skiing for family of four for under £2k - is it possibl;e?!

[lacarete]

pse settle an argument - I've been doing all the research and failing to find anything either self-catering or half-board that will work out less than £2k all in. DH reckons it can be done though is failing to find out - anyone know how we can? dcs both under 4yrs ...

We did this last year.

Ryanair to Salzburg.

Taxi over the border to Bad Reichenhall in Germany.

Stay in Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria. Several (unfashionable with the Brits but perfectly OK) ski areas nearby. Eg Berchtesgarten.

Hotel Steigenberger Axelmannstein does free children's beds in the adults' rooms and is very pleasant. Sometimes does good deals.

Book own ski school, passes and so on. Hire kit out there if necessary.

Oops won't give up the day job - another E350 for adult lift passes, the ski school has some sort of deal so the cheapest way to buy is through the ski school for less than E100 - still under the £2k budget.

Have a look at snowcoach..haven't used them but they appear family friendly and cheap. You do not have to go by coach..they do other travel options.

OK I will just put i my 2p worth about Serre Chevalier and their creche. DON'T DO IT

Sorry we went a few years ago, the first time with our kids and they were nearly 3 and nearly 5. Firstly the creche ASSURED me they spoke english to the kids, they never did. My kids were left alone, couldn't ask for the toliet or anything, and the eldest had to wear a bib to eat with (She was most indignant! ) The ski instructers also never spoke english and shouted loads (I did watch and see this myself) after 3 days my kids were so upset they refused to go back - and these are kids used to childcare. They cried and cried and wouldn't hear of it again. We ended up taking them up the mountain and I taught dd1 a little by skiing between my legs. They were used to skis as we had done 3 or 4 dry ski slopes practice tpoo!!

However this all may be tainted as it was the worst holiday of my life, DH broke his shoulder on day 3, My MIL came and was a vile bitch, teh kids were miserable and hated it and I was so upset.

IT nearly scarred my kids for life!!

We go with ski-eaprit and although it is a little more, it is so much better everyone gets a proper holiday. BY the time you have your £1400, and add food petrol etc, you will easily spend another £600 anyway. At least with Esprit once we get there we spend less than £200 for spending money (we take from the breakfast table for lunch!!)

Honestly the kids can go to spritelets or nursery where they all speak english and will be on site. Wait a week or two and the accommadation will be cheaper.

The extra couple of hundred will be worth it seriously local creches are no fun if they don't speak English the kids end up very bewildered and miserable.

The only place I might suggest is Vaujany as I belive there are at least 2 english nannies working in the local crech as most of the clients are from Ski Peak. (IIRC)

Your experience in Serre Chevalier sounds horrendous Crunchie. I think there is a bit of luck involved when using french resort creches.

We stayed in La Rosiere in December and booked our children aged 6 and 3 in to the ESF lessons followed by ESF galopins creche and lunch. Both children had lovely ski teachers who spoke English..they were well looked after in the creche afterwards. The majority of children in the creche were french but there were enough English children for ours to make friends and when I went to pick them up after lunch they never wanted to leave.

So our experience was very good but I think La Rosiere appears very popular with the English at present so maybe they recruit more English speaking instructors and nannies.

I haven't used Esprit but having looked at their brochure I'm sure their childcare would be very good. As mentioned in my previous post I would suggest the OP looks up Snowbizz as well as Esprit, as Snowbizz also offer very good childcare but are on the whole cheaper I think. Although it really depends what OP wants in terms of accommodation..Snowbizz are self catering and only in one resort whereas Esprit do chalets or chalet hotels in several resorts.

Last year our cut to the bone, economy ski trip (to Chamonix) cost:
£1165 ski passes (dd & I only did 3 days, dh & ds did 6), motorway tolls + petrol, ski hire + lift passes + sundry shopping in France. We didn't eat lunches or have drinks on the slopes - took a packet of biscuits and a large chocolate bar & camel packs of water instead, & ate lots of breakfast - this only really works if the weather is good though.
£500 accomodation (full board except lunches, but including afternoon tea) - bargain!
On top of that was approx. £54 ferry, another £30 travelodge on journey there (before early ferry), travel insurance (?£60), car insurance (?£30). I can't think of anything else, but maybe there was.

