Child friendly Europe resort & operator ?

Hi - does anybody have any recommendations on good European family
resorts please ?
Parents have skied before, 6-year old never skied (but he's very
keen!) - we'd like a resort which has minimum transfer time, and an
operator who is flexible with childcare ie. we want child ski lessons
in the morning & we ski as a family in the afternoon.
Accom. type - not important, but preferably half-board.
Deliberately limited to European destinations. And not DIY 'cos we
want the child-club.

Please, I'd like any suggestions / experiences of operators 'cos I
can't find any message boards discussing such things (other than Ski
Club GB where I have cross-posted this request).

Thanks, Pete.

"Pete Dowling" wrote in message
om...
Hi - does anybody have any recommendations on good European family
resorts please ?
Parents have skied before, 6-year old never skied (but he's very
keen!) - we'd like a resort which has minimum transfer time, and an
operator who is flexible with childcare ie. we want child ski lessons
in the morning & we ski as a family in the afternoon.
Accom. type - not important, but preferably half-board.
Deliberately limited to European destinations. And not DIY 'cos we
want the child-club.

Please, I'd like any suggestions / experiences of operators 'cos I
can't find any message boards discussing such things (other than Ski
Club GB where I have cross-posted this request).

Thanks, Pete.

Depending on the time of year you travel, and given recent trends, it's
a good idea to pick a resort at sufficient altitude to ensure your 6
year old doesn't emerge from the ski creche/club (and yourselves if
skiing on the lower slopes in the afternoon as a family) as if you've
just been swimming rather than skiing...

Beware the alleged linguistic abilities of the ESF monitors if going to
France, particularly in the smaller stations. The larger resorts where
the Brits congregate are the best bet for a hassle free time,
particularly the ones with independent schools and British instructors.

Pete

I've tried Ski Esprit and Mark Warner, and I'm going back for a 2nd year at
Mark Warner, so I'd say check their brochure out.

regards,

greg

"Pete Dowling" wrote in message
om...
Hi - does anybody have any recommendations on good European family
resorts please ?
Parents have skied before, 6-year old never skied (but he's very
keen!) - we'd like a resort which has minimum transfer time, and an
operator who is flexible with childcare ie. we want child ski lessons
in the morning & we ski as a family in the afternoon.
Accom. type - not important, but preferably half-board.
Deliberately limited to European destinations. And not DIY 'cos we
want the child-club.

Please, I'd like any suggestions / experiences of operators 'cos I
can't find any message boards discussing such things (other than Ski
Club GB where I have cross-posted this request).

Thanks, Pete.

Definitely Mark Warner.

I have used them every year since my Son was 3, he is now 8, and have no
complaints. The childcare is very good and very flexible.

Your only problem may be the transfer times -although St. Anton is a fairly
short one.

Shame you are limited to Europe as the best ski instruction my Son had was
in the USA.

Clive

Ey,

I went to Val Thorens, France for the last three years and I think it's very
good for kids. There are many ski classes for kids with English speaking
teachers (mostly ESF) and a lot of slopes for beginners. The transfer time
is minimum cause nearly all the appartments and hotels are near the slope.

MD

"Pete Dowling" schreef in bericht
om...
Hi - does anybody have any recommendations on good European family
resorts please ?
Parents have skied before, 6-year old never skied (but he's very
keen!) - we'd like a resort which has minimum transfer time, and an
operator who is flexible with childcare ie. we want child ski lessons
in the morning & we ski as a family in the afternoon.
Accom. type - not important, but preferably half-board.
Deliberately limited to European destinations. And not DIY 'cos we
want the child-club.

Please, I'd like any suggestions / experiences of operators 'cos I
can't find any message boards discussing such things (other than Ski
Club GB where I have cross-posted this request).

Thanks, Pete.

Clive Perry wrote:

I would have put Club Med in the frame for writing the book, albeit in
French!!

Upmarket Butlins.


--
Trophy 1200 750SS CB400F TS150 ST70 YTC#3
GAGARPHOF#30 GHPOTHUF#1 IHABWTJ#1 BOTAFOT#60 ANORAK#06 OSOS#1
BOF#30 WUSS#5 "Worse than Timo" - Official

"The Older Gentleman" wrote in message
news:1g0f56e.8ubsv0xe3r40N%chateau.murrayNOSPAM@ds l.pipex.com...

Upmarket Butlins.


Yes, they are very good.

