Creche and day nursery childcare on family ski holidays

Here’s a testament to how much our youngest enjoyed creche on our previous family ski holiday. Four months later, during the height of summer, he was enthusiastically telling us all about the activities he did and his favourite toys were in the day nursery.

His favourite activity, he said, was feeding some horses in the ski village we had stayed in. Now that’s not usually the sort of activity you’d associate with ski holidays – but it reminded us how happy he’d been in the creche, and how happy we’d been each morning to see him looking forward to seeing all the wonderful childcare staff and the other children. We felt confident that he was being well looked after, and were able to enjoy some skiing time together – bliss!

We’ll admit, though, that it took us six seasons to find these childcare arrangements that so suit our family ski holiday. Our particular favourite offers the ability to book either mornings, afternoons or whole days. This flexibility suits our family well, although many families are perfectly happy to book whole days, and you will find that the majority of day nurseries only offer whole days.

Why choose day care?
For us, a huge benefit of choosing a day nursery is the structure on offer. Activities are planned and snacks and meals are at set times. There should be a room where sleepy children can rest, and we’ve found that staff try very hard to ensure that our child’s nap occurred at the same time as at home. You’ll probably find that your child will have a place to put her things such as a peg – oh, and do remember to label everything!

You’ll be asked to complete a questionnaire about your child’s health, likes, dislikes, and toilet abilities so that the staff are aware of his needs. You should also have a mobile number where you can be contacted when out skiing, and an emergency contact number back home, just in case.

Finding good care?
So where so you find reputable childcare on your family ski holiday? In Europe, you’ll find that large tour operators offer creche facilities in selected resorts in certain countries, usually in resorts that are considered to be family favourites. You can find operators in resorts in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France offering 'in-house' facilities.

Perhaps due to the relative ease of access from the UK, we’ve found that there is a quite a choice of smaller ski companies offering childcare as part of the travel package if you ski in France. Resorts in the French Alps such as those in Les Trois Vallees (Courchevel, La Tania and Meribel in particular) and family favourites in the Portes du Soleil do seem to have a good selection of smaller operators providing creche and day nursery childcare.

It is definitely worth considering small, specialist family ski companies who operate in smaller, off-the-beaten-track resorts. In our experience, we’ve found creche childcare from these companies to be superb.

There are even several independent British-run childcare companies, meaning you can book childcare separately from your travel and accommodation. You can find these in the Meribel valley, and in the Portes du Soleil ski area.

Getting your child settled on ski vacations
We have a few tips to help your child settle happily into creche. Talk enthusiastically about it with your child before the event. Prepare a small bag - a child's rucksack is ideal since then he can carry it himself if he's old enough. Pack a spare set of clothes, nappy changing items, and a favourite, familiar toy. Our child would happily announce that he was taking teddy to the creche for the morning. Teddy would dutifully participate in all the activities – we wonder if he enjoyed feeding the horses? – and be taken carefully ‘home’ at the end of the session.

To save time, put your child’s bag, snow suit, hat, gloves and snow boots ready the evening before so that you don’t waste valuable time in the morning. Hopefully you’ll have found care with easy access from both your accommodation and from the ski slopes. This makes dropping-off and collecting a much smoother process!

Finally, remember that the staff in the creche do a fantastic job while you’re out skiing – remember to be courteous and arrive in good time to collect your children. They’ll probably be eager to tell you about all the fun things they’ve done. Horses, anyone?

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