 Poster: A snowHead
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Hello,
After a season off to reproduce, I'm desperate to get skiing again next year, but will have a 1 yr old in tow. Has anyone used Crystal ski childcare? They seem to be more affordable than other tour operators with creches. In particular, I'm looking at club hotels with an in house creche: L'Hermitage in Alpe D'Huez; La Brunerie in Les Deux Alpes; Le Totem in Flaine; or possible Alpin in Scheffau. We'll be going mid-March, and we're decent skiers (apart from the 1 yr old maybe). Can anyone give me some advice on whether any of these are any good?
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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I can't vouch of Crystal, sorry.
There's a good creche in Morzine called l'Outa - http://www.outa-morzine.com/ - prices for which are very (very) good.
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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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Thanks. Went to Morzine a couple of years ago, and really liked it, but we fancy somewhere different this year. I'll keep that in mind for future though.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Ski Esprit have been mentioned on previous threads as being excellent for childcare.
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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 Stephen. They do look really good, the problem being that they don't fly from 'the North', and we don't fancy the drive from Manchester to Gatwick and back 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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strawberries, Esprit do have Manchester flights for most resorts that they service.
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Oh, thanks! I must have been looking at something old... I'll have a look.
Thanks!
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My uncle has used Crystal a few times with his little un's and they went back so must've been good- he was at Vallee Blanche in Alpe D'huez. But Ive stayed at the Hermitage too and it was fine.
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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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strawberries, it looks like Esprit fly to Geneva and Chambery from Manchester, but not to Austria this year, though they do have a £200 special offer to compensate (see page 29 of the 2006/7 first edition brochure)
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I looked at the Esprit website now. To be honest, I'm being a bit picky about resorts, because we've been to those French and Swiss ones recently and wanted to try somewhere new. It's a shame about the Austrian flights... Thanks for checking this out though.
Good to hear someone has used Crystal childcare and gone back for more!
Has anyone skied at Scheffau? I haven't really heard much about it; I don't know if it has much good skiing for fairly experienced skiers, and I read something about the road being a nuisance? Also, it seems low so I don't know how good it would be mid-March. But I'm thinking it might be a bit more ambient for the wee one. Any idea?
Thanks!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Hmm, just figured out how to search the forums, and found a post which reminded me of the general incompetence of the big ski tour operators, so I think it's back to the drawing board. Does anyone know of any other smaller ski companies with good childcare, which are not too extortionate? I've checked Esprit and Mark Warner...
Thanks.
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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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Le Ski. They are a fairly small outfit, and only go to 3 resorts (I think). They have two creches in La Tania, but nowhere else. The childcare was good, as was the holiday in general. If you want a chalet holiday in a small, quiet, family-orientated place, but still want access to a massive ski area, check them out strawberries.
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strawberries,
Might be worth looking on www.babygoes2.com to see what they think. Alternatively there is a lively community on www.babygreenhouse.co.uk who may be able to help (in the out and about forum).
As for Crystal, they (actually thier parent company TUI) recently have taken over SimplyTravel which was very well regarded in terms of childcare, I think the simply ski properties have mostly gone into the Crystal Select or something like that but perhaps the childcare quality has rubbed off to the rest of them.
Cheers,
Peter
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You know it makes sense.
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strawberries, I have stayed at Le Totem in Flaine and although I have no small children (mine are enormous  ), I heard all good news about the childcare there.
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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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strawberries, A season off to reproduce? Is there such a thing?!! 
Well some alternative options are to take a nanny/carer with you from UK or if you are fortunate to have them how about grandparents?
We plan to have my other halfs parents with us for a week this season to bond with their 10 week old grandchild (all being well and we arrive on schedule) so that we can go off and spend some time together on the slopes.
Just a thought.....
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Poster: A snowHead
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We went with Crystal in Jan 2006 to the Viking in Morzine. Pleased with the care there. Just not quite up to the standard of the next holiday.
We went with Hillwood in feb 2006. Stayed in Zachenese in austria. They looked after our child very well. Hillwood ran the creche within the hotel and staffed it with english girls (who where good). The hotel and resort where very austrian\german and only a few British people in resort which made it quite a change. Very small company very personal service. Howard whose company it is even rang us the day before we flew out to tell us which carasel our luggage would be on and the name of the person who would pick us up and where he would be.
Having said that we are back to Crystal this year using the creche at courchevel in the St Louis in Jan and the Turquise in La plagne in feb.
