Rabu, 25 April 2012

Family ski holidays: Surprisingly stress-free skiing (with kids) in Austria

Family ski holidays: Surprisingly stress-free skiing (with kids) in Austria

By Shona Sibary

PUBLISHED: 05:14 EST, 26 March 2012 | UPDATED: 05:27 EST, 25 April 2012

Outside, snow is falling fast and the temperature is plummeting. But inside the ski locker room my nine-year old son, Monty, is having a meltdown.

We have tried cajoling and then gently easing his foot into an unrelenting ski boot. But, finally, in a fit of frustration, I give one last desperate shove.

Family on a ski slope

Downhill without delay: A relaxing ski break with children is not impossible

‘They’re too small!’ he yells for the umpteenth time. Perspiring and exasperated, I start peeling off hat, gloves, scarf and thermal. This could take a while.

Three hours later, we’re at the top of the mountain in glorious sunshine and Monty, having mastered the snowplough on the gentle slopes of the Austrian resort of Christlum, is grinning from ear to ear.

Welcome to the highs and lows of family skiing - the kind of holiday that can feel rather like self-flagellation if you are not careful. But get certain things right and you may, if you’re lucky, come home feeling mildly more rested than before you departed.

Anybody who has been brave enough to attempt a ski holiday with small people will know what I’m talking about. Like battle-weary survivors, we regale more sensible parents with horror stories of tantrums on chairlifts, and bemoan the good old days of après ski and long, red-wine fuelled lunches on the slopes.

But it is possible to take children skiing and reap some entirely new rewards.

The sheer thrill of being outside in the mountain air, doing something together as a family, is hard to beat. The problem is that these moments can feel few and far between on a holiday where logistics are everything and gloves must be prised on and off tiny fingers several hundred times a day.

My husband, Keith and I have had various disastrous ski holidays with our children â€" Flo, 13, Annie, 11, Monty, nine and Dolly, two.

These have usually involved chalet holidays with families we don’t know.

Frankly, I find it stressful enough juggling the dynamics of our own little brood without being drawn into anybody else’s holiday battles. The two areas of concern â€" leaving the chalet in the morning and putting children to bed at night â€" are infinitely more difficult when there are multiple families all attempting these seemingly impossible feats in tandem, but with different approaches.

So we prefer to opt for hotels. But these are often prohibitively expensive - and though they may advertise their child-friendliness, they can often fall way short of the mark (and yes, I am talking to you, that unnamed place in the Dolomites which didn’t have one single high-chair, and refused to warm up baby milk at breakfast!).

Sporthotel Achensee

So far so good: Shona and family arrive at the Sporthotel Achensee

But there is a conglomerate of hotels in Austria that strives to make holidaying with children an easier and more relaxing experience. Established 20 years ago, the Kinderhotel group offers all-inclusive, affordable family breaks.

They are not a chain - any independent hotel can apply to join the consortium - but new members must meet an exacting criteria before being awarded three, four or five ‘smileys’ â€" its system of ranking for child-friendliness and facilities.

The idea was the brainchild of Siggi Neuschitzer, who, at the age of just 21, took over his parents’ Austrian health spa in Carinthia.

He quickly decided that the clientele was largely elderly, and was looking for ways to diversify. So when a friend complained that there was nowhere he could take his family on holiday, Siggi spotted a gap in the market â€" and imagined a hideaway for fraught, exhausted parents with free childcare (and everything else you could possibly need) thrown in .

The Kinderhotel system is now dotted across 34 mountain, lake and forest locations throughout Austria, southern Germany and Italy. And while it largely caters to the German-speaking demographic, word is slowly spreading, and a UK website has been set up.

Don’t get me wrong â€" I know that, for many, the idea of a family hotel conjures up images of primary colours and self-service restaurants with sticky tables and disgusting food. Before children, I would rather have stuck ski poles in my eyes than set foot inside any establishment promising to be ‘child-friendly.’

Indeed, I still would. Just because I've given birth does not mean I have lost use of my tastebuds or sensory vision.

But Austria does not do family holidaying in the same way as us Brits. Indeed, the Sport Hotel Achensee â€" one of the Kinder offerings just an hour from Innsbruck on the shores of a picturesque lake â€" could not have been further from this hellish image.

We arrive, having been collected from the airport by the hotel’s own driver. He ushers us into a lobby that oozes grown-up calm. There is a roaring fire, huge, mulberry candles flickering on every polished mahogany surface, and glasses of prosecco waiting happily to take the edge off our journey.

Skiing

And then there were three: Shona, Flo, Annie and Monty take to the slopes as Dolly plays in the valley

I wonder if there has been some kind of mix-up. This looks like a place I would stay without the kids.

But even though they disguise it well, Kinder hotels are all about the children. In the basement of the hotel is a large junior emporium that includes a theatre, a disco, a climbing wall and a ball pool â€" and a separate area for babies and toddlers, with a Wendy House and a sleeping room. Summer brings a swimming academy, a magic school, golf courses and theatre workshops.

Better still is the offer of 60 hours a week of free childcare, the sort of deal that is impossible to turn down â€" not least because our two-year old Dolly is too young to join the hotel’s inclusive ski school, and so spends the next five days happily playing inside. We are initially concerned that she might develop rickets while we are enjoying the high-altitude air and sunshine - but she seems to have so much fun with her week that it soon feels churlish to worry.

Our family su ite (with two bedrooms and a living room) comes with a stunning view of the mountains.  There are waffled bathrobes for all of us, a baby snack-pack in the fridge and â€" to their obvious delight â€" separate toiletries for the children in the bathroom. Every day, somebody replenishes the towels. And I’m not sure if Austria works to different health-and-safety standards, but when I ask if the kids can go to the pool without our supervision, the hotel’s only response is to ask:  ‘Can they swim?’

The ski lift is situated directly outside the hotel, and we soon fall into an easy and thoroughly stress-free routine. We pick up the children from ski school in the afternoon, and while they head off to the pool, we dash to the hotel bar for a cold end-of-day beer - slightly discombobulated at how relaxed we feel.

Even eating with the children comes close to being pain-free. This might have had something to do with the fact that the younger two eat earlier â€" a t a special evening children’s buffet. But the later five-course dinner affair is a la carte, and feels as far from the world of fish fingers and chips as it is possible to get.

Skiing

Smooth gliding: Flo and Annie find their feet

There is something touchingly optimistic about Kinder’s approach. It embraces children without expecting adults to compromise.

And it has entirely understood that, by taking care of everything on the periphery of the ski day, it renders the difficult parts of hauling children up a mountain far less trying.

In short, it takes the oxymoron out of 'family holiday'.

On our last morning, at breakfast, I pick up the hotel’s daily guest newsletter, addressed â€" hilariously â€" to ‘sophisticated families.’

And as I watch my children spill cereal all over the heavy linen tablecloth and slurp their hot chocolate noisily from cups, I suspect this might be a case of hope triumphing over experience. But then, that’s fine by me.

Travel Facts

A seven-night stay for a family of four at the Sporthotel Achensee (www.kinderhotels.co.uk) costs from £1,957. This include s all meals, soft drinks, childcare and ski school.

Flights to Innsbruck from London Gatwick on Easyjet start from £140 return (www.easyjet.com).

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