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Ski and snowboarding

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Original poster

Ski resort with swimming pool and childcare…?

19 replies

hollydolly64 · 21/01/2016 21:13

We really want to take the kids skiing, but I have a 2 year old I want to come too. Therefore I am looking for a ski holiday with some kind of childcare for half the day while the others do ski school.
In the afternoons I would like to take them all swimming, so we are either looking for a ski resort with a nice municipal pool (husband looking terrified having flashbacks of the rigidly enforced speedo law at French town pools…) or ideally a hotel within the hotel/apartment block/whatever.
Any ideas? We don't really mind where we go, but have a sadly rather (relatively) small for a ski holiday budget of £5k for 6 of us :(

OP posts:
Original poster
hollydolly64 · 21/01/2016 21:15

Actually I take back the :( for the £5k budget - 1st world problems….!

OP posts:
mimolette · 21/01/2016 21:25

Quite a lot of the Esprit properties have pools and they specialise in great childcare.

boobyooby · 21/01/2016 21:26

Club Med every time ...... the kids love it

redhat · 21/01/2016 21:27

we went with mark warner last year and had childcare and a pool.

TheGreenTriangle · 21/01/2016 21:31

I was beaten to it, came on to recommend Esprit. We've been with them 7 times since having kids and the childcare has been excellent every time.

If your kids have ski lessons booked through Esprit, depending on the age of the kids, they'll have Esprit staff accompanying them on the lessons as well as the ski instructor. And the kids - instructor ratio is normally very good.

The catering was dodgy one year, but that can happen with any kind of chalet catering. Surprisingly their hotel catering was very good (I'd previously feared mass catering).

TheGreenTriangle · 21/01/2016 21:33

Oh yes, forgot to say that many of Esprit's locations have a pool and sauna Blush

Gattabianca · 21/01/2016 21:35

Avoriaz has the nicest pool I've been to in a ski resort and lots of childcare options plus stuff to do in the afternoon.
Snowbizz in Puy St Vincent is very affordable with in house childcare and ski school and a pool. We are going with them for the first time in a few weeks specifically because of their combined ski school and childcare.

Original poster
hollydolly64 · 21/01/2016 22:35

thanks, will look into all of these! On a previous thread I read about the kinderhotel in Serfhaus which looks amazing on t'internet - anyone been there?

OP posts:
mummyagainin2016 · 21/01/2016 22:42

Alpe d'Huez, Les Deux Alpes, La Plagne (1800?) and Kaprun (Austria) all have fab municipal pools.

sparechange · 21/01/2016 22:48

Tignes has a good pool which is free with a lift pass
Try Ski Beat for childcare. Some of their chalets might have pools as well
They had one in Tignes called Arctic which had its own pool, from memory...

Tuiles · 22/01/2016 11:19

Chilly Powder in Morzine is amazing, with in house childcare. They don't have their own pool (yet) but are steps away from the Telecabin up to Avoriaz with a fun pool.

dontcallmethatyoucunt · 22/01/2016 20:52

I've been with Mark Warner and Esprit, but the best option IMO - and cheaper - was a nanny from T4 Nannies in Tignes. Tignes has a great pool too.

The nanny was allowed to use our chalet as a base and kept the kids entertained. We also asked for a nanny that was confident to ski and she helped take our youngest DD out on the nursery slopes. When our DD got tired, she then took her off whilst we carried on skiing with our eldest.

The Nanny was flexible and prepared. She sat for us one evening, but best of all we were able to meet her where it suited us and the kids and we didn't have to fall in with the set routine of the holiday company. She came out to dinner with us a couple of times and it was great.

We booked the catered chalet via Iglu, but booked T4 nannies ourselves. I think if you want to keep costs down self catering might be cheaper. Esprit and MW are very expensive in the holidays.

Upatnight · 25/01/2016 21:37

Still haven't quite nailed it down - any further recommendations?! X

Upatnight · 25/01/2016 21:49

Nailed our holiday down I mean! Following with interest as have 2,4,6,8 year olds this year!

boobyooby · 02/02/2016 11:44

Seriously have a look at Club Med, we are off again with them and remember the price you see is all inclusive and includes ski school and lift passes. This year is our "cheapest" ski holiday yet ..... last year we literally spent about 60 euros in town on some tourist toot for the kids!

YorkshireTeaDrinker · 05/02/2016 23:45

We went with Snowbizz to Puy St Vincent last year, going again this year (in two weeks time!). It's affordable (self-catering), childcare and ski school are excellent. We will likely be repeat customers for the next few years.

snowgirl1 · 08/02/2016 12:31

As others have mentioned, Tignes has a pool - we went to Tignes at Christmas with Crystal who have childcare, but Mark Warner and Esprit both have accommodation and childcare in Tignes.

Alpe D'Huez also has an outdoor (heated!) swimming pool and think Crystal also have childcare in that resort.

I've found that travel operators all seem to have childcare in France (or sometimes Austria) so your husband might have to deal with getting some budgie smugglers :-)

ladyofthepalace · 09/02/2016 15:24

Val d'Isere has a fantastic new sports centre/pool.

Ktay · 21/02/2016 19:32

Serfaus has 2 kinderhotels; we stayed in the Loewe which I think is supposed to be the slightly less smart of the two and it was lovely - pools are great and food very good too. No idea about childcare but they have b good facilities eg soft play. NB this was in summer but would go back in winter in a heartbeat if we could afford it!

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