Mum-plus-one fun on French Alps

The right resort and a family-friendly hotel make for a great ski-ing break for a lone parent, writes Hannah Stephenson

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Hannah and Grace Stephenson on the piste

YOU have booked a family ski trip and one of your children is taken ill the night before departure. What do you do?

You could cancel, claim the insurance and wait for next year. Or you could all go and risk your child becoming worse in a cold, foreign country. No thanks.

In our case, my husband drew the short straw and stayed at home to look after our son (I owe him big time) while I took our eight-year-old daughter, Grace, on the slopes.

So it was to become a girls’ holiday with a difference. She would go to ski school in the morning, join the children’s club and eat with her fellow junior skiers at teatime, as planned.

I would, well, ski on my own, dine on my own, sit in the bar on my own. Suddenly, it wasn’t sounding too great.

It got me thinking about whether a ski holiday is suitable for lone parents and whether you can truly enjoy the slopes alone while your children are off at ski school or busy with new friends.

I shouldn’t have worried. We had chosen Alpe d’Huez, a family resort at 1,860m in the central French Alps, one of the five areas forming the Grandes Rousses massif, with links to Auris-en-Oisans, Oz-en-Oisans, Vaujany and Villard Reculas.

Setting for the famous final climb of the Tour de France in summer, it’s a ski paradise in winter. With 249km of piste and 84 ski lifts, it’s one of France’s largest Alpine resorts, also known as “L’ile au Soleil” (Island of the Sun) as almost all the slopes are south-facing and it boasts an average 300 sunny days a year.

It’s perfect for families, thanks to the plethora of easy blue and green runs which you can take from the main meeting point at the foot of the slopes in Alpe d’Huez, served by the main DMC cable car and a number of button lifts.

For thrill seekers, it is also home to the 16km Sarenne, the longest black run in Europe, and the infamous, heart-stopping tunnel where you come out on to a frighteningly steep mogul slope.

If you are into glacier ski-ing you can go to Pic Blanc at 3,330m and ski down a series of blacks, but I wasn’t brave enough for that.

We went during the Easter school holidays and found plenty of snow and few queues. There are enough runs to serve the busy ski schools, leisure skiers and boarders without feeling that you are constantly on top of each other, and there are also speed restrictions on several of the lower nursery slopes.

My daughter was booked into the morning Whizz Kids club, run by Crystal, in which child carers drop off and pick up your child from ski school, take them back to the hotel for lunch and play with them until you pick them up in the afternoon.

During the week, I saw some sights when dropping Grace off. Children arrived in brightly coloured ski suits, their crash helmets carefully clipped under their chins and oversized ski goggles placed on bewildered faces.

Some, it has to be said, didn’t go lightly despite desperate reassurances from their parents. But the Crystal staff were fantastic, cajoling the stragglers, drying the tears of the reluctant children and skilfully persuading them up the mountain.

By the middle of the week there were few anxieties as the team’s enthusiasm and sense of fun rubbed off on the youngsters.

For me, the structure of the holiday changed because I was alone and my first priority became personal safety. The thought of falling and hurting myself became more consuming, so I planned to stick to easier runs.

On every previous ski holiday, my husband had taken charge of the piste map and led the way. But you learn fast if you are relying on yourself and, thankfully, in Alpe d’Huez, it’s easy to get your bearings because most routes have lifts which can get you on a run to take you back to the central meeting point.

If you are a novice skier, the likelihood is you’ll be in ski school anyway, but even as an intermediate, I think ski school is also the best option for lone skiers. You make friends and the instructor leads the way, so there’s no worry about getting lost.

I went for several private lessons, having been to ski school for years and reached a plateau in my ability. My instructor, Liliane, whisked me away to some well maintained red runs leading to the picturesque village of Oz-en-Oisans, at 1,350m.

Much of the route is tree-lined and a complete contrast to the wide slopes leading to the DMC at Alpe d’Huez.

In a private lesson, you can enjoy the beautiful region rather than focusing on following the snake of a bunch of learners on a crowded slope. Instructors often take you to the quieter pistes, away from the masses, and if your instructor speaks good English, you learn a lot about the area.

As for me, I was lucky to be staying in a family-orientated hotel: a casual environment where people readily struck up conversations about the pistes, the weather and the resort. You can take a book into the bar, but it’s never long before you’ll be closing it to talk to someone. Your children make friends, creating a link with other parents.

It wasn’t long before people realised I was just with my daughter and one couple kindly asked if I would like to ski with them the following day. We got on famously and I ended up skiing with them for much of the week and having dinner with them most nights.

If you don’t have that luck, there are days when the reps become ski and boarding escorts on free mountain tours for assorted abilities if you can’t stand the thought of spending the day alone.

But there are other options in Alpe d’Huez if you don’t want to ski all afternoon. We swam in the open-air pool (free entry with full ski pass). From the bucket lift you can see the pool steaming, surrounded by banks of snow, against a beautiful backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

Dipping our toes in, we were expecting bubbling Jacuzzi heat, but it was a shock to find that the water was more like normal swimming pool temperature. Children nipped in and out, jumping into the snow near the pool edge before leaping back into the water for that ultimate hot/cold experience. And boys, if you are going, you’ll need Speedos, not baggy swim shorts.

Next to the pool is a large ice rink (again, entry is included on your lift pass, but you pay four euros each for skate hire) where we passed a couple of hours.

Like most French ski resorts, food and drink on the piste comes at a premium. A large plate of chips will cost you 4.50 euros (£3.55), a slice of pizza will be a little less and a can of drink about 2.50 euros (£2). But there are enough boulangeries and small supermarkets in the resort to allow you to make your own packed lunches.

Dining out is also fun in Alpe d’Huez. Grace and I loved L’Edelweiss, a cosy, traditional-looking restaurant with wooden tables and chairs which was packed every night. It offered all the usual Savoie fare, including raclette, fondues, tartiflette (a bubbling mixture of cheese, bacon and onions) and some meats served sizzling on hot stones accompanied by potatoes gratin dauphinoise and a variety of sauces.

Next year, I hope the boys will be able to join us, but if not, the girls will just have to go it alone again. Shame.

Hannah Stephenson travelled to Alpe d’Huez as a guest of Crystal Ski, which offers a week at the Club Hotel Les Cimes in Alpe d’Huez from £449 per adult, with limited free child places also available. Once free child place has gone, child prices start at £99.

Package includes return flights ex-Gatwick, transfers and accommodation, including breakfast, afternoon tea and cake, evening meals and free wine.

Direct flights from 12 UK regional airports available at supplements from £10.

Alpe d’Huez details:

Creche for children (six months to four years). Fully qualified nannies look after babies and children for six half or full-day supervision, with or without lunch. Prices from £100 for six mornings or afternoons.

Kids Club (4-11) offers three childcare choices, including ski school escort service, lunch and lunchtime supervision, six half or full-day supervision. Prices from £85 for six mornings or afternoons (ski school escort service included with morning sessions).

Crystal reservations: 0871 231 2256 and www.crystalski.co.uk