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What would be your top picks that meet most or all of the following?
- Skiing is a must. Both kids are strong skiers. I love skiing with them, but a program option would be great.
- Reliable snow (for Europe)
- Skiing and mountain biking access from our accommodation.
- Kid friendly mountain bike trails would be a bonus.
- Nordic skiing and possibly a kids nordic ski program.
- Reliable internet.
- Kids are elementary age.
- English is our only language.
- Both kids would be attending school
Geneva. No skiing or mtb access from your accommodation though but your family will be very bored to spend one year in a ski resort town in Europe. You‘ll need international schools as well.
Bolzano. Because Dolomites. :D
Some of my mom's younger cousins did Switzerland like 10 years ago and I think it was great and the kids are better for it.
But it is highly dependent on your employment/visa situation. They did it via a job rotation at the multinational company he worked for which made the arrangements. The swiss are fairly persnickety about outsiders.
We have an American friend who is working in Geneva now and I think her husband is basically working under the table (despite having recent swiss heritage and family in the area!) because he can't get work authorization. His wife would have to have the equivalent of a green card for him to be granted an automatic work permit...and those are harder to get in Switzerland than the US even if she planned to stay forever.
They'll be fine. We live in a resort town. No way we're moving to a big city.Quote:
Originally Posted by roQer
Both of us would be working remotely.Quote:
Originally Posted by singlesline
Exciting! Good for you guys.
Briancon/Serre Chevalier/Via Lattea/La Grave all within 30 minutes.
Chur/Arosa-Lenzerheide/Klosters/Davos easy train/bus access in an hour + a ton more and easy access to Silvretta/Montafon. Even Klosters or Davos as well. Under the radar great skiing.
Luzern/Engelberg/all the outsane farmers lifts up around Haldigrat/Fell. Engelberg is big enough by itself and maybe you'll run into some mags there.
Innsbruck (never been, but looks super cool)
St. Moritz - it's what Aspen tries to be. Nutblowing skiing.
Andermatt is tiny but great skiing and has some kid resources,
International schools limit the options?`You don't have one in most mountains towns i guess?Quote:
Originally Posted by funkendrenchman
I'd say snow predictability and terrainwise NW switzerland. Lausanne/ Geneva have the schools but you spend time in traffic and muy muy expensivo.
For a true mountain village in NW Switz: Lötschental is small but nice and has a elementary school in town (though definitely not English speaking :D ). Loads of snow. Outside holidays and weekends its basically deserted. Good but not death defiying terrain. Gets toasted in spring though because of southern exposure.
If you work remote and home school, i would not go full French Hautes Alpes because its pretty far from everything and La Grave area is not super snow sure.
Resort town: As much as i hate the crowds i'd say Verbier isn't too bad because of many english speaking ex pats (with kids? no idea about school) and as an American the crowds might not seem that bad. Expensive as fuck as all the rich swiss guys from lausanne /geneva have second homes there and the internationals also bathe in champaign. But if you're used to Aspen that might still seem cheap?
German (speaking, not culture! they are really really thourough on that distinction!) Switzerland can work nicely and Luzern is only 25min (if yo're in a hurry) from Engelberg and 45 from Andermatt or 1h from the south side if it dumps there. School options( i guess...i have no idea). But also expensive. Engelberg itself has a pretty well regarded sport school, so you could actually live there. nice Mountain town. I have no idea how English students would fare and i think its Middle school and above only, i think (I looked it up.. there is a private school and the sport school, but i think only a normal swiss German elementary school).
Best terrain an snow in northern switz, but crowded. If you know your way around you can have still fun until 12:30. Hell..... even i still go there and i hate crowds.
Moritz probably has ex pats but only super expensive boarding schools around and is a gamble snowwise. I would not recommend that.
Innsbruck is crowded as fuck with very good skiers. I'd say probably the most American area crowdwise. Unless you're klar and tour exclusively i would not recommend it.
Davos should have school options( i guess? definitely german speaking elementary for free, but they also have this: https://www.samd.ch/en/school/primarschule. edit i see its only grade 5/6 so no real elementary ). Real mountain town. Good Biking in town. Skiing is good snow is semi reliable, though always less than in Engelberg. German speaking area. Pretty low key crowd wise.
I found this school:
https://garmischems.dodea.edu/
last time I thought of doing something similar
Martigny is not so pretty, but access to Verbier (30 minutes) and Cham (1 hour 45 minutes) is easy
We (me, wife, 2 kids) are doing next summer in Bourg Saint Maurice, France.
