 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi,
I'm looking for some advice on where my family - 2 adults and 2 children (7 and 4) can spend around 1 month snowboarding in Europe from around mid to end of February, obviously we will need to avoid school holidays.
I am an intermediate snowboarder having done about 5/6 seasons and my wife and eldest has only been snowboarding once. My son has done a tiny bit of skiing but was more interested in shoveling snow last year.
Our preferences are as follows:
1. Decent accommodation at a reasonable price, not necessarily immediately next to the slopes. 2 bedrooms would be fine but 3 would be ideal.
2. Proper town/village so we can do things other than snowboarding.
3. Country preference is France as my wife and I both speak reasonable French and is probably one of the cheaper countries in my experience.. However we would also like Switzerland or Austria and maybe Italy although the preference is probably France.
4. Resort with good snowboarding instructors and schools especially for kids outside of school holidays (Obergurl in Austria last year was 97% skiing in April 2019 when we went so want to avoid that!)
5. Place with decent connections back to the UK and Ireland for family to visit but not critical.
We will most likely bring our car from the UK (VW Golf) although would consider leasing car locally.
If anyone else has done this any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, in particular in terms of budget.
Thanks in advance.
Ciaran
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@ringzer, welcome to Snowheads  Your preferred dates as above, are probably the most expensive and busiest in the season, perhaps especially in France, your preferred location. French holidays extend from early Feb through to early March, 4 weeks in total, so your wish to avoid school holidays would necessitate you changing dates. Is that feasible, before we address the rest?
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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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@ringzer, Independent Snowboarding in Verbier is awesome with kids. Stay in Le Châble to keep costs down. With a car there’s plenty to do on non-skiing days. CH is expensive but quality
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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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4 valleys
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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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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Quote: |
@ringzer, welcome to Snowheads Your preferred dates as above, are probably the most expensive and busiest in the season, perhaps especially in France, your preferred location. French holidays extend from early Feb through to early March, 4 weeks in total, so your wish to avoid school holidays would necessitate you changing dates. Is that feasible, before we address the rest?
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Thanks for your welcome. Realistically the earliest we will be going anywhere will be w/c 24th Feb but easily w/c 2nd March so I think we'll avoid most of the school holidays and will be willing to cough up a little more for a good location even if there is some busy periods.
| Quote: |
@ringzer, Independent Snowboarding in Verbier is awesome with kids. Stay in Le Châble to keep costs down. With a car there’s plenty to do on non-skiing days. CH is expensive but quality
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This looks awesome and very similar to Mint Snowboarding based in France.
I know it's a great skiing area but do you have any experience of long term stays?
I've done some research and I think Porte du Soleil could be a good option. Chatel looks like a nice village but a little remote from the other resorts. But Morzine looks good in terms of facilities which are great for the non-skiing days e.g. indoor and outdoor ice rink, indoor swimming amongst other things. Morzine has good access to Les Get and Avoriaz.
Switzerland does sound interesting but it's the country I know the least amount (I've been to France: Flaine, Les Deux Alpes, Courcheval and Tignes and researched quite a bit on Austria for 2019 season)
Bourg St-Maurice could also be a good option from initial research and Aosta is mentioned on another thread: https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=3449499&highlight=#3449499
I think our key priorities is availability of non-skiing activities and Morzine seems to tick the boxes pretty well so far.
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Have you looked at Montgenevre? Ice rink, luge run, swimming pool and spa. Well priced compared to other resorts, and a really friendly ski school ESI. Only an hour and a bit from Turin airport. Easy to access other resorts as well in Italy and France if you fancy a change of scenery for a day.
Lots of apartments to rent close to the slopes. We got ours through air bnb.
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Les Menuires.
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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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@ringzer, Switzerland is expensive but quality. Depends what you want for your trip... I would be careful of somewhere low, especially on a snowboard where pow is king
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@ringzer, I'd say any of the larger ski areas in France tick the skiing box but they are all pretty much high in the mountains and have little to offer outside the skiing for a long stay. I'd recommend one of the larger Austrian Ski Areas, Ski Amade, Saalbach-Hinterglem and the like because you'd be valley based, lots of Therme's and about 20% cheaper living costs than a French Mountain resort. Ski Passes will be your biggest cost and the deals on things like the Salzburgland Season Pass are very good. Also check out which resorts have "Kids Ski Free" deals. In Ski Amade they are free when an adult buys a pass after 16 Mar 20.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And go for early March to start your trip if you decide on France.
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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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| lottster wrote: |
| Have you looked at Montgenevre? |
Montgenevre is not cheap, OP wants budget ...... was there last season, on a day out from main Via Lattea area (Sestriere) ....... food and beverage was almost exactly double the cost of the Italian side.
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| Country preference is France as my wife and I both speak reasonable French and is probably one of the cheaper countries in my experience. |
Not in mine ...... over numerous areas, Austria and Italy like for like are generally easier on the pocket.
Being able to speak the language is one thing ..... a month of paying through the nose is another, unless you're completely s/c and have such as a Lidl/Aldi close by, ie La Plagne/Les Arcs with BSM in the valley.
Passo Tonale has the 'TOP' residence just hundred yards from the slopes, and is definitely 'reasonable budget' ...... no, I've not stopped there but spoken to people who have and for what you pay they generally had a good opinion of the place. Depending on the space you need an apartment is circa £2300-2800 for a four weeks in March. There's a Spar shop 300yds walk away.
