Skiing holidays - 4 yr old and 4 month old in bed in same room by 7.30??????

[JenJam]

esprit offer 'adult-only' dinners and evening kids club is for 6-12 year olds

And the baby is not yet sleeping in the evenings (he sleeps with us midnight to 7a.m. - and we are quite happy with that)

i wondered what do other people do with a young child and young baby when they go on ski holidays? What set up would you go for?

twin room with one child in each and use baby listening?
both kids in same family room and risk elder child trying to 'help' baby should he wake up, or waking baby up deliberately

We haven't booked our ski hol yet, we'd like to but could do with some advice on how to make evenings relaxing!!

or can you recommend any other ski holiday companies that are more flexible on the eating arrangements?

Ideally we'd like to be able to have either child at the table if they cannot sleep so that one of us do not have to spend four hours missing out on the evening meal while shushing them to sleep

when we took children away and they slept in the same room, we used to sit with them till they both fell asleep. bit of a pain, but otherwise one or the other is normally very excited. or two separate bedtimes. our 2 yr old at the time would fall asleep and stay asleep, i don't think she'd think to help the baby.
so i would go for family room and listening device, with possibly one of you sat in there to settle them both, or let 4yr old stay up a bit later (say till 7.30 ) while baby settles.
as i think you may have read, i have gone with snowbizz this year, who do a catered option, and you can all eat together. the 'no children at meal times' thing really annoys me.

Thanks grey girl, anyone else know of ski holiday providers who allow families to eat together?

I don't know of any other providers who allow families to eat together.

HOwever, I wanted to reassure you that my DCs have same age gap as yours and ime they have always been fine in a room together. In fact, the eldest DC has always been comforted by the fact that he is not alone but with baby DC......altho he uses excuse that : "I will look after baby DC whilst you go and eat, Mama" Bless They are both asleep within 20 mins tops. They are now 5 and 9 and DS1 still has same approach. Its very sweet.

This may be obvious but why not go self catering ? We find this much more relaxing. Last time we had an in bed by 730 (which is 630 UK time anyway) DS was 11m and found it a total PITA then. We now all chill at the bottom of the mountain for as long as we like with no deadline to be back for and have lovely meals out (and in) all together. We may book a babysitter in resort for one or 2 nights if we fancy something a bit more sophisticated.

Go with Crystal - they are flexible with children at the adult evening meal. your children could even have their meal at the same time as you if you wanted or can eat at 5.30 and then come and sit with you until they are ready to go to sleep. or they can go to an evening creche if you want or you can use baby monitors.

Only thing is the childcare starts at 6 months so you might have to go later in the season this time.

We find the Esprit no kids in the evenings thing a PITA too if they stick rigidly to it (some chalets seem stricter than others).

However if the idea of self catering (or nominally self catering but eating out) appeals then we like Samoens. It has a super new nursery in the village which would take your 4 month old (a lot don't take them that young) - which as it's a municipal run nursery is actually a lot cheaper than Esprit childcare too. They'll do the pick up 4 year olds after half day skiing thing too.

Samoens is a very easy resort to drive to - motorway nearly all the way - and it has easy lift access (there's a big free car park at the bottom of the lift) into the Grand Massif (Flaine/Samoens/Les Carroz) area. Or it's only an hour from Geneva airport, so transfers aren't that expensive. Or even closer to the TGV stop at Cluses if you fancy trying it by train.

We booked these apartments which are in a nice little complex which has a swimming pool too.

Check out the prices (the ones on the site I linked to are per appartment and including Eurotunnel crossing) for accomodation+childcare+childcare+skischool and compare with Esprit and you'll probably find there's plenty over for family meals out.

Samoens itself is a beautiful medieval village which has a weekly local market, and lots of old buildings etc so it doesn't feel over resorty. And the restaurants are generally pretty family friendly. Some nice hotels there too (neige et Roc is supposed to be good) - some of which wouldn't charge you for under 5s.

The only chalet holiday we tried (simply ski) with children was a disaster. DS 10 months wouldn't go to sleep (turned out he had an ear infection) and we never managed to sit down to a meal together in the evening. He also didn't like the travel cot.

Since then we have been on two skiing self catering holidays and enjoyed them so much more. Maybe chalets are ok if you have easy going children who eat anything and go to sleep without a fuss but they didn't work for us.

I would recommend looking at Snowbizz - puy st vincent. Excellent childcare during the day and self catering appts. You can book their nannies to babysit for the odd night out.