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SalzburgerLand Tourist Office
FAMILY SKIING HOLIDAYS
Slope off ■ Toboganning at Obertauern, near Salzburg
with the family
Skiing offers a rare chance for families to enjoy an active holiday together. But where do you go? Ski expert Chris Gill, a long-time family skier, gives the low-down on the best peaks to choose
November/December 2009
e were only a year into our child-rearing project when my wife Val and I realised that we were going to have to start doing family skiing holidays, even before we had a family capable of skiing. We had left our precious one-year-old in the care of his nanny, and taken off for a week in Norway. By day three, we were
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desperate to get back to him (and to a supply of affordable wine, I confess). Nine months after, we spent a jolly Christmas in an Esprit Ski chalet in Montchavin. About nine years later, when both Alex and sister Laura could get around the mountain with us, we came to realise what an excellent family holiday skiing makes. It has its drawbacks – notably the cost. But to be able to share an exciting, vaguely healthy outdoor activity with the
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Mark Warner
Learning to ski
■ Break time at a Mark Warner ski school
First, will your kids be up to it? They need a degree of determination and resilience to overcome the inevitable setbacks – the falling over, for a start. Our kids got to this point at about age six. At age four, it didn’t work. Then, how should they be taught? If you’re competent, you could do it yourself. Our kids got a mix of lessons and parental coaching at the start, then a year or two of proper lessons – but once off the nursery slope there was no way to persuade either of them to take more lessons. A good compromise is classes in the morning, and skiing together in the afternoon. In many resorts school classes are mornings only – but your tour operator may offer afternoon supervision/amusement if you want to carry on skiing without hindrance. Of course, you’ll want to identify a good school. Where to Ski and Snowboard can help you there (see facts panel).
TVB Innsbruck/Klaus Kranebitter
TVB St Anton am Arlberg/Wolfgang Ehn
■ Young skiers in St Anton
■ Morning lessons leave time free for family skiing
whole family is a rare thing. And it whisks you from the depressing, grey British winter to a fairytale setting of snowclad forests and mountains, with a good chance of blue skies; unbeatable.
Photopress
■ Family fun in Adelboden, Switzerland
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■ Ski kindergarten in Avoriaz
How to go Most British skiers take package holidays, even though doing your own thing is pretty simple, thanks to an ever-wider range of budget flights and internet booking of hotels and apartments. For families, packages have particular merits – especially families attracted to the uniquely British form of ski holiday, the catered chalet. Strictly speaking, a chalet is a small Alpine house, though for chalet-holiday purposes it may be an apartment. Your tour operator staffs a chalet with young Brits, and offers either the whole place or rooms within it, packaging half-board with flights or other transport. No-choice meals are taken at a communal table, with (a key feature, this) wine included. Unless you take over a very small place, there will
November/December 2009
● One or more jolly, safe, dedicated kids’
nursery slopes (or “snow gardens”). ● Gentle main nursery slopes, free of
through-traffic. ● Longer, gentle runs (classified green in
France) to progress to. ● A combination of sun and good snow on
all these runs (beware resorts that get no sun in midwinter, and resorts where snow at village level routinely turns to ice). ● Opportunities to have fun on the snow without skiing – tobogganing and/or tubing, in particular. ● Things to do in the evening or on stormy days when skiing is limited – swimming, bowling and skating. ● A well-run ski school.
Top resorts – country by country Below are resorts to consider in the four main Alpine skiing countries. There are alternatives, but I don’t recommend them. If money is no object and you think the kids can deal with the jet lag, consider North America: the tuition and the childcare doesn’t get much better – but it is seriously expensive. Bear in mind that the highest resorts present a risk of altitude sickness.
Avoriaz/Stephane Lerendu
Austria
be other families to provide distractions for yours; in a chalet-hotel (a larger variant, run along similar lines) you are almost sure of finding compatible playmates. But the killer feature is that most chalet operators organise childcare in some chalets, and some operators do it in all their chalets. Practically every resort has one or more public nurseries/ski kindergartens, and some hotels have their own private nurseries. Like many British parents, we always opted for the more predictable tour operator childcare. Most people take flights to the mountains, followed by a coach transfer taking one to three hours, occasionally more. It can be less hassle to drive, especially if you have a lot of baby kit to handle, and a capacious motor. Rail travel is enjoying a revival of interest. There are weekly direct services from London to stations close to several major French resorts, and services to Paris
November/December 2009
“For families, packages have particular merits” open up many other indirect possibilities all over the Alps. Quite a few resorts are on the rail network.
