 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi, looking at possibility of skiing over easter holidays, with two kids, age 9 and 6. Looking for small but high resorts that are relatively easy to drive to. Kids will be in ski school in morning so really only need resort that has enough blues / reds for couple of hours in morning then re do the blues with kids in tow in afternoon. My research has bought up the big french names for high snow sure resorts ie val t, tignes, Les arcs but we don't need that size. I would prefer a resort that has cheaper lift pass but still high. Has anyone got any any suggestions for small but high resorts? Thanks. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Obergurgl, Austria.
Isola 2000, France.
Livigno, Italy.
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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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@Whitegold, is clearly high and probably cheap.
I think you will have to choose @Hils68, which 2 of the 3 things is the most important. Easter is early this year so height might be less of an issue than it usually is, especially with lots of snow forecast in March to keep that base.
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The price of lift passes doesn't really vary enough to make that the driver for a choice of resort. And in the big resorts you can often get a pass for part of it (e.g. one valley in the 3V).
Also, be aware that ski schools will be busy. On another thread the poster looking for advice on an Easter holiday destination was disappointed to find ski lessons fully booked. Maybe avoid committing yourself till you've phoned the ski school you want!
Current snow conditions are probably a better guide to likely Easter conditions than altitude. Some resorts, not specially high, now have very solid cover (210cms at 2000m in Les Saisies, for example) whereas some parts of the alps have had much less snow than others. Aspect is also important. You need a resort with runs facing different directions (but predominantly north and east) for different times of day.
Avoriaz is one possibility. Easy to drive to, high (though if conditions throughout the Grand Massif are poor it'll also be very crowded).
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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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@Hils68,
ValCenis and Valfrejus both have decent Easter snow records in my experience reasonable height and North facing, and easy to drive to with cheap lift passes.
I have friends who rate La Thuile highly for Easter family skiing and it is easily reachable through the Mont Blanc tunnel.
Sunweb have recently been mentioned on SnowHeads as a place to look for very good self drive deals that include cheap lift passes even at pricier resorts. Their prices certainly look good.
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@Hils68,
Consider Les Contamines - not that high but has an excellent snow record (high enough - lots of skiing 1700-2500, fairly north facing, largely over meadows so you don't NEED that much cover) and it has had the best of the snow so far this season - snow depth around 190cm at 1800m so should have plenty to left for Easter.
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@pam w,
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The price of lift passes doesn't really vary enough to make that the driver for a choice of resort. And in the big resorts you can often get a pass for part of it (e.g. one valley in the 3V).
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Depends a bit on how you are budgeting a family pass for Tignes/Val DIsere for six days is E860, for Tignes on its own it is E730 for Valfrejus it is E500, Personally for a family with youngish children I would be just as happy and possibly happier with the latter. For those requiring a big area it may be too small.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Les Contamines is a good suggestion though a fair bit of the accommodation is not very near the pistes/lifts. Need some careful research though @jedster and others know the village well and could advise.
Sunweb a good suggestion too.
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Definitely look at the Les contamines website. My two kids , who are 9&6 are going there with me at Easter. If price is an issue, id bet you cant get a better deal for such a snowsure destination. Accommodation & liftpass.....163 euros each, for 7 nights. I think it was around another 100 euros for each child to have 6x2.5hrs lessons over the week. 30 euros each for ski hire. Ive mentioned this a few times on here, so apologies if it seems like i am bleating on about it.....but ive been there, its a REALLY good area, and for this kind of money, its a steal in my book.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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If you're just looking to be away over the Easter school holidays then the second week from 2nd April could be an option and I hope not as busy as the actual Easter week as we are away then!
PDS has free kids ski pass for each adult pass that week plus the adult passes are cheaper than the previous week. E420 for full area passes for the family. http://en.portesdusoleil.com/winter/pass-free-kid.html
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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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Thanks . . Some nice smaller resorts there. Will watch the temperature and snow fall over the next couple of weeks . . 
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You know it makes sense.
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Not necessarily small (or high!) but other areas with free children's passes for Easter include Serre Chevalier, Les Arcs, Skiwelt and Ski Amade.
All drivable at Easter.
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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 not the big resorts in the Tarantaise valley, how about the smaller ones - we do La Rosiere regularly. 1850m so pretty snow sure and linked to La Thuile (though this is a bit of a chore due to a long drag lift) often the weather is different each side of the ridge so if La Ros is cloud bound you can get sun in Italy - check the webcams - loads of snow there at the moment and the best bit is its does not get really busy so lift queues are never horrendous. This Feb half term we probably waited about 5mins (tops) at the main lifts.
