 Poster: A snowHead
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George06,
hello
we have 3 kids now 10,7 and 3.
We have tried lots of variations- except driving (we live in the North West) and self-catering.
But otherwise various combinations of; full child friendly UK tour operators (Esprit, MW and Crystal), own flights, hire car and catered chalet, private nanny, my mother, shared child care/alternate days skiing. We have skied in December, January, February Late March early and late April. We have booked- upo a year in advance and the day before departure. Our friends have also driven- from North Wales.
Verdict- you pays your money and takes your choice!
THere is no right answer- sorry.
Haven't really had a bad ski holiday but all very different compared with pre kids.
Late April should be fine- in fact late April is ideal for teaching kids to ski as it is not too cold- which is a real nasty one. Obviously need a high(ish ) resort. Easter generally is great and can go to most places that are reliable for snow.
Chamonix ha sa lot to recommend it if you have a car or love skiing- especially if there are younger kids / your other half doesn't ski so much (basically there is a lot to do, the skiing is great, it is a real town and but some don't like it).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| George06 wrote: |
Thanks all,
I'd prefer to book early but not knowing what holiday I can take until September is going to scupper that!
I have no issues with taking him out of school but the school won't authorise it and as we both work covering 13 weeks of school holidays is going to be difficult enough without making this 14!
So those who go at Easter, where do you go? Have previously had several visits to the Dolomites and a few trips to Austria but have favoured going DIY last few years to Geneva and then in a catered chalet mainly in PDS (Morzine, Chatel, Les Gets, Chatel) and also Morillion and last year Meribel. |
I tried to post previously from my phone but it managed to loose it all.
We are in a similar boat, in that we both work full time and there is no way we can cover all the school holidays, inset days and sick days with our holiday even if we never took a day off together to maximise our holiday so we have to pay for childcare for some of it with odd few days covered by friends and occasionally family but as our closest relatives live over 2hrs drive away that isn't an easy option. We are still using our nursery for our eldest (she is 5 and in Year 1 but at least that means she is in the same place as her youner sister), and even that at £200 for a full week, is a fraction of the difference between going the second week of the easter school holidays (the cheapest week Esprit has that is inside a school holiday) vs going 1 week later. Yes we could do it cheaper by hiring an apartment privately etc but we found going with Esprit (vs the two previous ski trips we did with my Sister in law and then with my parents and juggling child care) that we got far more of a real holiday and that my children enjoyed it a lot more as they had other children to play with.
We took Ellie out of school from Year R and I applied for permission before she actually started at the school and had every intention of taking her out for it with or without permission as she was only 4 and didn't legally need to be in school. I am taking her out again next year in April. I spoke to the head master in advance to ensure there we no conflicts with any tests or anything like that and ensured that the week was adjacent to a school holiday as that is my schools preference for authorising the trip. When I was speaking to him he did say that even if it wasn't authorised you can still take the child out of school it is just how it is recorded on the school ofsted stats (number of days of authorised absence, no of days unauthorised) it didn't seem to really matter from the way he was speaking? However I was keen to make sure it was authorised even so.
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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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| George06 wrote: |
Can't book any time off work for 2013 until September
How do people with kids plan/book ski trips?? |
Work for employers with more sensible leave policies - I've already booked leave for 2013 - to go skiing obviously..
It seems insane to me that they leave it to sept to open up next year - people plan weddings/other big family events 1-2 years in advance and surely once you know you need the day off then why can't you book it.
Sure it penalises the organsied vs. the lassez-faire but why not?
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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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One of my former employers used to run a system whereby you couldn't book holiday for the following year until the department secretary issued the holiday cards in the week before Christmas. Clearly this is useless for booking ski trips in most of the season, so I just ignored the system and told my boss (typ. in September) that I'd be out from dateX to dateY - and let the system catch up with me later.
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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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If you can only book holiday for 2013 after September go at Christmas and New Year 2012, you can book your holiday off work and still have plenty of choice where to book.
We can't go in school time as the OH is a teacher, as well as Jnr being at school. We always go at Christmas/New Year and tend to book early and aim higher. We then also go at Easter this year was great as Easter was early, next year will be the same. There's less certainty of good conditions if Easter is later in Austria, but it's still likely to be decent somewhere. We tend to book our Easter week 6 weeks before maximum, sometimes later.
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