 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi, I want to take my young children (4+1) skiing for the first time. We need somewhere with a first class ski school but with the range of runs to keep us (the parents) happy for two weeks. We just want a quiet place that has some charm (ie not a thumping high rise mega resort) with a great ski school and some great skiing. Was thinking of Les Coches in France or somewhere in Austria -- Serfaus, Flachau, Saalbach? Any ideas? Tks in advance.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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sokolmost, welcome to Snowheads. I don't know Les Coches - but doesn't that take you into the Flaine Bowl (high rise and ugly into the bargain). One possibility is Courchevel 1650. Not hyper charming but not high rise either, excellent ski schools and you have the 3V to play in.
Or maybe Les Gets - very good BASS ski school, and you have the whole of the PDS. Don't know the Austrian suggestions but from what I've heard of Saalbach, quiet it isn't.
You could look at Megeve. BASS just started there. Not an enormous area - but varied and very beautiful, both on the hill and in the town. Depends a bit on the time of year. In the French school hols wouldn't suggest France.
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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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pam w,
Les Coches is the La Plagne ski area.
sokolmost, with a four year old and a one year old I don't know what you are planning. The four year old the amount of skiing they can do is very dependant on individual aptitude. A ski kindergarten where they do a mixture of gentle skiing and other games is often the best option. The one year old will need a nursery or baby sitting service I would imagine.
When our kids were that age Lech was a pretty good option for the former but granny provided the latter, it had excellent skiing for the adults. There are also specialised family operators.
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We are going to Courchevel 1850 on Friday with a 1yr old and 4yr old. We are going with Esprit Ski, the eldest is booked into spritelets and the youngest in the creche.
ETA: It was a close run thing between booking one of there chalets in St Anton, and this one in Courchevel. In the end we only went with Courchevel because they had a pool and we were taking a chance by booking so early. One which looks like it has paid off 
Last edited by You need to Login to know who's really who. on Fri 10-12-10 21:01; edited 1 time in total
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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.
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hi tks for answers. The 4 year old needs an excellent ski school to really give confidence. The little one will need some good child care and a resort where we can all have fun when not skiing. But when we get the chance to ski, we really wanted somewhere to challenge us. I have skied since childhood all over Europe, and in Elbrus, but the mixture of good childcare, good ski school, challenging runs, pretty resort seems a hard one. Davos did no impress me at all when I was there a few years back.
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sokolmost, in some places a 4 year old would only be taken in private lessons, which might be the best bet anyway.
Have you looked at Esprit? They have a good name for child care. what sort of fun are you looking for? Places with "facilities" and lots of stuff like swimming pools tend not to be super quiet and small and pretty.
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Another +1 for Esprit
Thread here that provides info on their care in a resort that offers massive skiing options.
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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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sokolmost, Hi,,, I can realy recomended Chatèl in "Portes de Soleil" area, a charming place,, and realy good skiing in all the area,,,
http://www.chatel.com/english-version.html
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another +1 for Esprit and a I'll throw Premier Neige into the mix for Sainte Foy (Awesome resort in the Tarentaise valley). No queueing, fab pistes, AWESOME Off piste (easy and trekking types).
Si
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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sokolmost, why not have a look at La Rosiere, Ski Espirit have a number of chalets in the village, but you may struggle to find a place for the baby, there is a very good nursery/creche in the village Les Galopins but their lower age limit is 18months, I don't know about Ski Espirit but worth a look at their website. La Rosiere has a good mix of skiing and is the only ski area in France with heli-skiing, there's also a dedicated off-piste area and some of the runs down through the trees into La Thuile in Italay are as steep as you'll find anyone in the Alps, the off-piste up on the Col de San Bernardo can be challenging and you can learn to kite-ski or board there. The area is one of the major centres for speed-flying in France, my son has posted some great shots on you tube, search on speed-flying La Rosiere. The village is also a good centre for visiting other resorts, Ste Foy is 20 minutes away and well visditing on a powder day, Les arcs is 30 minutes and Tignes/Val d'Isere 30/40 minutes drive.
