run by Snowbizz and the children are taken from crèche to their lesson and back by the nanny. There was the option of afternoon nursery, which we used a couple of times, to give us all day on the slopes.

Nursery and ski school meeting point are a couple of minutes walk away. It is genuinely ski in ski out.

My priority when booking was to find the best combination of nursery and ski school, so that DD's first experience of skiing would be good. Snowbizz was recommended by several posters on MN. I booked on that recommendation and wasn't disappointed. We will be going back next year.

Downsides are self catering accommodation is a bit basic and ski area is not huge, so experts might be find it a bit lacking. But it's a really friendly, child focused resort and, for family skiing with v little ones, it's pretty much spot on.

Since having kids, we've only been with Family Ski Company. snowgirl1 is right, the chalets are small enough so there is no need for a listening service, they don't do it anyway. They have monitors if you need them, we had one in our room for our 1 year old. My 2 kids were both in childcare and you have to get your own flights, but that's great for us as we don't like flying at random times. Check them out, would highly recommend, they make it all so easy ... familyski.co.uk, good luck!

Have you thought about a private nanny. We went with Ski total (high tea served at 5) and then had a nanny from T4 nanny's. Totally brilliant and much easier than fitting into a Mark W or Esprit hols (we've done both).

Our monitor worked in the chalet and it was small and secure so we just put them to bed and go down for our meal.

We've used VIP in the past, they were excellent but pricey and we used T4 nannies in Val d'Isere, again excellent about 3 yrs ago. They were quite reasonable.

We have used snowfocus in the Portes du Soleil since having DS and they are great. Very flexible childcare and lessons, they have a nanny who stays in the chalet and one out on the slopes with any children having lessons and will work with your requirements. Meals are in the chalet and baby monitor is fine, on the night that the chalet staff have off they provide babysitting so you can go out and have a meal if you want.
You would have to book your own flights but they do provide transfers usually.
Children aside, the skiing is fab and the chalet hosts provide a ski guiding service too.