Two years ago, I took my son, Callum, to ski in Aspen. He was six years old, it was his first time on snow and he was learning in one of the world’s best winter-sports resorts. When you begin your skiing career in Aspen, there is only one way to go, and that’s downhill.
Last winter, Callum was gagging to get back on the slopes. So was I, but unless I won the lottery, Aspen was out of the question. In fact, almost everywhere was out of the question. It was December when Callum and I decided we wouldn’t survive the winter without a dose of skiing, and by that time, most packages to the popular Alpine resorts in February half-term were sold out.
Our choices looked stark: Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia or Andorra, none of which is routinely ranked in the premier league of pistes. The first three were swiftly ruled out, because they cater almost exclusively to beginners. I would have skied the entire resort on day one and been bored stiff for the rest of the week. Yes, parents can be selfish too.
So, Andorra it was. We settled on Soldeu, a small resort with a huge network of pistes and a highly rated ski school staffed by English-speaking instructors. The only downside was the journey: our flight left Gatwick at 5.20am, and was followed by a four-hour coach transfer. The alarm would be set for 2.45am.
On the plus side, Andorra looked cracking value. This season, over February half-term, a week’s half-board in a four-star hotel, opposite the lifts, costs £986pp with Thomson. In Val d’Isère, in France, a three-star will set you back £1,482pp. One rung down the ladder, the difference is just as stark: £662pp, half-board, for a three-star in Soldeu; £1,002pp, B&B, for a two-star in Val d’Isère.
The skiing seemed interesting, too. Soldeu is no beauty — not so much a village as a string of hotels, bars and shops strung along a main road — but it’s home to some excellent beginner’s terrain, as well as acres of wide-open blue and red runs that are perfect for improving intermediates. Now that it’s joined forces with the neighbouring resort of Pas de la Casa, it offers no fewer than 63 lifts and 125 miles of runs — meaty even by Alpine standards. And when fresh snow falls, as it often does in the Pyrenees, the off-piste is impressive.
Soldeu is popular with both beginners and children, most of whom enrol in ski school. The teaching is good value — five three-hour lessons for just £63 — and so popular that on the Monday morning, it took us almost an hour to queue for the gondola up the mountain and fight our way through hordes of families to register with a class. Not a great start.
Callum had been up since 6am, doing star jumps at the end of my bed (“To warm up, of course, Daddy”), so by the time the class started, at 11.30am, he was raring to go. With him were 10 other children, all aged seven or eight and with some experience on skis. Their teacher was Ann, a blonde fortysomething who looked less like a ski instructor than the social secretary of a golf club in Surrey. The kids loved her.
In Aspen, where each instructor took charge of just three or four children, parents were presented with written reports detailing their darlings’ daily progress. Soldeu was much more laid-back. When I picked up Callum at the end of the first day, I asked Ann how he’d got on. “Fine, brilliant. See you tomorrow!” she grinned.
I asked Callum how it went. “Um, a bit boring, because we only went on the flat bit,” he said. “But actually brilliant. I’ve got a new best friend.”
At 1pm, the restaurants on the mountain were horribly crowded, so we took the gondola down to Soldeu for lunch. At the Villager Pub, we had home-made steak pie and chips and fish fingers, which, with soft drinks, came to £14. Beside us, a French family struggled with the English menu. “Qu’est-ce que c’est, gravy?” a boy asked his father.
It’s easy to be sniffy about Andorra. The bars have karaoke and quiz nights, the supermarkets are stacked with Heinz beans and Fray Bentos pies. But we found it an easy-going, friendly place. In the evenings, the atmosphere was fun without being boisterous, and families were welcome everywhere.
The skiing was pretty good, too. Although some of the resort runs became dangerously crowded at times, there was plenty of open terrain above the tree line, with some fast reds and easy blacks (too easy, a purist might say). My main complaint was not about the flattering piste classifications, but the lifts. Although most of the hardware was modern, some lifts would frequently stop for no apparent reason.
Callum and I quickly fell into a routine of taking the first lift up at 9am and doing an hour of gentle blue runs before he started ski school. I had imagined we’d ski together in the afternoons, me laying a fatherly hand on his shoulder and teaching him how to execute a perfect turn. It didn’t work out that way, because: (a) Callum was too tired; and (b) it’s about as easy teaching your own seven-year-old to ski as it is teaching your spouse to drive. Not for-getting (c): I haven’t mastered the perfect turn myself.
Fortunately, there was an alternative to long afternoons in our hotel room playing Yahtzee and crazy eights. Thomson and its sister company, Crystal, run a supervised club called Kidzone in an apartment near the bottom of the gondola. This was staffed by Kirstie and Heather, who picked up the children from ski school, fed them cheese sandwiches and cakes, and played board games with them while their parents skied. Six half-days cost £120 during half-term this winter.
Every day, at 4.30pm, I would turn up to collect Callum from Kidzone, feeling a bit guilty that I’d enjoyed a great afternoon alone on the slopes. He would catch sight of me and his face would dissolve into tears because he didn’t want to leave. I thought the apartment, above Slim Jim’s Internet Cafe, looked a little sad, but he loved it.
