Are we mad to book with Esprit????

[Lipstickmum]

We're a family of 4 who went on our first ski holiday earlier this year, to Val d'Isere with Mark Warner. It was a brilliant holiday, we went for 2 weeks and had very leisurely ski-ing. I had never ski-ed before but dp can ski well. At the time our children were 3.8 and 18 months, so they were just in the creche (we decided not to sign dd1 up for lessons, although she did potter on the nursery slopes a couple of times with her dad)

This years holiday we are just going for a week and need creche facilities but are very keen for dd1 to start lessons, be familiar with ski's. I've read lots of threads and got a good idea of the companies people like etc. I think the one that will suit us is Esprit, but I've heard a range of reviews from great things to terrible stories of food poisoning etc. etc

The main reason I want to go for Esprit having looked at MW, Ski Famille and various others, is that I really want dd to be taught by a native English speaker. Esprit seem to be the only company who use English instructors, most of the others use the various companies based at the resort. While I was ski-ing, I observed quite a few ski groups with young English children and instructors without English as a first language and wasn't that impressed with what I saw a few times. I think when she's older it wont be such a big deal, but I want to try and get her first ski sessions as right as possible.

Also, lots of other companies seem to only take them a bit older and I don't want to do 1:1 tuition that seems a bit intense for 4 years old and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't like it!

Anyway, any tips or re-assurance welcome. happy ski-ing everyone

Where are you going ? I'm not sure Esprit do use exclusively native Englsih speaker instructors with the exception perhaps in Austria where a lot of Australians/New Zealanders go to teach of a winter anyway and there may be sufficient to do so but far from guaranteed before the season has even started. I'm quite happy for someone to contradict me but they just seem to use local ski schools where "English speaking" can vary in degree from the odd word to fluent ime. Likewise not all Esprit staff speak the local language to any extent either. tbh I'm about "lessons" for 4 year olds anyway, as they expect a lot of cooperation and can be dismissive of those who don't toe the line. Seen too many lo's discarded, and often crying, at the bottom of the snow garden.

Hmmm I interpreted from their www that the instructors were native English speaking, but I could be entirely wrong. I'm not after anything hardcore for dd1, but I'd like her to get the feel of ski's, do a bit of sliding, snow-ploughing, maybe a drag lift, maybe not. I guess I'm coming from a place where I am a 34 yr old who didn't have opportunites to ski as a youngster and am therefore learning to ski as an adult... so I want my children to have the chances I didn't. Does that make me officially a 'pushy mum'???

PS. WE haven't chosen where to go yet, it will be down to availability at this late stage!!

Do you mean "The Esprit approach is to work closely with the local ski-schools and select the best English-speaking children?s instructors to run ski classes exclusively for Esprit children, with guaranteed small classes". How do they define "small" ?

Lippstick Firstly esprit don't use 'native' english speaking instructers. What they do is have instructors from local ski schools who are conducting the lesson in English to english children. Therefore your dd will be with other esprit children in the lessons. Also the lessons for 3 and 4 yr olds have a max of 6 children I think, with one instructer and 1 additional Esprit snow ranger (who will be english)

Yo may have heard bad stuff, it is true you cannot please everyone all of the time. However we found them fab.

Basicially the 3 and 4 yr olds are in creche in teh morning and do ski-school in the pm (as it is warmer)

We went to La Plagne last year (stayed at Montchavin) and had great instructers form te local 'evolution 2' school (Bruno! was well liked by my 2!!)

Liz SMALL is 6 kids, and they have a 2nd person (english) with them.

I know you are not keen oon esprit, but we had a good time and tbh my Kids came back loving skiing more than ANY other holiday - when 2 years earlier they had sobbed through an entire week of 'english speaking (my arse) creche' booked locally

Crunchie I was genuinely wondering as it wasn't clear from the site. My scepticism about 4 year olds skiing is not only based on Esprit btw but so many are not developmentally ready for it and limited English speaking instructors don't tend to go out of their way to help them. ds had his first lesson at just 4

BTW there seems to be availability at La Plagne in Jan (don't know when you are going) and the good thing IMHO is although you are staying low, I can personally vouch fot the instuctors there, AND the villiage is quite sweet, nice and small and friendly and no traffic. That is what I like, you might prefer a bigger resort of course

I agree most are not really ready for proper skiing, but I was impressed with the standard in La Plagne, I cannot vouch for any other resort tbh, but there were actually only 4 kids in the 3 and 4 yr class I saw (mine were in the proper skiing class being 5 and 7) and 2 people, one esprit memeber of staff. By the end of the week thoses kids were having fun and were confident with skisa and moving around, they were NOT really 'skiing' tbh!!

