Family holiday advice - creche needed.

A snowHead

I am looking to find a holiday for 2 couples each with a child under 2 years of age. There is also an 11 year old boy that will be skiing, which makes a total of 4 adults and 3 children. Obviously the infants will not be skiing and will need a crèche whilst we ski. It would be ideal if the crèche was close to the accommodation or included at the hotel/chalet.

This will be our first ski experience so we do not really have a definite preference on location. What is important is-

Transfer time no more than 2 hours to stop the nippers upsetting the other passengers.
Crèche facility that will look after a 15 month and 20 month old.
We are not looking at top end price. Ideally mid range.
Either a hotel, apartments, or a chalet (but I think that they tend to be for larger groups)

I appreciate that this leaves a lot of unanswered questions but I am hoping that someone will recommend some places.

Thanks in advance,
Mike.

A snowHead

Mike-H, Welcome to Snowheads. You could consider Serfaus in Austria. Just over an hour from Innsbruck. Many of the hotels are part of the Kinderhotel 'group'. Resort is regularly voted as best family resort in Austria, by the Austrians. Not really on UK tour op radar though - so might have to book independently. Fantastic kids area on snow with snowmobiles/tubing etc which would satisfy the 11 year old. We had looked at Lowe and Baer hotels as they have excellent kids facilities. Here's the official website http://en.serfaus-fiss-ladis.at/news/wetter/. Would it be cheaper taking granny or grandpa along instead of putting two kids into a creche??? Worth exploring
Ski Esprit get a good rep for families
Good luck with your hunt

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

Mike-H,

Two Tour Operators that provide child care come to mind Mark Warner and Ski Esprit.

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Why not look after your own children? If they inconvenience you and stop you from skiing perhaps you shouldn't have had them.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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Mike-H, we've just booked Scheffau in the Ski Welt. The hotel Land Alpin is half board 4* with good facilities plus an in-house creche and early dinner time for children. We've booked our daughter in for half days in the creche. I've not used this hotel before but have skiied the area and it would be good for first timers. Hopefully the creche is all fine - I read some good reviews. Esprit use this hotel but we've booked through Crystal. The transfer is just over an hour.

Ignore the comment by casnbs above. The vast majority of people on here are more than willing to offer constructive advice. Perhaps we should all lock ourselves away and not let our children experience anything rolling eyes

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

Mike-H, what you are after is very much what we do - childcare provided in individual chalets (all in Les Gets as mentioned by Anniepen - 75 mins ish from Geneva) and we have properties that would work for two families wanting a place to themselves. Drop me a pm if you would like me to provide more info or you have any specific questions.

After all it is free

Thank you for the welcome to the forum, the constructive advice and recommendations. I will rise above the negative comment towards my family and friends rather than respond. Puzzled

I will show this to my wife later so if there is any more useful info please let me know. I truly believe in recommendations from other people so this forum should be great as we plan our trip.

Yes we need to travel in the holidays. We are looking to go away late Dec 2009. Yes, I know it will get expensive but my wife is a teacher and we have a child in the party.

Thanks everyone.
Mike.

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You could look at Premiere Neige, who specialise is Saint Foy, we have 3 little ones and a 2 month old between 2 families and have booked with them for March, and I must say everything we have asked for they have provided, such as childrens separate meal time in the chalet (which is a rather special chalet too for us grown ups Laughing

), and baby and car seats for the private transfer from Chambery, which is only an hour away. The resort itself is only small but has some legendary off piste, and caters specifically for families. We have two families & grandparents etc, and are looking forward to very compact resort where for example we should be able to relax with a coffee whilst watching oour 5 yr old in ski school directly opposite. Obviously the proof will be in the pudding, but so far I cant praise them highly enough.

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Hi Mike-H ! We went to Tignes in Jan 2008, with Crystal staying at Chalet Emile we were four adults and 2 under twos. .... it isnt the cheapest, but may well be a good option for you. We went with a private nanny in the chalet through Crystal, which only worked out about £150 more than a creche, but the fact that she came TO the chalet, saved us SO much time that it was well worthit .. wherever you go you should look into the option of private nannies in chalet / apartment. Failing that this year Ted Bentley in Nendaz is accomodating us, and they have so far bent over backwards to ensure our families are looked after. Good luck with your search ! ! !

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Mike,

We've been really pleased with the child care offered by Mark Warner. Typically they have a creche in their hotels, staffed by British nannies, which makes life very easy. It's nice being able to drop back in to see the children during the day. Not sure how much they have within a 2 hour transfer though.

Another option that worked for us was in Le Bettex (above St Gevais, linked to Megeve). This is about 90 mins from Geneva airport. There are two or three hotels any of which is 2 or 3 mins from the ski school which has a creche as well as a Jardin de Neige. Most of the the clientelle and all the staff were French.

