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Esprit? Mark Warner?

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Looking to take kids aged 9 and 6 skiing next Jan/Feb 2017. Stayed at the Mariandre with Esprit last year and it was great. We are looking at either the Alba (Meribel) or Crystal 2000 (Courchevel) with Esprit or the Tarantaise (Mottaret) with Mark Warner. Has anyone any good (or bad) advice regarding the above - standard of accommodation, rooms to avoid etc etc? Ideally we'd like ease of slope access (so we can pick kids up after lunch for a bit of skiing without having to get buses etc) and reasonable accommodation and catering (ie not a catered chalet staffed by someone who can barely cook!).

Mark Warner seems to have the edge on location but not sure re leaving kids asleep in rooms (too tired for evening kids club esp 6 year old if last year anything to go by) whilst we eat whereas Esprit offer staff on each floor to keep an eye on things.

We are not particularly limited to the 3Vs so any other recommendations of places that will accept kids in term time welcome.

Many thanks
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
The Crystal2000 was a little bit tired last time we stayed, they may have done some improvements as its been a couple of years though. They no longer have the pool, which was a big plus point for us.

That being said you absolutely cannot get a better location than the the Crystal. You can literally (we did) ski in and out of the boot room.

You are out of town so don't have that element but for skiing it is perfect.

If you're that way inclined you can sit on the terrace with a hot or cold drink and what the kids do laps on the drag lift. 1650 is but 1 drag, 5 minute ski and 1 chair lift away.

Top of Saulire, 1 chair, 5 minute ski and you're in the cable car to the top.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
After two years with Esprit, we did a year with Mark Warner in Les Deux Alpes, when our girls were 7 & 4.

Two things we really missed were the baby listening service. Although they have a "sleep room" this was a number of camps beds in the same room as they had videos playing. Guess what the 4yr old didn't sleep, so we found ourselves rushing dinner to get her upto bed as early as possible. As she was getting so tired on mornings due to late nights.

The second thing was you don't get snow rangers with the younger skiers etc.

I also found the morning drops offs complete chaos compared to esprit.
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It is very hard to beat Esprit for value and service. I've had 3 successful trips with Esprit and my now 8 year old son. We won't be using them next year but that decision has nothing to do with anything they have done . My son is very much in to his racing so we are doing the English Alpine Champs in Bormio. Other kids from his race club will be there so he will have company. We've even convinced my non-skiing wife to come out as there will be things for her to do in Bormio.

My son loved the evening Cocoa Club. As he was 8 one our last trip he did Cocoa Club Plus which meant on 3 evenings in the week they went out and did things like 10 pin bowling and bum-boading.

I've only ever been to Val d'Isere (twice) and Belle Plagne so can't comment on the resorts you mention. Val d'Isere probably fails on the ease of access factor although they do now offer a service to bring the kids back to the slopes after lunch. Belle Plagne is true ski in/ski out but is quite a bit more expensive. However, if your budget can stretch to it then it is worth considering.

These are my trip reports for my first 2 trips.

Val d'Isere

Belle Plagne
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Esprit miles better than Mark Warner for kids. We have had many weeks with each. Esprit much better organised for children and staff very involved and interested in them. As others have mentioned above sleep arrangements better.

That said I struggle to understand the British (English?) obsession with children and adults eating seperately and leaving children unsupervised in their rooms. It is not normal.
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@ed123, Do you stay in your childs bedroom at home while they are sleeping?
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
@NickyJ, I don't, but neither do I have loads of complete strangers milling around in my own home.
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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!
However that isn't how it feels within the esprit properties and your child isn't actually "unsupervised" you have a babysitter or two sat in the corridor outside your room. Those babysitter are checked in the same way as say staff at a nursery are which we also have used in the past.

For us we find it important to let the girls have a good nights sleep. Just our opinion
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
I agree with many here that Esprit offer the best service and value for money for a family with children around that age. We enjoyed more than 10 Esprit holidays and never disappointed.

Been several years since we stayed at Crystal 2000 and Alba. Both have great ski in/out locations. The Crystal 2000 accommodation was fine but not special. The Alba I recall as more comfortable and better quality all round. Both a little bit 'out of town' if that is important to you but only a few minutes by bus. The other chalethotel of theirs that springs to mind is Deux Domaines in Belle Plagne. Spacious, well appointed, good location, expensive I think.

Depends also on skiing requirements of your family. Those 3 above all have easy access to a range of skiing and plenty kms of piste.

MWs Tarentaise also in a good position for access around different parts of 3V. Maybe not quite such a good location for younger children? Stayed with MW in adult groups many times and impressed. No family holidays so can't comment on childcare.
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 Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
@bastathecat, take a look at their place in Gressoney, absolutely loved the area and their place there. We will definitely go back to that area again.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Haven't done Mark Warner but did Esprit for many years until Hannah went up to high school, so my experience is now 4 years out of date. We stopped at the Alba on our last trip and it was by far the best Esprit property we had stopped at, really close the the piste; literally on the on the other side of the Rond Point roundabout and you can ski directly back onto the terrace. That being said there were some ex-Mark Warner clients who weren't that impressed but Esprit is what it is a family orientated holiday package and having done 8 of them think they do it well.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@ed123, I'm with you there. We were invited to join some friends on a esprit trip a couple of years ago and the whole eating separately thing put us right off. Seemed like a good operation for those who don't want to spend that much time with their kids. I'm sure they do a great job of looking after your children for you....
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
snowdave wrote:
@ed123, I'm with you there. We were invited to join some friends on a esprit trip a couple of years ago and the whole eating separately thing put us right off. Seemed like a good operation for those who don't want to spend that much time with their kids. I'm sure they do a great job of looking after your children for you....


