2013 half term ski trip recomendations

[VEX]

This will be our first trip with our daughters, 4 & 6, we ski and snowboard, they need to learn.

Any recommendations for resorts and chalets. Ideally want half board, not fussed about lots of reds and blacks. It is more about learning and blues for the girls and us just getting out again.

Happy to drive to the resort, ideally under £3k all in (inc lessons and hire for the girls)

Ta

V.

[flyingjase]

Hi Chris

Well, there are lots of options! I've just come back from Val D'Isere with 2 (younger) kids and found renting an apartment was the best option - it gave us the ability to sort ourselves out with a bit more room than just hotel / chalet bedrooms, also the added benefit of washing machine / dryer / kitchen etc. We did get a babysitter a few nights so we could go out as just adults.

If you go onto some of those owners direct type websites you will find quite a few for rent (although many don't seem to be advertsiing next seasons prices just yet). I saw a 2 bed one in Tignes (Val Claret) for half term week for 1690 euros.

Tignes is part of Espace Killy and there is loads there - some really gentle (but not flat) Greens for the girls as well as some progressive Blues and if you did fancy some Reds, there are one or two really good ones that aren't too steep.

Then you could either fly to Geneva or Chambrey and pick up a hire car (guess £400-500 on flights if you book in now plus £300 - 400 on hire car) or drive from UK (which I'm thinking about diung next season). Having quoted those prices, I have never looked at half term week as my kids are too young so have no idea what impact that has on prices. As a guide I paid £330 for 2 adults, 1 child and 1 infant return LHR to Geneva with BA in March having booked 2.5 months ago. I paid £500 for an estate hire car for 10 days.

Kids club with lessons, someting like:-

http://www.valdisere-levillagedesenfants.com

Or just book them into 1/2 day ski school and meet and lunchtime or teach them yourself.

You could go Mark Warner or equivilent but I think you will struggle with the budget then especially at half term. The cheapest I have seen Mark Warner in a decent resort with 2 kids is £3500 and that was outside of half term.

Good luck and have fun!

[LotusMartin]

Check out Simon Butler Holidays - they are based in Megeve (office in Woking) and have 2 large Chalet/small hotels there. I would not describe them as luxury, but they are well equipped and you won't find friendlier staff anywhere. The holiday includes great food (half board with wine at dinner) and 2 hours ski instruction per day (from what I remember they have 1 day off a week?) They use their own English speaking Ski instructors that are (in my opinion) second to none, I learnt to ski there 12 or 13 years ago, my daughter and wife also learnt there almost from scratch.

DO NOT - repeat - DO NOT put the children in ESF @ half term, they will have a terrible time.

Its not the cheapest option, but I guarantee you will have a great time. Speak to Jay Blatherwick.

[flyingjase]

Hi Chris

The same question has just been asked on Snowheads (family of 4 albeit teeenage daughters, half term £3k budget) this was the answer:-

We drove to Meribel for Feb half term this year, the resort was not very busy compared with previous experience, probably due to the economy. Having the car opens the door to more affordable accommodation and eating, in our case we stayed S/C in Les Allues, which has a good bar, a couple of restaurants and a shop, with a ten minute drive to Meribel (or Courcheval/La Tania). If I were going at half term with 3 or 4, this approach is very cost effective and leaves some pennies for Ski Hire, Lift Passes, Lunches and Lessons. We have done catered chalets with flights lots of times, but I am now firmly convinced that I don't want to pay double the rate for this luxury at half term!

[LFB531]

Echo the comment made about ESF, my 11 year old went with Magic Ski in Meribel this year, had a blast. ESF are now cramming three teaching class slots in each day rather than the two they were doing previously.

[marcosgt]

Avoriaz (Portes De Soleil) would be my recommendation.

I think the area's better than the 3 Vallees personally (there I've said it!) and there's plenty of mixed ability skiing with difficult stuff to cruisy greens for the newbies and everything in between.

Easily driveable (and usually accessible without chains, even when the snow's good), car free (you park in a car park on the outskirts) and super ski-er friendly.