J

Mike-H, if by late December you are thinking New Year as opposed to Christmas, I'd suggest getting all your research and planning done now and booking as soon as possible. If next NY is anything like the one just gone, it will be manically busy and you could be left with little that meets what you need. Another consideration for NY is that the very busy slopes, roads, airports etc can be a nightmare, especially with children. Don't want scare you wink

but as well to be prepared! Any help needed, just ask - most of us are very nice Little Angel

You know it makes sense.

More fantastic advice.

GD - Private Nanny sounds good especially if they will look after both children at the same time it should balance out the cost between the two couples.

Anniepen - Yes it will be NY. We do not want to upset the families by taking the children away, so we hope to fly on 26 or 27. That is why we are looking now.

Thefatcontroller - what is a TO???

ctskifam - please contact me to help.

Cheers,
Mike.

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

TO - Tour Operator! Jees I can be thick. The wife is obviously smarter than me. Very Happy

A snowHead

A snowHead

Hayls - The hotel Land Alpin - looks good, thanks for the info. You can get a private nanny too Smile

The crystal website is great for checking total costs.
Really excited for my first ski trip. Hope to get it booked asap.

You guys have been a great help. If anyone else has any suggestions or comments please let me know.

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

Good luck Mike ! you should check out www.skifamille.co.uk as ctskifam suggested... they do tick all your boxes in terms of transfers time, in-chalet childcare etc. We talked to them at the ski show and the were most helpful !

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Mike-H,

Check out Mark Warner. I don't have any sprogglets but I have been on a couple of late deals to Mark Warner hotels and they provide child care. When we were there both parents and kids seemed pretty chirpy and the nannies are friendly British girls so they dont scare the little ones!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Mike-H, welcome Mike.

We were away last week over New Year with our 7 yo (kid of school age plus school teacher OH). We stayed in Alpe d'Huez (AdH on the forums) at a Swedish run hotel called the Petit Prince and booked with First Choice (who use Crystal on resort). Although I think I've read some negativity about both hotel and First Choice ski holidays, I can say we never really had any problems and thoroughly enjoyed it.

At the Petit Prince they have a First Choice run kids club/creche with plenty of staff - and activities, they also have a Swedish kids club too, so the hotel is family friendly. AdH is also within 2 hours of Grenoble airport so a reasonable distance.

Whilst the OH is an experienced skier it was my first ski trip and found AdH an excellent place for beginners, and I really enjoyed my ESF lessons.

http://www.firstchoice-ski.co.uk/destinations/france/alpe_d_huez/028749/028749.html?cid=ppc_google

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Hi Mike-H,

I can recommend famuily ski - offer numerous resorts in France - childcare is excellent - 4mths and up. I have also used Ski2 in Champoluc (italy) - excellent creche and great hotels and a lovely ski area and village (they also often do good deals for children). I have also used independent nanny in a chalet - jack frosts in morzine (easy transfer from geneva too) - great and works out reasonable for a couple of kids; as others have mentioned ski famille and esprit also get good reports (not used myself). these guys tend to look after the smaller ones all day and also accompany the older kids to and from ski school leaving you to ski safe in teh knowledge that teh kids are ok - my wife (and me for that matter) was understandably worried about it when we took our 4 mth old son with family ski (in ardent) - but just a half hour with him in the creche and it was clear that they were really well organised, knew how to look after even small children and he ws in good hands - he had a great time and so did we!

Other options are creches in resort - most of teh big resorts in france and italy (and maybe austria and switz too) have resort cresches which you can drop the kids at for as long as you want (half days, whol days etc) - not done it myself but I would not hesitate) provided they checked out - details often on resort websites.

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

Mike-H, We go to Les Gets a lot and although have never used ourselves, skifamille have a good reputatation and if we ever had to go with young kids again ( Shocked

) then we would look here.

After all it is free

Mike-H, by Shocked

I mean that it would be a shock if we found ourselves with more children not that it is unpleasant to take them on a skiing holiday Laughing

Try our creche week in San Cassiano, Dolomiti Superski. We run it for one week only every year and it is fantastic and I can't wait to go again this year! Full details at http://www.mountainsunltd.com/special_offers/view/at-last-afordable-childcare

It's a 2.5 hour transfer from Venice, but everyone on the coach is heading for the same thing. We are on the piste and it is fantastic for beginners. Creche runs from 08:45 to 17:00 every day and is in-house. There's a lift right outside the chalet with a play area at the top where the kids get taken to play, and a lovely restaurant up there where they go for lunch so you can join them for lunch if you wish, check in on them at any time (be they in the house or in the play park) and there's a brilliant sledge run from the top of the mountain that finishes at the back of our chalet which the kids LOVE!