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Poster: A snowHead
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With due respect to JonA, I look down on La Rosiere from my lofty peak in Arc 1950 and see an absence of snow in that fair village a fair amount of the time. I would not describe it as 'snow sure' although it has very decent coverage at the minute. I just drove back from Les Arcs on Monday - total journey time to London approx 12 1/2 hours using the Chunnel.
Look, there is a reason the large resorts are large, it's not just some random thing. Smaller resorts tend to either have less to ski or are less snow sure or - most often - both. I am not saying that they do not have any charms or advantages ('cos they do) but the larger resorts will generally have much, much better snow making facilities and are generally higher up so in the event of lack of recent snow fall, that is where you want to be.
The lift prices in Les Arcs are not a steep as other resorts and there are family package deals available. I like the ZEN card myself.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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+1 For Val Cenis. North facing with lifts between 1400 and 2800M, plenty of blues and reds and the Maurienne appears to have been pasted by the snowfall over the weekend. A reasonably small resort although it does now seem to be growing a pace and it was noticeable how many more brits seemed to have discovered it this half term. We have done Easter in the past and it has been good and we were still skiing untracked lines at the back end of the half term just gone.
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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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| Whitegold wrote: |
Obergurgl, Austria.
Isola 2000, France.
Livigno, Italy. |
Do you bother to read the thread title and the OP?
If you do then please advise how you arrive at all three resorts being easy to drive to from Calais, especially Isola 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| Quote: |
Smaller resorts tend to either have less to ski or are less snow sure or - most often - both. I am not saying that they do not have any charms or advantages ('cos they do) but the larger resorts will generally have much, much better snow making facilities and are generally higher up so in the event of lack of recent snow fall, that is where you want to be.
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Smaller resorts do tend to have smaller ski areas but it doesn't necessarily follow that they aren't snow sure. It can simply be that the topography limits interconnections with other valleys preventing them from being linked into a mega resorts. Equally there are some big areas where a lot of the skiing is not that snow sure (PDS most obviously but on a less massive scale Megeve/St Gervais).
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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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Thanks for all ideas. We came back from Morzine last week, and were the victims of warm temperatures, rain in town and upto 1500 and very mushy/slushy lower slopes. Bit disappointed, and bad luck with the weather.. If we do go over easter we want to try and minimise this risk . . As it's an expensive holiday to ski in rain (twice!) 
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| Quote: |
Whitegold wrote:
Obergurgl, Austria.
Isola 2000, France.
Livigno, Italy.
Do you bother to read the thread title and the OP?
If you do then please advise how you arrive at all three resorts being easy to drive to from Calais, especially Isola rolling eyes
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I suppose it depends on what you think of as "easy". I would not describe Borovets or Sochi or indeed Almaty as an easy drive, but surely all 3 of these resorts are within a days drive of Calais, hence would, in my book, be an easy drive
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@johnE, As Almaty is over 6500km from Calais, I think its impossible to drive to there in a day
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Isola 2000 can sometimes only be reached from the south. Not driveable from Calais in a day, really. Well, certainly not by me, and I regularly drive to the northern Alps in a day.
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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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@johnE,
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Quote:
Whitegold wrote:
Obergurgl, Austria.
Isola 2000, France.
Livigno, Italy.
Do you bother to read the thread title and the OP?
If you do then please advise how you arrive at all three resorts being easy to drive to from Calais, especially Isola rolling eyes
I suppose it depends on what you think of as "easy". I would not describe Borovets or Sochi or indeed Almaty as an easy drive, but surely all 3 of these resorts are within a days drive of Calais, hence would, in my book, be an easy drive
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Isola may be an easy drive (12 hours via Nice) , but definitely not with two kids in the back.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Thu 3-03-16 11:03; edited 1 time in total
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@Hils68, You can lessen risk of rain/slush by picking the highest altitude resort with north facing slopes. However if you go somewhere really high above the treeline you may avoid the worst of the slush and rain but then if the weather turns cold you could be affected by poor visibility and lift closures.
