Cheap, child friendly resort recommendations please :-)

A snowHead

Hi guys, hope you can help, I'm after holiday suggestions for a small group of us.

The Mrs and I will be taking our young son he'll be 18 months old when we plan to travel in early Feb next year so we're thinking that a small catered chalet (ski in - ski out) will be ideal as in the daytime me and the Mrs will ski a half day each and switch over at lunch so the other one can look after the boy so don't want to mess about with ski busses / long walks and the Mrs isn't comfortable leaving our son in a foreign crèche. The two other criteria from the others in the group are access to a big ski area and low cost (two of our group are on a budget) so we agreed a max price of £750 PP inc ski pass

in summary

* Big ski area
* Low cost
* Child friendly

Thanks in advance

Happy

A snowHead

Hi,

Hotel Les Glieres in Champagny has an offer of half board + 6 day La Plagne lift pass for 652 euros per person for the first 2 weeks in February. Saturday return flights from Gatwick to Geneva are £60ish, you then only have the cost of the transfer from Geneva to Champagny (now a 2 hours drive). Car hire + petrol / tolls would be around £60 each so it should be within budget.
The hotel is only 100 metres from the ski lift and gives you easy access to the La Plagne / paradiski area, it is only 20 minutes drive to Courchevel La Tania if you fancy a day out.

For you and your Mrs I would book half board and maybe buy one lift pass between you. The new 6 day hands free passes don't have a picture on so I'm pretty sure you will only need one between you for skiing. Unfortunately when our kids were 18 months the lift passes still had your photo on so we both had to buy a lift pass even though only one of us could ski.

You can see their website at www.hotel-glieres.com and more about the resort at www.champagny.com

Good luck

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

I may sound like a stuck record, but this company hit all the buttons for us ( 6 year repeat visitors), and also ticks your 3 boxes (IMHO)

http://www.familyfriendlyskiing.com/

If you can travel in Jan then they have an offer:

£670/£650 adults
£570/£550 children
£100 infants
¤ FREE SKI PASS
(Courchevel Valley 6 Day Pass)
¤ FREE CRÈCHE
(must be reserved in advance)
¤ FREE SKI HIRE
(not snowboard hire)
¤ FREE TRANSFERS
week commencing
3rd, 10th, 17th & 24th Jan
Self drives deduct a
further £30 per person.

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

The_Mac_Daddy, Have a look at http://www.snowbizz.co.uk/ they meet your criteria in terms of being very child friendly, low cost and about as ski-in ski-out as I have ever seen. Not a catered chalet though, apartments but you can have half board if you want. The ski area is small but seems bigger than it is as it is very varied. Also there are a lot of day trip and/or off piste options in the vicinity all covered by the same lift pass. The main reason I suggest this place is that I was like your wife and wouldn't have left my little one in a foreign creche either but we went here last year when son was aged 4. Snowbizz run their own nursery, I loved the nannies as did my son and all the little ones I saw with them, the girls are all British, well qualified and really lovely. If I have another child I would feel happy to leave a baby with them for a few hours at a time. They are very flexible too and so you could probably book just a couple of sessions to try it. You could very easily pop in and out to check the little one and a good skier could be back within 15-20 mins from anywhere in the resort if you needed to get back. There is a little park for outdoor play too and a safe sledging area. The whole resort is very family friendly.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

May start stretching the budget a bit when flights, passes etc are added in but should be OK if you can nudge a week earlier. Catered ski in/out chalets with inclusive in-chalet childcare (British staff) and easy access to the Les Gets / Morzine / Postes du Soleil ski area:
http://www.skifamille.co.uk/lesgets/chalets/traditionalchalets/petitpierre.php
A blatant plug but a very relevant one! Smile

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

After all it is free

kitenski, not sure how many catered ski in/out chalets you'd find either ... and that flight with an 18 month old, not my idea of a holiday.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

... and I'll be flogging it in my next brochure!

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Thanks guys, your suggestions are appreciated. I'll show them to the rest of our group to see what they think.

I do love the idea of finding a British run creche, it'd be much nicer for me and the Mrs to be able to ski together even if it's only for a couple of days.

snow reports

snowbizz - I always recommend them. Went with them for same reasons as you. Youngest was 3 and had a great time there. We've been back every year since and have a fondness for the place. Although not a big ski area at Puy but it's better than the piste map gives credit for.

The_Mac_Daddy, hello

we have never tried the half day each approach to childcare...but we have done lots of variants of skiing with kids (but never self catering or self drive).

I think that one criteria is impossible- 'low cost'.

If you are not tied to school holidays why go in February?

Try a last minute week with a UK company with on site British childcare.

Have a look at the companies mentioned above.

I wrote a long post about skiing with kids here- http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=54163&start=0.

It has been a long time since we just went skiing with one child- but we did have about 6 weeks just with our first (independent trip to Argentiere, a week in Chamonix with Esprit, 2 weeks in Chamonix with Crystal and 2 weeks in Val with Mark Warner).

If you want a low cost option then consider last week in April with Mark Warner in Val D'Isere- probably the best value week you'll find- on site UK nannies, big ski area, sun, plenty of snow etc.

You know it makes sense.

Fyi I just booked a trip with Rocketski to Le Corbiere flying from Manchester on 19th December for one week half board. Just over 1100 quid for a family of four (sharing a room!!)

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

The_Mac_Daddy, Avoriaz would suit!

A snowHead

My daughter was in a similar position and having seen how happy her baby was in the creche for the first half day she decided to leave him all day every day so that all the adults could ski. It worked very well. There are quite a few catered chalet firms with creches run by Brits - this one was familyfriendlyskiing in La Tania as recommended above. The childcare was the best aspect of the service provided. Next year we're trying Ski Esprit. Ski Beat would also be worth a look.

A snowHead

Thanks again everyone, our group are all getting together this weekend to try and agree on a resort etc so your replies are all very helpful Happy

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

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

I am obviously biased but really believe La Tania is a great family resort. The main part of the resort is traffic free, the 3 Valleys is on the doorstep, snowsure and it is reasonably priced for the location. If you are based in either La Tania or Meribel there is a British run creche www.kidsetc.co.uk , they not cheap but very professional.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Jonny Jones, but the guy was asking for a price INC ski pass and CATERED chalet...............

Help!!

Cheap, child friendly resort recommendations please :-)

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