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I've put my daughter in creche for the mornings and then have family time in the afternoon. As youre going with another family you could take it in turns to watch the kids in the afternoon (2 adults do the childcare, 2 adults do afternoon ski then swap). I've found childcare really cheap, last was with First Choice and it was only £40 for 6 morning sessions. We've only had positive experiences with the staff, always very pleasant and cheerful and they take the kids out for walks. Would definately recommend trying to get a creche in your hotel or very close to as getting everyone organised in the morning is hard enough as it is without having to treck accross resort to drop off your child. We got stiched up by First Choice this year as their telephone sales operator said the creche was close to our hotel which was a blatant lie (25 min walk each direction!!!). We stayed in Hermitage in Alpe D'Huez last year and the creche was in that hotel. The hotel is very basic but they offer early tea for kids and the food for them was fantastic (homemade fish pie, homemade cottage pie, lasagne etc). Next year I'm thinking of looking at the new Esprit hotel in Belle Plagne as that seems to tick a lot of boxes. Our experience so far with First Choice/Crystal is that the Hotels with the Creches in arent that great, but the Creches themselves are...

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Mike-H, Check out "Le Chalet" in Les Gets through Ski Famile. Stayed there a couple of years ago and we had my two year old sister with us. Creche run by ski famile within the chalet for the kids in there and they did outings aswell. Sister seemed to love it and the chalet was very good, old and traditional, draught beer, good food. Minibus to and from the slopes. The town is a little quiet but the skiing is excellent, especially with it being the the porte du soleil

casnbs, do you have children??

we do- 49 weeks a year we - never go out, get to eat together and 365 days a year we don't get a proper nights sleep

up to 3 weeks a year we ski- kids go to child care- now ski school and the eldest then skis with us in the afternoon....not too bad really?

Were you neglected as a child?

You know it makes sense.

Mike-H, sorry- welcome to snowheads

options;

1. Granny- pros and cons obvious
2. UK tour operator Ski Esprit v.good- every holiday has childcare facilities, Mark Warner very expensive and not all holidays child friendly-and not all guests, Crystal/Nielson etc
3. Small UK comapny- Ski Beat, Ski famile
4. DIY- easyjet/ryan air, independant chalet, local kindrgaden or uk based nanny agency
5. share child care

look at Esprit

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

edsilva, neglected? worse? such a strange thing to post on a forum by casnbs, and not in the Snowheads spirit of helping others.

To answer the question and for younger travellers I would suggest Esprit. They do not fly from every regional airport though, so that may be an issue. We have used them twice. Skifamille have a good reputation for Les Gets but we did not use them this year becuase the easyjet flights did not co ordinate well with their transfers (and we did not want to pay the extra for private transfers).

Wee have used Crystal in the past when the children were non ski ing and found the child care excellent using Le Viking in Morzine.

New Year will be busy, so early booking will be essential for a larger group whoever you use.

A snowHead

casnbs, do you have children??

we do- 49 weeks a year we - never go out, get to eat together and 365 days a year we don't get a proper nights sleep

up to 3 weeks a year we ski- kids go to child care- now ski school and the eldest then skis with us in the afternoon....not too bad really?

Were you neglected as a child?

In answer to your questions I have two children who are now teenagers and had a very loving childhood.
My initial post is based upon my views, gained through working for many years in education, that many children of "middle class families", whilst enjoying many activities eg skiing holiday clubs, ballet lessons etc are actually very unhappy because through attending these activities they are being deprived of actually spending time with their families. I accept that many people on this forum may not agree with me - that is of course their prerogative, as it is mine to express my views however contentious they might be.

A snowHead

Mike-H, we have had 2 very successful trips to La Tania in the 3V ski area. This resort in particular within the 3V is adapted to families being quite small and predominately chalet based, most of which are run as family chalets. Also a lot of the chalets are ski in/out which is very useful when you have relatives looking after the children as you can easily go back for lunch etc. Most provide creche facilities in-chalet and will take babies from a very young age (or at least yours should be old enough), also as the village is very compact, it is easy to take them out sledging or in the gondola.

Transfer times from LYS is just over 2 hours or GVA is about 2 hours (I think since the new road opened near Annecy), but in general with kids we have found it easier to drive.

There are many companies providing the childcare, take a look at www.latania.co.uk for some details.

Cheers,
Peter

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

Hi Mike-H

I would highly recommend Ski Esprit - have been with them to Saas Fee (3 and 3/4 hr transfer so possibly not for you) and they were absolutely fantastic. Everything is thought of regarding childcare with a creche in the hotel, early childrens suppers and free babylistening etc in the evenings. We are going with Esprit again next week Very Happy

to Hotel Alpin in Scheffau so will let you know what this is like if you are interested. We also used the Crystal creche in Kaprun a couple of years ago and again were very pleased - the only thing was that it was a resort creche so not quite so convenient as having the creche in-house. Hope this is useful.

