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taking a 6 month old on skiing holiday

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
having had two fantastic holidays this year in Ellmau with wife and two boys aged 12 and 14 and ADH with the lads it was looking like 2016 would be limited to a couple of jaunts up to Glenshee if lucky, as wife is due a little girl early september. She had totally written off going away but friends have asked about going on their first holiday as a family with their two little girls aged 3 and 5 and we have now decided it would be worth going as I for one will be delighted at my new arrival but completely devastated at the thought of no mountains for a whole year.

anyway been having a little look and val di fassa is looking favourable mainly due to the fact it has the creche facilties in that resort at a hotel with a pool. quite limited if going with Crystal as they only have creche facilities in certain resorts.

Never skied in the dolomites so looking for anyone with knowledge of val di fassa and also anyone with an opinion on how stressful taking a six month old will be against getting our fix of mountain air and skiing. anyone used the crystal creche facilities. also discussed just getting one lift pass between us and taking it in turns to have mornings and afternoons skiing whilst the other one looks after baby.

personally i would make full use of the creche facilities but that is because i am a man and don't understand how woman feel.

any thoughts or opinions greatly appreciated.
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I would take a look at Esprit their childcare is very good.

However if you are going with friends and you can share childcare just make sure it is clear up front how much and who is sharing childcare. We went with my parents and discovered when we got there that we both had different ideas as to how much they were prepared to share the childcare - that made things a little tense.
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Six months is a very easy age for travel. Settled routine hopefully. Will stay where put. Might even leave hat and sunglasses on. The following year will be far more tricky so make the most of it. Would be good to get baby used to a range of carers from an early age. .
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Quote:

i am a man and don't understand how woman feel


Titter. (Although it's quite true).

Never skied in that valley but looks like the "resorts" are quite strung out. If you mean Canazei then that looks OK for a week and has been discussed on here before. If it's any moral help, I think my youngest niece (French) was in full time (i.e. all day) creche from around 6 months with no apparent problems...
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I second Esprit. Used them in La Rosiere and the set-up and care was excellent.
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Used Crystal crèches a few times, no complaints at all. We took our 4 month old to Courchevel - she was pretty unsettled at night...apparently the altitude. By six months it might be better. Other than that she was no hassle at all. Beware sharing a lift pass though, I wouldn't be recommending that.
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Not sure I'd be ditching off my 6 month old child with some 18 year old nanny with a hangover who is intent on chatting up Carlos the dodgy bar keeper. Still I guess it is better than skiing around with your kid in a rucksack.
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After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Definitely recommend Esprit, all 3 of my boys (now 2, 5 and 7) have been through their Nursery, Spritlets etc and have loved every minute of it. When we first went my wife was dubious about leaving baby in nursery all day but after a couple of days sneeking back to watch what they were doing she was more than happy to leave them there. We have only been to Obergurgl with Esprit so I can't comment on their other resorts but with Obergurgl being quite small and compact we are constantly bumping into the kids groups and even the nursery gang up on the hill.

We also have our own apartment in Zell and when we go there we use the ski school nursery which is fine, last Easter we had one on one care for 5 of the 7 days we were there as we were the only ones booked in. It is however a lot more work of us as parents doing all the various drop offs, collections, cooking etc and feel less of a break for us.

If you asked the kids they would definitely say they prefer Esprit mainly due to the time outside of ski lessons being mostly spent with the completely mad Snow Rangers (Esprits childcare staff) and the other kids in the chalet.
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Espirit all the way, they use properly trained nannys for the wee'uns and we used them for both of ours at that age. We've been to Courchevel, Vallandry, St. Anton and Val multiple times with Espirit and never had reason to fault the childcare. One other benefit is that Espirit have their own area at Chambery airport, with feeding and changing areas, toys, games, staff on site and precious precious seating for you which, if you get delays, is worth its weight in gold at an airport like Cham.
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Quote:
also discussed just getting one lift pass between us and taking it in turns to have mornings and afternoons skiing whilst the other one looks after baby

I have done that. However, just been be warned that technically it's not allowed. And there are occasional stories of lift passes being confiscated. There have been threads in the past if you have an hour to search and read.

Quote:
personally i would make full use of the creche facilities but that is because i am a man and don't understand how woman feel.

If you've two older children it could be that your wife could handle it (more relaxed parenting). Will she be breast feeding? Ours were still breast feeding at 6 months and my wife didn't like expressing. Regardless it would probably be tough on her to be out the whole day.
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Sorry, I don't know anything about the childcare situation, but I am familiar with the Val di Fassa. Only Campitello and Canazie are lift linked into the Sella Ronda, though you can't ski back to Campitello. You need a bus for the other villages — make sure you check the exact location of the hotel, as I've seen places described as 'Canazie' when they're clearly in Alba!

mikeelsa wrote:
also discussed just getting one lift pass between us and taking it in turns to have mornings and afternoons skiing whilst the other one looks after baby.


