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Tip of the Month
If renting gear, visit the rental shop the night before you want to hit the slopes. This can win you at least an extra hour of skiing time! Rental shops have massive queues on the first day, the process of getting kids fitted with boots, skis, boards, helmet, can eat up prime time
Don't forget: they will ask the height and weight of your children
Skiing Holiday Hints
The family ski holiday needs a lot planning & research so we have put together some ideas & asked some experts for suggestions too: (updated May 2011)
Resorts & Ski Areas
Ski schools & Kindergartens
Childcare
Resorts & Ski Areas
When to go? Easter ski holidays are a lovely time to go, the Easter Sunday falls on 9th April 2012, with most schools finishing on Friday 30th March 2012. The days are longer, temperatures warmer, cheaper than the half term break, with many offering lower prices for lift prices and tuition. But you must consider the warmer weather means higher snow lines so snow consistency may not be as good as mid-winter.
Some slopes can get quite slushy in the afternoon, freezing again overnight and so making it icy in the mornings. Good late season, high altitude resorts (usually between 1500 and 2100m) worth considering as a starting place:
- Flaine, Morzine & Avoriaz, Tignes, Courchevel, Alpe d'Huez or La Rosière, France
- Claviere, Sansicario or Val di Fassa Italy
- Yllas, Finland
- Obergurgl, Zell am See or Obertauern, Austria
- Saas-Fee, Nendaz & Veysonnaz or Villars & Les Diablerets, Switzerland
- Åre, Sweden
You'll be able to ski back to the resort and the nursey slopes won't be a lovely green field. A good specialist Travel Agent will be invaluable in advising you which other high altitude resorts are family friendly. Stuart from Zenith Holidays says “Risoul is a high altitude resort with a wide range of apartments and chalets to meet most budgets – ideal when skiing with the family since all the runs feed smoothly back to the resort centre – the children will love the lufe devale which runs for 780m with great bends, hills and tunnels”. Read Stuart's more detailed article on Risoul - a jewel in the Southern Alps and why he recommends it for families.
Booking in January or February before half term can be slightly cheaper with the
added benefit of less queuing at ski lifts and should be snow sure. Be prepared for white outs and thermals will be a necessity!
Check
the snow reports and piste maps for each region (see SKI RESOURCES page). 
Low lying resorts can end up with lots of
piste closures or icy nursery slopes if there hasn't been much snow.
Check if they have snow cannons (artificial snow) for periods without snow fall, but
even these often don't cover the ski school area. It is much harder
for little ones to learn to ski on ice and not as much fun.
It's also worth considering:
transfer times: do you really want to spend 4 hours on a coach with toddlers?
accessibility to ski schools: catching a ski bus to ski school for a 9am start is no fun!
Family Friendly resorts worth considering, with approx transfer times, as suggested by variety of travel companies:
| COUNTRY | RESORT | Chambery | Geneva |
Grenoble |
Lyon |
Turin |
| FRANCE | Alpe D'Huez |
2h 30 |
3h 30 |
1h 45 |
2h 00 |
2h 45 |
| |
Valmorel | 1h 15 |
2h 15 |
2h 00 |
2h 15 |
2h 45 |
| |
La Rosiere |
2h 15 |
3h 45 |
3h 45 |
|
|
| |
Les Deux Alpes |
2h 30 |
3h 30 |
2h 15 |
2h 45 |
2h 00 |
| |
Les Arcs |
2h 30 |
3h 30 |
3h 30 |
|
|
| |
Montgenevre |
1h 30 |
2h |
2h |
|
1h 45 |
| |
Morzine | |
1h 15 |
|
|
|
| |
Courchevel | 1h 30 |
2h 30 |
2h 15 |
2h 30 |
3h 00 |
| |
Flaine | 2h 30 |
1h 15 |
2h 00 |
2h 45 |
2h 45 |
| |
Puy St. Vincent |
|
|
|
|
2h |
| |
La Plagne |
2h |
3h |
|
|
|
| |
|
Salzberg | Innsbruck |
|
|
|
| AUSTRIA | Bad Gastein |
1h 15 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Zell am See |
2h |
|
|
|
|
| |
Kitzbuhel | 1h 45 |
2h 15 |
|
|
|
| |
Kaprun | 2h 15 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Galtur | |
1h 45 |
|
|
|
| |
Gerlitzen | 3h |
|
|
|
|
| |
Niederau | 2h 30 |
1h 30 |
|
|
|
| |
Katschberg | 1h 30 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Rauris | 1h 30 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Turin |
Verona |
|
|
|
| ITALY | Champoluc |
