We normally stay in the UK for easter holidays but with easter being so early this year I’d wondered about taking the family (wife & 2 kids – 6yr old & 2.5yr old) to the alps for a snow/ skiing holiday. Myself and the wife have been skiing in the past (before kids) but the kids haven’t.

My plan would be to drive from the uk & find a family friendly resort with self catered accommodation where we could teach the 6yr old on nursery slopes ourselves and wear the 2 year old out with sliding / messing around in the snow. I don’t think either of the kids or the wife would be keen on the idea of ski school or creche.

Has anyone done similar before? Did it work, where did you go? I’m worried that it would be a day or two of good fun followed by 10 days of wishing we were on a windy beach in cornwall!

Done loads of skiing at Easter. I would book up as it can get busy if the snow is good. Don’t go to one of the big resorts, go small and easy.
Look at the local agents for apartments, rather than uk operators. skiing with kids is hard work for you and them. Don’t expect too much. Have fun!

I’ll express the alternative view that Easter skiing is best done high up so go for one of the big high resorts such as Tignes or Val Thorens. The Crêche, Garderie and ski school normally only take potty-trained kids from three. Junior had a 2.5 year-old-kid in his ESF group last week, in theory too young but the parents had obviously lied about the kid’s age – the kid was fine, they don’t think about the skiing just the games they are playing which they happen to be doing with skis on their feet. Junior himself was put on skis at 22 months and was scuttling around pretty well by three.

One year we went to Alp D’Huez. The good bits:

green run lift was free – nice wide separated piste. Son was able to learn to ski at 2.5yrs by wife going backwards and pushing him away from her.

They did a time-limited lift pass – so that I could go off and do some skiing too.

When mine were younger a place with a pool was great for late afternoons.

We also did Les Arcs 1800 (they really liked the kindergarden there.
La Rosiere worked really well when they were a bit older (good tution).

Also pay attention to when you start to pay for kids passes – some aren’t until 7yrs.

If you are thinking of using lifts and not a free village slope then Ski Amade, Serre Chevalier, Les Arcs and the Skiwelt usually offer free passes for kids at Easter. Lots offer free passes for younger skiers all year round (as DaveP suggests).

To counter Edukator’s opinion (who I know has more experience than I do!) – we’ve been away every Easter for the past 8 years. We’ve never gone mega high, the highest skiing we had at Easter was in Les Arcs and this is also the worst conditions we’ve had (it was an unusually dry and warm spring). Probably the best skiing we’ve had at Easter was staying in a Ski Amade town at 700m.

If you are driving then stick it out, wait and book accommodation somewhere where you know the snow will be fine close to the time. I’ve found that the week leading up to Good Friday is quite busy in the places we’ve been keeping an eye on, but from Easter Saturday they start to get quieter (we are looking at Austria though). Austrian ski areas are geared up for guests arriving by car. Car parks are free and usually right next to the lift.

We are heading to Fieberbrunn in Austria for the Easter holidays with our 4 children. The resort offers free ski passes for kids at this time which means we can save a shed load of money and they have joined the resort to Leogang and Saalbach-Hinterglemm making it one huge area. All four can ski now (our 4 year old was in the ski school for three days over Xmas) but in the past we have always done skiing relays ie. I (and which ever of our offspring are of skiing age) went off for an hour while Mrs Sterm looked after the youngest and then swapped duties.

Thanks for all the replies, I’d been thinking of looking at places with swimming pools, ice rinks and other things to do near by. Hadn’t realised about free lift passes for younger kids and hadn’t thought of Austria either – will have to look at driving distances

Cheers Dan

Pools are easy to find. Ice rinks a bit trickier, depends how warm it is, whether the rink is covered/screened or whether there are enough visitors for it to be worthwhile staying open.