This is a bad idea. In the Dolomites, your lift pass has your name on it and they are all tagged as M or F so they can quickly tell if someone's doing swapsies in the afternoon.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
Short transfer is important.

I have used Esprit and Ski Famile, happy with both, but Ski Famille were excellent. I have not felt the need for a pool.

I would find it odd going on holiday at not skiing with my partner? Bad idea to share lift passes anywhere.
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Do it

We took our daughter when she was 8 weeks old. My wife and I took it in turns skiing mornings and afternoons because she was too young to cope with a creche, but we made it work and had a lot of fun. There are also a couple of hidden advantages in going when they are that young.

1) Altitude. Babies up until 6-8 months are less affected by altitude. Basically their ear canals are open very wide in the womb, and it takes about 6-8 months for them to close up to normal size. This means pressure changes affect them less. So we took our daughter on 2 trips 4 times in a plane before she was 8 months old. She never cried, never had a bad first experience on a plane. A year later we went to SA 12 hour flight, she got a bit ratty as her ears popped, but she does not have a fear of flying. I think a lot of kids that are afraid of flying have it because they have a bad first experience this goes some way to mitigating that. Note dehydration at altitude is still a problem with a young un. Lots of fluids and our doctor (who we checked with first) recomended leaving a bowl of water on the radiator in the room she was sleeping to keep moisture levels in air up.

2) The other advantage is getting them used to snow and a ski resort before they actually ski. We took our daughter a couple of times before putting her on skis aged 2. This year (4) was her 3rd season and she can now snowplough, and can go down pretty much all blues, complete control and picking her turns. It was hiliarious on our last day this year, she tacked on to the back of a class of 8 years and just followed them down the mountain.

Your children will thank you when they don't even remember not being able to ski Smile I know I am jealous, my (continued) learning has been a painful expereience at times
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
I would never have put a baby in a creche whilst I skied, I am a firm believer that babies need continuity of care from familiar faces but I recognise that many people feel differently, and each to their own. When ours were small we prefered to take it in turns to ski and shared a lift pass. But the most important thing is that you and your wife agree what would be best for your family in your particular circumstances.


Smile
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Not Dolomites, or even Italy, but Family friendly Skiing in La Tania is probably worth looking at for your group. We've been going with them for circa 7 years since our first was 12 months old, and the second was around 8 months old on his first trip.

They have nannies that come to your chalet to care for the kids during the day, which is nice as there's no faff having to drop the kids off at a creche or nursery somewhere. The nannies arrive, you say your goodbyes and hit the slopes. They have baby kit, (monitors, high chairs, cots etc) and toys in the chalets, for the older ones the nannies bring art stuff, do cooking with them, take them out bum boarding or to the softplay in courchevel), etc. There's usually other kids in the same chalet so the kids all play with each other. Other than that its a standard catered chalet type affair but they've been consistent over the years with decent staff etc, both nannies and chalet staff.

In our first year we felt a bit guilty at first leaving the chalet but trust me you soon get over it, in fact after the first couple of hours skiing we totally switched off and forgot about the fact we had a baby with us ! They also do ski school pick up and drop off for the older kids.

Anyway there's full justification for it - It's important you keep your skills up with a trip each year otherwise in 7 years time you won't be able to keep up with them Toofy Grin
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Cheers guys lots of interesting replies. I had not thought the lift pass thing would be an issue but having discussed it we would probably get one each. Now thinking creche in morning 830-1400 and wife said she would be happy going back then and leave me out with the boys.

She also said she might get me to drop off baby in morning and she would just sleep Laughing .

Encouraged to hear from you guys that say do it having done it yourselves. Think we will go now just need to decide where. This has lifted my depression as I was convinced I would not get my fix this year. It's the only place I go where for an entire week I am not grumpy, angry, moany or stressed out.
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Its obviously different in Italy because in Avoriaz when we went along to talk about pass options the woman told us that we should just share passes. Granted she suggested we buy the 3 day passes as they don't ahve pictures on them. Perhaps when you have a picture card it becomes a little more hairy.

I imagine it also matters when its busy. Bottom line though is that if only 2 people ski 4 hours each I don't see how that is different to one person skiing 8 hours. Given ski passes are there to cover upkeep of lift systems and pistes the usage has not changed, the same amount of wear and tear will be expereienced in both scenarios. Now if they charged less for a female lift pass as you guys are generally lighter than fair enough.

