A Week Skiing in Oetz, Austria

We do a week-long ski trip each year, usually to Austria as the mountains are high (so there's always snow) and it's way cheaper than Switzerland.

The last week of Feb is school holidays and most of Europe heads to a ski resort which can be a bit of a pain if you don't book very far ahead. We ended up in the family hotel Waldhof in Oetz, that Tripadvisor warned us had a few service issues -  and Tripadvisor is never wrong. After some issues with the room and some false advertising, we actually ended up having a great week, the food was excellent and the kids loved the place.

We got off to a bad start in more ways than one actually - About half an hour before we arrived (it was a 3.5 hour car ride), Benjy threw up, copiously, all over himself and all through his car seat. It was dreadful and we were poorly equipped to deal with the clean up, at the side of the road. We did the best we could and then at the hotel, I had to get in the shower with the car seat and scrub it clean. Ah, happy holidays. No more playing Ipad in the car for you young man!

The ski resort had been reviewed well for families and it didn't disappoint. The runs were great, the ski schools good and the facilities great too - although getting a table in the restaurant wasvery tricky.

Benjy and Flynn did ski school and Benjy made a real effort to stick with it this time. We visited him often and sometimes stayed with him, but he really did work hard and he started to enjoy it. By the end of the week he graduated from the baby slopes to going up the rope tow and skiing down the bigger slopes.

He's such a skinny kid that skiing is really hard work for him - just managing to brake/plough is hard for him. Despite that, he managed both morning sessions and half of the two-hour afternoon session. After that, we headed inside for a warm drink and some drawing. Benjy loves drawing and will spend an hour happily doing so.

We were lucky to have a week of excellent skiing conditions and Blake and I really got to do some decent skiing. It was awesome!

Flynn's skiing improved amazingly through the week and he is really doing well. He happily skis the red slopes and he and I went for a great half-hour ski run from the top of the mountain to the bottom. It was so fun to be able to properly ski with him and not be worrying whether he will be able to handle the trickier bits.

Flynn's ski school class had a race and you should have seen him go! I was so proud.

Back at the hotel there was plenty to keep the kids occupied. A playground outdoors, a trampoline, and indoor play area and a games area (pool table, fussball table). There was also a great swimming pool which we were in each day.

Despite a shaky start, we had a great week and loved the skiing.