Glad you approve too :^)

Clive

"Pete Dowling" wrote in message
om...
Hi - does anybody have any recommendations on good European family
resorts please ?
Parents have skied before, 6-year old never skied (but he's very
keen!) - we'd like a resort which has minimum transfer time, and an
operator who is flexible with childcare ie. we want child ski lessons
in the morning & we ski as a family in the afternoon.
Accom. type - not important, but preferably half-board.
Deliberately limited to European destinations. And not DIY 'cos we
want the child-club.
Thanks, Pete.

A couple of points but no definate suggestions.

If you only want the child club for ski lessons then you can still go DIY,
as resorts will have specialist childrens ski school. As pointed out
elsewhere in France the international schools usually have a more child
friendly reputation than the ESF.
Most tour operators use the ski schools for instruction of the children and
will have their own child clubs for nonskiers, a few such as Powder Byrne
(very expensive )have their own instructors within the local school.

If you go DIY you will usually save a lot of money compared with tour
operators at school holiday time, either way if you are restricted to school
holidays book early to get availability.

If you want to ski with your child in the afternoon France is usually better
than Austria as skischool is done on a half daily basis rather than a daily
basis, Switzerland I think is usually daily but may vary, haven't a clue
about Italian skischool.

I would also recommend lessons on the dry slope before you go if possible as
you will get a bit more skiing done in the afternoon if the child is a bit
more experienced, though depending on the childs energy they do tire quite
easily at this age
Hope this helps

Bob

Having taken my son, now aged 9, twice a year skiing since he was born
my experiences a

1/ Use a UK operator who supply the creche, or kids club and native
Engilish speaking carers

2/ It is better if the creche or club is in the same building or they
collect the child in the morining, long walks across the resort to get
to a particular location for 9:00 are not popular. You also need to be
very close to the slopes and ideally do not use a ski bus to get home.
Think: end of tiring day carrying your skis, poles etc plus your childs,
plus exhausted (but happy) child on your shoulders. The busses are
magnets for leaving hats, gloves, ski equipment on board when you get
off. I would rate location in resort above operator.

3/ We have had good chld care with Ski Beat, Crystal, Ski Olympic
amongst others. The only poor experiences were with the French resort
Creches. We have not had any difficulties with ESF, but have not been
able to get our son into any of the independent ski schools. They were
either full, or didn't do kids classes when we were their, or didn't
reply to emails.

4/ Get the best (waterproof) gloves you can for the child and good
clothing. I recall seeing a group of American children in Sante Fe
sobbing with pain, due to the frozen fingers.

5/ Choose a high level purpose built resort, preferably with an ice
rink, swimming pool etc. We have had a good time in all the Tarrentaise
resorts and from other postings Flaine may also be very good.

6/ We were never bothered by transfer times, but tried to avoid flying -
too much time sitting around in airports, humping luggage etc. In fact
the easiest way was to drive overnight.

7/ We used catered chalets.

8/ We also used a travel agent - Snow Line - for their advice and
reccomendations and they were very good.

John

Oh! and I prefer top posting when going through a string of postings. It
saves scrolling down through every one elses words before you get to the
interesting bits.



Pete Dowling wrote:
Hi - does anybody have any recommendations on good European family
resorts please ?
Parents have skied before, 6-year old never skied (but he's very
keen!) - we'd like a resort which has minimum transfer time, and an
operator who is flexible with childcare ie. we want child ski lessons
in the morning & we ski as a family in the afternoon.
Accom. type - not important, but preferably half-board.
Deliberately limited to European destinations. And not DIY 'cos we
want the child-club.

Please, I'd like any suggestions / experiences of operators 'cos I
can't find any message boards discussing such things (other than Ski
Club GB where I have cross-posted this request).

Thanks, Pete.

On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 11:21:36 +0100, John Elgy
wrote:

Oh! and I prefer top posting when going through a string of postings. It
saves scrolling down through every one elses words before you get to the
interesting bits.

If the quoted text is not relevant, it should be snipped, thereby
avoiding excessive scrolling requirement (although god knows it's not
_that_ difficult to hit PageDown a couple of times).

In many cases, it's only by seeing the earlier points that a later
reply can be understood. It's all about context.

Plus, and this is probably the most important point, bottom-posting
_is_ the de-facto norm on this, and most other newsgroups, so it's a
question of common courtesy to stick to the same standards. It makes
it much easier for everyone if all posts are made in the same way.

--
Ace (bruce dot rogers at roche dot com)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.