We looked into the alpin and as I understand it the restuaraut was in a separate building to the bedrooms so we did not think a baby listner would work which would put pay to a relaxing child free evening meal
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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 have used Mark Warner in Val D'Isere, Ski Esprit in Courchevel and First Choice in Val D'Isere.
I was pleased with the level of service provided by all 3 companies. Only hiccup was with First Choice in Val D'Isere as the staff weren't aware realised that we had booked childcare for the afternoons. As it turned out, our 2 children were the only ones booked in and so had 2 Nannies to themselves who took them out for lots of trips!!
I agree Mark Warner is expensive (I recently looked at their prices again although our kids are now too old for childcare). When I used them, what I liked was the pure convenience of having the creche in the hotel and the room listening service in the evenings was great as you could have a real grown up experience.
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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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Welcome to snowHeads Farmboy 
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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 cathy
If anybody is booking with crystal remember to join snowdome at tamworth first as then get 10% off holiday price. Only person booking has to join and discount is given to everyboby on trip. Useful if booking child care as this has to be done over the phone and you miss out on the on line discounts.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I think friends have stayed in l'hermitage but perversely w/o kids. they said it was an ok chalet and they had a good time
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strawberries, When ours were 1 (twins) we went with Ski Beat and used there Creche, stayed in La Tania but there are other resorts. Found them very good and the chalets were good to. Used them for 3 years, including arrival of number 3.
Now go self catering as kids are in lessons aged 4 and 6 and doing well
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strawberries, WE have used Crystal twice (La Bruniere and Le Viking). Good childcare at both. Used Hillwood in Les Gets and although a personal service Crystal had much better childcare.
If your child is one ask any provider how the kids are organised, is there a separate sleeping area for the young ones, do they have a baby monitor for the evening, is there a separate tea for the kids so you can eat once the little one is asleep.
This year we are using Espirit as our kids are a bit older now and it will work better for lessons (I hope)
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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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Thanks for everyone's replies; very reassuring.
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strawberries, we used crystal 4 times when ours were little (they're all of 8 and 6 now!), scheffau (2X), Flaine -le totem and val di fassa- chalet violetta. We were very happy with the service provided. Only encountered one problem when some selfish person put their virus infected child into the creche which then rapidly infected the other children and eventually the whole hotel. I can't really blame crystal for this as they stipulate that if your child is ill it should not be put in the creche -so beware other parents who will quite hapily spoil everyone else's enjoyment so they can have a day by themselves.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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strawberries, have you looked at Club Med? I've never used them - my kids were beyond that stage when we started skiing, but I've heard good things about their childcare.
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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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Hi
We have used Crystal childcare a couple of times and are using them again this year. We have found them to be fine and on a par with local resort run options . The main problems we found were whether your chalet/appartment etc is in easy reach of where the childcare is based. You should check this out and whether they provide a bus for the little ones as we wasted a lot of time dropping off and picking up, especially if you are only going for a morning or afternoon. One tip if you are only doing the morning or afternoon is to go for the afternoon as this should give you more ski time as the lifts are very busy in the mornings.
One problem from the brochure is that you can't find resorts that cater for children around 1 yr old, but if you ring them they will tell you all the ones that do - I think this year it was only about half a dozen.
Hope that this helps.
Nathan
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You know it makes sense.
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We've stayed in Crystal chalets twice with childcare - La Rosiere - the main chalet block and Tignes - Chalet Lavachet. Both times it has been excellent, with childcare in the chalet. Our kids don't do child care, but they were brought in to any early evening activities and the parents of kids in care found that the only problem was dragging them away from the nannies, they were enjoying themselves so much.
I'm not sure about Crystal transfer worries, we've only once had a problem when we missed the transfer at Boston (for Killington) and we had to wait, but as no-one knew where we were it made sense to go without us and wait for us to phone in as instructed. We got held up at Newark due to a combination of a power cut, airforce 1 and foot and mouth checks, it wouldn't have been fair to make all the others wait. Since then they have always been very good with a minimum of waiting time, using small transfer buses to avoid the need to drop off at every possible place.
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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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strawberries, had Crystal in La Plagne for our first-ever trip, and no problems. We went with friends who have been to just about every Crystal-served family resort with no issues either... 
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Poster: A snowHead
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Great news, thanks Jane!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We used crystal childcare at Easter this year at club hotel Les Cimes in Alpe d'Huez. No problems there at all, very well run, as good as anywhere else we've used childcare. Would definitely go back if it wasn't for the fact I like to try different places.
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