I really think you would be better off in a larger resort such as Les Arcs that has a good range of skiing above and below the treeline. Val Cenis goes up to a decent altitude but the lower runs can get very slushy in the afternoons at Easter and I did not find the piste grooming the best there. If you want a smaller resort maybe Sainte Foy would suit you. Les Contamines might be good..I've only been there in summer so can't comment.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@rattythesnowrat - I concede that at 1850 La Ros does not compete with Les Arcs (and the other big boys) for high altitude snow record but seems to do reasonably well for a smaller resort and, as I read it, the OP was looking at this easter (3-4 weeks away) so at 1850 pretty unlikely to be struggling this year.
We were very lucky not to be there at Xmas/new year this year as there was no snow to resort (except for the stuff the pisteurs & instructors had shoveled on to the piste lines and two strips from the snow making...)
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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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We were very lucky not to be there at Xmas/new year this year as there was no snow to resort (except for the stuff the pisteurs & instructors had shoveled on to the piste lines and two strips from the snow making...)
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That reflects the south-facing nature of the skiing at La Rosiere. Les Saisies, at 1650, had a lot more snow, though the conditions were still very poor. It would be the aspect of the slopes in La Ros which would concern me at Easter, rather than their altitude.
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@Hils68, For what it is worth, we are tussling with exactly the same challenge (well, one child is 5, not 6) and so thought would share our reflections. We will be driving from Ijmuiden or Zeebrugge as live in the north east. Big thing for us is minimal crowds given how stressful that can be with little ones. Also like to be somewhere with other stuff to do in case of reluctance from smaller member of the team, so often go for a year round type of place which also has skiing, and for longer than a week to mix in with walking, swimming, unnecessary purchase of reward furry marmots for doings so well, etc. Have been looking at Val Cenis, but really struggling to find accommodation from 26th March. Looking at Les Contamines too as really liked it, although our memory (which could be wrong!) of skiing there was that there wasn't much really easy stuff. But think there is a long green track on Hauteluce side? We have been to Serre Chevalier almost every easter for the last 8 years, after great advice from people on here. Still tempted, despite it missing some of the snow this year, as so much is above 2000m and we stay on piste. But thoughts on this welcome! Although we probably won't return so soon afterwards, had a fabulous week in Les Saisies in January (again thanks to reading info on here, particulary from @pam w, (thank you!).
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You know it makes sense.
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@MBSki, If you liked Serre Che have you considered staying in Bourg St Maurice? You have access up the funicular to Les Arcs, and La Ros and Val D`Isere (and Ste Foy incidentally) are both easy drives for a day on the slopes. But I guess you may want to commit to ski school in one place? We liked staying BSM at Easter when our boys were young because it gave a lot of flexibly as to where you skied, and also had the option for other activities.
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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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had a fabulous week in Les Saisies in January (again thanks to reading info on here, particulary from @pam w, (thank you!)
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Glad you enjoyed it.  I'll be with a huge family party in Les Saisies at Easter, though actually staying over in Bisanne 1500 which is not as convenient for small kids needing to be over for lessons in Les Saisies. There is a super little free rope tow, on the gentlest slope over, in Bisanne 1500 but to progress from that and ski over the mountain would take a few days (my 5 year old grand-daughter did that on the 5th day of her ski lessons at Christmas, with consummate ease).
The runs on the Hauteluce side of the Col de Joly (Les Contamines) get a lot more sun than the Contamines side, so may not be such a good bet at Easter. I wouldn't have any qualms about putting beginner children into ski school in Les Contamines though - the instructors will find the right terrain for them.
Les Saisies is actually a perfectly good destination for an early Easter ski holiday. The top of the domain is only 2000m but has well over 2m of snow up there, and 173cms at village level at 1650m. More snow falling now and forecast for the next few days. That's not all going to disappear before the end of March!
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Poster: A snowHead
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@pam w, I know this doesn't quite fall under the 'snowsure' heading, but we skied La Ros at Easter last year and it snowed like buggery all week! ESF was top notch too!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@rainman, there is quite often a fair bit of snow in April - though it tends to deteriorate very fast. It's a lottery!
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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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@pam w, too true!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Seems that there is a lot of snow coming down now ( could have done with it last week in Morzine! It is a lottery, last year we went to Slovenia (first ski holiday in 9 years, missed UK half term but coincided with Slovenian half term . . . Never skied anywhere so busy or small with big queues and rain and slush! This year, Morzine . . . No lift queues, but that was becAuse everyone was in Avoriaz as there was rain and bare patches on lower slopes! I feel sort of robbed of a decent ski holiday with decent snow hence why looking again ( because easter early this year). Not sure how finances will cope but we do DIY so it's just lift passes that rack up the cost and ski school but will do ESF this time as the french aren't on holiday this time. Some great ideas coming in . .enjoying looking up all the resorts to see where they all are!
