 Poster: A snowHead
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We would like to go skiing at New Year leaving 27/28 December 14 this will be our first trip in 10 years and taking the children who have never skied before except a few lessons on the dry ski slope and a couple at a snow dome. They will be 10 & 7 we would like somewhere that's not completely over crowded and close to the slopes or ski in ski out so I can come back to apartment in the afternoon if children have had enough. That way the OH and rest of group can carry on skiing/boarding Did have Flaine earmarked but a few bad reports regarding ski school has put me off. So any advice and recommendations would be good. Not to fussed regarding which country just would like the children to have a good time and myself to gain confidence again. Thank you. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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New Year week is a fairly expensive and busy one. If you can go Christmas week that would be better. April whenever your schools break up is another good week to go.
What you really want to focus on is the ski school. You need to get recommendations for those and then base your holiday around that.
Are you flexible on transport, type of accomodation, etc?
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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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We can't go Christmas week MIL would kill us to be away at Xmas also not worth the hassle taking children out of school we are hoping to go again at easter. Would prefer self catering due to allergies fussy eaters! Would prefer to fly from any London and fairly short transfer time would be ideal.
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You say apartment, but in case you haven't considered it it might be worth looking at Esprit (or one of the other kid-friendly operators).
We did Esprit five or six times and only have good things to say about them. The childcare was excellent and the kids really enjoyed it.
Austria (either with or without an operator) is worth trying - Obergurgl is easy skiing and snow sure, and you can get places on or very near the slopes. At Zell am See you can get places near the main gondola and up top, and at the glacier nearby, the skiing is very easy.
If you book via Esprit (and I'm not connected!) you will find (in my experience) that the kids are with English instructors, which may help.
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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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Would you drive? If you near London then getting to the tunnel/ferries is going to be easy.
Would you be happy to DIY?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Linnylou26, I'm afraid that pretty well everywhere is overcrowded and hyper expensive at New Year, so if that's really important to you (and it certainly is to me) you might need to re-think.
Layne is right - Christmas is better - cheaper and a lot less busy. You shouldn't need to take the kids out of school if you go on 20 December. Grandmothers (I am one) have to get used, eventually, to families doing different things at Christmas! This coming Christmas my son, daughter in law and 3 kids are coming to have Christmas with me in the Alps. Her mother will make a big fuss, but she just has to lump it - it's completely unreasonable for her to expect to "have them" every Christmas! They have been with her for three of the last five Christmases - once they came out to the Alps, once they decided to have Christmas in their own house and visited her (some hours drive away) a few days later. So, by any reasonable calculation, she's had more than her "fair share"! 
Driving, and renting an apartment, is certainly the cheapest way to do it. There's more than one ski school in Flaine - I wouldn't give up on it!
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Linnylou26, The other thing is of course you do not need to do Saturday to Saturday. Drive down on boxing day after seeing MiL and get the quieter days before the New Year week starts on the Sunday. The apartment rental might be double but that is actually only a small component of the holiday.
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Linnylou26,
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pretty well everywhere is overcrowded and hyper expensive at New Year
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In France, yes. However, Italy, not so much. We escaped from Chamonix to Champoluc for NY and although we only skied the 31st and 1st, we hardly saw a queue (I don't know why as the village was rammed and normally those days are quite busy). Accommodation will be a bit more expensive and but it's generally much better value than France and Monterosa has lots of good intermediate piste skiing.
Self catering can be "interesting" _ maybe check out Hotel de Champoluc?
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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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Linnylou26, our children, then aged 7 and 8, learnt to ski in Flaine with the ESI ski school (http://www.esi-flaine.com/ ) and really enjoyed it and made good progress. We were very happy with the choice and went back the following year.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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ESI in flaine were good when we were there this half term. 8 year old first week of skiing and 14 year old who is quite proficient in his 5th year both enjoyed it and they were well organised.
Matt
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