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Original poster

Help me before I bore myself stupid!! Esprit V Crystal

15 replies

Crunchie · 06/09/2009 22:10

Has anyone experience of both??
Or just Crystal?

I usually book Esprit holidays and my kids love it, so do we. Taken to and from lessons, lessons with ONLY other Esprit kids and therefore all in English. Lunch with their friends and then we pick them up after lunch and ski with them in afernoon.

However next season they will be 8 and 10 and we do miss not having dinner with them and therefore think we fancy Crystal who do larger hotels, buffet dinner with families, BUT wuhth the Whizz kids option of being takien to ski-schol and having lunch with their peers. However they are worries if the lessons woill be just with other english (ccrystal) kids or if they go into general ski-school.

I know it is a silly worry, but they did french ski-school once and hated it, they get on so well when they don;t have ot worry about teh insytructors and understanding stuff.

Anyone been to Hotel le DIVA in Tignes?? with Crystal or Thompson or anyone??

OP posts:
Cornflakemum · 06/09/2009 22:16

Can't you go to one of the Esprit chalets that has Family Dining at 7.30?

We've been on lots of Esprit (and find them great) but no Crystal I'm afraid. That said, we stayed in La Lavachay in Tignes just after Esprit took it over from Crystal, and the chalet was dire!!

Original poster
Crunchie · 06/09/2009 22:30

Problem is we maybe limited as Ihave won some holiday vouchers and have to book via a travel agnt, and you can only book esprit direct

OP posts:
Cornflakemum · 06/09/2009 22:34

Sell the vouchers on eBay (usually fetch nearly full value...) and buy what you really want??

CatherineofMumbles · 08/09/2009 09:37

Interested to hear about the family dinners becasue we stopped going with espirt when ours were 8 and 10 for same reason... We have had some goos holidays with Crystal BUT ski school patchy and yes likley to be ESF bunched in with anyone. In Courchevel 1850 the had good classes (using 1550 ski school which meets ion 1850)but in Morzine we had a terrible school set up with our hotel being on the mountain, fine, take the lift down to meet the ski school, then up again in enormous crowds to that same place they started from but an hour later, and that being a completely boring and wasted hour. So if you go with Crystel would advise you book ski school separately and research the local schools youself

Nettee · 08/09/2009 12:27

Hi Crunchie - I am a Crystal girl and have posted about my - generally good - experiences on here a few times. One of the things that puts me off Esprit is the no children at dinner rule (ours are a lot younger than yours and usually asleep but nice to know that we could bring them down if necessary). We went to Belle Plagne with Crystal last year (don't think they are running the same place this year) and the ski school for the older ones was the esf and half and half French and English children. Courchevel 1850 has just Crystal groups with an english ski school but only goes up to age 8 I think. Mummydoc had great things to say about Crystal's set up in Claviere here and here - good value too

WibblingDad · 11/09/2009 12:34

The other option is to book a smaller chalet and go with friends and then you can either choose to all eat at the same time or not be causing a problem to anyone other than mates if the children are still wandering around or, as is more likely in my case, sitting on your knee stealing your food.

Open declaration of bias as I run the company, but we are always happy to do this at Ski Famille. I suspect other family focussed firms are too.

greygirl · 11/09/2009 14:17

That's veru interesting WD because the 'separate eating policy' has put me off a lot of chalet companies. (one had the policy that you COULD eat with the children if you booked the entire chalet and paid extra.). i like to see my children on holiday (too many times they eat 3 meals at nursery).
i will add your company to my shortlist, for our next ski holiday

Original poster
Crunchie · 11/09/2009 20:02

no offence WD, my kids are 8 amd 10 amd I feel you are better suited to younger kids. Also my kids like being where there are lots of others the same age. We tried smaller chalets, but the kids didn't like being the only ones their age. Hence we did teh chaley hotels, which were perfect for a coupleo f years. Last year they started to want to be up much later and this year we decdied we wanted to eat with them

We are probably booking Hotel Le Diva in Tignes with Crystal at £1725 inc train fir the 4 if us www.crystalski.co.uk/destinations/france/tignes/023542/023542.html

OP posts:
fridayschild · 15/09/2009 21:44

We go with Thomson, which is Crystal when you get there. With ski school you do get thrown in with the multi-lingual masses. Last year DS1 was in a class which was entirely English kids anyway - Feb half term.

Multi-lingual skiing happened to me as a child (we went Thomson then too ). I have very clear memories of one holiday where I was the ONLY English child in a class where there were 4 languages and by the time she'd explained it 3 times I was cold and bored and claimed I understood... so I have some sympathy with your DCs.

There was a piece in one of the papers last year claiming that a couple of private lessons for the whole family was cheaper than ski school for everyone and perfectly do-able if the DCs had skiied a few times. Would that work for you?

We went to a chalet hotel with Crystal the first time we took DS1 skiing - me, him and my parents. It was a bit too loud for us, TBH, but then we've never chosen a resort on the basis of its nightlife. DS1 was nearly 5 and loved running round the hotel with his new pals every evening. He was taken to bed at 7pm as normal and they all stayed up till about 10pm.

Original poster
Crunchie · 15/09/2009 21:47

well it is booked, the lesson combo remains to be decided. It is £95 per child to take to ski school, pick up and give lunch each day, p;us lesson are either 132 or £179 (ESF or EVolution 2)

We could always book privately too.

BUT DH nd Iike a time to bomb around for a good few hours sans kids, so private lessons don't give us thta!!

OP posts:
alypaly · 16/09/2009 01:03

had a marginally better experience with ski esprit but i was slightly shocked at the standard of the food they cooked. Went in the kitchen on their day off and threw out all the rotting veg...yuk. Crystal was worse...cooks sometimes didnt turn up for meals.....

mummydoc · 16/09/2009 15:09

crunchie what did youbook and wgen ?

Lee36 · 29/09/2009 21:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Cat2408 · 22/10/2009 14:47

Having worked for both companies - Ski Esprit has been owned by the former MD of Crystal for about 8 years now, so, they are run pretty much on the same lines!

Niknak21 · 01/11/2009 10:56

Would reccomend new generation for ski school if in France that is!

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