Katy

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casnbs, for all you know, these children may well be looked after full-time at home by one or both of the parents, and might benefit from a week around other children, in a different environment and with other carers. I hardly think that 6 or so hours in a private creche for a week is going to harm the children in any lasting way.

The tone of your post was both spiteful and unnecessary - the original poster has asked for recommendations for a crech and/ or resort, not an exposition of your views on social anthropology. It is entirely your right to espouse your opinions - but when you act like a sanctimonious git, you're going to get called out on it.

Mike-H, we had good experiences with Ski Beat childcare in La Plagne - very friendly service/

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Mike-H, Although we haven't tried them the kinder hotel group has a fantastic reputation. They have a uk website: http://www.kinderhotels.co.uk/ to look at. You can either contact the hotels direct and arrange everything yourself or go through their tour operator - though when I went through them all they seemed to do was contact the hotels in the same way that you could with the obvious advantage that they had a little knowledge of the resorts. We couldn't find cheap flights otherwise we would have booked with them this year.

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Mike-H, We have used Ski Beat in Plan Pesiey for the last two years, where the creche is very convenient for 4 of their chalets. The family we went with used the creche the first year and were very pleased with it, we used a private nanny with them last year as were mixing ski school and childcare, again this was very good and ultra convenient as the Nanny came to the chalet every morning. Personally, I would definitely go for a chalet with young children as it's much more relaxing in the evenings with them asleep leaving you free to enjoy dinner and the wine!

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

onaplateau, yes agree a chalet is less stressful than a hotel with young kids. Ours have always got to sleep easier in a chalet, may be because they know we a close by, and if you go with a "family" company there will be other kids to play with in the chalet as well, so new friends made

After all it is free

Just when I think I have found a hotel that ticks most of the boxes, I am swayed towards a chalet. rolling eyes

Off I go to look at chalet options. Some of the websites are great (crystal) some are not so good.

If only you could organise child care on a day by day basis, that would be perfect as we will not all be skiing all day so we will need child care for only a few sessions.

Thanks to you all (except one Smile

) for the continued help on this.

Mike-H, If you go down the Esprit route, post which chalets you are looking at here, chances are someone will have stayed there in the past and can make comment. Although it might seem a waste booking with a company like that and having child care available all week is useful as you will not know when you will ski during the week (weather, snow conditions, late night before etc) so it would give the flexibility. You can always pick them up to suit. happy hunting

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After some serious time spent online and using brochures we have finally found the right solution. We have booked a chalet in La Plagne, France with Crystal Ski.

I looked into nearly every solution/recommendation suggested here and all of your replies helped to narrow my choice, open my eyes to alternatives, or highlighted new points to consider. Thank you all so much.

For any other people looking for a solution to my initial enquiry I am obviously happy to share the reasons for my choice.

-Good snow prospects (I think it’s a glacier) and a decent size village. We do not want to party, but we want the option to walk to shops, cafes and to have more than just our accommodation for the week. This resort ticks a lot of boxes for us and even has a swimming pool nearby.
-I was looking for a crèche on site or very near to the accommodation. The chosen chalet is near to the crèche run by Crystal. We have pre-booked 5 x morning crèche sessions for the infants. This means that the adults can ski together occasionally, especially as we learn to ski in the first few mornings, whilst taking it in turns to spend time with our children in the afternoons. If you are looking to go over New Year as we were then book your crèche early. We were advised that places were filling fast.
-There are some great hotels with crèche facilities. However, it was highlighted on this forum that evenings may be more comfortable if the infants can sleep in their own room while we relax in the lounge (using monitors of course).
-The transfer from Chambery is only 2 hours. OK we could have traveled further, but if any of the children are upset after the flight the sooner we get to resort the better.
-The chalet is catered so we do not have to worry about feeding ourselves Very Happy

We can also use kitchen stuff to make food for the infants.
-It is only a 5 minute walk to the ski school and chair lifts
-The crystal website is great and the staff on the phone were really helpful.
-The infants places were free as you would expect, but so was the 11 year old. Happy days Very Happy

My friends saved about £1000 thanks to this.

My thanks to all of the forum members that contributed to the thread, especially those that were quick to defend parents that travel with children. In general I chose not to respond directly as it may have become personal. However, please be assured that our children are well looked after by loving parents. I am sure that they will also benefit from a few hours interaction with new children in a different and stimulating environment. We take two brief trips abroad each year and as this discussion will highlight our plans are based heavily around providing the best for our children.

I look forward to reporting on my trip in 12 months time. In the meantime you will all see me around the forum as I ask more questions and continue my research. Now what trousers do I need…… snowHead

Thank you all.
Mike and friends.

Help!!

Family holiday advice - creche needed.

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