Recommendation - skiing with children

Could anyone recommend a good place to ski (closest to the UK) with children
in Europe? Is a chalet a good idea or a hotel? I'd be pleased to hear from
anyone with experience.


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.591 / Virus Database: 374 - Release Date: 2/17/2004

Liz Robinson wrote:

Could anyone recommend a good place to ski (closest to the UK) with children
in Europe? Is a chalet a good idea or a hotel? I'd be pleased to hear from
anyone with experience.

What age kids ? What level of skier are you all ?

Mark Warner are reckoned to be good although I've never used them.

Club Med are good if your kids speak French.

"Liz Robinson" wrote in message
...
| Could anyone recommend a good place to ski (closest to the UK) with
children
| in Europe? Is a chalet a good idea or a hotel? I'd be pleased to hear
from
| anyone with experience.

Does depend a lot on children's age, ability etc. Have they skied
before? Are they at the same level so that they could take lessons in
the same group? And if you intend putting them in a ski school, pick a
largish resort with a good international ski school to ensure you get a
fluent English-speaking instructor.

In France, La Plagne, Les Arcs, Val d'Isère are often spoken of as
having the right sort of slopes and good entertainment facilities for
children.

Some hotels have good in-house entertainment, but they're not usually
the cheapest. Personally I've usually gone for self-catering because of
the flexibility - you can eat what and when you like, and it's usually
quieter than a hotel room - less likely to be disturbed by neighbours
(or to disturb them). Again, depends on the age of the kids. Pros and
cons all round.

Pete
www.skiclublesarcs.com

"Liz Robinson" wrote in
:

Could anyone recommend a good place to ski (closest to the UK) with
children in Europe? Is a chalet a good idea or a hotel? I'd be
pleased to hear from anyone with experience.



what age? Have been once with Mark Warner to Val D'Iserewith a 2 year old,
and the year before with Ski Esprit to Morzine with a 1 year old. Am going
back with Mark Warner to La Plagne this year, with one baby and one now 4
year old!

Could anyone recommend a good place to ski (closest to the UK) with
children
in Europe? Is a chalet a good idea or a hotel? I'd be pleased to hear
from
anyone with experience.

Hi Liz

I'd recommend Snowcoach - http://www.snowcoach.co.uk/ - if your kids are up
to an overnight coach journey. We took our massive brood with them to their
Club Hotel in Val Cenis (a good beginners / intermediate resort). You leave
Dover at mid-day, ferry then drive to the resort - lovely coaches and plenty
of food stops - coaches have onboard loo and galley, and videos for the
kids. You get in resort around late morning and can get an afternoon skiing
in if you have your own kit. After years of lugging my gear around aiports I
was amazed at how painless Snowcoach is - they sorted out my car parking in
Dover, loaded the bags onto the bus and I never had to set eyes on them
again til they appeared in the hotel.

If snow is poor in resort they guarantee to take you to the nearest snow -
and Val Cenis is within an hour of some cracking good ski areas. They also
run free daily excursions to various resorts, with free guiding - NOT
instruction as ESF won't allow it. Rep support in resort is first class - a
real family atmosphere between clients and staff - they don't just appear at
beginning and end of hol, they are there whenever you need them.

This particular Club hotel is owned by the company (as opposed to leased)
and was refurbished recently - sauna, games room, TV lounge - and superb
food in a lovely dining room. They are significantly cheaper than Mark
Warner - suits our budget for one thing, and over the years my wife and I
have met some really nice people with them - on our one MW holiday we felt
it was all a bit snooty, good quality etc but not our scene. They have
chalets in other resorts (I've done Mayrhofen several times) but the Val
Cenis set-up is unbeatable. Snowcoach is very much a family oriented
operation (my wife took the kids on a summer hol with the parent company,
Club Cantabrica, and they had a marvellous time in Spain) and I'd thoroughly
recommend them.

Roy

PS I don't work for them!

"Roy" wrote in message
news:ER1Zb.38$j6.30@newsfe1-win...

I'd recommend Snowcoach - http://www.snowcoach.co.uk/ - if your kids are
up
to an overnight coach journey. We took our massive brood with them to
their
Club Hotel in Val Cenis (a good beginners / intermediate resort).

I'd recommend Val Cenis, too. But it isn't limited to beginners and
intermediates. There's plenty for the nutter as well!! ;o) Go up on the
telecabine and then onto the 6 man Solert lift. If you don't find ways to
come close to seriously hurting yourself, you need a pipe and slippers!! He
he!!

I don't know about the Snowcoach, but we drove it. We stopped off about
halfway in a Campanile (get a discount with SCGB membership - take your card
with you, though!!) but did the whole trip in one go on the way back. Took 9
hours from Calais on the lovely French motorways.... if you know the M6
during the day, think of the feeling you have flying down it at 2am and
that's how it feels on a French motorway at rush hour!! LOL

"Schneck" wrote in message
...
| "Roy" wrote in message
| news:ER1Zb.38$j6.30@newsfe1-win...
|
| I'd recommend Snowcoach - http://www.snowcoach.co.uk/ - if your kids
are
| up
| to an overnight coach journey. We took our massive brood with them
to
| their
| Club Hotel in Val Cenis (a good beginners / intermediate resort).
|
| I'd recommend Val Cenis, too. But it isn't limited to beginners and
| intermediates. There's plenty for the nutter as well!! ;o) Go up on
the
| telecabine and then onto the 6 man Solert lift. If you don't find ways
to
| come close to seriously hurting yourself, you need a pipe and
slippers!! He
| he!!

