 Poster: A snowHead
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we were looking to book a good deal with Family Ski, catered chalet with several other families - the only problem is that the other children are toddlers and under 10s - our two are aged 12 & 14 and don't want to be the oldest kids there - they want the chance of some similar aged friends to muck about with basically.
There are several good family orientated companies but they all seem to cater for young kids, anyone know of a company that aims a little older?
To keep costs down we ideally want catered accommodation (much cheaper than eating esp. at the moment, but we don't want to be cooking every night) and are happy to drive to the resort.
Any guidance appreciated : - )
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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simonx, difficult. When are you going? The best chance of a range of suitable playmates might be a bigger place - from the point of view of our kids at a similar age the most successful was a Snowcoach chalet hotel in Valmeinier - they had great fun belting round Valmeinier and Valloire on blades with half a dozen other kids from the hotel (one of whom was an ice hockey player who had such fantastic turn out on his hips that he could put both blades in line, end to end, so they were like one long ski. A trick which my dancer niece tried vainly to emulate for the entire week). I much preferred smaller chalets, personally.
Another alternative would be to stick them in some kind of ski lessons/course - maybe, if they're already quite good, to start doing park stuff. Or maybe snowboarding?
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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 Pam 
Christmas time, they'll probably have lessons but it'd also be good to actually be in a chalet/hotel with similar aged children.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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simonx - I've got space at Christmas week. Other guests at present are a family who stayed with us last year. Kids aged 10 & 12. http://www.whiteroomchalet.com
One other thought might be to book them into ski school for something teenagery. A lot of ski schools will do freestyle, race, off-piste, etc. classes for kids in that age group. Good way to might other like-minded kids.
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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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maybe try a scool company (skibound, skiplan) for evening entertainment they can usually join in. we are staying in les menuires at easter, 3rd April I have booked for 32 (families) and they usually mix with the school children
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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simonx, I know that each family's different, but we have two kids of the same age and we all stick together as a family all week.
At 14 and 12, the kids should be able to more or less ski at your level. Catch the first lift in the morning, and stay on the slopes until they close in the afternoon, and the kids will be too exhausted to want any company other than yours and their own. With a laptop, a couple of board games (Risk is always good for generating a few arguments!) and an ipod or two, the issue should go away.
We figure that we won't have too many more family holidays before the kids go off to university, so we like to make the most of their company while we can. Alternatively, have you thought of taking a couple of their friends with you?
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My 14 year old nieces came out for a 5 day trip pre-xmas last winter - basically skied hard all day with me and their dad. Couple of private lessons as a pair with ESF. Evening ate with us/read books/watched a bit of TV/played cards and they were done.
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I'd second Pam W's suggestion. I went twice to Valmeiner with Snowcoach with young teens. The chalethotel has a large games room and the family rooms offer spacious accommodation. Snowcoach offer good discounts for children up to 16 and free lift passes. Not sure if there's an age limit on their ski exploring. Definitely worth a look.
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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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have to agree with Jonny and Bertie , ski with the kids , unless their skill level is way different from you and the good lady. If they really want other company , try Neilson or Mark Warner, but only in the school holidays and then you will be paying top dollar. I had a sneaky ski holiday with my nine year old last year in January on a last minute MW trip to Val'D , great hotel, location and snow but NO kids , he didn't care we raced each other all over Espace Killy , listeded to bands and played pool in the Morris bar and just chilled out . Wouldn't have swapped it for a minute.
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I agree with JonnyJones too. Ski them till they drop. In Whistler, they did join a teens groups for a couple of sessions,but they managed to lose the group at the meeting point completely on the first day However, they were, to my surprise, mature enough to go to the ski school office, sort it out, and rebook it all for the following day.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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We figure that we won't have too many more family holidays before the kids go off to university, so we like to make the most of their company while we can.
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Don't be too sure of this. My experience is that they want to keep going on family ski holidays as long as you are paying the lion's share of the costs. Especially once they're parents themselves.  We really enjoyed (and still do) skiing with our offspring, when they're prepared to wait around for us a bit, but they also had fun sometimes doing those things (like yomping round on blades off piste through trees, gorges, streams etc) that we didn't do. Somewhere with undangerous sort of off piste places to explore is fun for them - Crest Voland is good for that, too. On a bigger scale for older and more competent kids, so is Les Contamines. Valmeinier/Valloire too, though as we had a couple of younger ones with us on that trip too (8 and 9 year olds) we didn't get to explore the area too fully. Indeed, because we were with the younger ones after their lessons it was good that the older kids could go off with others from the hotel.
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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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We ski all day with our 10 and 15 year olds - they (and we.....) love it! Evenings are an hour apres ski with pool or something, then a catered chalet with just our group of family and friends, have dinner, watch a movie, Playstation or similar, board game and all to bed about the same time! We choose resorts which offer a good range of slopes for all our levels, and have found la Tania, Samoens, Morillon to be great for us all. St Gervais next time 
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