If you can get in a chalet at the top of the town lift (where the ski school meet) it's brilliant, but most of the accommodation (like most French resorts) is charmless appartments - Some nice and cheap though and the views are mostly fantastic!

A few good restaurants too and it's easy to get to Morzine (by lift or skiing, or you could drive down if you have a car) if you want a bigger town.

M.

[paulmon]

Thinking of doing the same next year. Have heard some really good things about Soll in Austria. Some friends went this year and said it was much better than the French/Italian resorts they had been to on previous years. In particular the costs when you are in resort are a million miles away from the rip off prices in France.

P

[marcosgt]

paulmon said:

Thinking of doing the same next year. Have heard some really good things about Soll in Austria. Some friends went this year and said it was much better than the French/Italian resorts they had been to on previous years. In particular the costs when you are in resort are a million miles away from the rip off prices in France.

P

Are you good skiiers? Soll's not the most challenging resort for capable skiiers.

It's a bit "Costa Del Ski" too (or it used to be anyway), but like most Austrian resorts it has more character and charm than the French resorts.

Austria never used to be the cheap option though, I'd be surprised if it's changed that much...

M

[a311]

VEX said:

This will be our first trip with our daughters, 4 & 6, we ski and snowboard, they need to learn.

Any recommendations for resorts and chalets. Ideally want half board, not fussed about lots of reds and blacks. It is more about learning and blues for the girls and us just getting out again.

Happy to drive to the resort, ideally under £3k all in (inc lessons and hire for the girls)

Ta

V.

I find suggestions of huge interlinked resorts are a bit puzzling. Expensive lift pass for a large area you won’t use doesn’t make much sense to me-depends on what level you are and if you plan to meet up with the kids in the afternoon to ski/board together.

As an overall holiday package I’m a huge fan of Austria, pretty towns, cheaper prices for food and drink compared to France and a huge variety of resorts. Only thing Austria lacks is the number of huge linked resorts that France has. Have a look at Alpbach, Neiderau, Seelfeld, and maybe Obergurgl. Lech is brilliant and part of a large linked area for you to explore while the kids are in ski school but is pricy-likewise Zurs. I can also suggest some that aren’t on the radar of British TO’s so would expect during half term prices to be lower and be much quieter. With France you should check out there holiday times as they are staggered and the mainstream to quiet resorts will be busy.

Italy may also be worth a shout, the Dolomites are stunning and made up of several resorts and is popular with families, après ski is low key to non-existent but the food is awesome and very reasonable.

paulmon said:

Thinking of doing the same next year. Have heard some really good things about Soll in Austria. Some friends went this year and said it was much better than the French/Italian resorts they had been to on previous years. In particular the costs when you are in resort are a million miles away from the rip off prices in France.

P

Soll part of the SkiWelt is great. It's Austria’s biggest linked area for mileage hungry piste bashers. I was there in January it’s a great resort for intermediates, not a huge amount of chaelleging stuff on piste but with the amount of snow there was there in January you could ski everything.
You’re talking about 3 Euro for a pint on average, easily get change from 10 euro getting a drink and meal up on the mountain. You can also get the Alpen pass that lets you ski some neighbouring resorts, Saalbach, Kitzbuhel to name just a couple. I find Soll and Mayrhofen tend to be the cheapest options for Austria though UK TO’s.

No doubt someone might chime in about the altitude, snow reliability etc but I'm not going there.

marcosgt said:

Are you good skiiers? Soll's not the most challenging resort for capable skiiers.

It's a bit "Costa Del Ski" too (or it used to be anyway), but like most Austrian resorts it has more character and charm than the French resorts.

Austria never used to be the cheap option though, I'd be surprised if it's changed that much...M

No where near ‘Costa Del Ski’ actually pretty quiet but like with most places you can take or leave it. Even party towns like St Anton you can avoid it and it’s not on the same scale of drunken carnage you could find in say Benidorm.

As for the price comment, my experience is the lower end Austrian stuff is fine and much better than the equivalent French shoe box, you can easily get B&B deals for sub £400 in Austria and you can in France and it will be cheaper when you get there.