So for the four of us that was a little under £2k, but no ski school. I don't think you'd do it for that this year though with the exchange rate as it is, or with childcare added .

I would second what someone said about Kinderhotels - they do free creches/ski school/ lift passes a lot of the time, and give you picnics for lunchtime.

We've enjoyed the Alphuebel several times - it is grest value with a young family, if perhaps a bit basic and kitsch, good atmosphere and children are genuinely welcomed.

Another one with too much time on my hands here

Crystal 8th Feb Claviere - Crystal Family club hotel Grande

All in with skis,boots, local lift passes, childcare, catered accommodation and insurance for £1839.24.

Assuming one of your children is under 2 and will sleep in a cot

trip adviser sounds good for this season's staff here and the ski club of great britain review of the resort is not bad here with the recommendation to get the local lift pass

I am a bit of lone voice in liking Crystal on Mumsnet though - as a diclaimer

Hope you find somewhere

that's really good Nettee - thanks for that. didn't know they had mixed reviews though - will give them another call (had a hopeless adviser when I called the other day)

You need to go on their website and trawl through the childcare availability for the week you want - you also get an extra discount for booking on line. It is worth looking at their family website too as the prices can be different - our holiday was a good £100 cheaper per adult from the crystal family brochure

OP, Esprit have reduced their prices again today - down to 800 now for accommodation and flight.

yes I saw that - think we'll be booking with them - although even when starting price is £800 it still comes in over budget once they add in the extras. (that price is for accommodation but then they add on a room supplement for £160!) Thanks for all the help!

Good luck Lacarete
We are looking to go 8th Feb but with 5 of us (3 lots of lesssons or childcare) plus wanting to go from a regional airport I'm not sure how long we will will hold out before booking.

TMP - hold out for as long as possible, so long as you don't mind where you go. We only booked a week ago but in retrospect, I wish we had hung on a while longer and saved ourselves a bit more dosh (we wanted to travel 1 Feb).

Crunchie - sorry to hear about your awful experience . I agree with you about Esprit. Whilst they are expensive, our experience with them was so positive that I am happy to pay the extra.

TRMJS - thanks for the encouragement - DH has booked his holiday time off and wants me to book asap - the trouble is I know which accommodation I'd prefer so have got to weight up the cost of definitely getting what you want versus the possibility of getting it a bit cheaper. The extras add up to so much anyway that an extra bit off the base price doesn't amount to that much percentagewise. I need 1 x nursery, 2 x lessons, 1 x snowclub and 2 x lunch plus the lift passes!

Not sure if I'm convincing myself or not!
There must be a cut off though at which point they don't sell the holiday - two years ago in St Anton there were empty rooms in our chalet.

Have a great time!

TRMJS - thanks for the encouragement - DH has booked his holiday time off and wants me to book asap - the trouble is I know which accommodation I'd prefer so have got to weight up the cost of definitely getting what you want versus the possibility of getting it a bit cheaper. The extras add up to so much anyway that an extra bit off the base price doesn't amount to that much percentagewise. I need 1 x nursery, 2 x lessons, 1 x snowclub and 2 x lunch plus the lift passes!

Not sure if I'm convincing myself or not!
There must be a cut off though at which point they don't sell the holiday - two years ago in St Anton there were empty rooms in our chalet.

Have a great time!

booked! will come in slightly over budget but at least I know we're going!

thanks for all your help and have a great time!
v excited ...

I?ve just booked a week in Alpe d?Huez from 21st Feb for 2 adults and two 3.5 year olds. Including SC apartment, full day Piou-Piou club (childcare), 2 lift passes, adult ski and boot hire it all came to £2,060 with Crystal staying at Pierre et Vacancies Quartiers des Bergers (cheap as chips and basic but we?ve stayed in that chain before and it?s fine).

I have to add the cost of child ski and boot hire but that?s all. We already had multi-trip insurance.

We went with Chill chalet in La Plagne and the catered accommodation was only £1500 which included 7 hrs of free child care so even with lift passes and the train the whole trip was under £2000. Another plus was they didn't do chalet night off, so we didn't have to fork out to eat in Restaurant, which cost us a bomb in St Anton last year.