For many years the favourite destination of British beginners, and still very appealing. + lively, beer-fuelled apres-ski starting midafternoon; appreciably cheaper than France; plenty of small, cute, family-friendly resorts. – few of its big resorts are natural family places; many of the most appealing resorts are at low altitudes where snow conditions are unreliable. Big-name favourites: Lech (www.lech-zuers.at) – near-perfect seclusion up the hill at Oberlech. St Anton (www.stantonamarlberg.com) – excellent nursery slope at quiet Nasserein. Smaller favourites: Alpbach (www.alpbach.at ) – cute, quiet village with central nursery slope. Ellmau (www.wilderkaiser.info) – acres of gentle nursery slopes.
The ideal family resort There is no such thing, of course: what suits one parent and his four-year-old will not suit another parent and her 10-year-old. But here is a list of desirable ingredients: ● Easy access, without excessively long transfers from airports, or excessively winding access roads. ● Compact, convenient, safe layout (carfree ideally), so that getting the kids from A to B is hassle-free.
France Now the dominant destination for Brits, particularly for chalet and apartment holidays. + lots of huge, high, snow-sure ski areas; many family-oriented resorts with a lot of very convenient accommodation right on the slopes; huge choice of catered chalet holidays. – high prices, especially in the top resorts; huge influx of French families during the
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■ Choose a familyfriendly resort
Atout France/Chantal Bourreau
Package holidays Lots of tour operators offer childcare in certain resorts, so you don’t need to confine your search to the firms listed here. But these are operators that do childcare throughout their programmes: Esprit Ski (www.espritski.com),The Family Ski Company (www.familyski.co.uk), Ski Famille (www.skifamille.co.uk), Mark ■ Italy has well-equipped resorts Warner (www.markwarner.co.uk), Snowbizz (www.snowbizz.co.uk), Ski Amis (www.skiamis.com), Ski2 (www.ski-2.com), Premiere Neige (www.premiere-neige.com) and Mountain Heaven (www.mountainheaven.co.uk).
February school holidays (which include British half-term weeks) Big-name favourites: Avoriaz (www.avoriaz.com) – car-free, ski from the door resort. Les Menuires (www.lesmenuires.com) – good choice of slopeside family chalets. Smaller favourites: Les Gets (www.lesgets.com) – pretty village at foot of gentle slopes. La Rosiere (www.larosiere.net) – good range of family chalets in a sunny setting.
Sample package prices Esprit has five chalets in Les Gets. Prices range from £600 in mid-January to £1280 at half-term; there’s a complex scheme of free and discounted places for kids.The Family Ski Company has two chalets in Les Menuires. Prices range from £420 to £1250; again, children pay less.
Chris Gill is editor of leading annual guide Where to Ski and Snowboard and has written about ski resorts for 25 years.With two children now of student age, he has long and intimate experience of the pain and pleasure of family skiing holidays.
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Other costs Lift passes: the lifts on some nursery slopes are free. In other resorts, you pay for each ride, or buy a special beginner’s lift pass (perhaps costing £15/£20 a day). But in some resorts the nursery slopes are at midmountain and you must buy a full pass costing as much as £200 for a week. Children pay less, and go free under a certain age. Many resorts offer family passes, at a special price. Ski school classes: expect to pay something like £100 for six half-days, between £150 and £200 for six full days, if available. ■ Ice castle, Les Menuires Equipment hire: expect to pay £75 to £150 per week per adult for skis and boots, half that per child. More information on resorts Austria: www.austria.info/uk France: www.francetourism.com Italy: www.italiantouristboard.co.uk Switzerland: www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
SPECIAL OFFER: Where to Ski and Snowboard To maximise the chances of a good holiday, get hold of this, “the skier’s bible” – Britain’s only annual ski resort guidebook, now in its 14th edition. Readers of The Travel & Leisure Magazine can buy the book online from www.wheretoski.co.uk/tlm for the cover price of the first edition, published in 1994 – £14.99, with p&p free (it is £18.99 in shops). The most important information about the top resorts is available on the book’s main website (www.wtss.co.uk). Special features include links to the other sites mentioned in this article. ● To win one of five free copies of Where to Ski and Snowboard 2010, see page 36.
Photopress/Alexandra Wey
Switzerland Where we Brits invented recreational downhill skiing, though now a bit of a niche market. + some exceptionally cute, family-friendly villages in spectacularly scenic settings – high prices, especially in top resorts. Big-name favourite: Wengen (www.myjungfrau.ch) – car-free, traditional village, reached by train. Smaller favourite: Adelboden (www.adelboden.ch) – several toboggan runs and other amusements. TL
OT Les Menuires/P Royer
Italy In the past sold on price but now offers well-equipped resorts competing with Austria. + the Italians love kids, and kids love pasta. – few resorts are ideally arranged; there are few UK tour operators doing childcare; resort childcare is not well established. Big-name favourite: Cervinia (www.montecervino.it) – limitless gentle slopes starting right beside the village. Smaller favourite: Selva (www.valgardena.it) – great snowsure nursery slope with lodgings beside it.
ENIT
Family skiing facts
■ Snowli kids’ race, Adelboden
November/December 2009