I’m not against France, up until this season I’ve skied there at least once a season for year-usually Tignes. I like the skiing in France but that’s about it.

[marcosgt]

a311 said:

marcosgt said:

Are you good skiiers? Soll's not the most challenging resort for capable skiiers.

It's a bit "Costa Del Ski" too (or it used to be anyway), but like most Austrian resorts it has more character and charm than the French resorts.

Austria never used to be the cheap option though, I'd be surprised if it's changed that much...M

No where near ‘Costa Del Ski’ actually pretty quiet but like with most places you can take or leave it. Even party towns like St Anton you can avoid it and it’s not on the same scale of drunken carnage you could find in say Benidorm.

As for the price comment, my experience is the lower end Austrian stuff is fine and much better than the equivalent French shoe box, you can easily get B&B deals for sub £400 in Austria and you can in France and it will be cheaper when you get there.

I’m not against France, up until this season I’ve skied there at least once a season for year-usually Tignes. I like the skiing in France but that’s about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'd ski in Austria all the time if they could guarantee the snow, but when I lived in Germany, Soll was often full of young, rude Brits, but it may have changed (which would be good).

I've not really looked at cheap holidays in Austria for a while, so I'll bow to your more recent experience. Chalets tend to be a bit dearer from what I've seen.

You're right that a big area isn't necessary with kids, but most resorts (such as Avoriaz) will have a local pass available too. On the other hand unless you're skiing with your kids all the time (we used to split kid-skiing time between us) you'll still want some runs up to your level to enjoy.

M

[bp1]

Looking at this at the moment and we're thinking of Val Gardena, never been and its part of the Dolomite Superski area. Last 15 years been skiing(and living) in North America, so first time in Europe skiing since 96. So far costs have been around the £2000 mark, flying into Innsbruck from Manchester, thats with 1 6 year old, but we're taking her out of school the week before half term. The holiday companies and schools can go whistle if they think I'm getting bent over like that. Spoken to her school already and they didn't change there official "you can't line", but then the head said as long as its not exam years and it was only for a week, then they are not that concerned.

[a311]

marcosgt said:

Don't get me wrong, I'd ski in Austria all the time if they could guarantee the snow, but when I lived in Germany, Soll was often full of young, rude Brits, but it may have changed (which would be good).

I've not really looked at cheap holidays in Austria for a while, so I'll bow to your more recent experience. Chalets tend to be a bit dearer from what I've seen.

M

I think you can find rude Brits, Gemans, Dutch, Austrians, Scandies in the majority of resorts with any sort of rep for apres. I'd usually only stick to the lower Austrian up until about Mid March as a rule although I've had great conditions in Saalbach at the end of April one year in a bumper snow year. It's been a funny old season snow wise, everywhere pretty much got huge dumps mid December then again in January but many French areas of the alps had little or no snow when Austria was getting huge dumps in February. I was in Kitbuhel in Feb-another relatively low altitude resort but had the best powder I've had in years. Austria being further east the tree line is lower, grassy pastures need less snow than rocks to make it ski-able it's generally wetter and colder too.

I think allot of people who have had bad snow in Austria have automatically jumped to the conclusion it's the altitude that's the issue when in years like early 2007 it was universally turd everywhere across the alps. These resorts wouldn't be viable if they could only operate 2.5-3 months a year.

If you're talking catered chalets, what I do find in Austria there are less of the smaller catered chalets but this is due to the fact in the main that the majority of French resorts are purpose built while Austria areas tend to be expanded upon traditonal town so hotels are more common.

As for price just cam back frok a catered chalet in St Anton, booked way ahead to get a lift pass deal and all in flights, accom, lift pass was £615.

[VEX]

That's a very interesting price point.

Would love to know more about it and who you booked it through.

Thanks

V.

[oola]

VEX said:

That's a very interesting price point.

Would love to know more about it and who you booked it through.

Thanks

V.

