I recently had a one-week ski holiday in the Italian Dolomites. We stayed in Selva Gardena in the Chalet Wiesenheim which is run by Esprit Ski.
We chose Esprit ski as they are a child care specialist and we were taking our 18-month-old son with us. There’s got to be plenty of families in the same position: Former die-hard skiiers now with toddler in tow…
As he is too young to ski (according to my wife) he spent the week having fun in the creche which is also reviewed here.
For parents that ski or snowboard keeping up their winter sports holidays while having young children is a challenge. My little boy is now a toddler, at 18 months he is too young to join ski school so we needed to book a ski holiday that included child care.
We decided to book a chalet holiday with Esprit Ski and enrolled the little man in their creche. This blog is a review of the childcare not the boarding (which was awesome!) or the chalet (which was also awesome) I will review these separately.
The childcare aspect of holiday began with a nice touch: A member of the nursery team was on the airport transfer to introduce herself and provide childcare forms to complete.
This small touch meant we knew what would happen the next day and there would be no unnecessary delays – members of the childcare team were also around after we’d settled into the chalet .
Parents taking a toddler on a ski holiday will often ask themselves ‘How do we keep the kids happy and safe while still having a good ski holiday’
Well, the answer lies in choosing the right operator, one that offers all the toddler-friendly facilities you need – from comfy cot rooms to state-of-the-art play zones, themed activities to fun-packed snow play areas.
Thanks to its outstanding natural, historical and cultural assets the Rhone-Alpes region in south-east France has a deserved reputation as a prime tourist destination. Flights to Grenoble take you from the UK to mountains in under 2 hours and it’s these peaks that are the region’s main draw with almost 200 ski resorts to choose from within a 3-hour drive from the airport.
The area is also home to a number of famous spas and superb lakes, and is popular with hikers and mountain bikers, ensuring the attraction for active visitors is all year round.
For city break weekenders, Grenoble offers an enjoyable range of artistic, historic and religious sights, and cultural festivals in the summer. As seasons go however – and with those mountains as every backdrop – it is the primary lure of fantastic winter sports that remains.
When the composer Beth Anderson said ‘everything is just better in California’ she wasn’t referring to the skiing, but she might as well have been.
Lake Tahoe view from the top of Diamond Peak. Image: Flickr/ *~Dawn~*
The snowfall averages 350 inches a year, there are innovations such as revolving jibs, the resorts are well connected transport-wise, the mountains are grandiose and challenging
These are just some of the reasons to pivot and plough, schuss and carve your way around the slopes of California.
My wife and I recently returned from our annual ski holiday. This year was a little different to previous years, as instead of going with a group of friends, we would be taking our 7-month-old son for company.
Family lessons always keep everyone happy
Rather than booking somewhere with lively après ski, our main concern was good childcare for the little man and short transfers. In the end we booked with Crystal Ski to stay at the Terra Nova hotel in La Plagne, which has a crèche on site and is known as a family resort.
It was our first package ski holiday for a few years as we normally book independently – so we were hoping to be well looked after. Small things do actually make a difference to the experience: Not flying a budget airline meant check-in was stress free, and actually having seats assigned on the plane made for a much more civilised start to the holiday.
Last season my wife missed out on a ski holiday due to pregnancy, and she was adamant she would go skiing this year, despite us having a baby less than a year old.
We considered leaving our son with the grandparents, but felt it would not be fair on him or them – and of course we would miss him too much! So we researched childcare on ski holidays and came across the Pepi Penguin Club run by Crystal Ski.
Planning a Ski Holiday with a baby
My wife and I recently had a baby, and having missed out on ski holiday last year due to the pregnancy, we have decided having a baby will not stop us hitting the piste this winter. So, what extra planning do you need to take a baby away to the mountains for some fun in the snow?
Help is always at hand
Childcare facilities
If you are going away to ski or snowboard and your child is too young to start learning, then you will either have to take it in turns to stay in and look after the baby or get some form of child care. My thoughts are that if you have paid to go skiing, then spending half the potential slope time babysitting is not an option.
I’m sure most resorts have crèche services, but we were keen to ensure ours was run by a British company, to UK standards and staffed with English-speaking nannies. So, for that extra piece of mind, we looked into childcare through package ski holidays and found the Pepi Penguin Club run by Crystal Ski. It takes infants from 6 months to 4 years old and runs in Tignes, Flaine, La Plagne and Alpe d’Huez in France; Claviere and Val Di Fassa in Italy; and Kranjska Gora in Slovenia. All staff are fully qualified and CRB checked and referenced, so you know you are leaving your child in safe hands.
With everyone making the most of their winter ski holidays, we’re having a look at ski training with the help of former Canadian Olympic ski team physio, Carl Petersen.
We know that on-slope activities can pose a high risk of injury if time isn’t taken to train in advance. And with more people on the slopes, the risk of collision is higher and snow conditions can become more icy.
During the winter season, Carl estimates that two out of every ten patients he sees will be suffering from some slope-side injury. The most common ski injuries are knee ligament sprains of the medial collateral or anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).