Reasons:
1) the bike access there is incredible. A Funi and lots of lifts and buses to get you around the valley and up high. I don't mind pedaling, but I'd rather bump up high then ride from there than spend all day climbing from valley bottom. This factor ruled out most of Italy for us. There's pretty limited summer access at most of the Italian riding destinations.
2) It's semi reasonably priced. Switzerland has a lot of awesome options, but they're much, much more expensive.
3) It's a normal-ish (small) town. A lot of the resort towns feel pretty artificial. They're relatively newly constructed and they only exist for tourism. That can be nice for a short stay, but it's not really where I want to spend an extended period. Bourg has real grocery stores and stuff to do that's not just overpriced activities geared towards tourists.
4) Train access. A train into town means it's pretty easy to go on short trips to wherever. Also opens up cool riding options that involve finishing with a train ride back home.
Since we're just there for the summer, skiing isn't a factor for us. I haven't skied it, but Les Arcs sounds ok? Tignes / Val d'isere up valley sound better.
The problem is: Skiing in Gap is slighjtly underwhelming. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by grskier
The ski areas are top notch, but you spend time in traffic. It's really far from Tignes to St. Maurice, especially if it snows. But I agree Les arcs and rosiere are basically in town. Did you find english speaking schools in France? That is unheard of :DQuote:
Originally Posted by toast2266
We didn't really pay attention to schools. Partly because we're only there for the summer, and partly because my kids will just be turning 5, so no school yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by subtle plague
Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
But do you have a solution to do that legally?Quote:
Originally Posted by funkendrenchman
Switzerland (and most other countries) aren't going to let you stay for a year on a tourist visa. And definitely don't tell them you are working remotely at the border...they might not let you in (although it is europe...they might not even talk to you at the border).
Some countries like Portugal make it easier--but they don't really meet your requirements. France might be an option as they have some working visas that allow up to a year.
that sounds awesome!Quote:
Originally Posted by toast2266
This.Quote:
Originally Posted by singlesline
And at the OP
Also highly doubtful you'll get away with this.Quote:
Both kids would be attending school
"Oh you're here probably illegally overstaying a tourist visa and you want us to educate your kids while you work remotely? Of course, no problem sir!"
Edit: "can we also interest your family in some of our most excellently socialized medicine?"
^^^ I was wondering this. Good luck.
It would likely be more like 6 months than a full year. How difficult is it to get a visa to work there remotely for 6 months?Quote:
Originally Posted by PNWbrit
Sorry, I was confused by your thread title's ambiguity in this regard.Quote:
Originally Posted by funkendrenchman
Depends on where the "there" is.
Anything from impossible - thru possible if done illicitly - up to perhaps maybe.
They want you to leave in 90 days…
fact.
This. 90 days in any 6m period, at least in the Schengen zone.Quote:
Originally Posted by m2711c
Use the "digital nomad" search term. Some countries are much easier (like Portugal which is practically begging for productive people to come) and others are basically impossible (like Switzerland where you need a local company to hire you and specifically justify exactly why they are hiring you and not a native).Quote:
Originally Posted by funkendrenchman
France or Germany might be doable as long as you are doing this with your remote employer's full blessing and they will cooperate/provide documentation.
For schools, you probably need to be somewhere with some sort of "International School" ($$$$) which limits your town choices a lot...you're not gonna be enrolling your english speaking kids in local public schools.
Join the army and get stationed in Garmisch and your kids are in!Quote:
Originally Posted by grskier
Briancon sounds like a good choice for the majority of your needs. Good road and mtb riding. Decent, (sometimes great) skiing nearby. Good xc ski team as well.
Other honorable mentions would be Bourg St Maurice. Actually, I'd probably put it on par with Briancon thinking about it.
Multiple places in the Dolomites would be excellent for the biking and xc skiing, but can be limited to more groomer skiing at times snow wise.
Can PM me if you want more details but i'm us citizen currently going through Swiss visa process. I was naive and expected a rubber stamp.
It's very painful even with a large legal budget. With a family and 12-month stay, almost no chance you can do illegally.
I was going to mention this. You can't send your kids to DoDEA schools unless you are working for the military or, in some cases, the embassy.Quote:
Originally Posted by beer30
My kids went to Garmisch Elementary School for a couple years in grades 2nd-4th. Great memories. Wonderful Wednesday afternoon PE class was held at Garmisch Classic for skiing for all the kids. Garmisch is a really good town to be out of.....skiing in Garmisch is average. Lots of biking, hiking, some touring. Down the street in Erhwald Valley is decent. Some good tree skiing at Lermoos. You would be about 90 minutes to.....St. Anton, Ischgl, Pitztal, Solden just a bit further.