Maybe they shoudl have a fattist policy and your ski pass is charged according to weight, I would be royally screwed Smile
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@mikeelsa, just do it. My son was 7 months old when he went on his first skiing trip. As we didn't want to give up on 8 days skiing, we were mad enough to go by Eurostar and sleeper as well which meant crossing Paris by Metro with baby, skis, boots, etc. Thankfully we had a short transfer at the end as we stayed in a chalet just below Les Arcs which had child-care included just by one of the intermediate stations on the Funicular. As he was still being fed by his mother, expressed milk was left for him every day and she filled bottles during the day - we carried a small rucksack and she quickly found the cleanest stop-overs/toilets.

We went again when he was 9 months old and stayed with Crystal in Flaine. Their kids-club was great and also ran in the evenings to allow us time for dinner.

He's now almost 7 and has been on 13 weeks-worth of ski holidays of which he's been to ski-school and skied for 6 of those. He's got the bug badly enough that he's been known to cry when his hire skis have to go back.

Enjoy!
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@gordonrussell76, it seems to be very resort dependent. In La Plagne a couple of years ago they were open about not being fussed on passes of 6 days or less (as long as they weren't used at the same time), but over the hill in the 3V I gather it's an absolute no no. La Plagne could have changed now as well - I think it was technology limited, as they only had a photo of you if you'd given them one (for longer passes) and didn't collect gender information. There was a story on here last year about someone who got into trouble accidentally mixing up their passes with their spouse, and it being spotted by camera - unknown to them, their photograph had been taken on the first scan, and was then being compared by lifties on subsequent scans.


Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Thu 28-05-15 20:30; edited 1 time in total
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Quote:

It's the only place I go where for an entire week I am not grumpy, angry, moany or stressed out.

Shocked Life with you - and for you - must be pretty miserable for the other 50 or so weeks a year.
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@pam w, wink

Although I get the feeling the OP is quite unusually sensitive about his own grumpiness. I, however, am always sweetness and light as I am sure you have inferred from my presence here Twisted Evil
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Could try mark Warner we had many great holidays with them
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
We have done one Mark Warner holiday, and had a nice time, however we really missed the baby listening service of Esprit. It was much nicer to be able to put our younger one to bed in their own quiet room, and no somebody was outside the room checking on them. With Mark Warner you have a snuggle club you take them to, which although had camp beds for youngsters to sleep on, there was a DVD playing for the older ones and having lots of other children around meant my youngest didn't sleep and was getting over tired. Also feedback from my eldestt was she prefered the Esprit kids clubs over the Mark Warner ones.
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Quote:

With Mark Warner you have a snuggle club you take them to, which although had camp beds for youngsters to sleep on, there was a DVD playing for the older ones and having lots of other children around meant my youngest didn't sleep and was getting over tired.

I can't imagine any of my offspring or their offspring settling down in an environment like that.
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Been twice now with our little man - both times to the Val di Fassa. First time he was just 8 weeks old and second time, this year, he was 14 months. We were lucky that we had a willing family member who was happy to do a lot of the childcare (and as she is my sister I was more then happy to leave him with her!). I wasn't breastfeeding and my baby is pretty chilled out so it worked out really well both times - it is very different from pre-baby holidays but still very enjoyable! I have a couple of blog posts about the holidays if you can be bothered to read!
Last year: http://ownthetrail.co.uk/2014/02/snowboarding-with-a-baby/
This year: http://ownthetrail.co.uk/2015/03/snowboarding-with-a-babypart-ii/
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Good luck with your trip, but please drive. Airlines and Eurostar are not the place for babies if you care about other people. Somebody else's holiday that they've been looking forward to all year can start really badly if they are sat close to a wailing baby that really doesn't want to be there.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@mikeelsa, another advantage of going with a company dedicated to families is that every one in the hotel with you also have children so you don't get treated like second class citizens by other people you are on holiday with just because you have the audacity to have children.
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Quote:

Good luck with your trip, but please drive. Airlines and Eurostar are not the place for babies if you care about other people. Somebody else's holiday that they've been looking forward to all year can start really badly if they are sat close to a wailing baby that really doesn't want to be there.


I would rather have a wailing baby then p*ssed people who started drinking at 7am before boarding the flight any day!
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Quote:

Somebody else's holiday that they've been looking forward to all year can start really badly if they are sat close to a wailing baby that really doesn't want to be there.

Oh diddums. And on one of those horrendous long-haul flights to European ski destinations. "If you care about other people", indeed.

Laughing Laughing Laughing
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Couldn't agree more about the drinkers that start at 5am at Gatwick - surley that's coffee time rather than beer time?

