Free child places???

[chicaguapa]

Hello. Please bear with me as I've never booked a package holiday before so I might be sounding a bit numb but are the advertised free child places really free? We will be 2 ad and 2 dc but I can't believe that we would just be paying for the 2 adults! I read that there would be an under occ supplement so have included that in calcs. According to the Crystal brochure for 2010/11 the dc also get their skis etc free when the adults get theirs!

What's the catch???

It's worth calling them to ask for an exact quote, ime. Make a list of absolutely everything you need and get them to give you a price for each item rather than for an overall sum.

They don't always include all the weeks in their "free places/free rental" etc. Especially if they have already discounted the room. However, am assuming that if you are looking at booking from brochure then that won't be the case.

We have just booked a last minute deal with Esprit but we missed out on all the freebies because of a heavily discounted room.

When do the dates for 2010/11 tend to go on sale? Or have I already missed the boat?

Definitely not missed the boat Esprit have just issued their "early booking brochure" for 10/11 so you should be okay.

Their last minute stuff is for the next few months (if you look on their website I think they are advertising reduced rates on accommodation up until 7 Feb in their Special Offers section).

I would imagine the catch will be that not all weeks are covered, so free skiing / skis etc will only be on weeks less popular i.e. NOT half term.

We are now in a position where trips have to go in school holidays and prices rocket

Have just done a quick quote on Crystal and the free child places are restricted to ONE per booking. Knew it wouldn't be as good as it seemed. But it did come up for w/c 26/10 so includes school holidays. I'm sure it must be cheaper to do it direct.

Crystal do free places all season. The second child is normally really cheap but that price does change a bit depending on the week.(around £100-£300) They have 2 for 1 adult lift passes and free childcare for one child at the moment too for 2010/11. This is why I always end up going with Crystal!

Chicaguapa - I guess it depends what you actually need from your package, iyswim. Independent booking is usually cheaper, ime. However, for skiing whilst DCs are small I quite like going with a package where I don't have to run to quite so strict a timetable as my normal working week as someone else is doing pick ups etc

Having said that, we were skiing over CHristmas whilst at my FiLs house and realised how quickly the boys have kind of "caught up" with us in that we can have great afternoons skiing together now after a morning of lessons.