 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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musher, have a look at La Rosiere, it is Ski Espirit's most popular resort for families so both the ESF and independent ski scholls are well used to English clients. There's lots of infprmation on www.larosiere.net, there's a reasonable amount of xc skiing and the ski area has over 150 kms of pistes in France and Italy.
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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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musher, Courchevel
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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musher,without to now if there is any xcountry tracks, I will suggest Les deux Alp, there you have the best english ski school in the alpes "EasySki" with Charlotte Swift as the boss, just excelent,,, and there is skiing for all level, and the prices is ok to be in france,, I think 1h40min bustransfer from Grenoble airport,
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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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don't know about ski school to be honest but otherwise Les Contamines could work. Seemed to be loads of X-country. The piste map looks a bit limited but doesn't really do the area justice (the pistes are huge and quite varied). If you like to dabble beside/between the ppistes it would be ideal.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Trysil in Norway. Would suit your OH better, but looks to be more downhill than Seefeld. Pretty much every Norwegian I've met spoke excellent English. Never been though, so no idea if it's any good!
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Are in Sweden might be a good bet, slightly cheaper than Norway. Look at skistar.com and neilson. Going half board or chalet board will save a lot of money as eating out is expensive. Plenty to do off mountain too. Dog sleds, ice fishing, moose kissing, zip wires. Usually reasonably quiet lifts/slopes and plenty green/blue pistes, swedes speak great english, ski school was excellent. (Aussie James specifically was brilliant and I would use him again) Couple of kids areas with animated charecters, x-country big over there and one of the restaurants was right next to both the xc and some of the easier beginner slopes at Rodkullen (Ulladalsstugan is the name of the restaurant) so it would be easy to meet up on the slopes for coffee/lunch. 
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Totally agree with Ivor Shed, La Rosiere in France is a good bet. The ESF director in La Rosiere is English for a start but other than that they do reasonably small size English speaking only group. Great terrain for the kids and for intermediates. Less so for the most advanced.
Excellent accommodation see a good choice here www.skicollection.co.uk/Ski/La-Rosiere.htm but then there are also some good hotels that I visited a couple of weeks ago like Chalet Matsuzaka which is run by a lovely English couple or L'Accroche Coeur.
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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 all the suggestions. What are the temperatues like in Norway & Sweden? I always imagined they would be very cold.
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What are the temperatues like in Norway & Sweden? I always imagined they would be very cold
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It depends when you want to go,, december, January and February can be cold, down to -30 degrees, but most of the time -10 degrees, March/april is excelent, the sun warm up, but not like in the alps with slushy snow, alot better,,,,
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Cynic wrote: |
| musher, Courchevel |
Is there much cross country in Courchevel? I must admit I was a lot younger the last time I was in the 3 valleys, and probably wouldn't have noticed. 
I see Crystal is suggesting La Tania as a cross country destination - I certainly wouldn't mind staying there again and I bet the kids would love the train. I stayed in so many of the small towns round that area all those years ago, but the memory is fading fast. Is it La Tania where the ex Neilson rep runs/ran a 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've always found Puy St Vincent a good bet for the family. Not a huge area but lots of tree skiing and potential for off-piste (with a guide) and some genuinely tough blacks and reds. The lift pass gives you a day in local resorts such as Serre Che, Montgenevre, La Grave. It seems to have a pretty extensive network of cross-country trails and one sees lots of people out using them. We've always gone with http://www.snowbizz.co.uk/ who do excellent kids instructing and evening clubs. Not being huge means you can go off and do your own thing and know where to meet up again.
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I see most of the suggestions are for French resorts, all good advice, however I would suggest you consider Westendorf on your list. Was there two weeks ago, I have probably been skiing in 20 different resorts over the years, and can honestly say Wesyendorf beat them all hands down. Obviously it makes a great difference when they have good snow - simply awesome at the moment - but it's the all round 'something for everybody' (and the typical Austrian welcome) that really scores.