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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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Another +1 for Esprit.
We are going to St. Anton in March; we have done 5 holidays with Esprit; one was crap but that was down to a muppet of a resort manager and crap hotel (Mhule in Obergurgl - now dropped).
This will be our 3rd time back to St. A (Alber) with them; works well; they hire their Instructors from the Alberg ski school for the season so the problems get ironed out quickly.
I've a friend who has used Esprit and Mark Warner; his commets were "Esprit look after the kids better than the parents; MW look after the parentrs better than the kids....."
IMO parents can look after themselves.....
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sokolmost, we've done a couple of Esprit trips and I'd second scooby_simon's, comments on the kids being better looked after and I'd also agree that as adults as long as the kids are safe and happy you can put up with a few rough edges.
We will be taking our third trip with Family Friendly Skiing which is a smaller outfit based solely in La Tania, 3Vs. I guess their improvement over Esprit is as a smaller company their attention to detail is better and the food is probably superior, in my experince anyway. La Tania is not the most picturesque village in the Alps but not ugly by any stretch. Two lifts and you're into the Couchevel Valley so endless challenges for the grown ups...
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You know it makes sense.
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Get over to Whistler. Everything you want and not that expensive out of school holidays
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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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Jake43, Flights for a family of four to Canada have gone exorbitant in the last few years: we used to go once or twice a season at around £400 return each - but that was before we had to pay for 2 kids as well. Now we're looking at flight costs of at least £2.5k. So have given up going there and drive to Austria instead.
And then you need to consider the exchange rate: it used to be around 2.2CAD to the £, and now it's nearer 1.5, so that another 50% hike in prices.
And do Whistler actually cater for a 1yo? Looks like the Whistler daycare has gone the way of other BC resorts and stopped catering for kids under 18mo.
IME UK school hols don't make much difference to prices in Whistler - unless of course you are daft and book with a UK company.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Have you thought of Meribel?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Driving with 4 in the car will save huge amounts of money but up north we don't have that option really.
No doubt legals have caused the 18mth rule. Shame. The plane fares don't seem to have much competition now that Zoom went bye bye. It would be nice to see Virgin put it on as a route even if it was only weekly flights. Have always tried to build a deal myself and can never match the packages available as they must get the flights so much cheaper.
Does anything you have done yet match Whistler ? Have a great time
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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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Saalbach would be great too - it is fairly big, but it also has a fairly pretty village with teh normal Austrian charm. It's no exactly quiet - but it's a jolly/friendly vibe rather than a rowdy one, and IME you don't have so many drunks stumbling down the street singing/shouting like in St Anton, for instance.
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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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Thanks
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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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this is a bit like an esprit advertising thread but just got back from a week with them in Courchevel 1850 - couldn't fault the childcare for our 1 year old at all. We did look into doing DIY but went for the easy option of everything being in house. It was very reasonable but then it was the 1st week of the season and a new hotel to esprit so think we got quite a bargain price. The 3V would provide enough skiing for 2 weeks too. Only downside was the hotel was a trek out of town - heard some people had probs with the buses but we didn't.
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Yes, the buses weren't very frequent, though the hotel had its own bus and they were happy to take you into town, and we flagged them down one time to get a lift back up.
However the timetable was dated 11-18th Dec, so I suspect as the season moves into full swing they will become more frequent.
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Good (and reasonably priced) municipal run garderie (and will do skis school pickups/dropoffs if your older one only wants half days), nice village, decent restaurants, easy access to bigger area, one of the nearest resorts if you want to drive.... Samoens.
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FAQ
For full-day child care for a 1 year old you'd probably want a UK Tour Operator or one of the more Brit-infested resorts. Quieter French resorts don't tend to be big on day care - they tend to take grannies. 
