Cheap ways to ski with toddler.

A snowHead

Our last family ski trip (with son 11) was 2 years ago when I was a few weeks pregnant.
We really want to go next year when she’ll be 2. Today I started to look at Espirit and realised to do something like this I’d need to remortgage my house!
I’d love to find a way that me and my husband can get some time to ski together rather than having to take it in turns looking after her.
What does everyone else do? Have to do school holidays (with perhaps couple days out if needed) due to older one.
Any ideas that won’t leave us bankrupt?
Thanks!

A snowHead

@missch, do you have a useful Granny?

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

@missch, have you looked at Esprit for 13th April - it looked like they had some reductions for that week.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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@missch, have a look around in resorts you like to see if there is a nursery and/or nanny service. We did this a few times and went self-catering.

Vallandry has a purpose built nursery in village which we were happy with.

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

After all it is free

look at family oriented resorts like the ones in Maurinne valley like Val Cenis, Valloire & Les Sybelles.
ESF takes kids as young as 2 + there are other childcare/creches available.

Valloire for example :- https://www.esf-valloire.com/little-ones/little-snowboarder
160 euro for 6 days x 3 hours

We are going to Val thorens next week, and have our 2 year old booked into the ESF crèche. Age 18m-3yrs non skiing just childcare.

I asked and they have a 1:8 ratio and all staff are qualified childcare. I’m not using ESF for ski school for my older ones for all the usual reasons but for the crèche it seemed a good option.

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In Les Carroz we have the Souris Verte day nursery. Details of tariff for this year here:
https://winter.lescarroz.com/images/pdf/Rules_of_procedure.pdf

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El Tarter has / had a crèche beside the ski school, either for lessons or just crèche. We used it one year, seemed reasonable (daughter was a bit confused they were speaking Spanish to her!).

Here's a price list, to give you an idea
https://www.grandvalira.com/en/nursery

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We used grannies at that age and sometimes privately organised baby sitters.
I have not used them but Vaujanay has always had a very good reputation for it's nursery information here. https://www.vaujanyskichalets.com/en/770915/nursery1
Noting that that is a link to a travel company rather than the nursery itself. I believe booking well in advance is essential.

Think this is the club
https://www.vaujany.com/en/family-resort/nursery-childrens-club/

If no grandma, go with friends with similar age child and share childcare.

You know it makes sense.

and share catering as well. We did some very successful holidays with several families/friends - not just skiing, but gite in Brittany, canal boat, etc etc. If you just do one or two evening meals (everything, from planning to clearing up) and have others do the same for you, you can save a huge sum and still have a good sociable time. Much better than having to do the whole slog every evening and having to eat (and drink) everything out, with kids, is ruinous.

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

Kinder Hotels in Austria might be worth a look.

A snowHead

What about your father? Do you have a grandpa that could help? My dad is coming with us to provide a bit of extra childcare.

A snowHead

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

...and if taking grandparent or someone else, make it clear from the start their role will be childcare! We took gran, and she wanted to walk around and see the town, not be left with the baby! That week was a real failure!

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Ask the McCanns to babysit?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I recommend calling Chaletline.
We got a really cheap deal with Esprit through them which was cheaper than booking direct.
I always use them if I’m booking a package, tell them what I want and the budget and they find something Very Happy

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May work out cheaper to book flights, apartment and childcare separately. We used L’Outa Morzine when kids were too young for snow garden and it was always excellent and very good value.

After all it is free

My experience with grandparent care wasn’t great either. My mother in law wheeled baby around in his pram all day, meaning he slept all day, and not at night! I was up at 4 every day and shattered.
We had a private nanny a few times, one of which we had for just 3/4 days so we could both ski all day for part of the holiday. We did this with self-drive and booking accommodation through the local tourist office, lift pass included which worked out quite cheaply.
We have also used Esprit with late booking, in La Rosiere where lift passes were quite a bit cheaper than other resorts.

