All,

My wife and I are trying to justify the unjustifiable, namely taking the little kids and ourselves skiing at Feb half term (eldest is at school). It’ll be our first time as a family.

We have found some good accommodation (i.e. cheapest we could find) and are just looking at other admin type things. Anyone know La Rosiere and know if there is easy parking options? I have emailed tourist office, but happy for any advice (on parking options and generally).

Any tips for places to stay between there and Calais? We looked at package holidays, flying and Eurostar – all are not affordable for us. So looks like we will do self catering and see if we can make it work.

Chris

Been to La Rosiere a couple of time and don’t remember any particular stress about parking. It was good for beginners and we enjoyed it. Not sure where to suggest to stay – the last stretch from Lyon to La Rosiere seems to take forever, especially if the weather is bad, so I’d aim to stay as far south as possible so as not to leave yourself too much driving on Day 2.

So we have driven out at half term the last couple of years. La rosiere has parking at the base lift station. The drive up there is windy and you will need chains if its snowed! A good low cost option can be to stay in Bourg st Maurice ( main valley town) accom is cheaper and you can ski les arcs, la plagne and la rosiere with under 30 min drive ( or the funicular from bourg up to les arcs.) Sainte foy is a gem with some amazing easy access and fairly safe off piste that is doable for a day from bourg and Tignes/ val d’isere is only 40 min drive unless its snowing!

We live in devon so we generally overnight in Folkestone then do the tunnel and the drive in one go on the way out. There’s often a delay at the tunnel on the sat am so aim to get as early a crossing as possible! If you want to overnight in France, Dijon is about 5-6 hours from Calais and is a nice city to spend an evening wandering!

On the way home I would strongly suggest overnighting somewhere so your crossing isn’t the same day you leave the resort to take the time pressure off. The traffic out of bourg ( which you have to drive through from la rosiere) is always a nightmare on the end Saturday of halfterm and the autoroutes back to Calais are always busy and often clogged from volume of traffic – there are a lot of resorts including trois valleys etc that all funnel onto the same autoroute.

Last time we left tignes at 6am and arrived in Calais 14 hours later!! ( with barely any stops!) luckily we were crossing on the sunday so no problem but we would have missed a Saturday channel crossing. Next time id be tempted to stay a shortish distance out of the mountains, leave late on the Saturday and do the majority of the drive on the sunday.

hopefully that makes sense!

Also, depending on your attitudes to kids skipping school………

When my daughter was young we took her here in January a coupe of times:

https://www.crystalski.co.uk/ski-resorts/norway-ski-holidays/geilo/forest-cabins/?cid=ppc71700000016679200|p14293863909&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5ZPruq_75AIVR4XVCh1pkgEBEAAYAyAAEgL7gPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

don’t know if the Thomas cook thing will have affected it but…

We used to go in January. It is cold but its fine with the right gear. The snow is always really good quality cos it stays cold. The skiing is a bit limited but they are really well set up for young kids – free nursery at ski lodge, cheap or free kids passes , good lessons, often 2 for 1 adult passes in jan too. The skiing is good for young kids to be able to move from nursery slopes to ski most of the resort with you quite quickly. Theres lots of other stuff to do for kids – sledges to borrow, snowmen etc

Its self catering but if you pack pasta in your luggage, gin from duty free and shop carefully over there it can be a cheap way of getting a week. We last went about 4 years ago and spent £1500 total for everything ( lessons / ski/ passes etc) except food for a family of three!

For stopping we have used – Appart’City Reims Parc des Expositions.
Big rooms, easy to get to from motorway. Booked via booking.com.

Have used Erna Low a number of times.

Do not underestimate how busy the roads will be on the Saturday of the February school holidays. I’d aim to get a lot closer to La Rosière than Reims if you’re driving it as ceepers suggests.

La rosiere regular here.
I would not go guring French half term
The lifts are not great when demand is low, during peak season it will be 20 minutes queuing for a lot of the lifts. And the French do not queue like we do, they just let the kids queue jump so you go backwards it’s carnage.
Plus it’s the kind of place where you can ski it all in 2 days
La thiulle adds enough variety but it’s a schlep to get over there
I would never go during French holidays but I don’t have kids