Where to go next year - daughter just passed Ourson

A snowHead

Hi there

Basically just after some advice/ideas on which resorts to go to next. We have spent the last two trips in La Tania and daughter (age 5) passed her Ourson this year. With ski school, she successfully tackled the horrible green run from the top of the gondola back down to the resort and then on the Saturday we bussed over to 1850 and she spent a happy few hours pootling down the green runs around there.

So now we are pondering on where to go next. We are tied in so far as we like chalet holidays (for the social aspect) rather than self catering or hotels and would prefer somewhere with childcare as we are not confident that she will be ready to ski am and pm (she is small for her age). We have been to Peissey with Ski Beat and La Tania with Le Ski.

We have had a look at La Plagne but husband thinks the creche seems a bit far from the lifts. We are thinking that Peissey would be okay as they have the nice, wide novice area at the top of the chair lift. I know that La Rossiere is quite popular with families, but I am being put off by some of the comments I have seen recently. So where else should we consider Puzzled

Thanks.

A snowHead

CaurnieBred, La Rosiere would be good for your daughter. We self-catered so am unable to recommend chalets.
La Rosiere gets a lot of stick on here. Mainly because there is one prolific supporter who has a business there and goes OTT.

or

http://www.skifamille.co.uk/

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

CaurnieBred, having been twice to La Ros with my now 8 year old daughter I can thoroughly recommend it as a family orientated resort, which in the 2nd week in January, is dead quite to the extent of having runs to yourself, brilliant for kids learning that!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

we had two enjoyable catered chalet holidays (with ski olympic) in La Ros. It's not the place for people looking for canned entertainment or a different riotous bar every night - and whichever resort you look at, you'll find critics, because we don't all like the same things. Thankfully. snowHead

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

So that's it - La Rosiere. Nowhere else?? Doesn't need to be France. Confused

You'll need to Register first of course.

CaurnieBred, I don't know but to me it sounds like the Ourson may be a ski 'test' specific to France. It would make sense to go somewhere again which would allow the daughter to progress through the levels. The test should give an idea of where she is at, ability wise, when selecting a level for group instruction.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

We got on great with our children learning at Les Arc 1800 (7 & 5 at the time). in a self catering apartment, but learners area was right outside. No green runs though.

After all it is free

CaurnieBred, These tests are specific to France and I believe ESF so you would need to go somewhere with an ESF presence. We have a great ski school here in Montalbert (ESF) and lots of appropriate runs to progress to Flocon the next level. Mouth Junior (3 years and 1 month) is now working towards Flocon around the slopes of the village and La PLagne. But anywhere with ESF will be fine.

I don't think it matters that much if you change country and therefore ski school. My son got an international ski school qualification the first year and then flocon (esf) last year. As it happens we went to La Rosiere last year and my son was awarded his flocon (the badge your daughter will be on next) there. We stayed in Les Eucharts area and had a fantastic holiday. Our son was able to ski the blue run from the top of the La Rosiere chairlift comfortably by the end of the week and other blue runs. The main part of La Rosiere has more in the way of green runs, easy button lifts so you may want to base yourselves there. Esprit have lots of chalets in that area and would have afternoon childcare options. We booked our children in for ESF lessons plus lunch club which gave us enough time to ski to La Thuile while they were in lessons. I think the comments over difficult drag lifts applied to the La Thuile side and I think your daughter would find those too much and you would be better off sticking to La Rosiere while you are skiing with her.
La Rosiere is a great family resort and certainly worth going to once. We liked the Eucharts area because the self catering accommodation was very luxurious with lovely pool complex and there was hardly any traffic, ski to and from the door. There was also an ice rink, bowling alley, lovely tea shop with teddies and nice pizza restaurant. Self catering doesn't have to be hard work.. we ate out most of the time and enjoyed having more space than you'd get in a chalet or hotel.

I'd also recommend Les Arcs and Puy St Vincenct (snow bizz) although the latter is only available self catering and does International ski school qualifications.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

CaurnieBred, one reason people haven't mentioned other countries might be your preference for catered chalets - overwhelming majority of those are in France. Also, I think ski school in Austria is all day, which might not (or might....) suit your family.

Your wish to be in a catered chalet also rules out a lot of small French resorts (such as the one we are in) which are off the Tour Operators' radar.

A place I've never been, but which is supposed to be good for families and with a superb learning area, is Valmorel. Maybe one to look into if you don't like the sound of La Ros?

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

La Rosiere looked very family friendly from a non parent's point of view. Lots of greens/blues in the main La Rosiere area. Some of the drags are a bit violent, the drags to Italy aren't particularly difficult, just LONG!!!! The main accesses on the La Rosiere side were chairlifts (with drag options) when I was there 2 years ago.

