I’ve 2 kids (5 and 3) and we want to take them away skiing for a week, it will be their first time skiing. They’ll need a good ski school and plenty to do away from the slopes.

Any recommendations appreciated.

Cheers

April is very late. You need somewhere high and a bit of luck for Europe or head to the $tates.

We have found Austria much better for kids lessons than France

But if you want good snow and all the lifts open then many Austrian resorts are too low. Tignes: a swimming pool, guaranteed late season snow and probably (though I’m not certain) a crêche for the youngest.

Les Arcs. Easy to get to by a number of transport methods. Good choice of accommodation. Wide variety of slopes. Massive area. Plenty of snowmaking on key links/return runs. Ski season ends 30 April. Connection to BSM by funicular. Relatively short transfers.

Whilst normally you would want to go high in early april to be sure of snow, Austria has had so much snow this season that it’s not looking like a problem at the moment. Of course it could all change but at the moment theyre looking good!

+1 for much better lessons there too! (and I personally prefer the food)

Austria has had so much snow this season that it’s not looking like a problem at the moment.

Is that really the case? I’ve heard it a lot this year from fellow skiiers but I’ve been to Switzerland and Italy this year and there was enough snow but not a really thick base layer. Just checked a few webcams from resorts I know and they all have a few rocks poking through.

That said Austria is the place to go for good service, food and apres ski (if there is snow) 🙂

>Is that really the case?

3m plus in some places – and that’s at village level

Only one Austriaan resort gets close to 3m in the valley and when you look closer you can see it’s less than a metre

Edit to correct wrong link.

nickjb – Italy and, to a less extent, Switzerland have had much less snow than Austria and France. Here in the Tarentaise (France) there is more snow on the ground than in any year since 1980.

Early to mid April, I would normally suggest going to one of the purpose-built resorts with high altitude acces.

Val Thorens: ski to front door at 2300m, even better if you speak dutch.
Tignes (more to the point Val Claret) similar reasons, language barrier aside.
Even la Daille in Val d’Isere at the foot of the funicular cos kids love trains, right 😉
Les 2 Alpes: lower down at 1600m but very good and new creche facilities right at foot of slopes although our youngest didn’t see eye to eye with that arrangement. We had to postpone heading over to la Grave 🙁

Saying that, with this year’s snowfall in the French Alps you could even go somewhere that is pleasing on the eye and have snow in the resort. Just not too low.

I’m going to La Rosiere at the beginning of April. It’s smaller resort, so quiet nightlife, apparently it’s family friendly. It has a good snow record as it’s a high resort (1850m)in the Tarentaise Valley. It seems a cheaper than other French resorts for equipment hire and lift passes, so might be cheaper for lessons too. It is linked to La Thuile in Italy if you fancy a pizza!

It’s my first ski trip, so have nothing to compare it to. Really hoping it will still have snow by April.

Only one Austriaan resort gets close to 3m in the valley a

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=86716#1984691

The 3m high lamp post outside my window finally disappeared under the snow last night.

So there’s a snow drift next to his window. I’ll believe the snow reports on German TV, the snow reports on the website I linked and what I see on webcams. Knowing the former two will be optimistic.

Snowfall is uneven when there’s more than a breath of wind. Yesterday it went from verglas with rocks/grass poking through on the crests to a couple of metres with 20-40cm of fresh on top in the hollows. What do I quote?