Family Skiing Holidays in Europe

Europe has long been a favourite for family skiing holidays, with short journey times from the UK and many fantastic child-friendly ski resorts. That said, the current strength of the Euro vis-à-vis the pound may make you think twice – in which case, see our guide to family-friendly resorts in eastern Europe.

Andorra

Long known as a bargain, duty-free spot that attracted parties of loud singles, Andorra has a new attitude, new hotels and new lifts, meaning it’s become much more of a family destination. The two main ski regions – Grandvalira (the resorts of Pas de la Casa and Soldeu) and Vallnord (Arinsal and Pal) – are both popular with British families on reasonably priced packages, so although Andorra is in the Eurozone, it’s relatively affordable.

The areas have lots of easy runs yet are big enough for parents to feel that they’re not compromising on skiing (Grandvalira has 193km of runs, Vallnord 68km). Ski schools have many native English speakers. Arinsal has a lot of slopeside accommodation; in Soldeu some hotels/apartments can be a long walk from the lifts.

Andorra isn’t the easiest place to get to, with the nearest airports in Toulouse and Perpignan in France or Barcelona in northern Spain. From there you need to hire a car or take a lengthy coach ride.

Austria

Austria is the place to come for quaint villages, although its skiing has taken on a new look recently, with the creation of many linked areas. Because the villages came first (not the case with France’s purpose-built resorts), there is limited slopeside accommodation and few apartments, which can mean a walk or bus-ride to the slopes, but any inconvenience is made up for by the historic surroundings. Austrian resorts tend to have good, English-speaking ski schools. The country is particularly well-served in terms of transport, with reasonably priced flights to places such as Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and, just across the German border from Vorarlberg, Friedrichschafen.

Resorts (Ellmau, Scheffau) in the huge SkiWelt area are good, with handily placed hotels and good, easy skiing. Saalbach-Hinterglemm, a 200km circuit of cruising skiing, is excellent – Saalbach has a village-centre nursery area, while Hinterglemm boasts one of Austria’s coolest family hotels, the Theresia, with exceptional facilities and a location right by the lifts.

Many other places are perfect for families – the Tyrol’s Stubai Valley (with easy glacier skiing) and Obergurgl; the Ski Amadé resorts near Salzburg (Flachau, Zauchensee); high-altitude 1960s purpose-built Obertauern (where the Beatles filmed Help!), also in the Salzburgerland; and Nassfeld in the pretty southern province of Carinthia. Small, quiet resorts in the province of Vorarlberg, in the Montafon valley (Tschagguns, Schruns) or the Bregenzerwald (Warth-Schröcken), are good too. Some of the more famous resorts can be inconvenient and unsuitable – Kitzbühel is a big town and the pistes of St Anton are narrow and busy, although Mark Warner’s Chalethotel Schweizerhof sits in the quieter hamlet of Nasserein.

Austria’s child-friendliness is such that it even has KinderHotels – luxurious places designed to soothe both children and parents. Some are on the slopes and have private lifts and ski-schools for children from around age 3. The Lowe and Bar are in one of Europe’s most family-friendly resorts, Serfaus, near Innsbruck. Here the skiing is big (185km) and pretty, and can be done by competent youngsters, though adults enjoy it too. There are many slopeside attractions for children, such as special runs, as well as a family ski-school with a kids’ café.

France

France isn’t as good value as it used to be, but the transport links to the French Alps are good, with regular flights, fast TGV trains and plentiful shuttle services. The Alps are characterised by purpose-built resort complexes high on the mountain slopes, which might be big but are not always clever – often architecturally challenged, some make Stevenage look attractive. Yet what they lack in charm, they gain in convenience for families, with skiing (and ski-schools) often right outside your door, and streets generally free of traffic.

Places such as La Plagne and Les Arcs (both in Savoie, and connected as the Paradiski region) are there purely for skiing, and children love to be able to totter outside and safely play snowballs. Much of the accommodation is in apartments, allowing for reasonably priced holidays in a great setting. There are also many chalets that offer all-in service, from breakfast to dinner, in a relaxed family-friendly setting. Many tour companies, including Crystal, Thomson, Esprit and Mark Warner run their own chalethotels – a bigger version of the chalet concept.