The resort itself is pretty compact, never more than 500 yards or so from beginner area/lifts/ski school and the hotels are superb.
Beginners and children are really well catered for, the nursery slopes are right in the village, as is the main chairlift up to the gondolas.
Ski schools are brilliant, some of our friends could not recommend highly enough, and English is standard.
The skiing in Westendorf is brilliant, some fantastic cruisey blues (111 is great), some good challenging reds, and unbelieveable off piste options, plenty to keep experienced skiiers and beginners equally amused.
Then of course there is the full ski-welt area, just endless options including being able to get to Kitzbuhel within around an hour and a half (one small 2 min bus ride).
The apres ski is great, lively without being rowdy,and some good non skiing activities.
The resort is not expensive compared to some of the French resorts - e.g. Goulashsuppe and a beer is around €7 on the mountain (some really lovely huts by the way).
In terms of cross country, not absolutely sure, but I think again there are lots of options.
Take a look, you won't regret it, good luck!!
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You know it makes sense.
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I have probably been skiing in 20 different resorts over the years, and can honestly say Wesyendorf beat them all
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neilkav, I just want to know what other 19 resort you had skiing in 
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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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The Dolomites would suit your requirements for plenty for you and plenty of cross country too. I'm afraid I don't know the ski schools in that area but a quick google shows that several of the local schools have websites in English - so presumably lessons in English too!
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
several of the local schools have websites in English - so presumably lessons in English too!
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that's a bit of a big logic jump. The language in ski school will depend largely on the language of the students. A resort which lots of British TOs go to will probably have enough Brits to be able to have English speaking classes, but more obscure resorts might well not (I speak from experience, as we stay in a small French ski resort and there are NO English speaking group lessons because the overwhelming majority of people in any class will be Francophone, or polyglot Dutch people).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
several of the local schools have websites in English - so presumably lessons in English too!
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As pam w, if you take private lesson it will be easy to have english speaking skiteacher everywhere, to be sure to have english speaking grouplesson, you has to go to LDA and "EasySki" or to a resort there BASS is located
http://www.britishskischool.com/bass_resorts/
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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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freeheelskier, we've had English speaking group lessons in plenty of other places - Skicool in Risoul, Magic in Courcheval, ESI (Snowbizz) in Puy st Vincent, there are plenty of choices other than BASS
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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musher, courchevel if you can afford the prices, or stay in la tania. Lots for beginners, lots for those who want more, lots of choice in ski schools. Had a number of successful trips with my wife (who only likes a bit of ski ing) and my two girls now 11 and 8
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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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we've had English speaking group lessons in plenty of other places
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philipb,
Yes I know that, but it must be places there alot of Britts go, isnt it like that 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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there are plenty of resorts with enough English customers to have Anglophone groups. My only point was that it is not wise to assume that any resort with an English version of their website (which is most of them, these days) will be able to put you in a completely English speaking group. It makes no difference how linguistically gifted an instructor is. If you are the only monoglot Anglophone in a group of 12, she won't be able to spend much time speaking English to you, and you won't be able to join in the banter.
Yes, in most resorts you will be able to get private lessons with someone who speaks enough English to cope (possibly not that good). And in small resorts private lessons, especially for more than one person, can be very good value.
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If you're not limiting yourself to Europe then the English(ish) language thing becomes less of an issue. Try Canada - for example see this Cross Country review for Silver Star. I'm sure you'd find other places in Canada/US too - but I happen to know this one and it does have one nice feature of cross country trails at the top of the mountain which pass by the on-mountain eatery so you could all meet up.
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musher,
Serre Chevalier has good English speaking ski schools, great x country up at Monetier and has extensive skiing for all standards, not too expensive for a family either.
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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 all - my wife is learning Italian so any suggestions it that direction would be great. It's been a while since I have done the 3 valleys - is Courchevel more expensive than the 4/5 star hotels she is rapidly becoming accustomed to in Seefeld?
