 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi All,
Trying to get a group of 3 families in the same place next Easter (probs 5th April depart); Europe.
Need somewhere fairly large 250+ KM of piste
All day ski school (including supervised lunch) for 5 and 7 year old.
High so snow-sure; village 1500+ top ideally 3000ish or more....
Ideally options for race coaching/Competition ski school.
Self catering and Chalet accoms as some want catered; some don't.
Any ideas?
St. Anton is possible, but been there loads!
Mayrhofen as 'Tux up the road.
Zermatt probs too expensive
La Chable for access to Verbier? but again expensive?
PDS??
Anything else?
Alpe d'Huez been done; and no supervised lunch.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Trouble with Mayrhofen is that it's usually Snowbombing that week, which when we enquired about going were advised that the town becomes a bit child unfriendly (as everyone else is wandering around worse for wear!)
If Zermatt is too expensive how about Cervinia?
We went to Serre Che the same week this year. The girl who ran our chalet was helping supervise lunches for one of the ski schools in the town, so one of the schools must offer it. Not a high area for Easter, but while it was hot when we were there skiing was great. The ski school was possibly ESI or Ski Connections.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Thu 8-05-14 21:54; edited 1 time in total
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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?
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The 5 year old is unlikely to be able to ski all day so go for a family specialist like Esprit for the family/ies with the kids. Then the childcare is entirely sorted. Les Arcs maybe. Plenty of choice of accomodation there, high, great skiing.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| snowyowl wrote: |
| The 5 year old is unlikely to be able to ski all day so go for a family specialist like Esprit for the family/ies with the kids. Then the childcare is entirely sorted. Les Arcs maybe. Plenty of choice of accomodation there, high, great skiing. |
He did it this year; he is a robust young chap! (not mine BTW)
And; me bad; he will be 6 by then......
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Usa?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| Usa? |
Nope; Europe; one family may drive.....
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VT?
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Yep; My fav; but struggling to fine proper all day lessons with supervised lunch. Anyone know of a ski school that do it? ESF don't.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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oxygene in la plagne do i think? evo2 in arc1950/2000. Internet thinks esf meribel do too - which usually means the others in resort do too.
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Thanks a.j., Oxegene do; Kinda...... but they have a "lunch club" between 112 and 2.30!
No doubt so the instructors can get a private lesson in between. Not really what we are looking for.
We are looking for 9.00/9.30 to 15.00 with lunch.
Some of the French Ski schools "advertise" all day lessons; but they are really 9-12 and 2.15/2.40 to 4.45/5....
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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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.
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scooby_simon, Magic in the 3v might be worth looking at, they do two full days with lunch and 4 'long' mornings, they have two options of it, fun factory or race academy.
Don't the Austrian schools offer full days as the norm though?
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| Quote: |
Don't the Austrian schools offer full days as the norm though?
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when we and the kids did all-day Austrian ski school we had lunch together - the ski school didn't do all-day childcare.
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You know it makes sense.
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scooby_simon, Austrian ski school lessons are by default all day - 10.00 to 15.00 with an hour off for lunch. That goes for any age group but the children's ones are supervised and the smaller children are usually accompanied by 2 instructors. If you do go to Austria, you don't have to go as high either, so tree line skiing is possible which when the weather clags in is better for everyone, but especially youngsters. Easter is at least 2 if not 3 weeks earlier next season as well don't forget!
For adults you don't need to be in ski school all day, I had people joining a group I was with just for the morning or just for the afternoon. The instructors all carry radios and can be contacted wherever they are.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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If you've done St Anton too much how about Ischgl??
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Poster: A snowHead
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scooby_simon, you have a PM 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Solden
Ski school yellow power
Loads of apartments, hotels and chalets in the area
Obergurgl i think is on the ski pass
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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?
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Personally, I find the whole idea of going on a family ski holiday then parking 5 and 7 year olds in all day child care so you dont see them odd and rather depressing but moving on...
One option would be to get a chalet/appartment set up with child care. Various companies offer this. You book a nanny who will drop kids at ski school, pick them up after, give them lunch and look after them in the afternoon. I'm sure this could include dropping them back at ski school in the afternoon. Our experience of skiing with our kids when they were five was that they were not able to ski 9 to 3. We tended to have the nannies give them lunch and let them play in the apartment for an hour or two after. We would come back after a late lunch and pick them up around 2 to do a couple of runs with them (sometimes we had the nanny meet us piste side with the kids all geared up and ready to go. After that they were done for the day and it was back to the apartment. Our kids have always been active/sporty not couch potatos so I think you need a REALLY energetic 5 year old to enjoy all day skiiing.