Children particularly love La Plagne– it feels like you can ski anywhere, through many satellite villages. Val d’Isère is another popular area with town-centre nursery slopes, although some of the lower runs are steep and you need to bus to other lifts. Connected, purpose-built Tignes is a better bet if you have youngsters, with a big beginner area and non-scary runs all the way down from the glacier. Alpe d’Huez in Isère is another favourite, big and offering a combination of old and new town, along with the massive Three Valleys region with resorts such as Courchevel.

Then there’s the French Pyrénées, which have a number of small but growing resorts that are becoming increasingly accessible with the advent of budget flights to Pau and Perpignan. There's Cauterets, a bustling old town that could double for turn-of-the-20th-century Paris in a movie, with a modern gondola from the centre up to the Cirque du Lys area with its 36km of runs. There’s also a swimming pool, a market and horse-drawn carriage-rides through the streets. Not far away is the Domaine du Tourmalet, the biggest ski area in the French Pyrénées, combining La Mongie and Barèges to create a 100km experience between 1,400m and 2,500m. La Mongie is at the foot of the Pic du Midi mountain, topped by a huge 19th-century observatory, the largest in Europe – kids and adults alike love taking the cable-car up for a look round, though the off-piste routes down are best left to grown-ups.

Font-Romeu is another picturesque town, located right by the Spanish border and so offering excellent Catalan-influenced cuisine. You’re only 80km from the Med here, in what is officially France’s sunniest town (they have a solar contraption that tests space–shuttle tiles – a good thing to visit on a day off from the slopes). A gondola lifts you from the main street to a plateau from which there is 54km of skiing over to the smaller resort of Pyrénées 2000. The pair are on the same Neiges Catalanes lift-pass as eight other areas within a short drive, not least Les Angles, with 50km of runs and a slope-side bear sanctuary.

A couple of lifts (and a change in local politics) would connect Font-Romeu and Les Angles, creating a major ski area to rival the Alps. Until then, skiing in the French Pyrénées gives you a taste of the ‘real France’: small hotels, great character, excellent family slopes and great food, best experienced via cheap flights and a hire car.

Italy

Often overlooked these days, northern Italy actually has lots of good family ski destinations – the chic Italians much prefer easy slopes so as not to ruffle their well-groomed appearance – including Sauze’d’Oulx and Sestriere (on the 400km Via Lattea or ‘Milky Way’ circuit, which is as gentle as it sounds), Cervinia (with Italy’s highest area of big, easy slopes, going up to 3,480m), and purpose-built Passo Tonale.

The beautiful rose-hued Dolomites is a huge area of intermediate terrain, home to trendy Cortina and any number of pretty villages, including Selva Val Gardena ( Esprit has chalets here) and Madonna di Campiglio.

Livigno, near the Swiss border, has beginner areas all down one side of the village, but transfer times are long.

Spain

A favourite from budget brochures of old, Spain is now back in favour as a family skiing destination. That’s largely due to the Pyrenean resort of Formigal expanding considerably – it’s now the country’s largest, with 137km of piste and big easy areas near the bottom. There’s a traditional-looking but purpose-built village, decent restaurants and a transfer of little over an hour from the city of Huesca. Reasonably priced packages are on offer from Crystal, Thomson and Neilson, who are sharing a charter flight. Inghams has holidays to Baqueira-Beret in the Pyrenees.

Crystal can also take you to Sierra Nevada in southern Spain, above the city of Granada, with sunny but high, snowsure slopes and smart slopeside villages.

Switzerland

Switzerland (outside the Eurozone) has the most traditional, old-world ski resorts – the kind of places to which many people still come with their own nanny to help with the children… Some – Zermatt, Verbier, Davos – may not be best suited to those with young children because of the crowds and lots of walking to the lifts. Others can be exceptional – Wengen, one of the most old-school of places, has nursery slopes in the pretty village centre; Saas Fee has a great nursery area tucked away from harm (although the village itself can get a little cold); little Savognin has wide open pistes. Even St Moritz is wonderful if you’re staying at the right place – and there are few family hotels anywhere better than Suvretta House, which has its own beginner area, ski school and lift connecting to the main area. It’s like a huge, relaxed country house in the woods, full of monied Brits, where even kids dress for dinner in the main dining room.

Favourite of the month

Mark Warner family holidays

Mark Warner Ski offers 2011/12

Family ski holidays from only £465 per person

• Family holidays
• Breaks & Days Out
• Special Offers
• Features
• Favourites
• Travel Tips
• Family forum