Skiing with small children

[ClareC]

Any tips on locations with good childcare / companies that provide childcare and generally suggestions how to have a family ski holiday without needing to take out a second mortgage.

Our children are 20 and 5 mths so too young to actually ski yet.

Thankyou

[snowboarder]

Ah will watch this with interest!! I've heard from friends that Mark Warner are fab for childcare, and I've been with friends with children (pre own children!) with a chalet company called vip chalets who have in chalet nannies - I think there are a number of companies that do this...and some do weeks with free nanny if you want to go say mid january. Sadly think is all v expensive. I am desperate to go....

Oh - isn't Scott Dunn a specialist family ski company?

Ooh and you can search on the Ski Club site for family specialist companies....

PLease don't get me all excited...we cannot afford it....(*goes off to search for budget family friendly skiing....*)

[savage]

Hi

Have a look here, loads of great advice!

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,617519,617519#msg-617519

[Countjc]

Hi Clare

All about Ski Scott Dunn. We went this year with them and they were awesome.

One of the few ski companies that provide English qualified nannies.

We had 7 kids and 8 adults so a potential nightmare but we had 3 nannies who came 8.30 till 5 every day and helped the older children with ski school. It was an amazing holiday.

They also cooked all the kids food, cleared up, provided shed loads of toys, mountain buggies, cots, snacks and car seats.

They are v expensive but if you book now out of school hols you can get a 20 percent discount.

We will definitely be going with them again!

Jenny

[blackkat]

I've not used them, but been recommended skifamille - despite the name they are Brit run with nannies etc. Have fun!

[twinmummy]

Re VIP who have in-chalet nannies (I did a season as a chalet girl for them, eek, 10 years ago...) have a cheaper "sister" company called "Snowline" who also offer the nanny service. All the nannies who worked for VIP in my season were lovely and I have had friends use them since, all been very pleased.

[snowboarder]

VIP/Snowline = all one company now...

[buggie]

Sorry for the slight tangent, but has anyone else when seeing the title of this thread thought "surely it's easier to use skis?" (I'll get my coat!)

[uptime]

We're going with connickski an English company with a chalet in France and its own in-house ski school with British/English-speaking instructors. Nanny services are provided at an extra cost but key for us was that the chalet has its own playroom, complete with soft toys etc. Come with us snowboarder; it will be like old times!

[nunheadmum]

I sooooo want to go skiing again. But suspect my 5 year old would ruin it as she's so shy and unwilling to go into strange groups, and the cold won't help. Has anyone got any recommendations for how to get over this? Do any of the chalets with nannies actually take them out in their own group? I suspect my patience would run thin quite quickly if I tried to teach them myself and it wasn't working. (Got 3 year old too - although I suspect she'd love it, without a shy big sister to copy.)

[snowboarder]

It's that time of year again!! Bumping this to see if there is any more advice about snow holidays en famille? Desperate to go this season....but do the mini snowboarders get to come too?!?

[kittysailing]

I've done a bad/good thing - skiweekends.com cheap weekends skiing 4 days on the slopes for three nights away - sneaking off with a friend and leaving all things little behind - cant wait!

[snowboarder]

tempting....oh so tempting!!

[blackkat]

Try www.skifamille.co.uk who do Childcare included. Happy days!

[Countjc]

If you want to take the kids i would recommend ski Scott Dunn or purple ski.

Both offer English qualified nannies and in some resorts kids clubs. They also help out with sorting out lessons and gear for the kids plus provide things like car seats, mountain buggies etc. The chalets have loads of kids toys and all the kids food is prepared for you.

Also unlike so many companies I remember going with as a kid, they offer reasonable flight times not that 4 am killer start.

[Ole]

Talking of skiing, I have not been since I've had my son, but now he is 3 I am thinking that perhaps he would be ready to start learning now, so I am wondering if anybody has experience taking a 3 year old on the slopes. By this I mean - is it allowed and would children's ski schools take on 3 year olds? I started skiing when I was 3 (lived by the mountains) but that was 30 years ago before health and safety became hysterical. Also, any recommendations for child-friendly resorts? not looking for nanny-type advice but rather nearness of accommodation to lifts, being able to get around resort easily, range of restaurant options, good child ski schools, etc.

[ClareC]

My nephew started at 3. Most ski schools seemed to take them from 4 but they did agree to take him if he took to skiing OK. He did, unfortunately the class happened to be children all 7+ so we opted for him to have private lessons instead. He got on really well and enjoyed himself. At that age they are not strong enough to ski all day though so you do need childcare in addition to ski school / instruction.

[snowboarder]

WOW. Everything I look at is SERIOUSLY expensive (like ?4000+ for family of 4. Scott Dunn way more than this!) or not suitable for young children (hotels or big chalets - I'm not that comfortable being in a shared chalet with our 2 in case of night time freaking out etc!).

Hmm - Milton Keynes snowdome here we come!

[zeban]

I thought that was the case expense wise, skiing is a wealthy persons sport in Europe with or without children! but assumed that everyone on this thread could afford that much!

[snowboarder]

I suppose the thing that I need to get used to is that you pretty much pay full price for any child over 2....we are looking at going the week after my youngest's second birthday...meaning you pay about ?800 plus for him!! These prices do include flights/transfers/catering and in some cases childcare so I suppose in some ways not so bad - but it's very different to just paying for yourself pre children!!

[sillywoman]

buggie Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Sorry for the slight tangent, but has anyone else

> when seeing the title of this thread thought

> "surely it's easier to use skis?" (I'll get my

> coat!)

ROFL- I'll get my coat too, wait for me Buggie :D

[zeban]

It's not snowboarder if you're on low wages like many people in the UK, myself included. have always wanted to go skiing but it's too expensive in europe, I'm moving to Japan in a few weeks and going to go there as it's so much cheaper.

[DVnewbie]

I haven't been skiing since having children (and I really miss it...) so have been following this thread with interest. They are now old enough (just) but that means we are tied to half term/holidays. It is literally double the price if we go during half term than the week before or after... Admittedly I was looking at VIP-chalets which isn't the cheapest. But ?6k for a family of 4 at half term (all in one room with a double bed and bunkbeds tucked round the corner) or ?3k the week before or after. Am wondering, since the eldest won't be 5 then, if I can take him out of school for a week. I won't, as I think it is too disruptive and selfish, but I can see why people do! Besides, even ?3k isn't exactly cheap!

[HLB]

We took our little one to Morzine in France (which I love), rented a fairly basic two bedroom apartment for a week and used a nanny service in Morzine called Cheeky Monkeys (it is run by a British lady who is lovely). She would come to our apartment with big boxes of toys and take our little one out for walks, cook him lunch etc - it wasn't exactly cheap but we only used the nanny service for about half the time we were there as the rest of the time we did want to do things as a family - like sledging and going for hot chocolates! They also provide evening babysitters which we used a couple of times and the girls were English and seemed nice and reliable. Overall this worked out much much cheaper than doing a Scott Dunn style package.

Oh and I also know that there is a "tourist" creche in Morzine called L'Outa which takes children from 3 months old to 5 years old, I have never used it but have seen positive comments about it on other forums and it is a more affordable option to a nanny.

[nunheadmum]

The school won't like it (officially) if you take them out as it affects their stats and is hard to say 'yes' if it's skiing but 'no' if parents just can't be bothered to bring them in (in extreme cases). But at that age, what's more beneficial to them.