Family ski trip, Morzine - hints, tips and pearls of wisdom

[JQ]

This is going to be a skiing trip of a few firsts so I'm really keen to get as much organised as possible in advance:

First time Skiing with my kids (6 & 7)
First time staying in a catered chalet
First time skiing with my wife's family, 10 of us in total (4 kids - 3, 6, 7, 7)

Normally my ski trips are 4-7 days with the lads, so don't really require any planning, but as it's me who has pushed for the family trip I'm keen to make sure we don't miss out on anything.

So have any experienced family skiers got any pearls of wisdom they've discovered over the years, either to do with Morzine or just family skiing in general?

Cheers

[JQ]

Cheers.

Way ahead of you on the skiing front as I'm not the most patient instructor, so they've already been having lessons as we only live 10 mins from an indoor snow slope. Hopefully both kids will be carving by the time they get there and the plan is to put them in ESF from 8:30am to 12pm, to give us some adult ski time.

The chalet is on Taille de Mas Verjus which the chalet company inform us is less than 5 min walk from the Pleney lift, so I've not got any intention to hire ski lockers or anything. We're there 3rd week in Feb, so fingers crossed for good conditions.

Interesting point about the lift passes, I'd just assumed we'd get the local ones for the kids and the Portes du Soleil Pass for all the adults. I might have to investigate whether the extra money is worth it.

Are there any must do activities in the area, not necessarily skiing? We'll have cars, so can travel. On the to-do list at the moment is to do a bit of swimming in Morzine, evening sledging, and possibly an evening skiing. I guess it will all depend on how tired the kids get, also I've never stayed in a catered chalet before so not sure how motivated we'll be to head back outside after a few glasses of wine and food.

[JQ]

Cheers //j17, great info.

Amateurish said:

If the kids are doing morning lessons on Pleney, then you won't have time to make use of the PDS pass. Note that the kids will get discounted ski passes with their lessons. Have you booked? Anyway, in my opinion Morzine - Les Gets is all you really need for a good week's skiing.

Sounds like the PDS passes will be a waste of money, which is good to know. Ski lessons and lift passes are the next thing to book, probably next week as we're seeing the family at the weekend. If we book ESF lessons now, can we buy the lift passes at a discounted rate online - the ESF website only allows the booking of lift passes with the Beginners pack which the kids won't be doing. Also do you know if you get a discount with adult lessons - Id like my wife to have some refresher lessons and I'm contemplating getting some one to one sessions?

Cheers

[JQ]

Amateurish said:

Yes, the discounted passes only come with the beginner package (up to 1st star). I had assumed that's what your kids would be, if it was their first time...

The beginner pack is by far the cheapest option, but the timings are a bit crap as we're there during French holidays - 9am to 11am and then 3pm to 5pm. Those times seem really restrictive to me. The alternative is to pay a bit more for standard lessons which would have them at the same level which run 8:30am to 12pm.

I'd be interested if the second option does sound better?

edited to say :

I've just gone back to the ESF website and I've completely missed another option, so I have no idea which is the best option, both for the adults and the kids. The option seem to be :
Option 1 - Beginner Pack - 11:15am to 1:15pm
Option 2 - Beginner Pack - 9am to 11am and 3pm to 5pm
Option 3 - Club Piou Piou - 8:30am to 12pm

My view is Option 3 is the best, but would be interested to hear other's views? My wife wants to go with Option 2, but I think those timings will be a pain.

[JQ]

Phil Dicky said:

Get yourself a baby sitter and head to Buddha Bar on the evening ...infact from experience I wouldn't take the wife either

The Grandparents will be attendance, so it's definitely an option - is Buddha Bar somewhere I can take the wife?

[JQ]

Amateurish said:

Piou Piou is the creche, so they do wrap-around child care before and after the lessons.

Morning lessons times are 9-11 or 11:15 - 13:15.