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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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Good suggestions above although I would add Les Carroz, part of Flaine/Grand Massif (and one of the first haute savoie resorts in the french alps - 20 mins off the A40 (morzine is a good hour if I remember correctly) but it wont be particularly cheaper than the premium areas of middle alps or 3Vs. Isola etc. is too far too drive.
I get the feeling that quick and cheap is a key requirement - so how about something completely different - the Vosge mountains in the Alsace of North west France - resort is Labresse Hohneck - 800m - 1600m low lying but seems to have plenty of snow. This is 400 miles from Calais as opposed to the 600 odd to get to northern alps - drove it in one go myself overnight while my children and wife slept. Also, drive through Belgium and fill up on approx 30% cheaper petrol in Luxembourg and then head south on toll free roads saving the £150 tolls needed to get to the Alps proper. Lift passes were half the price of the usual alps prices with family deals and the place feels very different to the alps - different vegetation - more germans and dutch present. Bars and restaurants, ski hire, ski school a lot cheaper although you can't beat self catering and a packed lunch. A highly successful Feb 2009 half term trip including all car/travel costs, accommodation, lift pass, equipment hire, ski school,food, including pocket money for a family of 4 (children ages 5 and 3) was - £2200 - yes that was it. Equivalent at half term Feb 2016 at Les Arcs 1950 - £6500. Not sure how I allowed the budget to get out of control !
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@CaravanSkier, thanks, that is really helpful. Have never been to BSM other than through it en route to other places - will have a look! We tend not to do ski school but occasional private lessons, so that might work.
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@Hils68, a little bit cheaper than actually staying Val Thorens, you could stay in Orelle. Motorway all the way from Calais apart from the last 10km (which is all flat). It's a long gondola ride up from Orelle, but it takes you to Val Thorens.
Alternatively, an identical drive to Orelle apart from the last 10-20k (ish), would be to ski Valmenier or Valloire. Both small-ish villages but the ski area is cracking and relatively snow sure.
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@Hils68, We are 2 adults one child, 8 year old boy (although will turn 9 on holiday) and we are going to Montchavin (just booked!). It's just a small village but has easy access to the Paradski areas. With it being small the apartment prices are lower. We have just booked with Erna Low, Chalet de Montchavin. £650 for a one bedroom apartment for 2 weeks, plus £215 for the return tunnel and that is a flexible plus ticket. Ok I'm not expecting the apartment to be huge or luxurious, but it will fit it's purpose. We did the same trip before with friends and stayed at the 3 Glaciers (Erna Low again) and we were pretty pleased with the apartment, we had a fairly large living area with a nice big table, this will be smaller as only for 4/5 people but I'm sure it will be fine.
Ski passes are expensive due to the area, and you are buying for 2 weeks, but there is an offer on for that time (we go 1st two weeks in April) buy 2 adult passes and get a child's free (with Erna Low) It's unfortunate your youngest is already 6 as under 6 are free those weeks I'm sure. (this is where I'm hoping you say they are not actually 6 till end April!). We are £959 for 2 weeks ski passes for the 3 of us, roughly £160 a weeks pass each so similar to a smaller resort pass (this is the full unlimited Paradiski pass). They also do a family pass from the ski office for two adults 2 children which I think works out that everyone is paying a child's price. I haven't got the price handy for the unlimited but the discovery family pass is 1944 euros for 13 days.
We drive from Glasgow and find the journey fine. Also with Montchavin being lower less chance of snow on road up at that time of year. We didn't have any last time we did it. I was happy about that being our first time driving those windy roads, plus with it being lower, not so long on the windy road!
The Evo2 ski school there is brilliant. My son not keen on going to ski school, but we talked him into trying this one thinking he can do one week and then the 2nd ski with us, but he wanted to go the second week also!
Definately worth a look I think.
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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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| Quote: |
Equivalent at half term Feb 2016 at Les Arcs 1950 - £6500. Not sure how I allowed the budget to get out of control !
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A very good question. Especially the bit earlier about £150 tolls - they should have been 160 euro
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FAQ