We used this kind of set up at Easter in Tignes, ADH and La Plagne using Mark Warner (Tignes) and VIP (ADH, La Plagne) - all high. The La Plagne place was ideal - nice apartment with lift to piste side - very useful when you want to dip in and out of the apartment during the day. They had several apartments - not sure if any were big enugh to sleep 3 families but one defintitely big enough for 3 families to eat, lounge around, so you could book a couple of places and share.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We had something similar with Espirit in Obergurgl this year although we were considered odd as we took ours out of ski school in the afternoon to ski with them but had the option for them to stay if we wanted.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We took our 4 and 7 year old this year. we booked half day ski school, half day kids clubs. On various occassions we tried to collect our children early. Pretty much every time, our 4yr old told us she would rather stay in the kids club. when we took her skiing with us on the last day, she very quickly tired and wanted to go back to the kids club. That was her choice, my eldest sometimes wanted to stay longer, sometimes wanted to be signed out. Even when we signed her out early, she still wanted to go off and play with her friends outside or in the bar rather than be with us. From their perspective it isnt "being dumped in child care" but being in fun kids clubs doing lots of different actiivties with their friends. I guess all children are different but mine are very scoicalable.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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| scooby_simon wrote: |
"Need somewhere fairly large 250+ KM of piste
All day ski school (including supervised lunch) for 5 and 7 year old.
High so snow-sure; village 1500+ top ideally 3000ish or more....
Ideally options for race coaching/Competition ski school." |
= Ischgl
Meets all your criteria.
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How about Avoriaz - the Village des Enfants ski school does am and pm lessons and lunch inbetween; I am pretty sure all three can be booked as a package.
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How much do they want to spend, if the 5 and 7 year old would cope with a private instructor rather than standard ski school then Arc Adventures in Arc 1800 might take them all day (their brochure shows day rates for private instructors).
New Generation in Meribel seems to offer a good variety of kids courses including a couple of days a week where the kids can have a supervised lunch
http://www.skinewgen.com/wp-content/uploads/tblchildrensgroups5.jpg
At only 5 and 7 I personally would have said that 9am-4pm 5-6 days running would be too much for such young kids no matter how much the parents want to be allowed to ski by themselves. The New Gen option of a couple of full days and 4.5 hours otherwise might be useful?
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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jedster, The kids are not mine......
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Megamum, if you did that with the ESF it would cost about 350€ a day, and other schools are generally more expensive than they are. Cheaper to bring a nanny.
On the subject of which, you could always book with the likes of VIP Ski and engage one of their nannies for the week - nanny will picke them up from lessons, feed them lunch then drop them off again.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Last time we were in L2A ESF did supervised lunch.
Last time Jnr had group lessons in Austria (Skiwelt) after the first day the instructor asked if we could send Jnr with €9 each day so they could have lunch up the mountain and stay out rather than meet with us back down in the village.
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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.
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What's wrong with a lunch club? Too long? It's been a while since my friends used the service, I can't remember but I thought it was all day through - although I never asked exactly how lunch worked....
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In Seefeld a weeks ski school, morning and afternoon sessions with supervised lunch is about 250 Euro per week (10 to 12, lunch for 2 hours, then skiing again till 4). Junior has been OK with that since he was 6, the mushette first tried it at 4 and it was a bit much for her. She was much better when she was 5, and perfectly OK when 6.
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You know it makes sense.
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scooby_simon, you mentioned Verbier and just remembered we used this ski school one year and they were excellent http://www.arcenciel-siviez.ch/en/winter-program-pxl-56_57.html based in Siviez so very good access to Verbier, we stayed down in Nendaz, there are a lot of nice chalets around or you could get apartments right in Siviez. This ski school was really excellent. They provide a full day including lunch option and you can drop off from 9.00, they have indoor and outdoor play areas at the ski school office which is right on the snow front at Siviez. They offer race training too and an Easter race. From what I remember the groups were really small and they were really flexible. Worth a look.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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We run full day sessions in PDS with race training included. We have launched a new website recently www.pds-academy.co.uk - Please feel free to get in touch through the website or jjctraining@hotmail.com with any questions.