At your respective ability levels there will be plenty for everyone ...... if you can't learn/progress there you won't anywhere, the frontside is a learners dream, but otherwise it's definitely not the beginners resort that is widely touted. Go before everyone else 'discovers' it.
We took a newbie four year old there this season and with tuition she exceeded all expectations after just six days.
AAJMHO
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Apologies for the long delay in replying but I was away over Christmas and New Year (unfortunately not snowboarding)
To help resurrect this thread and having thought about things a bit, I would like to summarise and restate my objectives in priority for somewhere:
1. With a good snowboarding school for kids who will take 4 year olds (almost certain in small groups) and 7 year olds (in larger groups to keep costs down)
2. With good facilities e.g. swimming pool, ice rink etc as we won't be on the slopes all day
3. Less than 30 minutes to the resort (as staying lower down will give us more options for accommodation i.e #2, #4, #5)
4. Good sized apartment which is suitable for living in longer than a week as we'll be self catering.
5. Close to other resorts/towns to keep things interesting - accessible to another country in say 2 hours would be ideal
6. French speaking would be preferred but putting it our last preference.
On the basis of #1 being a key requirement I think the current candidates are:
a) Morzine, Avoriaz, Les Gets & Chatel - https://mintsnowboarding.com/
b) Avoriaz - http://www.avoriazsnowboardschool.com
c) Verbier / Le Chable - https://www.independentsnowboarding.com
Montgenevre looks like a good resort also but I'm not sure about snowboarding lessons for my 4 year old son at https://www.a-peak.com/cours-particulier-a-lheure/ but ESF dont look like they have it either: https://www.ski-school-montgenevre.co.uk/children/snowboard-lessons
https://kidscanride.com/snowboard-schools-europe/ has a few other options which I need to look into
Saalbach has a pretty decent snowboarding school - www.skiamade.com but again only caters for kids from 7 years.
I think the only option I have for having my son in snowboarding school is go with somewhere with Burton Riglet https://burtonriglet.com/ The alternative is that I just buy the Burton Riglet snowboard and leash and teach him myself (I'll probably have to buy them anyway, instead of renting if we're there for a good few weeks.)
Given that we'll be there in March I'm conscious of not being too low as the snow may start to melt towards the end of March lower down.
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We took a newbie four year old there this season and with tuition she exceeded all expectations after just six days.
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Where exactly was this? And was it snowboarding?
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You know it makes sense.
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Take a look at Les Deux Alpes too. European Ski School have 1 English (Craig) and 2 Italian (Matteo and Silvia, who both speak excellent English) snowboard Instructors. Craig has a daughter a similar age to your 4 year old so is well used to teaching that age. We've got 2 swimming pools, an ice rink, cinema, etc. Skiing up to 3600m and plenty of inexpensive accommodation (although 1st week of March will be expensive, still french holidays). Generally less expensive than most big french resorts.
A half season pass would be most economical I think, for a bit of variety passes give days at Alpe d'huez (¾h), Serre Chevalier (1h), Montgenevre (1½h) Sestriere (2h), Puy St Vincent (1½h) and for some reason Flaine which is hours away. Grenoble is 1¼ hours away and it's about 2 hours to Italy. Turin is only about 3 if you want a big city, culture, etc.
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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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Keep in mind that the las februar week is the faschingwoche in Germany...also in Holland they have krokus ferien
meaning : stay away from Austria
Als an example... 2013 had no idea what means faschingwoche
In the highway i saw so many cars from Holland and Belgium...,i thought that something went wrong
Finallly i made 12 Hours from Stuttgart till Kaunertal ... usually 4 hours normal driving....
i you can avoid those terms for Austria....
i will be not cheap, and will be full....maybe worse than Christmas New Years day
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Poster: A snowHead
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@ringzer,
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@PamW said....And go for early March to start your trip if you decide on France.
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+1
...and for Austria too this season.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@ringzer, if you have and are prepared to use car to get to slopes occasionally, then Bourg St Maurice would be a good base I think. Paradiski on doorstep, direct funicular to Arcs 1600. Tignes 40 minutes drive. La Rosiere about the same. St Foy 20 minutes. Even 3 Valleys possible for day trips, or snap up a cheap late booking apartment for a few nights, somewhere like Les Menuires, Brides les Bain. Easy to do that by mid March.
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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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| RedandWhiteFlachau wrote: |
| Ski Passes will be your biggest cost and the deals on things like the Salzburgland Season Pass are very good. Also check out which resorts have "Kids Ski Free" deals. In Ski Amade they are free when an adult buys a pass after 16 Mar 20. |
I would echo to look out carefully for where children's passes are free or massively discounted, your children are that young. I've never looked into a month but for a week there are several resorts where both your children or one wouldn't need to pay at all. For a month that has to add up significantly.
As above, avoid last week of Feb this year, big holiday week.
I don't understand your a and b priorities, they are a repetition. And considering you mention "less than 30 mins from resort" you don't have to actually stay in those high profile towns but could stay in a small satellite town/village with no lift access, which would be cheaper, and drive in every day as you'll have a car. True that getting from Morzine town to Avoriaz, by driving or by SuperMorzine, does take some time.
I think you have an advantage boarding, as you won't be so bothered by the warmer weather claggy snow that skiers don't like after mid-March (from what I remember from my boarding days).
Good luck, I'm jealous 
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