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musher,
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- is Courchevel more expensive than the 4/5 star hotels she is rapidly becoming accustomed to in Seefeld?
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If she is wanting to stay in 4* in Courchevel the answer is almost certainly yes. Must say I find the Austrians to be generally better hoteliers than the French. (Cue masses of abuse by Francophiles)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| musher wrote: |
| Thanks all - my wife is learning Italian so any suggestions it that direction would be great. It's been a while since I have done the 3 valleys - is Courchevel more expensive than the 4/5 star hotels she is rapidly becoming accustomed to in Seefeld? |
Lots of nice hotels in the Italian Dolomites.
The person you probably need to ask re all English language ski schools/British instructors there is  Wayne - who is a British instructor at one of the Dolomites ski schools.
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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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musher, the Dolomites are fantastic, though I've only spent a few days there, and not really skiing.
If you find out about good cross country areas in the Dolomites, I'd be interested, having recently taken up XC skiing. Your OH will want to look carefully at extent of XC skiing - in some resorts it's just a pretty boring flat loipe around a valley floor. I suspect few places will be as good as Seefeld.
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V good idea to ask Wayne.
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You know it makes sense.
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Lots of nice hotels in the Italian Dolomites
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I agree, and Val di Fiemme has plenty with cross country, they will hold the next WC crosscountry and skijumping
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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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I had a similar issue with a mixed group. I had lots of help, and we ended up going to Ramsau am Dachstein in Austria. Lots of advice from Snowheads here.
(I am now feeling ridiculously pleased with myself I have managed to link to another thread.)
I don't know what sort of XC your wife likes, but Ramsau is pretty good for on-track and tuition. It's a high plateau, so has usually has better snow than down in the valley where most of the Austrian XC seems to be. It also has lots of little nursery slopes and three ski schools who all appear to speak English. Whether they run groups in English I can't answer. For the advanced downhill, Schladming is a shortish hop on the ski bus, and there is some interesting looking off-piste from the Dachstein. If you have a car or are prepared to pay for taxis, it is even easier. We flew into Salzburg, and the transfer is an hour by taxi.
The other option is one of the bigger Scandinavian downhill ski resorts. Most of them have good cross-country too. If you go in March or April, the ski-ing and the temperatures are usually pretty good. A lot of the Norwegian ones are a sizeable distance by transfer bus from the airport. I haven't been to any of the Swedish or Finnish ones so won't make any suggestions.
I don't know how you would manage the logistics though with two small children, unless they ski cross-country with mum. That's what mine did.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Hi Musher, just to add my thoughts. I was in Canazei two weeks ago (and misisng it terribly), primarily checking out the suitability for my LO next year. Speaking to some of the others with kids in the chalet they were all suitably impressed with the ski school. Not too sure about the cross country skiing routes (didn't look) but i saw more cross country skiers on the SR than in any other resort i've ever been to. The intermediate skiing is world renowned here, and even the Sasslong (WC Black) can be done fairly easily (i did it in 9 mins and i consider myself to be a good intermediate), so you and the kids should be fine. Other than that, La Plagne is another option, for the same reasons above, great intermediate skiing, kids well catered for, and some cross country. Only advice i would give if La Plagne, is choose the resort carefully, or you may find yourself very bored at night (Plange village for example). HTH
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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 have been 2 a couple of Swedish resorts (Are and Vemdalen). Vemdalen may be a touch on the small side if you are keen on clocking up miles but for ski convenience with a family could not be beaten. Are is a good deal bigger with more variety of terrain. English ski lessosn in both resorts were first class and both times although we booked group lessons it was just my son and daughter in the classes. There is good xc selection in both resorts. As for the cold, in Are last Jan it never really got below -10 in the week. We did have a cold snap in Vemdalen this year (-26 was the coldest day) but with sun and no wind it was still ski-able albeit with more frequent hot chocolate breaks.
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