We had our daughter staying for a few weeks in Les Gets during both of her maternity leaves, good planning on her part! So we used to box and cox the childcare. It generally worked out. Best was when our son, DIL and little boy stayed at the sane time as daughter, SIL and slightly older girls and they hired a private nanny for 4.5 days. The grand daughter who was at ski school by then would either join us all for the afternoon or get picked up by one of us and delivered back to the chalet for lunch and play. Quite expensive but then they were not paying for accommodation.

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Two simple tips for cheap ski with toddler from someone who has done it recently

Option 1:
Borovets, book in advance, stay very close to the slopes Rila hotel or nearby. its walking distance to the slopes, good hotel can organise childcare or use the child ski club in the Rila hotel. Worst case, if you only do two runs on the slopes and need to get back to your child, the ski pass/gear rental are cheap so you wont have lost much

Option 2
fly to Toulouse (i flew for £50 per person in Feb this year), rent a car and drive down the Saint-Lary-Soulan, you have ti drive up the mountains (make sure you have snow tyres) to the base 9or take the gondola from the village). not as cheap or as convenient as Borovets but way cheaper than the big French resorts

i much favour Borovet for sheer ease, 1hr from the airport, right on the slopes, cheap rental and ski pass, decent child ski club in the Rila hotel, lots of food places witin 5min walk of the centre. cheap beer. downside is you can ski the whole thing in a day, by day 3, you may be bored of the same runs

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@missch, could you possibly leave it another two years, by which time the younger child can learn to ski? If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. When son#2 was born we didn't ski for 4 years. I found it frustrating but there it is. But then we never went away without our boys and never used creches on holiday. If you must go then maybe try to do what @pam w suggests i.e. going with friends with similar age children and sharing out childcare.

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You ask for babysitter, this will help you more.

I think Snowbizz are one of the most reasonably priced tour operators with childcare provided and their childcare was excellent when we went with them. Then our children were 3 and 5.

Since then we've been with Peak Retreats or their subsidiary Ski Collection to self catering apartments and in the early days used the ESF childcare in resort. If you go to a resort frequented by the Brits chances are there will be a few other English speaking children in the nursery. Self drive usually works out cheapest for a family of four..although it is also our preferred option irrespective of price as it gives a lot more flexibility. I would suggest looking at Sainte Foy, La rosiere, Montgenevre and Val Cenis for the Easter holidays.

You know it makes sense.

i was just coming on to suggest snowbizz!
really brilliant for toddlers, has on creche. great for older kids too but can be pricier in the school holidays (though not as bad as catered options!)
since our kids grew up and we had to go in school holidays (at secondary school this is) then we have also used peak retreats to go to aussois (absolutely fantastic for beginners, esp kids and cheap as chips). val cenis was lovely with them also. we drove to bring costs down.
we like sauze d'oulx but it's not brilliant for beginners so if it were me i would drive to aussois and book toddler into creche or baby skischool.

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

A snowHead

Agree with the above - joke in very poor taste.

Hate to say it but a ratio of 1:8 for 18 months old - is that right? It sounds awful. From memory in UK the ratio is 1:3 under 2 and 1:4 for under 3. Can you imagine looking after 8 toddlers, particularly if not English speaking!

Sorry not very helpful as we kept skiing while our youngest were very small and ended up paying through the nose. But worth thinking about. Hope you get to keep skiing.

A snowHead

cheapest skiing inclusive of child care we've had was esprit ski on their BAT week. It was really cheap we travelled either the 1st or 2nd week in Jan.

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

@Skimum1, is right about ratios and no matter how many children you would need probably at least two if not three staff as changing a nappy/toileting would mean a member of staff was out of the room.

If you can treat it as a holiday with your child(ren) where you may get some skiing then you could have a great time and start the ball rolling on them enjoying snow and perhaps skiing. If you want to ski together then unless you can throw money at it then there will be have to be compromises.

Help!!

Cheap ways to ski with toddler.

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