1h 45 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Cervinia | 2h |
|
|
|
|
| |
Claviere | 1h 45 |
|
|
|
|
| |
La Thuile |
2h 15 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Sauze d'Oulx |
1h 15 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Sestriere | 2h |
|
|
|
|
| SWITZERLAND | |
Geneva | Sion | Zurich |
| |
Saas Fee |
3h |
|
|
| |
Flims | |
|
|
| |
Villars | 1h 40 | |
|
| |
Wengen | 3h 15 | |
3h 00 |
| |
Zermatt | 3h 30 | 1h 30 | |
| |
|
|
|
|
| BULGARIA |
|
Sofia |
Plovdiv |
|
| |
Borovets |
1h 30 |
2hr 30 |
|
| |
Pamporovo |
4h 00 |
2h 00 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| CANADA |
|
Vancouver |
Montreal |
Calgary |
| |
Whistler |
2h 30 |
|
|
| |
Tremblant |
|
1h 30 |
|
| |
Panorama |
|
|
4h |
| USA |
|
Boston |
Denver |
Eagle |
| |
Killington |
3h 15 |
|
|
| |
Breckenridge |
|
2h |
|
| |
Vail |
|
2h 30 |
45m |
Stuart from Zenith Holidays also suggests “Montgenevre is one of the best destinations for a family ski holiday – the traditional French village benefits from a wide range of pistes for all abilities and being a “famille plus montagne” resort, the facilities for children are superb... and new for 2011 was the Monty Express luge – we love it!” Stuart has wriiten a more detailed article on Montegenevre for our blog, which you can read here: Montgenevre - a great destination for a family ski holiday.
If you are looking further afield, Amy Fletcher from Crystal Ski recommends Canada. "Panorama is home to of the best ski schools in Canada, and with all the accommodation at the base of the mountain, 100 yards or less to the slopes, its ideal for families and saves the hassle of long walks in uncomfy ski boots or taking the bus to the ski area. Everything is right there on the doorstep". Read Amy's recommendations on the top 3 Canadian ski resorts in our resorts section of our blog.
Another useful starting place is a series of guides compiled by the Telegraph.co.uk giving comprehensive, up-to-date information on the best ski resorts in Europe and North America, featuring the best ski slopes, hotels, restaurants and bars, plus practical advice on equipment hire and travel
visit: www.telegraph.co.uk
The Skiing specialist travel agents are very good, their knowledge of the resorts and the local ski schools are extremely important when trying to decide where to go. Booking independently is a good option, you often find smaller resorts which may suit you. Try looking at websites like skyscanner,
where you can compare flights from a majority of low-cost carries, including all the add-on charges and taxes, making the research much easier.
Ski Schools & Kindergartens
Before booking, it's worth seeing if the ski schools have websites for further details. It will be money well spent if the ski school combines play with the learning. Look out for Kids Parks which are "learn and playground" areas for beginners and more advanced children. They have many training aids devised from the newest technology. Only course participants of the snow schools can use the equipment such as conveyor belts (very important as little ones get so tired if they keep having to walk up the slopes, however small the slope), carousels (pulls them around like a roundabout and gets them used to the skiing position), along with brightly coloured arches to ski under or around, see the ESF section below for more details. Most offer weekly ski races at the end of the holiday with medals, certificates and photos. Older children can even participate in slalom and speed races.
As standard, they should all have security bibs as they might not stay on the nursery slope. By mid week they are taken up ski lifts and onto blue and red runs.
Just remember, before ski school to have a good breakfast and lots to drink as they will use lots of energy.
You can book private ski lessons, group weekly lessons (5 days usually) or sometimes a few days in a group.
To plan your skiing and other childcare you need to know exactly when they will be skiing. Please check with each Ski School but generally the times are as follows:
Austrian ski schools are usually from 10am to 12pm, break for lunch, then 1 - 3pm. (Lunch is usually up the mountain so you don't pick them up).
French ski schools often have the choice of morning, afternoon or all day lessons, some include lunch as well.
