Un crowded skiing for beginner young children

[123Outnumbered]

Hi,
We took our 2 young children for a week in Sainte Foy and it was great.

Pros:

• small resort made it super convenient for children
• pistes were empty and no lift queues.
• A couple of lovely mountain restaurants.

Cons:

• We felt it was missing big wide open green slopes for beginners. The green run there was closed due to lack of snow and the easy blue was mainly a (beautiful) path through the woods, which didn’t allow for much practising of turns.
• only just enough snow- I wouldn’t want to be going in April.

Looking to go next year- Sat 29th March (school holidays) any suggestions for where to go:

• High/snow sure
• uncrowded- this is the most important thing
• Wide open green runs for kids
• i’m not too fussed on the size of the resort, I’m happy skiing anywhere, getting somewhere right for the kids is the main priority.

Failing that, any Feb half term suggestions for places that won’t be too crowded. I would prefer March, as it’s usually warmer, but appreciate there is usually more snow in Feb.

I had looked at Montgenèvre, which seems to tick all the boxes, but I gather there aren’t many mountain restaurants, the one I looked up was a self service one and the one at the bottom of the piste was in a big modern building. Realise these aren’t the biggest problems but thought I should be honest! I might just have to look past this if I can’t find anywhere else.

Any help appreciated

It's going to be difficult to find anywhere that's not crowded in the school holidays.

You need to look at when the French school holidays are and try and avoid the double whammy of English and French family holidays.

It's really not that hard to avoid crowds at Easter. It's very off peak for most of Europe. French mega resorts full of English, Dutch can be busy but if you head to many Italian resorts you'll see few people.

La Thuile in Italy would be my top choice. Valtournenche (with a car, you have a huge area to play in) and the local area is so quiet) would be great and is actually very driveable if that's your bag. Pocol side of cortina d'ampezzo (altho chancy for snow....). Sansicario in Via Lattea. Just avoid megaresorts in France is my advice.
Pila is also nice although there always school parties.

Thanks for that. Just checked out the piste map for La Thuile- it looks like it’s mainly red runs. Are there any mega easy runs to keep beginners entertained?
thank you

Promenade piste above Les Suches is very wide and very greeny blue;)

Valtournenche/Cervinia has loads and loads of practically flat motorways and excellent snow. You could even go second week of Easter holidays there.

Or La Rosiere (linked in La Thuile) - it's a fab family resort and lots of wide motorway runs. We went that week last year and it was very uncrowded.

You are right about Montgenevre, there is a fab really long green, about 3km I think and other easy runs, but the mountain restaurants aren't great. We still loved it though when our children were young. And we went at Christmas and Easter and it wasn't too busy. Last time we went was about 7 years ago now.

I'll caveat that my info is from pre-covid, I can't say how busy places will be during school holidays and I'm not a beginner. That said, these might fit the bill.

Sestriere in Italy. The only hotel I'd recommend though is Hotel Du Col. All you can eat buffet meals, afternoon tea/cake, bar in the basement and true ski in and out. Ski's on in the basement, open the door and the beginners slope is outside! You can ski from there to multiple parts of the Milky Way including Montgeneve in France.

Livigno in Italy. Long transfer, but being so high, its snow assured into April. Its duty free. Pre-brexit (and multiple trips), we brought back camera lenses, handbags, perfume, dried mushrooms, pasta, alcohol and all sorts at bargain prices. You'd need to check the rules now though. I would 'assume' being a long transfer, you're less likely to get lot of weekenders. Its a large resort and I don't recall huge crowds.

Pas De La Casa- Andorra. More beginners slopes then either of the above. I can't recall the on piste restaurants, but it was years ago that I went there. Can ski to Soldeu and another resort from there.

I'd recommend looking at this site to narrow down your search. You can filter by beginners, snow reliability etc :
https://www.skiclub.co.uk/resorts/

I wouldn't dismiss Montgenevre so quickly. The ski school A peak is amazing, there are lovely green runs for littlies to learn on, not busy right now. We did Sainte Foy and Montgenevre, with Monty being even better for young learners. Ok, there are not many restaurants, but there aren't that many in Sainte Foy either? The restaurant near the beginner drag lift does lovely, table service food. There are a couple of other restaurants up the mountain that are fine, one on the south facing side with stunning views.