As a lover of St Anton (40 odd trips), if you have kids you really could do with staying at the Nasserein end of town. The lift there opened about 8 years ago and gives the place a quieter place to meet and drop kids off at ski school. Its also quieter on an evening as its about 5/7 min walk to the main street. Unfortunately you'll struggle to get anywhere near £600 per person during half term unless its a last minute deal ... the cheapest I've seen is Esprit Ski who have a couple of chalets there and I know their service for kids is excellent ... they organise ski school and babysit allowing you to have a night out if you want.

St Anton is a very challenging resort ... although the learner areas for the kids are pretty good.

I went to the Dolomites in Feb half term which I highly recommend. We stayed in Canazei in Val Di Fassa in a hotel through Crystal ... hotel was on the outskirsts of town but they provided a mini bus to the lifts. I must say it was pretty well set up for beginners (my Mrs & 15 yr old daughter) with lots of gentle long wide open pistes. Seemed very popular with families rather than groups of adults which suited us. You can go venture further afield around the Sellaronda which is a 30-odd km run which takes you to all the linked areas which make up 1200km of piste!!

[a311]

oola said:

VEX said:

That's a very interesting price point.

Would love to know more about it and who you booked it through.

Thanks

V.

As a lover of St Anton (40 odd trips), if you have kids you really could do with staying at the Nasserein end of town. The lift there opened about 8 years ago and gives the place a quieter place to meet and drop kids off at ski school. Its also quieter on an evening as its about 5/7 min walk to the main street. Unfortunately you'll struggle to get anywhere near £600 per person during half term unless its a last minute deal ... the cheapest I've seen is Esprit Ski who have a couple of chalets there and I know their service for kids is excellent ... they organise ski school and babysit allowing you to have a night out if you want.

St Anton is a very challenging resort ... although the learner areas for the kids are pretty good.

I went to the Dolomites in Feb half term which I highly recommend. We stayed in Canazei in Val Di Fassa in a hotel through Crystal ... hotel was on the outskirsts of town but they provided a mini bus to the lifts. I must say it was pretty well set up for beginners (my Mrs & 15 yr old daughter) with lots of gentle long wide open pistes. Seemed very popular with families rather than groups of adults which suited us. You can go venture further afield around the Sellaronda which is a 30-odd km run which takes you to all the linked areas which make up 1200km of piste!!

40 odd trips sounds awesome!Tbh I can't see me going anywhere else unless I go with a larger group who it doesn't quite suit. Plan is to try and take the Mrs next season and try to find something affordable in Lech or Zurs.

We stayed in Nasserein in March, not so good for a group of lads tbh the only thing that it could have done with was a little Supermarket of some kind as it was a trek to the Spar in St Anton proper. I'd agree about the lifts. I don't know about you but I find the grading of the piste stange, not allot at times between blue, reds and blacks. Allot of the reds would be blacks in most resorts but I didn't find that any of the blacks were true blacks?

Good variety of ski routes though, I'd say I liked it over in Stuben the best. MAy look at staying here as an alternative to Lec or Zurs as you can get the Lech/Zurs bus right here. Stuben has a very good nursery slope-and it was consistenly dead while we were there, probably due to the fact Stuben is so small.

[marcosgt]

a311 said:

marcosgt said:

Don't get me wrong, I'd ski in Austria all the time if they could guarantee the snow, but when I lived in Germany, Soll was often full of young, rude Brits, but it may have changed (which would be good).

I've not really looked at cheap holidays in Austria for a while, so I'll bow to your more recent experience. Chalets tend to be a bit dearer from what I've seen.

M

I think you can find rude Brits, Gemans, Dutch, Austrians, Scandies in the majority of resorts with any sort of rep for apres. I'd usually only stick to the lower Austrian up until about Mid March as a rule although I've had great conditions in Saalbach at the end of April one year in a bumper snow year. It's been a funny old season snow wise, everywhere pretty much got huge dumps mid December then again in January but many French areas of the alps had little or no snow when Austria was getting huge dumps in February. I was in Kitbuhel in Feb-another relatively low altitude resort but had the best powder I've had in years. Austria being further east the tree line is lower, grassy pastures need less snow than rocks to make it ski-able it's generally wetter and colder too.