Aha, this is all starting to make sense now - I wish the website was a bit clearer, or I was intelligent enough to work it out for myself. I've got no interest having them babysat for 90 mins a day when they could be skiing with us. Looks like the beginner session of 9-11 and 3-5 is the best option, even if they don't make it to the afternoon session a couple of times. I'll also look into private lessons to see if that might be worthwhile.

Cheers for the help all.

[JQ]

Holy thread resurection. The preparations are going well for our trip. The kids are still doing their lessons on the local indoor slope and Mrs JQ got lots of kit off Father Christmas. However, I've reaised we'll have one evening to eat out while we're there and it'll be our intention to treat my father-in-law to a nice meal. He's a real foodie, so does anyone know if there are any very good restaurants in Morzine? Cheers.

[JQ]

Cheers, I'll give it a go.

[JQ]

NorthDave said:

JQ said:

Holy thread resurection. The preparations are going well for our trip. The kids are still doing their lessons on the local indoor slope and Mrs JQ got lots of kit off Father Christmas. However, I've reaised we'll have one evening to eat out while we're there and it'll be our intention to treat my father-in-law to a nice meal. He's a real foodie, so does anyone know if there are any very good restaurants in Morzine? Cheers.

What kind of food are you looking for? I live in Morzine for half the year(ish).

A few that spring to mind:

La Ferme de la Fruitiere - do a great fondue and other savoyade stuff attached to a great cheese shop.
Clin D'Oiel - good for meats dishes.
La Ferme at Lindarets is good food and they will come and get you by snow mobile (not tried this although have eaten at lunch time).

I also have a few tucked away very french places if you would like them. Not touristy which I see as a positive! The really interesting stuff is only open in summer as they are up in the mountains.

Cheers, something traditionally French would be ideal, they love all world food but eating Italian in France would likely be frowned upon. La Ferme de la Fruitiere and Clin D'Oiel look perfect. From the reviews I've just quickly read La Ferms at Lindgrets sounds more like a lunchtime place - is it worth the trip out, with 4 kids in tow the snowmobile trip would probably go down quite well, but if it's likely to be very quiet we'd probably give it a miss?

With regard to the out of the way places, I suspect with 4 kids (ages 4-8) the more touristy places in town may be better, as it'll be the only night we eat out and they'll get to take in the atmosphere. Trying to get a balance between somewhere for the foodies and the kids being able to enjoy the experience is always interesting.

I presume with 10 diners we'll need to book before our holiday to secure a spot at one of these places?

[JQ]

Ice Hockey would be fanstic but having had a quick look at their website it would appear their last game is the 6th February a couple of weeks before we arrive. Although, my French is terrible so I could be completely wrong. On the basis that February is their holiday period you'd have thought they'd be playing all the way through as there'd be loads of demand from tourists. I guess that's probably French logic for you.

[JQ]

We got back from Morzine on Saturday and had a fantastic week, many thanks for all the hints and tips. The main thing was that the kids loved it - we literally had to drag them off the slopes every day. I'd done loads of research into things to do in the afternoon / early evening, which was totally pointless as our days consisted of being on the first lift of the day at 8:30am and generally not getting back until 5pm, followed by food for the kids, put them to bed, then evening meal for the adults, lots of wine, then bed - rinse and repeat. We had one afternoon off and took them swimming at Avoriaz, but other than that we saw very little of Morzine as the chalet was at the bottom of the Pleney lift and ate in every night.

It was my first time in a catered chalet and it was brilliant, certainly made life a lot easier. The one night we did eat out was at La Ferme de la Fruitiere, which was great.

One tip not mentioned on here that was a lifesaver was velcro straps for the skis. At several times during the trip I was carrying 4 sets of skis - I had my own Skiweb device which meant my skis could go over my shoulder whilst the little velcro straps I'd bought for the kids skis meant they were much easier to carry.

[JQ]

//j17 said:

Bad luck. Welcome to a world of buying new childrens ski clothes every year because they've out-grown the ones you bought them last year!

Yep, my wallet is already weeping. Although the most upsetting element of the holiday was our youngest asking my wife if our chalet hosts could adopt him as he didn't want to go home!