Geilo in Norway. Absolutely idyllic place for kids to learn. English speaking instructors (way friendlier than ESF). Loads of wide easy greens and blues, open tree skiing that the kids love, no queues for the lifts. Downside is that there’s nothing very challenging for the adults but if your priority is the kids it’s perfect.

I worked in Monty for a season and been back since. Excellent for beginners and progressing intermediates. Only a couple of mountain restaurants on one side, one on the see thibau side, and loads more in claviere which is easy to access. There’s a bunch of restaurants in the town facing the slope. We ate lunch out every day. Plenty of places facing the slope to eat in a different one each lunch and dinner. I wouldn’t dismiss.

I worked for ski Miquel and recommend their chalet hotels for affordability and quality. They have family rooms too with separate areas for kids.

plenty of wide cruisey greens and blues all over, good height so it’s snow sure, great spa and pool complex now, and the toboggan is fun!

Also, I like La Thuile but it wouldn't be my first choice for young beginner skiers. The easy runs are higher up, with steeps runs on lower half. La Rosiere would fit better for a piste perspective, but snow will be soft at Easter. Montgenevre mostly faces north so keep snow in better condition.

When we ski in Montgenèvre we try and eat or have coffee stops in Claviere. It’s just in Italy but the restaurants are so much nicer and cheaper. Do also think about Risoul (couple of nice new restaurants), Les Orres and Puy St Vincent.

Recommend Flaine in France. If you stay in the Panoramic, you step out of the accommodation and a few steps away from ski school meeting point and Green runs. Great variety of runs. It’s relatively snow sure. We’ve been twice at Easter, snow was generally fine but slushy in afternoon. We got lucky with snow fall mid week. Some pistes are busier than others but hardly any queues for lifts.
Very short transfer from Geneva

That’s really helpful, thank you. I didn’t realise the ski club website had that feature, will have a look. Thanks

Tiny - I fancy trying Geilo! Where would you suggest staying, though? I've looked a couple of years running, and Booking.com have barely anything available there. Maybe it's all on a local site I haven't discovered? We usually just rent an apartment. Many thanks.

We've stayed in the Geilolia Hyttetun cabins, booked via Ski Safari. Self-catering keeps the costs down a bit given how expensive Norway is! The Vestlia hotel is nice too, I haven't stayed there but they have a soft play, pool, bowling alley and cinema which we've taken advantage of.

Great, thank you. I'll check it out.

I always think Sainte Foy is a great choice for young children. We've been in April and had great snow. Currently in La Plagne which also has a LOT of snow this week but there is far more faff getting from chalet to slope than in SF.
Les Arcs is a good choice actually - either 2000 or 1950.

Thanks. This is interesting. We just found Sainte Foy a bit limited for beginner runs. The green one was closed due to lack of snow and the easiest blue was mainly a path that kept crossing over the other runs. The blue wider pistes were a bit too steep for my child’s first time off the nursery slope.
Maybe the convenience though over-rules this.
Thanks

For half term try looking at Germany perhaps, not as developed resort wise but different terrain. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the place I went but it was great for kids, just useless if you are vegetarian!

I would go earlier.
Its just getting too warm to ski at Easter
Our local resort is still officially open another 2 weeks, but the forecast is 28 degrees this weekend. There no way I would bother skiing with my Ds right now, it’s too warm.

Would you consider New England? Its very quiet at Easter as the US holidays are different, you can fly to Boston and drive up to most resorts within 3.5 hrs and everywhere is English speaking. Since it is later in the season, I would pick somewhere that has reliable snow making like Sunday River or Stowe.

Actually correct that, the ski resort ‘should’ be open another two weeks. But they closed last weekend as it’s too warm and lack of snow. The 29th March is late

Ruka in Northern Finland.
We went in February. Super quiet (never queued for a lift) very accessible and very beginner friendly. There was a blue run down from almost every lift so usually an easy way down. There were also some tricker reds and blacks so still something for more advanced skiers. TONNES of snow. Like tonnes of the stuff. Very reasonable compared to the alps price wise. We paid about £1200 each all in flights/lessons/food/accomodation/ski hire. The down side is that it was -28. You can ski there between October and June but crystal only operate flights dec/jan/feb which is their off season (because it is so cold)

That's good to know. We've been looking at Ruka for February next year.