Alpine adventures: with Phil Spencer

Travelling with small children can be tough at the best of times, but all the variables involved in a family skiing holiday takes it to a new level. For my wife, Fiona, and I the prospect of organising flights, transfers, accommodation, lift passes, ski hire, ski school, and the host of other things we’d be bound to forget was daunting to say the least.

Putney-based Powder Byrne [PB] has been arranging family skiing holidays for decades and so we figured they’d know everything there is to know about getting it right. We wanted a straightforward journey, easy access to slopes and a hotel with pool (in case of bad weather, and extra entertainment for our boys). Aside from this – the most important thing was Jake (six) and Ben (four) enjoyed themselves and had a positive introduction to skiing. Time together as a family was essential, but Fiona and I also wanted the opportunity to improve our own skiing and go out to dinner à deux.

Previous 1 of 3 Next

We took PB’s suggestion of flying from City Airport to Zurich, Switzerland. An hour and a half on the plane, two hours by transfer (complete with kids DVD selection) and we were happily ensconced into the Waldhaus Hotel in Flims, with plenty time to pick up skis and lift passes for the following day. All very neatly handled by PB. 

There’s so much to go wrong when teaching children to ski – it’s cold, they fall over, drop gloves, lose skis, get tired and emotional. Happily, it turned out PB really did know what they were doing and the whole experience was superb.

Previous 1 of 3 Next

Depending on age and experience the children were split into groups of six, each one with two PB staff. The day began at 8.30am, there was a crèche for babies, toddlers went up the mountain until 12pm and all others until 3.30pm. Lunch time was two hours of drawing and playing games (in one of the mountain restaurants), which meant tired little legs had a chance to rest and everyone was keen to ski again in the afternoon.

The day was as flexible as we wanted it to be – we were free to ski alone all day, watch the boys’ lessons, join them for lunch, collect them early – whatever we wanted. We’d taken Jake and Ben for a couple of dry-skiing lessons in the UK, so they had some idea of what to expect, once up a mountain on real snow they cracked the basics of stopping and turning very quickly. Youngsters don’t ‘feel the fear’ like adults and, as their centre of gravity is low, they don’t wipe out so much, which means they’ve already become a demon skier before starting to get worried about breaking bones or looking stupid!

Aside from top class childcare and tuition, the PB team went out of their way to make things easy for grown ups. We had the option of skiing in small groups with PB ski guides, for anyone unfamiliar with a resort I thought this was a big bonus. I enjoy skiing far more when I’m not having to worry about finding, or remembering, my way round a mountain. Flims is suitable for all levels of ability and as intermediates we felt we had the pick of it – loads of long reds and blues to choose from. There aren’t many moguls which, for me, also made the black runs perfectly doable.

It’s a predominantly Swiss resort and whilst it isn’t an archetypal pretty Alpine village, what it lacks in aesthetics it more than makes up for in other ways. Everything works. There are plenty of lifts, and scarcely any queues. The  restaurants are absolutely fantastic, and the whole place is superbly managed. Swiss functionality at its finest.

Previous 1 of 2 Next

One thing which really impressed us about the PB experience was that each family had a specific point of contact; every evening Hugo came to find us to report on how the boys had got on during the day, answer any questions or concerns we might have had; organise a babysitter or make a restaurant reservation for us. We usually struggle to get the boys to tell us much about a day’s activity – so it was fantastic to get proper feedback. On the nights that Fiona and I went out for dinner, Hugo also ensured we had a consistent babysitter – Duncan – who was also the boys’ ski guide during the day and they thought he was a complete hero… more to the point, so did we!

Each day we met the boys back at the hotel at 3.30pm and, if they still had any energy left, the Waldhous has the most incredible indoor/outdoor pool. The indoor section is in a complete glass box and the outdoor is kept at bath temperature with jets and bubbles and comfy places to lie – it’s the most amazing swimming complex I’ve ever seen. As well as saunas and steam rooms there is an excellent gym and spa. The site covers 54 acres and so is more of a resort than a hotel. There were lots of Grandparents and non-skiing Mums, all having just as fine a time as the rest of the family. A lie-in, some exercise and a massage each morning before taking a gondola up the mountain for a long lunch – who wouldn’t describe that as a decent holiday? Cleverly, the various sections of the hotel are inter-connected by underground passageways, so even when its snowing, with below minus temperatures outside, you can still make it back from dinner without braving the elements. There are five different restaurants within the hotel – but we didn’t make it round all of them!

If the boys wanted to meet up with friends after skiing there was the option of a PB kids’ tea each night, with the option of a hosted movie night once a week. All in all – it was an absolute treat. Jake and Ben had a fantastic introduction to skiing. Powder Byrne simply couldn’t have done any more to ensure happy children, happy parents and a top family holiday. We’re already excited about this season.

Phil Spencer and family travelled to Flims with Putney-based tour operators Powder Byrne. Prices from: Waldhaus Flims, 9-16 April. £2,429. Extra bed (2-5yrs) £923. Infants under two free if staying in parents room. 020 8246 5300; www.powderbyrne.com

Members Comments

There are no comments for this article.

Add a Comment

Please log in to post a comment.