It is good for those that don't want to spend any time with their kids, and there are lots that utilise that facility. If however you want the children to eat with you, or you to eat with them, then surprise surprise, you have to ask them and they will (subject to space) do that (actual direct experience).
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@NickyJ, Obviously I go in and hoover over them....Not really.

I suppose there are two separate points:

a) UK chalet / chalet hotel companies seem to almost all have a separate 'high tea' for kids then dinner for adults. This is pretty much non-negatioable - unless you have the whole chalet / chalet hotel. This is not how things work in most other places. That said our kids do need some grub pronto.

b) There are different arrangements for supervising children in their rooms depending on the company. As you say Espirit has staff on the floors- great. But when we have been in Mark Warner chalet hotels the kids were in their rooms with no such provision. Not so great. Small chalets not a problem, hotels a problem.

Re Esprit vs Mark Warner- there is a significant difference in having a mix of people with and without kids vs only with kids (at times we have found some of the adults without kids at Mark Warner chalet hotels in school holidays or otherwise to be a little / a lot obnoxious- obviously not all or even most- just a significant but unpleasant minority). We have also found the Esprit staff to be much more child friendly. That is over about 7-8 weeks with each company in 9 separate properties.


Last edited by You know it makes sense. on Sat 25-06-16 19:55; edited 1 time in total
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
ed123 wrote:
@NickyJ, Obviousl;y I go in and hoover over .


Ah now that sounds like a good idea, my kids make an awful mess as well Happy
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
@ed123, see my post above, we have negotiated children (although old enough to feed themselves, eat from the main menu are a requirement).

As for the 'obnoxious' bit, i have to say some of the worst were with Esprit with Parents abusing the childcare one example was a couple who got pished with friends in town and missed their ski school presentation and a car had to be sent to get them back to the hotel.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@ansta1, they are now introducing an official option for kids aged 6 (I think) and above to eat with adults. They have to eat from the adult menu and there is a supplement. My son would be highly unlikely to want to eat with me. He enjoys the kids High Tea and the evening kids clubs.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Gaza wrote:
@ansta1, they are now introducing an official option for kids aged 6 (I think) and above to eat with adults. They have to eat from the adult menu and there is a supplement. My son would be highly unlikely to want to eat with me. He enjoys the kids High Tea and the evening kids clubs.


It's always been an off the books option... And yes when our kids were Younger they preferred high tea with the friends and ski rangers they had been with, not sitting with boring old mum and dad.
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snowdave wrote:
@ed123Seemed like a good operation for those who don't want to spend that much time with their kids. I'm sure they do a great job of looking after your children for you....


There is a small minority of parents who hand their kids over at 8:30, collect them again at 18:00 and either hand hem back at 19:30 or leave them in their rooms. I simply don't get that. I'm not talking about babies or pre-school either. Some of the kids were very competent skiers yet their parents didn't seem to want to spend time with them. I'll probably be shot down for saying this but I think they are selfish ba5tards.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Gaza, Everyone is free to make their own choices, but personally I love spending time with my kids. I plan on making my first ski trip with my son next Easter, a 'boys holiday'. He'll be with Esprit until supervised lunch finishes and then I'll spend the afternoons with him until high-tea. I'm not sure about evening club yet, will play that by ear, he'll be 6 so I expect him to be knackered. He might be best back in the room with a couple of DVD's.
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@RichClark, that is exactly the point I was making. Why go on holiday with your kids if you don't spend time with them? My son was 6 when we first went. He'd been skiing for about a year at that point. I went out with him every afternoon after he'd been with the Esprit organised ski school. In the first year he went to supervised lunch until we met another family after which he wanted to have lunch with them. On our second holiday he said he didn't want to do supervised lunch but he had to as on a couple of days I had gone further afield with one of the other dads and couldn't be certain to be back. This year he said he wanted to do supervised lunch every day and for me to them collect him after! Very Happy Esprit can be flexible so I decided to book supervised lunch on an ad hoc basis.

The evening Cocoa Club can be great fun but as you say if he is knackered then he may be better to miss it. The problem I had is Oscar wouldn't stay in the room on his own. In Year 1 he did a few nights Cocoa Club and then we had a 'boys night' with Pizza and after that he started going to the other families room to watch DVDs with their kids. The Snow Rangers did 'lights out' at 9:00 pm and I then picked him up at around 11:00 pm.
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Even our holiday in April (my girls were 6 & 9), they both had the choice of going to coco club or going straight to bed, every evening they chose to go to bed as they were shattered after skiing all day.
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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!
Thanks for all the advice. We have booked the Alba in Meribel.
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