Part one: ski school v private lessons for children
Hi. I’m Clare from the BabyAbroad team.
This year my hubbie and I will be taking our girls aged 7 and 4 skiing for the first time ever. We’ve only been a few times ourselves and although we can’t wait to get them started on the slopes, I was worried about getting the holiday just right for us all. Some fabulous friends, facebookers and tweeters have been helping me find answers to the myriad of questions I had and now we’re finally booked. And so, over a series of blog posts, I thought I’d share all the information I’ve found with you.
My first question hasn’t been where to ski but how do you ski as a family? That is, can the children ski all day? Will we be able to ski together? Will my husband and I be able to take time to ski on our own? How do ski lessons work for children? As borderline intermediates, will my husband and I be able to take much needed lessons too?
First time skiing with children: Childcare and Ski Schools
OK, here’s the deal with childcare at the ski resorts. There are generally two types. The local resorts will have a ski kindergarten, sometimes run in conjuction with the local ski school. You can take your children along to meet other children and enjoy the organised play in or out doors. The facilities are generally slopeside and have a snow park for little ones to enjoy snow play and get used to the ski environment. If your children are booked into ski lessons, they’ll take them along to the meeting point and pick them up afterwards.
Package holiday companies such as Neilson and Crystal have their own clubs in certain resorts, and where they don’t, they utilise the locally run childcare facilities. Their own run clubs are split by age to offer specific care for certain age groups. Many of the companies are now also running activities for older children who may still want lessons or at least a ski guide but don’t necessarily want to tag along with mum and dad; cos that’s just so not cool! They also run mini tests at the end of the week for children and give them awards depending on how well they’re doing. It gives them a great incentive to try and progress further next year.
In these and the locally run clubs, you can choose all day or half day childcare and some even have evening creches.
Baby friendly hotels
Some of the ski resort childcare above is in house, others in a nearby hotel. It of course depends on which hotel you choose. There are however, some amazing child care facilites run by some hotels. The Kinder Hotels, for example, mainly based in Austria, have been highly recommended to us and their facilities look amazing. The Hotels are practical and well thought out and are usually located so you can ski to the door. They often have a multitude of activites such as swimming, adventure parks or pony treking. You can head on over to their website: www.kinderhotels.com to see just how well equipped they are for babies. They can provide all the equipment you need such as sterilisers, microwaves, etc. but they also have a baby buffet so you don’t need to take much food and they have supplies of dummies, baby wipes, etc. for you to purchase. Again, they will also take your children to and from their lessons. They even offer ski lessons from 2 years old in their ‘smiley tiny tots’ club.
Private ski lessons for children
The childcare does look amazing. However, as my children haven’t been before, I had just one concern; that being, that the childcare is grouped by age and the ski lessons are categorised by ability. Of course, I totally understand why as this policy optimises the lessons for children learning to ski. Without a doubt, everyone I know has put their children into childcare, and they’ve made lots of great friends and had a whale of a time. But, personally, I just couldn’t shake from my head, the idea that my children would be separated on holiday. As they have always been together on holidays, I was worried about the first day. Ifeared that my youngest would be upset if they were split up the first day. However I have found a solution; private ski lessons. And to boot, we’re getting some too.
My plan is for the girls to have 3 lots of 2 hour lessons with a private tutor together. I am told they’ll learn much quicker that way, and for me as importantly, they’ll be having fun together. To give you an idea of price, with the french ski school: esf a private 2 hour lesson for 1 to 3 people is under 80 euros a lesson. For lessons in France, you can find out more at the Ecole du Ski Francais website: www.esf.net. We won’t have the luxury of a whole day skiing where we want to, but given that we are far from advanced, this isn’t much of a sacrifice! We’ll be around to watch them take their first steps, so to speak, onto the snow and then enjoy a couple of guided hours ourselves over the next two days. If the resort isn’t busy, you can get private lessons at whatever time you want. However, if its busy, you will need to take the lessons around 12-2pm as they have to be organised around the ski school lessons.
I feel altogether happier about how we’ll ‘work’ our first family skiing holiday. Next, we’ll be looking at picking a family friendly ski resort.
So. What are YOUR experiences? How did you find ski schools for children? Did yours enjoy the childcare? We’d love to read your comments below….
Photo credits: mrchrishill (top) and rob.wall
Thank you so much for all your fantastic entries to our 
We’re giving one lucky BabyAbroader the chance to get their hands on one and here’s all you need to do to enter. Just tell us your favourite place you’ve holidayed with your children or if you haven’t travelled as a family yet, tell us where you would love to take your children on holiday. Leave your answer as a comment below. Competition closes end of Monday 30 January. Entry is limited to one per person. Please note that automated entries will be deleted.
Thanks to all of you who entered our 
We love bringing you new holiday ideas here at BabyAbroad. So this week we’re pleased to hand the blog over to Jack Barker, seasoned family traveller, who tells us how he fell for Sicily one family holiday…
With a family the best holidays are often in a private villa. Italian hotels in general tend to be expensive and haute cuisine is often wasted on the young: in a private villa mealtimes and menus can be flexible and free. The best villas with pools tend to be the highlight of any holiday, providing hours of exploration and entertainment through long sunny days.
When choosing your villa it’s important to appreciate Sicily’s sheer size. It takes over two hours to drive between the two main airports of Palermo and Catania. Where you stay and where you arrive will be closely linked.
Sicily is far more than just a fly and flop destination. The Mediterranean was the cradle of western civilisation and Sicily was at its heart: it is littered with relics from the last 3,000 years. However tempting the pleasures of your holiday villa, it’s well worth getting out and about to explore. My children are often left cold by the major, well-excavated and more organised archaeological sites, but they love the wilder, neglected ones – and in Sicily there are plenty of these. Their favourite was at Palazzolo Acreide just above Syracusa, where they could run freely around the steps of a huge, deserted amphitheatre and then burrow around in ancient Greco-Roman galleried graves. The archaeological sites you choose to visit are likely to be the ones nearest to your villa – and that’s a perfectly good way of shaping your holiday experience.
The family-friendly attitude of the locals will infuse your experience of Sicily, easing your passage through city centres, restaurants and resorts. Even the food seems made for children: few can resist the delicate flavours of freshly-cooked pasta, newly-baked breads or hand-thrown pizza. And that’s before they catch sight of Sicilian ice cream, banked in a range of flavours at countless streetside stalls.
For some parents the thought of a long haul flight is hell on earth, yet some manage it in a breeze. If you’re planning some sun in Europe, then flights are an average of 2-3 hours for Spain and Italy, less for France. If you’re looking for a winter sun destination for the family, then you’ll probably need to venture at least as far as the Canary Islands; an approximately 4 hour flight from the UK.
OK – you’ve decided what type of accommodation you want, but still there lies the question as to where to go? If you were adventurous travellers pre kids, you might consider somewhere off the beaten track.