On our last day, there was no school, so we skied together all morning in dazzling sunshine. Callum, who was negotiating the slopes with increasing confidence, took me to the Mickey Snow Club, an attractive Disney-themed children’s area with obstacles, bumps and banked turns. It was so good that we did it again. And again.
So how did Andorra compare with Aspen? Callum looked thoughtful. “I actually think it was better,” he said on the 5am coach ride back to the airport. I wasn’t so easily swayed, but it was certainly a whole lot cheaper. Callum is already talking about going back next year.
Thomson Holidays (0870 606 1470, www.thomson-ski.co.uk) has one week at the three-star Hotel Austria for £662pp, half-board, departing on February 13. Other operators featuring the resort include: First Choice (0870 754 3477, www.firstchoice.co.uk); Inghams (020 8780 4444, www.inghams.co.uk); Neilson (0870 333 3347, www.neilson.co.uk); and Directski.com (0800 587 0945)
How to plan a family ski break
IT’S NOT exactly child’s play. But you can make your family ski holiday relatively hassle-free, either by letting a family-ski specialist take care of everything, from flights and accommodation to nannies and ski school, or by taking your own childcare with you and booking a catered chalet in a resort that features good English-speaking tuition.
Unless you and your brood are experienced skiers, we don’t advise a DIY holiday, booking low-cost flights, transfers and accommodation independently: you simply won’t know enough about family-friendly resorts and accommodation to organise it properly.
EVERYTHING ARRANGED
The most trouble-free option is a family-skiing specialist. The best now offer a comprehensive service, including nanny-staffed nurseries for toddlers and dedicated ski schools for older children. As most kids’ ski lessons last only until lunchtime, these companies will also offer supervised lunches, afternoon activity clubs and high tea, which is served before the adults’ dinner.
Operators that fit the bill include: Esprit (01252 618300, www.esprit-holidays.com); Powder Byrne (020 8246 5300, www.powderbyrne.com); Mark Warner (0870 770 4226, www.markwarner.co.uk); Family Ski Company (01684 540203, www.familyski.co.uk); Ski Beat (01243 780405, www.skibeat.co.uk); and Ski Famille (0845 644 3764, www.skifamille.co.uk).
An honourable mention also goes to Club Med (0845 367 6767, www.clubmed.co.uk). It offers free childcare for over-4s — but for an international clientele, and with a predominantly French staff.
Nonspecialist companies that are family-friendly include: Scott Dunn (020 8682 5050, www.scottdunn.com); Neilson (0870 333 3347, www.neilson.com); VIP (0870 112 3119, www.vip-chalets.com); Ski 2 (01962 713330, www.ski-2.com); Crystal (0870 160 6040, www.crystalholidays.co.uk); and Thomson (0870 606 1470, www.thomson-ski.co.uk).
The drawback, of course, is price. With Esprit, a week of lessons for a six-year-old at La Rosière, in France, costs £275, including supervised lunch and afternoon activity club. That’s on top of the package price, which leaps during school holidays (especially the February half-term). For example, Chalet Le Braconnier, in La Rosière, costs £529pp, chalet-board, including flights and transfers, for the week beginning on January 9. For the week beginning on February 13, the price rises to £969pp.
In spite of this, demand is high, and getting higher. Most family specialists report that February half-term is almost sold out — they are now taking deposits for half-term 2006. One exception is Powder Byrne, which still has half-term availability at Grindelwald, in Switzerland. The week of February 12-19 costs £2,778, half-board, for two adults and two children under 12, staying at the three-star Hotel Fiescherblick. Demand is also strong for Easter, which is early in 2005 (Easter Sunday is March 27).
However, this winter, Christmas is much less heavily booked, so there are some big discounts on offer. For example, Esprit has one week in Chalet Camelia, in La Rosière, for £1,295, chalet-board — a saving of £712 — for a family of two adults and two children under 12, departing on December 19. For the latest on avail-ability and discounts, contact a specialist ski travel agent such as Alpine Answers (020 8871 4656), Ski Solutions (020 7471 7700), Snow-line (0870 050 7025) or Iglu (020 8542 6658).
DIY CHILDCARE
The best DIY option is to take your own grandparents, nannies or au pairs and book a small catered chalet — that way, the cooking and cleaning will also be done for you, and you won’t have to share with strangers. Alternatively, you could club together with one or two other families to fill a larger chalet, then share the child-minding duties (contact the specialist travel agents above for details of chalet availability during school holidays).
If your children are new to skiing, however, make sure you book their lessons first, as good English-speaking tuition sells out quickly. Target a resort with a British ski school (call the Ski Club of Great Britain, 0845 458 0783, for a list) or one such as Soldeu, in Andorra, or Val d’Isère, in France, where Brits are regular visitors and the ski schools are used to dealing with our tastes and needs. In Val d’Isère, Snow Fun (00 33 4 79 06 19 79, www.valfun.com; five lessons for three- to six-year-olds £66) has 40 English-speaking instructors.
