advice on Avoriaz ski school for a 4year old

A snowHead

Hi
We are going to Avoriaz in March and looking for morning lessons for our four year old. Village des Enfants and ESF both have times that suit. They look pretty similar from the website in price, what they offer etc. I think maybe there will be more English kids at VDF than ESF in March, but I'm not sure that is important at his age.
Has anyone used either, or both and can advise?
Also is it necessary to book in advance for mid March or could we wait until in resort?
Thanks

A snowHead

Hi @Gattabianca, my children had their first experience of ski lessons with the ESF jardin des enfants in Avoriaz a couple of years ago. My youngest was 7 at the time, so older than your 4 year old, but I think the experience could be comparable.

The instructors were fine and made the girls feel very secure and comfortable. After a day or two on the 100m nursery slope, they had progressed to the nearby green and then blue - my daughter still talks fondly of the Proclou run, and having the instructors cut sprigs of fir tree to fasten on the back of her helmet!

There were a few English kids in the group, but the instructors seemed to manage the various nationalities happily. I was happy with the ESF, but I know that there are lots of others on Snowheads who speak highly of other schools in Avoriaz.

I booked online a few weeks before we travelled, mainly because it was a last-minute decision to take the family skiiing.

Have fun!

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

Hi Tomj
Thanks for your reply. Good to hear your girls had such a good experience with ESF. What were the class sizes like? It will be my son's 3rd time in ski school, so that probably is comparable to a 7 year old's first week. He didn't leave the snow garden last year but think he will be going out onto at least greens by March - I'm a bit nervous about him being on the mountain in a big group.

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

I don't remember exactly, could have been 8 or more, maybe even 12 on occasion? with two instructors. Fairly large, but I don't recall my children had a problem with that. There were two of them in that group, youngest is a natural mixer and will chatter away to anyone and was quite content to be in a large group.

I do remember that the ESF employed older instructors than I was expecting, and that these more mature ladies and gents were patient and gentle - compared to the bored would-be mountain gods who taught me years ago!

Have you tried contact the ESF directly? Last year I booked in with them using an English-language website that they had set up. I'll post a link if I can find it.

I do remember that there are loads of ski schools in Avoriaz, and that the choice was quite daunting. But in the end the ESF was fine. And saving a few Euros on the lessons meant a few more hot chocolates and meals on the mountain - budget being a big factor for me (4 children + wife, all skiing for the first time).

Other Snowheads will have experience of the other schools and some may have personal contacts in the resort, which might help you.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

We used Evolution 2 in Avoriaz for my 5 year old last year and are going back again this year. They do morning lessons 9-11:30am. They were absolutely fantastic, she and all the other kids in the group had a great time and the instructors were fantastic with them, can't recommend them highly enough.

We were there New Year week and the groups were still no more than 6 kids, pretty much all English speaking, was down to just three on the final day. They seem to be a lot more relaxed with the kids than ESF, the emphasis seems to be on fun but they also progress at a nice speed and even made it on to a chairlift to end the week.

Our son will be 4 next year and we're going to stick with Avoriaz for another year just because we're so comfortable with Evolution 2. Their organisation via Nolwenn the office manager is also first class, so booking and getting all your questions answered is really easy as well.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Just re-read the original post. Evolution 2 assess the kids on the first day and move them around so they end up in similar ability groups so he should be fine moving up a bit if he's able to ski above his level but I expect they'd still be very careful taking a 4 year old too far around the mountain.

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

Can't really comment about lessons for that age, but we used Village des Enfants for my teenage son a couple of years back, and he chose to switch from half day lessons to full day; the feedback from him and the instructor were both good. If we were there, I would have no qualms about using them again.

After all it is free

Thanks everyone for the advice, sounds like ESF and VDE would both be fine. Evolution2 looks good too, especially with the small classes but I liked the flexibility that you could add supervised lunch at ESF and VDE if we wanted to travel a bit further afield on a couple of days. But I'm not sure I'll want to be too far away anyway, especially if they take him out of the kids area. There's almost too many ski schools in Avoriaz - don't know which one to choose!

Hi I am looking for guidance on Ski lessons for my 6 and 8 year old. We have been to Avoriaz the last two years and used Village Des Enfants. I think they were great when they were young but last year my older son was in a large group of 13 and all other children were French and the teacher made no effort to speak English. He really had a miserable week - in the afternoons he loved skiing with us. I spoke to VDE at the end of the week and they were so rude to me. This year both sons will be in the group and am looking at other options but the timings for Evolution etc are not so good - would need to be back quite early to get them. Has anyone used PDS Academy (quite a new company)? Thanks

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advice on Avoriaz ski school for a 4year old

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