Just get annoyed with parents who can't work out that priorities change when you become a parent - you put the baby first rather than your holiday. It doesn't want to go skiing! It doesn't want to fly anywhere. Unfortunately its distress causes other passengers hassle too. If you drive you can adapt to baby's needs and not screw up the start of somebody else's holiday. Accept that some don't care about other people rolling eyes
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Here here , do a road trip , drive to your chosen resort , best of both worlds for all concerned.

Although not actually having a holiday won't kill you for a couple of year's
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Just in case anybody is actually taking the advice of those bizarre people who think that as soon as you have a baby you need to lock yourself away for years please check up on how long it is safe to have a baby in a car seat for.
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NickyJ wrote:


However if you are going with friends and you can share childcare just make sure it is clear up front how much and who is sharing childcare. We went with my parents and discovered when we got there that we both had different ideas as to how much they were prepared to share the childcare - that made things a little tense.


This. We've been skiing with friends with young children. We were thinking how having the children there might restrict their skiing, they were thinking we would be sharing kiddie looking after duties with them.

We had a great time.
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I ahve no issue with babies wailing as that's what they do. 4 year olds kicking the back of my seat. However will be firmly rebuked.
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Quote:

do a road trip , drive to your chosen resort

much the best solution for anyone too pathetic to cope with a baby crying or any other aspect of the First World Horror which is a short holiday flight. rolling eyes
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@pam w, Laughing
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pam w wrote:
Quote:

do a road trip , drive to your chosen resort

much the best solution for anyone too pathetic to cope with a baby crying or any other aspect of the First World Horror which is a short holiday flight. rolling eyes


Baby crying during take off/landing isn't the end of the world (though still not my idea of fun). Baby crying for the duration of a flight (even if only 1.5 hours) is really quite grating and headache-inducing though, and I can understand the logic that it's a bit selfish for one family to subject an entire plane to the noise. Isn't that what dummies are for? Maybe you feel/react differently once you've had kids though.

Family loudly singing Be Nice please! nursery rhymes for 8 hours nonstop in the seats behind me on a train from Scotland to London OTOH.... Let's just say if I'd had a gun in my hand I don't know if I'd have shot myself in the head or them first!
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I'm sure that nobody would want their baby to be distressed, whether on a plane or in a car. When I travelled with a baby, on some long-haul flights I had no problem at all - just stuck a nipple in its mouth when necessary. People generally have sensible ways to cope and have no wish to upset their fellow passengers. Having been on plenty of flights I've never had any significant problem with other people's babies crying.

And none of my kids would ever take dummies - and I did try, when they were little, believe me. Spat them straight out and carried on yelling if that's what they felt like.

Of course it would be unpleasant sitting near a baby who yelled all the way to Geneva - nobody is denying that. It would be specially unpleasant for the parents, who would feel very embarrassed. But to suggest that people should never take babies on planes is just silly.
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@clarky999, Years ago on a flight back from Boston US, 18month old daughter developed a violent tummy bug as we were boarding the full flight. We'd crossed from San Francisco earlier that day & I blamed something she had eaten on that flight. However, the end result was that she howled for the entire 6hours. I felt so sorry for the nice guy sitting next to us. We ran out of nappies very soon (6 for a flight should be enough, no?) but luckily the airline were able to provide some. People were so kind & long-suffering - she was clearly unwell & we were doing all we could. I was far less tolerant of the man behind me on a flight fron Genoa the other day with a clicky laptop he was sending a grumpy email from (sounded like it, anyway) & he also kept kicking the back of my seat - very irritating.
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The worst experiences I've had with fellow passengers on planes or trains have always been drunk adults rather than screaming kids. A particularly memorable bad day was sitting for hours in Turin waiting for the plane door to be fixed at Gatwick and watching my fellow travellers get drunk and wondering what their behaviour would be like on the flight. Fortunately it took the airline so long to get the plane to us that they were subdued rather than rowdy in the end!

Our eldest was a very active baby and also suffered from ear troubles. We therefore chose to go skiing via Eurostar and the journey went well. He had his nap lying down across a few seats and looked out the window some of the time. We enjoyed the standard premier glass of wine etc. However when we were about to leave Bourg St Maurice for the long journey back, we were approached by a young man who asked if "the noise could be stopped". We looked at each other wondering what noise he meant and realised our son was very gently tapping a plastic orange juice cup on the table and we hadn't even noticed. Embarassed Toofy Grin Fortunately the retired couple near us appeared to like children and put us at ease again and the rest of the journey was uneventful.

My recommendation for skiing with a baby would be choose self catering accommodation and travel by train if you live near enough the Eurostar. The quality of childcare available in the resort is the most important thing of all. The best childcare we found was Snowbizz in Puy St Vincent.
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