Half term skiing- how was it for you?

[nomazeena]

So we are back home and feeling sad. First time taking the DC (13,10,9) skiing and the best holiday ever.
We went to Alpbach in Austria
pros

• gorgeous village- we stayed guesthouse jakober right in the center, it was clean and great value (870euro for the week for 2 big rooms for the 5 of us)
  
• ski school instructors were english- 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon- if you gave the kids money (6euro) the instructors kept them and took them to a mountain restaurant for lunch- the DC loved this and did it from the second day.
  
• every mountain hut and village bar was full of atmosphere and charm and everyone was friendly
  
• 45 mins from Innsbruck airport
  
• and best of all there were no lift queues.
  

cons

• bus to main ski area
  
• not many wide easy blue runs for beginners
  

I'm looking around to book for next year already. If you could tell me about your trip that would be great, it might even help me make up my mind where to go next...
Thank you

[Olivermoliver]

Sounds great, glad you had such. a good holiday. We aren't going until Easter this year as DS now at school so no recommendations as yet. Did you go with a tour operator or independently? I'm already considering next years options!

[Nettee]

Chilly Powder - generally fabulous - children made great friends, good food, good company, good skiing, chalet at the bottom of the lift and ski to the door, Lovely hot tub, lots of snow, three days of glorious sunshine, brilliant creche. ESF lessons were made up of children from the Chalet but were still ESF. Also I am amazingly impressed by the value from Jakober - final bill a little bit eye watering but perhaps still value for money as it would be quite hard to beat. Apparently already fully booked for half term 2014!

[mutantninjamyrtle]

Went to the Kinderhotel Ellmauhof in Hinterglemm. It was absolutely f-in fantastic! Ski school got my non-skiers (7 & 9) onto blue runs in 3 days, food was amazing, and there was so much to do for the non-skiers, too. Toddler has been crying to go back already :(

[Lukethe3]

Fantastic week in Arinsal Andorra. Our first family ski holiday. Loved everything about it particularly the blue skies and fantastic childcare. Have nothing to compare with but am hooked and cannot wait to go again.

[Gubbins]

First time for us, too (well, since I was 6).

We went to Kransjka Gora in Slovenia. I was miserable for the first couple of days. Getting up at 7am to make it to ski-school, forcing my feet into stinking, uncomfortable snow boots, only to get onto the slopes and suffer time spent doing something I hated and was rubbish at.

By day three I was planning bank robberies so we could go back next year.

Lovely english speaking instructors, for both adults and kids. The children (6 and 8) loved it and were bombing down the slopes in no time. The arrangement of the resort meant several blues/reds came down at the same point, so even if I wanted to sit and have a drink at the bottom, the girls were quite happy going round in circles up on the lifts and down the slopes with no chance of me losing them.

Lots of snow, mild temperatures and lunch at the bottom of the slopes never came to more than £20 for all four of us. Can't wait to go back.

[nomazeena]

glad everyone had a good time!- no horror stories yet.
I have plenty to google there- never really looked at andorra or slovenia.
Olivermoliver- we booked direct- easy jet and booking.com. I think some people get good package deals but I can only find crazy prices from the package companies in feb half term (I am a teacher so no option of taking kids out of school.)
the ellhauhof and chilli powder look amazing - beyond my budget at the moment- skiing this year was supposed to be a one-off treat!

[Earlybird]

Haven't been yet, but going in a few weeks to Breckenridge in Colorado. Can't wait! Dd's first time ever.

[SanityClause]

We went to Morzine. We always drive, but this time went from Sunday to Sunday, which cut about 1 1/2 hours off the journey.

The lift queues to get out of Morzine were quite long, but once up on the pistes, none really, at all. This seemed to improve during the week, as well. I assume because people start getting more adventurous as the week goes on.

The food was lovely, everywhere we went, including the little burger place on the slopes with only outdoor seating.

We went over to Avoriaz for the afternoon, but it was a bit of a chore to get there and back. We left straight after the DC's ski school, so I suppose it would've been more worthwhile if we had been able to go first thing. Anyway, there was plenty of skiing on the Morzine - Les Gets side for one week.

DS tried snowboarding this time, and now DD1 and DH want to do it next time. DD2 and I are not convinced!

I'm very jealous of DD1 who is going to Alpe Duez on her school trip at Easter, as well.

[clam]

We went to Risoul in the Southern Alps in France. There were 11 of us of varying standards from my kids who are into black runs, to a couple of nervous green runners, to me, who couldn't ski at all due to a broken leg from a few weeks back. It was tough watching them troop off each morning, but at least I got to see beautiful scenery from a sunny balcony and have nice food and great company in the evenings.

Here's to next year, when hopefully I'm back on form and have lost the fear I'm currently suffering from with everything else, like going up and down stairs.

[IWishICouldThinkOfAFabName]

We went to Hocking area in Austria. Lovely, traditional village and fairly quiet for half term. Good kids ski school which included lunch so we had from 10am to 3pm to ski. Good snow but think everywhere was good this year. We self catered for the first time as now we are stuck with school hols the catered chalet option is just too expensive. We took a 5 frozen meals from 'Cook' over in the roofbox. They arrived still frozen. Self catering as never been so easy !
Only downside was the long drive to/ from Austria. German motorways were really busy. We booked directly with a private owner who we found through the tourist board.

Off to the 3 Vallees for Easter. Staying in the spa town of Brides-les-Bains which has a gondola link to Meribel. Much cheaper than staying in Meribel or Courcheval but we get to ski the same slopes. Have been before and it worked really well. Self catering again with the help of 'Cook'. Again have avoided tour operators and booked directly with private owner via the homelidays.co.uk website.

Only another 14 years of school holidays and then we can go off season once more to a catered chalet ! Except, we won't be able to afford it as all our money will be spent on university fees :)

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

DS went to Brighton in Utah and absolutely loved it, we went to Winter Park Colorado last year in HT, recommend that highly lovely and quiet, ski school excellent, couldn't fault it, we find European resorts too busy in HT, slopes are manic and lots of accidents. We are going to Utah next year, can't wait.

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

Mine not technically in ski school, but they did a group with essentially a guide. They are a lot better than me now, so this was good as the guide took them all over and made them do very ambitious things. We did a couple of days together which was lovely.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Iwish tell me more about 'cook' meals - where do you get them from? It sounds ideal for a self catering holiday.

[HotCrossMummy]

See Cook at www.cookfood.net/