How to survive the slopes
Family holidays are as trying and as complicated as families themselves. Different generations have different needs, and speeds. This is especially true when it comes to the slopes.
In theory, family skiing holidays shouldn’t work. But somehow, they do, even though they are blindingly expensive. (I heard a right-on Guardian columnist in a cable car say to his wife, ‘You have to reckon a grand, a day,’ before looking round in terror to see if he’d been overheard. He had.)
I’ve done it all ways. I’ve shared a chalet with 20 others and a delightful chalet girl who made a moist sponge cake every day for tea. I’ve done the packed-lunch, self-catered option. I’ve even done the deluxe chalet thing a couple of times – in Yellowstone Lodge and Chalet Merlo, both in Sainte Foy – and I would not pretend that it was not delightful and most spoiling, too.
But this year we went to the Hotel Le Portetta in Courchevel 1650, bang on the slopes, and offering ski-in-skiout access to the pistes. We were a large party that included both children under 10 and a lady in her 60s, not to mention my husband, a man whose relationship with the sport has cooled almost into dislike over the years.
Why? Well, there was the year he broke his thumb. Then, there was the year it snowed for the whole week. There was the year he had his skis pinched outside the restaurant on the second day, and then succumbed to man flu for the rest of the week. And there was the awful year when we went with two younger men who skied much faster than him.
So here was the challenge: where do you go, and what needs there to be, for the whole family to have a good time, even your husband?
Well, you certainly need a gemütlich resort, so the non-skiers can wander out in their moon boots, and buy things. You need a hotel with a spa and sauna and steam room, so the non-skiers can lie on their backs having facials and massages, listening to that drivelling muzak they only play in spas, and frizz their hair inside a boiling wooden box.
There has to be delicious, abundant food, which combines rib-sticking Savoyard fare like fondues and tartiflette with crunchy chlorophyll, and is not so fancy your teenagers (or elderly relations) start ordering from the children’s menu in order to avoid the inevitable coulis of this and tians of that. As Oscar Wilde said, ‘After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.’
And you need, above all, to have other people around, who aren’t your family.
I have now been to Le Portetta twice. And I would go again. The first time we were lucky enough to stay in a loft, which had open fires and balconies. It was so cosy that it was a wrench even to go downstairs and have our feet inserted into plush-lined boots (Sébastien the resident ‘skibootier’ actually puts on and takes off the skiboots of all the hotel guests every day).
But on both occasions, we were glad that we’d made the superhuman effort to leave the hotel, as Courchevel is in Les Trois Vallées, la domaine plus vaste skiable du monde, and the snow is deep and even.
In fact, I think even my husband enjoyed himself.
1 Choose the right resort; one that is high enough to cope with spring, as well as winter, snow conditions.
2 Choose a family hotel near the slopes and shops, which has a good but not fussy kitchen, a spa, and a games room for children. Proper rectangular pillows and a ski-hire facility are also a bonus.
3 Decide that you will have one guide per six skiers, for at least three hours a day.
4 When you have those essentials for success in hand, the fact that you cannot choose your family will not be any impediment to enjoyment in the mountains.
Original Travel (www.originaltravel.co.uk/ 020 7978 7333) offers 7 night stays at La Portetta from £5,200 for a family of 4. Including flights, transfers and a stay in a family room.
Original Travel (www.originaltravel.co.uk/ 020 7978 7333) offers 7 night stays at La Portetta from £2,800 per person. Including flights and transfers.
In theory, family skiing holidays shouldn’t work. But somehow, they do, even though they are blindingly expensive. (I heard a right-on Guardian columnist in a cable car say to his wife, ‘You have to reckon a grand, a day,’ before looking round in terror to see if he’d been overheard. He had.)
I’ve done it all ways. I’ve shared a chalet with 20 others and a delightful chalet girl who made a moist sponge cake every day for tea. I’ve done the packed-lunch, self-catered option. I’ve even done the deluxe chalet thing a couple of times – in Yellowstone Lodge and Chalet Merlo, both in Sainte Foy – and I would not pretend that it was not delightful and most spoiling, too.
But this year we went to the Hotel Le Portetta in Courchevel 1650, bang on the slopes, and offering ski-in-skiout access to the pistes. We were a large party that included both children under 10 and a lady in her 60s, not to mention my husband, a man whose relationship with the sport has cooled almost into dislike over the years.
Why? Well, there was the year he broke his thumb. Then, there was the year it snowed for the whole week. There was the year he had his skis pinched outside the restaurant on the second day, and then succumbed to man flu for the rest of the week. And there was the awful year when we went with two younger men who skied much faster than him.
So here was the challenge: where do you go, and what needs there to be, for the whole family to have a good time, even your husband?
Well, you certainly need a gemütlich resort, so the non-skiers can wander out in their moon boots, and buy things. You need a hotel with a spa and sauna and steam room, so the non-skiers can lie on their backs having facials and massages, listening to that drivelling muzak they only play in spas, and frizz their hair inside a boiling wooden box.
There has to be delicious, abundant food, which combines rib-sticking Savoyard fare like fondues and tartiflette with crunchy chlorophyll, and is not so fancy your teenagers (or elderly relations) start ordering from the children’s menu in order to avoid the inevitable coulis of this and tians of that. As Oscar Wilde said, ‘After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.’
And you need, above all, to have other people around, who aren’t your family.
I have now been to Le Portetta twice. And I would go again. The first time we were lucky enough to stay in a loft, which had open fires and balconies. It was so cosy that it was a wrench even to go downstairs and have our feet inserted into plush-lined boots (Sébastien the resident ‘skibootier’ actually puts on and takes off the skiboots of all the hotel guests every day).
But on both occasions, we were glad that we’d made the superhuman effort to leave the hotel, as Courchevel is in Les Trois Vallées, la domaine plus vaste skiable du monde, and the snow is deep and even.
In fact, I think even my husband enjoyed himself.
Rachel’s top tips
1 Choose the right resort; one that is high enough to cope with spring, as well as winter, snow conditions.
2 Choose a family hotel near the slopes and shops, which has a good but not fussy kitchen, a spa, and a games room for children. Proper rectangular pillows and a ski-hire facility are also a bonus.
3 Decide that you will have one guide per six skiers, for at least three hours a day.
4 When you have those essentials for success in hand, the fact that you cannot choose your family will not be any impediment to enjoyment in the mountains.
Original Travel (www.originaltravel.co.uk/ 020 7978 7333) offers 7 night stays at La Portetta from £5,200 for a family of 4. Including flights, transfers and a stay in a family room.
Original Travel (www.originaltravel.co.uk/ 020 7978 7333) offers 7 night stays at La Portetta from £2,800 per person. Including flights and transfers.