wam3k

My mom wants all of us next winter to go to a ski area. We will have 5 adults and 5 kids ranging from 4-19. Some of her ideas were Germany, Switz., Italy or France. It has been over 20 years since I've been overseas so I had some questions. Some of the links here have been extremely helpful. Thanks.

Which area would be the most kid friendly? I would like to go somewhere where we can do day trips to amuse my 4 yo. I do not plan on skiing as breaking my neck overseas b/c I am a klutz is not appealing to me.

4 yo is currently in a car seat but could fit in a booster weight wise. Do you think it's better to use a booster?

Realistically what are meals costing these days? I have to start saving now. I have 2 teen boys (think hearty eaters,) 4yo, and hubby and myself.

I never had travel health insurance before b/c I was young or in college but is it something to think about for a family of 5?

Basically, we are open to all ideas. I ideally would like somewhere to go that my teens can do some stuff on their own safely (16 and 19) while appeasing my 4yo. We will have a car and hope to rent a villa in the country near skiing areas (for the skiiers in the group.) TIA.

Swiss Tony

I think it might be easier to answer this question if you can give us an idea of which month you intend to travel - many ski areas are low down and therefore have a short season, the counter to this is that they tend to be closer to the bigger towns for sight seeing.

Also, how long will your trip be? If it's over a week then you need to look at a big ski area to keep the skiers entertained.

Bear in mind that skiing in Europe is a very different experience to the US. Typically accommodation will be ski in/out, a short walk or a short (free) bus ride away. Parking may be difficult to come by, so if you do decide to rent a car check this carefully.

As for insurance - can you afford to pay for a helicopter plus doctors to airlift an injured member of your party to hospital, plus all the accompanying fees and possibly repatriation costs to the US? Probably better to pay up for the insurance (certainly in the UK, it is a given that "sensible" travellers - young or otherwise - will have an insurance policy of some description).

Costs in ski resorts - they have short seasons so need to pay the rent! Prices vary massively between one valley and the next as you move from a "trendy" resort to a rather more local experience. Also there can be significant variations between countries - a few years back I was surprised at just how (comparatively) reasonable the food & drink was in Kitzbuhel, Austria.

As a rough guide, I'd have thought in most places you could sort lunch out for 10 Euros (pasta plus a drink), evening meals between 15 and 20 Euros and a lot higher if you go for the seafood... If this seems steep, there are a lot of self catering apartments in the Alps - especially France - but bear in mind they're typically very small. If it says it sleeps 6, share it between three of you!

Hope this is some help

wam3k

Thank you Tony. We will be traveling over our school break which is roughly Christmas to the week after New Year's for 7-10 days. I am not thrilled about this time of year since we will have to pack winter gear but with trying to get 3 famlies together at the same time it is the most do-able. My Finnish neighbor seems to think Austria would be the most kid friendly for us.

Some in the group want to ski but some do not which is why I am looking for an area that has other attractions within 2 hours or so. We did notice that many homes in Dec were not available for rent perhaps b/c of the holidays.

Swiss Tony

That time of year is about as high-demand as you'll find in a European ski resort (I'm afraid to say...) Many places will also have onerous stay requirements (10 day minimum when I tried to book for Austria last year, so we went to Banff in Canada instead).

Many individual properties will be booked from one year to the next by repeat visitors. You *might* want to take a look at www.inghams.co.uk - they are a big ski operator from the UK to Europe with a good online booking engine and it will give you a guide as to prices (they have the 2006/7 season up now I believe). I would however suggest trying to book direct if at all possible.

I like Austria, but be careful - the season often only starts on Dec 20th or so in the lower resorts for a very good reason... Snowmaking is a lot better than it used to be, but I remember TV footage from about 20 years back of skiers playing volleyball in the Alps on Christmas day...

Infact, being serious, have you been to the Canadian rockies at that time of year???

lost*in*cyberspace

I agree with the above. Or what about a US ski resort? You can find some great places to stay a lot closer to home (and a lot cheaper as well).

chebourashka

Italy is really child friendly. They are treated like kings there. Spain is also a good destination (the Pyrenees) with kids.
You could may be rent an apartement or stay in a aparthotel, this is cheaper usually than staying in a resort, plus you have choice of eating home or going to a restaurant.

TMC

Sorry to partially hijack your thread. We have a similar plan for next year so I wondered if Swiss Tony and others could offer advice?

Our dates will be around 17th February - my wife doesn't want to ski, and my daughters who will be 11 and 8 may want to - so it is a winter holiday, not a serious ski trip! Italy is a favourite of ours, but not sure how it'll be weather wise? (Should be okay I guess as the Winter Olympics start there this weekend?). I plan on a hotel for the 4 of us rather than self catering.

Any suggestions?

FLYGVA

If you travel over christmas / new year you travel in the high seasons, prices are top at this time.

I will second Austria. Depending on the age, it will be a little bit problematic, as it seems you have to reconcile a lot of different interest. In Austria there are some Kinderhotels which offer special programms for children.

The second point, you will need a ski resort close to an airport or have to rent some cars (or at least two van) or connect by train.

You might want to look at the Serfaus / Austria in Tyrol which is close to Innsbruck (airport!). Serfaus is well known for a special children program, they even have their own telecabin. Unfortunately the homepage is available only in German. I know this ski resort very well and have recommended it to colleagues with children.

You could also do skiing close to Innsbruck, but honestly I do not know this region very well. Famous are also �tztal Region and the nearby Pitztal. Both region are also near Innsbruck.

In Switzerland are a lot of resort, but prices in Switzerland are higher than these in Austria. A good ski resort is Davos which could be reached by train from Zurich Airport. Davos had one big advantage, it is a town with 12000 inhabitants and you could do there a lot of things if you did not like to do skiing.

In many ski resorts, you barely could do anything other than skiing. And you will need a ticket for the telecabin also, if you want to ride it. On the other hand many areas offer some sort of packages like hotel and skipass for ten days or something similar.

Jan

FLYGVA

Februay is not as expensive as X-Mas, but also more on the more expensive part. If you travel by car, you will not have the airport problem.

You might also consider a hotel with a special programm (they are also available in Italy as well as in Sitzerland); please sea my previous post.

Jan

P.S. Olympic Games at Turin start on Friday 10th in the evening.

Swiss Tony

I think others have pretty much covered matters, but just to reiterate a couple of points - snow should be fine in February and it'll be busy as it coincides with European school holidays. I'm not up to scratch on Italy, so can't comment but you may find it quieter in the East side of Italy - France is packed in February so there may be some spill over into the Western resorts like Courmayeur.

A couple of years back I did manage to book a weekend break mid-February at a decent hotel on the outskirts of Kitzbuhel at fairly short notice and the mountain wasn't that crowded, so it can be done. The tourist offices in each resort (esp. Austria) seem to be very efficient - they have systems set up whereby you e-mail them with what you want and they contact all the hotels in town. The hotels that can help you then respond directly with prices etc.

FLYGVA

Just let me ad, winter holidays of the east part of Germany and Bavaria are in February. In this time prices increase, esp. in Austria, as this people tend to travel to Austria.