La Thuile was close enough that OH could head off over there, make it all the way down to town level, buy some low light goggles and be back to meet me after ski school, so there are options if you want to head off and do less child friendly pistes while your daughter is in ski school. There were enough runs to keep OH (mile muncher who likes reds and blacks) entertained when he was skiing on his own although without me, he would have probably have run out of mileage in a group of experienced mile munchers.

The main green is treelined and quite pretty, and I really liked the blue straight down to the resort from main chair out of La Rosiere - very confidence giving for me.

snow reports

Thanks everyone.

PS: We are not tied to the French system - I just put that so that DDs level was clear, but being addicted to the chalet system does really tie us to France I suppose. (And we do like smaller resorts too - have been to Les Sept Laux a couple of times with friends who live in Grenoble - but DD is also more likely to have English speaking teachers in a larger resort I would have though.) Will have a look at Valmorel as that is a new one to me.

You know it makes sense.

I've just come back from Alpe d'Huez - it has a wide variety of greens adjacent to the resort of varying length and difficulty to keep you and the little one amused together.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

La Rosiere has only one drawback for families in that it can get windy at times and be exposed he the weathar is bad. Apart from that it is superb, even ESF are superb.

A snowHead

Frosty - ESF la rosiere Eucharts were not very good with 3 yr olds (better for older children). We went at New Year (last season). There were about 24 children in piou piou mainly french, only 3 English with a few teachers. It was freezing as there was no sun in the snow garden in the mornings and a bitter wind. We bought a balaclava for our daughter and then she was happier. The first day we skied past just before the end of the lesson and the children were standing in a long line crying mummy, maman in various languages..I nearly cried myself seeing them. There were so many children they had to wait a long time to take their turn to go down a very short slope. I'm not sure if my daughter progressed at all in the week. She stayed on for the lunch club each day and enjoyed that more.

I think La Rosiere is a great resort but the ESF nursery garden in the main area of la rosiere might be a better bet with under 5s as there is more sun on it.

With hindsight we may have been better off using Evolution 2 with our youngest (for smaller groups) but then we woudln't have had access to the creche at lunch and would have had to take the bus from Les Eucharts to the main part of the resort.

To go back to this thread the poster has a daughter of 5 and for the over 5s who are not stuck in the piou piou area La Rosiere is a great resort with lots of gentle runs and a few easy drags. Our son who was 6 when we went had a lovely ESF teacher and was able to enjoy skiing blue runs with us in the afternoon.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Have a look at Montgenevre, Risoul, possibly Les Gets/Morzine. Have been to all these as a family and they have something for everyone up to confident intermediates on the slopes, some entertaining off-piste and villages are good for families with youngsters. However, would only go back to Les Gets/Morzine if we knew snow was good - little bit too low for our liking.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

Bergmeister: Ourson is classed by ESF as having the following abilities:

Can recognise his/her ski equipment.
Can put on and take off his/her skis by him/herself..
Has used some ski lifts already.
Can control his/her speed and complete snaking turns..
An move around on skis in different ways over varied but almost flat terrain..
Can ski with skis parallel straight downhill and stop using a snowplough turn.

(A nice video here: http://www.esf.net/en/tests/enfant/ourson.html)

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Hi Higs,

Tell me more about Claviere - we've skid for eth past 3 years in Austria and our daughter (now 6) came on extremely well so we're looking for something a bit different (ski in /out) so that we can spend more time skiing with her. It's not a name that's cropped up to me before ?

You'll need to Register first of course.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Hi Sev112. I can def recommend Courchevel 1850 or 1650 for you as they have some lovely blues an greens (but as we have been there for the past two years we are looking for somewhere else for a change - you know it is bad when you don't need to look at a piste map anymore . . .).

After all it is free

sev112 - My youngest is almost 5 and we are trying Montgenevre this year. You can ski claviere from there but Montgenvre appealed to us for:

1. snow record supposed to be good
2. ESF supposed to be good but also has Apeak (International ski school) - so good choice of children's lessons
3. Accommodation - have booked the new 4 star self catering - hameau des airelles which has swimming pool - can ski to door but unfortunately it will be a walk to ski school I think as that is based on the other side of the road.
4. Lots of skiing for beginners (our children) and intermediates (us)
5. Easy to get to by train - our preferred means of transport

We have been given some good advice on this forum on skiing from montgenevre to claviere and back - it will be a bit of a rush with the ski school pick up but we are hoping to ski both resorts.

Which resorts have you been to in Austria? Would you recommend any of them for us next year?!

Help!!

Where to go next year - daughter just passed Ourson

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Resort Reviews and Trip Reports