Interesting responses thanks! I was obviously completely wrong about the whole English Instructor thing, fine no problem. Esprit do say a nanny is always on hand which is good/essential. I must stress, I have no desire for dd1 to be reaching any particular level after 5 days at ski school, I just want her to have fun in the snow, and do a few early ski-ing exercises on the slopes. She is quite a shy child and my worry is that if she cant make herself understood, she will just clam up and be miserable.
We're thinking of late December/Jan and like the look of Scheffau (dp is German speaking which should help). I like the idea of a small friendly place Crunchie, last year we went to Val, mainly for the altitude, it has it's place, but want to try something new. Will check out La Plagne,as well thanks!

Think Noonar went to Scheffau in December last year and loved it . Snow, or lack of, may be an issue as so often early in the season but the resort is particuarly low.

I read Noonar's review of the resort, which was glowing, they obviously had a great time. It is a very low resort, that's probably why there is a great deal on it atm!

I just spoke with Esprit, we're a bit last minute and couldn't get anything for after Christmas, so will have to go at half term. I asked about the ski instructors and was told they do recruit mostly English people or the instructors have a good level of spoken English...

We've been with Esprit to Morzine, Montchavin, Tignes, Courcheval and Selva. Have never had a English instructor for the kids but have all spoken good English.

I'm sure Esprit classes are 8 kids to a class with a ranger been there for the spritelet classes (age 4 and under). Last year the rep nearly got lynched as they admitted a 9th child (my dd) into the class. The other parents weren't happy. We were going to send her to ski school by herself as spritelets were full but in the resort the rep said he's squeeze her in!

The good thing is all the kids are English and make friends and have lots of fun. I think you might find standards in the chalet and careting dept not as high as Mark Warner though.

please look at my review in the travel section of the hotel alpin in scheffau. we loved it and thought esprit were fab. the intsructors at the local ski school taught only in english to the group, and were fab with my 4yo, as were the nannies.

i think many of the bad esprit reviews are a result of the 'hit and miss' quality chalet staff. you might get someone who's a great cook etc, you might not...erratic quality of food/ cleanliness/ childcare etc is unlikely to occur in larger chalet hotel type accommodation, imo.

in scheffau there is a team of about 10 reps who work with the children, so you're not at the mercy of any one person, iyswim.

ps the creche is good also, and when dd1 came back from the mountain after lunch, they let her little sis join her, so they were together.

It was your review of Scheffau that swung me noonar! We may go in half term, although it's twice the price as December!

It's interesting that you think the standards may not be as high as MW. We stayed with MW, Val d'Isere at Hotel Cygnaski last year and were not overly impressed with some things. The room and hotel were decidedly average to below average. The food was ok, I had a 2 or 3 dodgy choices and 2 or 3 excellent ones! In spite of that, it was one of the best holidays I've had for a few years. The ski-ing was brilliant, the sun shone, the girls loved the creche, lovely fondue, nice trips in the bubble car, vin chaud or a grand marnier hot chocolate sitting in the sun at the end of a days ski-ing, sharing a room with the dd's, not cooking a single meal for 2 weeks, socialising with new people... it all added up to a wonderful holiday.

lipstick do you HAVE to go in school holidays?? SO much cheaper/quieter if you can ogo outside these times

Must admit I've never been with MW, just get the impression from their brochures and others' comments (and their prices) that they are meant to be a better quality outfit.

I have a friend who every year groans about the food with Esprit and says he's going with MW next year, then he looks at the prices and books Esprit

Yeah Crunchie, we do We went for 2 weeks in jan this year out of school holidays but this September dd1 started school and I started work, at a school. Well, Stripey, if we go with Esprit this year I will be able to tell you if MW really are a better outfit! As I said, our holiday was fab, but I wouldn't have said it was luxurious!

lipstickmum its good to hear someone read it and found it useful!

have you seen esprit's special offer pages recently? they are offering a week where we stayed (sceffau)over new year (back before school starts) for a family of 4 for £1795. blimey, if we werent already going in feb to switzerland with crystal, we'd book it ourselves. definitely. (the only reason we didnt re book the same holiday earlier is that we didnt want to pay brochure prices ...and now theyre discounting.aagh!)

We went to la Rosiere last year with Esprit, and there was a nanny accompanying the classes,so could deal with runny noses, wee stops etc.
Having said that, IME 4 is too young for classes - we took DS1 at 4 and hated it, then went again wehen DS1 was 8 nd DS2 6 and they loved it...

Noonar, I called about that exact offer, but it was already gone! I think the age you start your children ski-ing depends a lot on the child and a lot on the type of first ski experience they have. Hopefully we'll get the balance right!

what a shame, lipstick.

dd1 was 4y 9 mo when we went last year, she coped with it ok, but she's quite strong and is a sturdy athletic build. i agree that 3/ 4 can seem a bit young, esp if they are tiny.( there were plenty of 3yos skiing in scheffau, though.)

dd2 will be 3y 7mo when we go to switzerland. she's very diddy and i'm not bothered that she'll be too young to ski in thst particular resort, as she's too small, imo.

have you thought about the hotel alpubel in saas fee? its v well reviewewd, too. (just ask liz!) we're going in feb.

I just read your thread about Saas fee noonar, it sounds lovely, I'm off to investigate further...