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Poster: A snowHead
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scooby_simon, Ok so I know you said EUROPE but I would seriously look at Whistler as they have all the child care you want and then some. Plenty of terrain and with the CAD$ at 1.8 it is "cheap". Book before Nov for the "bargains".
Have a look, obviously driving would be tricky !
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Jake43, out of interest what would be the budget for a family of 4 in Whistler?? Accom, flights and lift pass. I reckon I can do Europe for around £3k.
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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?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Jake43, £1500 each all in sounds great (by all I presume you are including flights, accomodation,transfer,food, lift passes). Is that booking everything independently or with a tour operator? I have been trying to get prices for next Easter to work out a budget for going to Canada for the following Easter and I haven't got near that price yet 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Jake43, £3k is travel, half board accom in very nice hotel who does me a great deal and lift pass in Easter hols. Extras are lunch and beer.....
Wasn't expecting Canada to be cheaper, but interested in how much more......
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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NickyJ, Well guessing when Easter is a week in Whistler with Flights hotel, transfers and Lifts could be done for £1500 each, just checked on Virgin for next year. Remember snow is normally good (not this year!) but Easter is no big holiday in N. America us Brits make up a small portion of their trade so prices don't go up. In fact April is cheaper than March as it is BC holidays in March ! So as long as Easter is in April it is not too bad; if Easter is in March all bets are off. Also assuming $CAD exchange stays good for us.
If you book before end of August there are deals to be had (yep I know its daft) and you really must book before Nov as lift prices (& Ski hire) then go up. You do need to note that all prices are with no food included. We go to a hotel with kitchen and do breakfast but eat out rest of the time.
Also you need to add in Kids clubs, which are great and will take them for the whole week generally with the same instructor for the 5 days- English is the first language ! Maybe if you are lucky they would get my Daughter. She went through them for many years and now teaches over there.
There are many people on here that tell me they can do it cheaper all direct rather than using a TO, never managed it myself. If you do everything can be done Via AirCanada or BA (direct from Heathrow) and Allura (apartment hire-discounted lift passes). Plenty of info on here if you look or happy to answer any question if I can.
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| kitenski wrote: |
Jake43, £3k is travel, half board accom in very nice hotel who does me a great deal and lift pass in Easter hols. Extras are lunch and beer.....
Wasn't expecting Canada to be cheaper, but interested in how much more...... |
The key is CAD$ rate and Easter is not high season for them (as long as it is in April) I was checking I had not given a bum steer and checked Virgin for next year and its about right as long as you are trying to keep price to min. TO will even give you a "free" flight from Leeds down to Heathrow if you ask. Normally use Skiindipendance but they don't have prices on clickable buttons.
I included Flight, Transfer, Hotel (4 in room !) Lift pass. It has been stated, on here, that doing it direct is cheaper. See other info above. No food/drink, ski hire or lessons. We allow for approx £2200 all in, each, but that is 2 in a suite and eating out every day and hiring skis (no lessons). Note if you look at the flight prices you will see that more than half the cost is TAX as it is long haul.
Snow was rubbish this year, they only had 9m but they are still open on Blackcomb for another couple of weeks (5" snow in last week). This year Whistler Mountain shut on Tuesday after Easter - so they can get the bike parks ready.
Another thread has just mentioned Esprit doing Whistler next year http://www.espritski.com/resorts/whistler/
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£1500 each is way over what can be done; I'll hope to get it all done including food (excl drink) for under 4K for us. Other's budgets are probably a little more; but 5K Max....
Did not want to limit budget to start with to allow some free thinking! Not sure we could streach to the US
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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scooby_simon, thought that maybe the case but they do child ski lesson groups so well over there that I thought it was worth a mention. As it is long haul the tax is over £250 each so the Government is taking over a grand - without that it gets much closer price wise.
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| Quote: |
jedster, The kids are not mine......
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Yes - did realise that, comment was not meant to critique your parenting!
Funnily enough we were with the other family that we skied wih when the kids were that age at the weekend. We were discussing just how valuable it is to be able to easily dip in and out of your hotel/flat/chalet during teh day when your kids are small. I'd make that a priority.
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