Ecole du Ski Français is the largest ski school in the world, with 2,000,000 pupils taking 800,000 tests every year. In 2007 there were 250 ESF offices with 16,000 instructors so you should find this well respected ski school in your French resort. The first stage from 3 yrs to 6yrs is Club Piou Poiu, everything is organised so that they treat skiing as something fun and a game: with a protected area featuring special equipment including:
a rope tow,
mini-ski tows, moving carpets, structures and welcoming figures
a Piou Piou Club medal at the end of their stay to encourage learning
male and female instructors to supervise and instruct tiny tots
The Piou Piou Club organises tests for the 'Ourson' qualification (the bear club), the first of the ESF's ability tests. The following link takes you to the ESF website and shows a video clip of what to expect for the first time toddler skier.
http://www.esf.net/en/tests/enfant/pioupiou.html
The next stage if you passed the above or are aged 7-12yr old is the ourson. It is worthwhile once starting on the ESF ski schools, seeing them through the stages as they are standardised to each resort to ensure continuity. Video clip of ourson and details of ability:
http://www.esf.net/en/tests/enfant/ourson.html at the end of this stage they will be parallel turning down the slopes.
The final stage criteria is the Flocon (snowflake) and you can see a video clip of the standard here: http://www.esf.net/en/tests/enfant/flocon.html
Once you have the snow flake badge, there are three stages and a further bronze and then the gold star.
If you have been with other ski schools, they will assess your child on the first day and put them in approriate group.
Snowflake individual stage descriptions
There is always a medal presentation at the end of the week.
Other French ski schools tend to be specific to the resort you are visiting and can be numerous. Your travel agent should give you details on what the school offers, and ensure you do check as not all ski schools have the level of equipment as ESF so don't expect the information above to be a standard of all schools.
Italian ski schools usually start around 10am until 1pm. Often the last two days are until 4pm with races in the afternoon.
Check if lunch is included and if they have English speaking instructors.
Do put your mobile phone number in your child's rucksack and leave it with the instructor. It is very common, especially mid-week, for young children to get tired and therefore tearful and you can be contacted to pick them up early.
Ski kindergartens are for children up to the age of 3 years and is basically child care on the nursery slope. This varies greatly from resort to resort and can involve some ski practice, playing games, building snowmen and sometimes they have their own indoor playroom with toys, DVDs and art and crafts.
Childcare
Most tour operators, hotels and chalets offer some level of childcare, from private nannies to on-site crèches and kindergartens. It is essential to book early and to establish if the staff are fully qualified and if they speak English. Stories of bored children who don't understand the language have been known, so do establish what activities are available, i.e., do they go off site (some hotels have their own nursery slopes which they take the children tobogganing or just to play) and what hours do they operate?
Travel companies such as Neilsons offer their own childrens' clubs run by experienced English speaking nannies as do the Family Ski Company and Crystal, but these are very popular and are booked up early. Often these are grouped according to age and activities vary accordingly. Crystal's crèches take infants from 6 months to 4 years and costs around £100 for 6 morning or afternoons (lunch extra). Its older group, The Whizz Kids, take children from 3-11 years and drop and collect your child from ski school, adding valuable time to your available skiing time.
Staying with one of the big tour operators also means they often provide baby sitting services in the evenings too.
Another option if you are not planning to book your holiday through a tour operator is to consider specialist private nanny services. Most offer all-day or half-day care, including pick up and collection from ski lessons. This can work very well if you are travelling with a group of friends as nannies can bring a selection of toys, art and crafts and games to your chalet all geared at a different of ages and you can spend the day enjoying the slopes.
Alexandra Chapman from Snow Angel Nannies says "Snow Angel Nannies are the perfect childcare solution for your skiing holiday in the French Alps. We come to you, no more early starts to take the children to the other end of the resort before getting to ski school/starting your day on the slopes! Currently Snow Angel Nannies are available in Les Deux Alpes, Alpe d'Huez, Meribel, Courchevel and La Tania and Tignes. Other resorts available by special arrangement!
At Snow Angel Nannies we pride ourselves on ensuring that you and your children have the best ski holiday possible. You will be able to relax and enjoy your day on the slopes knowing that your children are having a wonderful tme with our fully trained and experienced nannies".