I think allot of people who have had bad snow in Austria have automatically jumped to the conclusion it's the altitude that's the issue when in years like early 2007 it was universally turd everywhere across the alps. These resorts wouldn't be viable if they could only operate 2.5-3 months a year.

If you're talking catered chalets, what I do find in Austria there are less of the smaller catered chalets but this is due to the fact in the main that the majority of French resorts are purpose built while Austria areas tend to be expanded upon traditonal town so hotels are more common.

As for price just cam back frok a catered chalet in St Anton, booked way ahead to get a lift pass deal and all in flights, accom, lift pass was £615.

Of course.

I've skiied a lot in the Soll/Kitzbuhel area and know that the conditions can be great or lousy, but you can't argue with elevation and temperature. When they're good, they're good (Kitzbuhel's a lot better than Soll, imo), but you'l get good snow more often in Portes Du Soleil, 3 Vallees or Val D'Isere.

I skiied in St Anton at Easter a few years ago and the snow was great high up, but it was 99% slush half way down.

The higher French (and Swiss or American/Canadian) resorts will always have better snow unless the weather fronts are being kind to Austria, it's unavoidable.

M

[oola]

a311 said:

40 odd trips sounds awesome!Tbh I can't see me going anywhere else unless I go with a larger group who it doesn't quite suit. Plan is to try and take the Mrs next season and try to find something affordable in Lech or Zurs.

We stayed in Nasserein in March, not so good for a group of lads tbh the only thing that it could have done with was a little Supermarket of some kind as it was a trek to the Spar in St Anton proper. I'd agree about the lifts. I don't know about you but I find the grading of the piste stange, not allot at times between blue, reds and blacks. Allot of the reds would be blacks in most resorts but I didn't find that any of the blacks were true blacks?

Good variety of ski routes though, I'd say I liked it over in Stuben the best. MAy look at staying here as an alternative to Lec or Zurs as you can get the Lech/Zurs bus right here. Stuben has a very good nursery slope-and it was consistenly dead while we were there, probably due to the fact Stuben is so small.

I know, I've been lucky .. managed 28 days in one season about 8 years ago ... worked around Easter and Xmas holidays to get it all in. There are some affordable places in Lech ... they go up by 40% ish around holidays and half term so if you can avoid those you can pick up a bargain. You're thinking is right though, the slopes in Lech are far easier than St Anton ... best place in St Anton for learner is either blue Ostang at which is outside the Galzig station or Rendl.

Yes there's only one supermarket now as the old one has closed and the Spar is usually v busy. We always used to stay in the town centre but now like to stay at Nasserein or in St Jakob. I've got friends who have hotels in Nasserein and one of them is useful for weekend trips. The apartment in St Jakob worked out well (7 lads stayed) because the bus stop is right outside and the out of town supermarket on the main road is a 5 minute walk.

Agreed about the gradients ... I wont take my Mrs there for another year or too as I don't want her going backwards and losing her confidence. To me most other resorts seem tame ... I always say if you can ski St Anton then you can ski anywhere!

Yes Stuben is a nice little place ... even after a heavy snowfall, apart from the locals who head there its mostly quiet. I've had some amazing powder days ... in fact my best every day on snow board was there in 2008 when I did the hike up MaroyKopf at the top of Stuben then ride down untracked powder to Sonnonkopf.

If you're looking for somewhere in Stuben, contact St Anton tourist info as I don't think there are lots of hotels which advertise for brits.

[VEX]

Think we are getting sorted with this, doing our own, direct bookings, catered chalet and driving. Not going to tempt fate though, So will post details once we have booked!!!

V.

[oola]

VEX said:

Think we are getting sorted with this, doing our own, direct bookings, catered chalet and driving. Not going to tempt fate though, So will post details once we have booked!!!

V.

I think you'll get better value at half term doing this. Going direct, the prices don't seem to be hiked up like with package deals ... flights should be fine as long as you book early.

[VEX]

Booked!!

Private Chalete, half board, ski in / out, 100m to lift and nursery slopes.

Grand Massife area, should be about 3k all in, Inc driving, lessons, passes and hire.

Bargain!

V.