It was here the other day that they had a horrific accident. Security
mechanism on a rolling carpet walkway failed to kick in when a 7 year
old girl, Agathe, (who had her skis on at the time) reached the end and
was caught, dragged in and crushed whilst her parents watched. Her big
brother nearly suffered the same fate in trying to save her, injuring a
hand. Took the fire brigade an age to extract her and they couldn't
revive her. Agathe had her skis on at the time and the two safeties
(trap to catch foreign objects, and an electronic eye), both designed to
stop the walkway, didn't work. On Tuesday night the first results of the
investigation seemed to suggest that the security apparatus wasn't
connected.

There's a hundred or so of these walkways around French resorts. It's
not the first time it's happened - there was a similar accident in
Austria which claimed a victim last year.

Pete

"PG" wrote in message ...
It was here the other day that they had a horrific accident. Security
mechanism on a rolling carpet walkway failed to kick in when a 7 year
old girl, Agathe, (who had her skis on at the time) reached the end and
was caught, dragged in and crushed whilst her parents watched. Her big
brother nearly suffered the same fate in trying to save her, injuring a
hand. Took the fire brigade an age to extract her and they couldn't
revive her. Agathe had her skis on at the time and the two safeties
(trap to catch foreign objects, and an electronic eye), both designed to
stop the walkway, didn't work. On Tuesday night the first results of the
investigation seemed to suggest that the security apparatus wasn't
connected.

There's a hundred or so of these walkways around French resorts. It's
not the first time it's happened - there was a similar accident in
Austria which claimed a victim last year.

Pete

Hi,

My impression is that quite often ski lifts seem to be
treated somewhat casually by many of the staff and clients.

I have been close to getting a good whack at best and was saved
by an alert operator who stopped the lift. It was my "fault" in
that I was inattentive however the design of many lifts is in my
view unsatisfactory. What happened was that I and a friend skied
down towards the lift gate with me slilghtly in front. There were no
other skiers there, the gates were open and I stopped to wait on my
mate. I did a bit of gazing around and then looked down just in time
to see my friend glide through the open gate. I thought "good, time
to go" and went. Unfortunately the chair was just about to arrive
from the side and as discussed the lift operator stopped the lift.
I would have been hit from the side by it and knocked over for sure.

What had happened was that in France many lift gates remain open for
far too long. My "friend" had decided that it was too much trouble to
stop at the gate and had decided to glide a few inches through the gate
and stop immediately on the other side of it and wait on the gate to open
behind him before going. ????? I took him going through the gate as
a signal that it was safe to go. Since my gate was still open I went.

I have observed that Leitner lifts seem to be designed more
conservatively and the ones that I have seen seem to be of a
design that would avoid this particular problem. The gates only
open for long enough to allow someone acceess to the loading platform.


The lastest amazing idea which I saw the other week in Courcheval
is to have say a 4 man lift with the usual gates but then
there is a fifth entrance to allow "singles" in to any vacent spaces.

While I wholeheartedly approve of the singles idea the
implementation is horrific in this case. The single/s
is/are supposed to manage their own entry to the pick up point
AFTER those entering via the normal gates in the event that there
is space. Those people entering the main gates have no idea the
singles are even there and do not leave space. There are a few
seconds to sort it all out and then the chair arrives and you are
off - or mangled. Scary stuff.

AnyBody43 wrote:


Hi,

My impression is that quite often ski lifts seem to be
treated somewhat casually by many of the staff and clients.

I find most staff are pretty on the ball but I can imagine it does vary.
The users though are a pain, I was getting on the Sairon 4 man lift in
Morillon the other morning when there was no queue, I was on my own and
as I sat down 4 cretins pushed their way through the gate and the
following chaos stopped the lift, the staff were alert as they usually
are round there. How !"§$ing stupid you have to be not to be able to
count to 4 I don't know and since the gates close as someone goes
through them one of them at least needed to force the gate.

AnyBody43 wrote:

The lastest amazing idea which I saw the other week in Courcheval
is to have say a 4 man lift with the usual gates but then
there is a fifth entrance to allow "singles" in to any vacent spaces.

While I wholeheartedly approve of the singles idea the
implementation is horrific in this case. The single/s
is/are supposed to manage their own entry to the pick up point
AFTER those entering via the normal gates in the event that there
is space. Those people entering the main gates have no idea the
singles are even there and do not leave space. There are a few
seconds to sort it all out and then the chair arrives and you are
off - or mangled. Scary stuff.

In busy periods I'd like to see the supervisors have the lift passes off the
dawdling cnuts who hang back to be with their friends/family and see 5 man
chairs going up with 1 or 3 occupants.

--
S.M.