As winter break and the winter holidays approach parents are probably planning how to spend the time with their kids. Some will want to break away to summer for a couple weeks by visiting one of the resorts in Thailand, UAE, or Egypt, and others will decide to experience the full beauty of winter by enjoying fresh mountain air in the snow and on skis. If you’ve chosen the second option for your vacation then this article is for you! Here we will try to gather together all the important details for organizing a winter vacation with your kids, starting from planning, to choosing a resort and hotel, and ending with recreational programs.
Buy a package trip or go your own way?
Any trip with a child, especially abroad, is a big responsibility for parents. When buying a trip package through a travel agency we partially unload a number of organizational details onto the travel agency, freeing ourselves to pay more attention to packing our things or planning the activity part of our trip. A tour agent recommends and reserves a hotel and travel, they drop you off and pick you up from the airport, and they offer a ready-made activity program. Of course the agency fees add into the price.
However there are several disadvantages with package trips. For example if you fly by charter the departure or arrival times can be inconvenient and flights are often delayed. One of the shortcomings can be in the way transfers are organized, for example the bus chartered by the tour agency might make stops at several other resorts along the way and this makes your trip longer than if you would have just chosen your own route.
When you make all the reservations yourself you lose more time piecing together the details, but you can save a lot of cash on plane tickets by getting them through a low cost airline ahead of time or choosing flights with stopovers, and you can also choose a more convenient time for departure. The one wrinkle is that you yourself have to plan how to get to the airport and from the airport to your destination.
How do I get to my resort?
As ski resorts are rarely less than 100 km from an airport, sometimes you need to use a few different kinds of transport to get there. A rental car is one possible solution, but this always drives up the cost of a trip. In Europe there is a requirement to use a car seat for children, and this also hits you in the wallet.
Tip: If you don’t want to rent a car and riding public transport with your kids doesn’t suit you, when making your hotel reservation ask about a car to come pick you up from the airport. Another option is to find a transport company in the city that offers this kind of service.
When vacationing with kids the distance between the resort and the airport is something to keep in mind. Here the rule is “The closer, the better.” In this case you don’t have a long ride from the airport no matter what way you choose to travel, be it by car or public transport. When choosing a resort find out if there is a train station nearby. This can greatly simplify your trip. For example if we’re looking at ski resorts of Austria or Germany your best bets for this are Ski Welt or Kitzbuhel as well as German resorts not far from Munich airport such as Reit im Winkl or Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Tip: Before traveling, carefully study the resort’s official website. It should have a section on “how to get here”, where all public transport options are listed in detail.
Choosing the best time for vacationing with kids at a ski resort
When choosing a ski resort for vacationing with the kids you should pay close attention to the following characteristics:
- Resort infrastructure. Make sure that in this town or village there is a supermarket, restaurants, a pharmacy, and recreational facilities like a pool or skating rink. You’ll want to know for sure whether or not there is a hospital nearby, as skiing can often cause injuries. Sprains, fractures, and broken bones are not rare at ski resorts so we highly recommend you choose a town that has at least a public or private clinic. The availability of good first aid is one of the most important criteria when choosing a resort for vacationing with children.
Tip: So that you have a peace of mind on your vacation, check into getting special ski insurance for all the skiers in your family that covers treatment expenses connected with sports injuries in addition to regular treatment.
- Ski school. If you plan on putting your kids in a ski school, find out ahead of time about the availability of schools next to the area where you yourself will be skiing.
- Hotel location. Hotels that are located close to lifts and ski slopes are the most convenient, and you’ll waste a lot less time and energy getting around. If you don’t find any that fit your budget, look into guesthouses and apartments that may be further from the slopes but have a bus stop nearby. The budget principle here is simple- the further it is from the slopes, the cheaper it is.It’s worth paying particular attention to hotels that have a ski in/ski out system where you can ride right up to the entrance on your skis. Skiing convenience is their trump card, but there is another side to the coin- it might be not so convenient to get to other facilities of the village. Therefore if you plan to go out in the evening and eat out, do some shopping, hit the pool, or go walking around downtown you’ll want to keep all this in mind when planning where to stay. Many resorts have reasonable hotels with kids facilities that are back off the slopes but offer their guests transport to the lifts. This option is a good alternative for a family vacation.
Tip: if you come for a short period and don’t plan on renting a car to get from place to place, we recommend finding a place next to a lift that’s ski in/ski out. If you plan on staying longer and visiting neighboring ski resorts having a ski lift at your doorstep becomes pointless.
- When choosing a resort pay attention to whether or not it has easy and flat slopes for family skiing. If you plan to put the kids on skis, the most important thing isn’t the length of the slopes but the size and availability of blue slopes. Most of the time you’ll be skiing on these.
- Recreation with youngsters at a ski resort. In spite of the fact that in winter most of the entertainment you find will be on skis or sleds or in the village doing winter things like skating, sleigh riding, curling, hockey, and so on, take a look at excursions and other ways to spend time that can be fun for kids and adults alike. As a rule only ski resorts located close to a major city boast more interesting and diverse excursion programs.
We hope our advice will help you organize a wonderful holiday spending quality time in the mountains.