Family and Kids
Family Travels: Planning a winter holiday with kids.
If skiing or snow boarding is your favorite winter sport, have you noticed that with children you have to do a little more planning than before if you want to have an enjoyable vacation?
The location, the driving time and the accommodation have to be right. So many questions come to mind quickly: who will watch the kids, should we bring friends with us, are there any reliable daycare? Should we put our child in a ski school or a mini-club?
Planning and booking early is necessary.
Location:
When choosing a location in Europe for instance, you may wonder where is the best place to go. You may decide on a place depending on the ski slopes or more on a place that has full time day care or is more child-friendly.
Austria is well-known for its children’s hotels called Kinderhotels.
Chalets in Kirchdorf in Austria
You may also prefer a place where you children can understand the language. If you travel with babies, it won’t matter too much as your baby will sleep most of the time.
Driving:
Driving time is an important factor when choosing a ski place. After 6 hours of driving, you may need to divide your trip in 2 days. If babies don’t see the time go by in the car, toddlers are bored quite easily and may become car sick.
Accommodation:
If you have kids you may now be more tending to a furnished apartment or a chalet rather than a hotel.
The first two winters after our son was born we went skiing and both time we asked ourselves how should we do it?
We wanted to do last minute skiing trips and checked hotel availability but most of the time everything was booked.
At the beginning we were not sure of the best approach:
Should we book a hotel with breakfast, lunch and dinner or have a hotel just with breakfast and eat out every night?
Should we book an apartment and bring everything with us?
Should we rent a chalet with family or friends?
Should we go to a hotel with babysitting?
We ended up trying all these possibilities.
Completely renovated chalet in Chatel, France
Going alone or with someone else:
This is a personal choice but I must admit that going with people who are close to you and have children of the same age is definitely a plus. If the men ski, the women can take care of the children together and vice-versa. Your child will have company has well. One can take care of the children while the other cooks. It will be a more relaxing vacation as if you had stayed all day babysitting on your own.
Looking after the kids:
This is something you have to worry about before arriving at your location. If you are planning to leave your children at daycare, a ski school, a mini club or if you need a babysitter, check with the hotel or village your going to ahead of time.
Daycare called Krippe in German or Crèche in French are good for days or half days but they require advance booking and a down-payment. Mini-clubs like in Robinson or Club Med normally take children starting at age 4. Not all hotels have full day babysitting; most of the time it is either mornings or afternoons or during dinner time. Check with your accommodation before your book to find out how many babysitters they have pro child and what time they offer this service at no extra cost. Ski schools take children around the age of 3.
Outdoor activities for children in Chatel, France
Activities for the children:
What could you do with your children if you are planning not to ski?
Here are some ideas:
- a snow shoe walk with your baby on your back
- a sledge walk
- a village tour with a mini-train
- a tour of a farm to see and pet the animals and have a taste of the farm products
- a carousel tour
- a swim in the village swimming pool or at your hotel
- an hour at the ice-skating rink
What to bring:
If you opted for the chalet option, the best is to bring some food for the first few days or at least the first weekend. Most ski villages supermarkets close early on Saturdays. In France they open again on Sunday mornings and bakeries stay open until 1p.m. at least.
In the mountains it is always good to bring your own fondue and raclette machines and to bring a crêpes electric cooker. Some apartment furnish a fondue machine. These will not take too much room in your car and they will allow you to have a dinner ready in no time. Otherwise you can get raclette and fondue machine in the village for no extra cost when buying your cheese at the butcher or cheese shop.
French chalet in Chatel
Don’t forget to bring your children’s favorite toys, puzzles, dvd’s and CDs and of course for the adults a Trivial Pursuit and a Cranium game!
Have a fun on your winter holiday this season! I am sure you will quickly know what works the best for you.