What grades are your kids, I may have missed it.
1st and 3rdQuote:
Originally Posted by AmmergauerTele
Don't know much about this. My friends did Bormio for a year and took trips to Croatia to get around the schengen issue. Was a few years ago so might be different
We spent 4 years in the French Pyrenees, kid were 5 and 7, when we started, they went to French schools and are now fluent.
Skiing was incredible if you like steep couloirs.
We got long term visas, for one year, then renewed them. No problem.
Sent from my moto g 5G using Tapatalk
I tried getting a teaching job at a bunch of these schools and they all laughed at my American passport. Nope. It had to be EU. This was 14 years ago, maybe things have changed.
https://www.international-schools-da...ry/switzerland
/subscribing to this thread.
Well after 90 days in Bormio, they would need to spend the next 90 days in Croatia to re-enter for further 90 days in Italy and so on. Also, Croatia is in Schengen now, so one would need to chill in the UK, Bosnia or Serbia for 90 days to reset Schengen entry.Quote:
Originally Posted by BFD
Maybe try to find part-time work for EU based charity?
With kids that age you probably don't need the biggest ski area - some of the smaller ones can be quite nice as quieter, more manageable with kids, close to where you live. Then make trips to the big ones you want to hit - we skied Lermoos and Erhwald, Austria quite a bit. Sprinkled in trips to bigger ones in Austria - Solden, Obergurgl, Pitztal (early season), St. Anton, Ischgl, Stubai, Hintertux (late season and mid-summer), Dolomites, couple in France. We rarely skied bell to bell when my kids were those ages.
Wow! Subtle suggesting verb? What did Franken do to you??
On a serious note, If you can sort the visa stuff out: Innsbruck. If English is the only language you'd probably have the least problems here. Italiens don't speak it as much and the French hate speaking anything but French. I don't know how the Swiss are though.
Pros:
-There's 2 international schools, one is from 3yrs -10. Can't vouch for quality as it seems prior English is not a prerequisite, and don't know the costs.
- Big Town with restaurants, hospital, Docs, shopping, travel hub with motorway, bus and rail etc.
- lots of skiing in close proximity. Glacier is ~1 hrs by car/bus so season starts early and goes late for Austria.
- Season ticket for local resorts is 730€ currently pre sale in october. Expect ~50€ increase each year, which is still cheap as chips compared to US prices? Check out Freizeit Ticket. There's been a change in regs, you don't have to be a permanent resident anymore to buy it.
-I don't think it's massively crowded, there are so many resorts in close proximity here, it spreads out during the week. Weekends and holidays have become a lot busier over the years though. Except Nordkette, that will get crazy when it's in no matter what day of the week.
-italy and Germany borders are literally 30-45 min car drive away if you want to travel around.
Cons:
- Rent is expensive in IBK, one of the most expensive places in Austria.
- it's a University Town so not exactly village life.
-Nordkette and Patcherkofel are the only ski areas which are basically in town (Town buses take you to the lifts). The rest needs a little travel time. Climate change has ment these 2 and other lower lying areas have struggled with snow cover the last couple of years.
-crowds of German students competing for pow even on week days, lazy buggers skip uni to go skiing. What are they thinking.
Have a look around Leysin region. It's not the greatest place for skiing (however it's great for kids), but it's 20min far from Glacier 3000. It's ticking all the other points: boarding school (Leysin, Villars...), biking...
I have seen the light and truly believe it's the best area/ mountain town in the world!Quote:
Originally Posted by McDee
Uh........no. I still hate it with every fiber of my being but if you don't mind crowds and kind of need English expats who have a family and aren't bums ( rules out cham and La grave [emoji6]) I guess it ain't bad? The terrain is good. Or at least it was 22 years ago when I was there last ( and waited 1 fucking hour for the mont fort tram....in 2002. You had walk on trams in Engelberg and andermatt back then....on a weekend).
Recommending ski areas is a lot like sucking cocks. Different strokes for Different folks. [emoji3]
Funny you should mention that: I've been given the hard sell to come work at Leysin.Quote:
Originally Posted by lesssismore
We, like Funken, are considering going abroad with our kids in the next year or two. Our initial plan is to move to and work in Spain - hopefully Girona - and forego immediate ski access. But the potential job offer from Leysin is intriguing and that area checks a lot of boxes. But for me, after 13 years working in a school in the mountains, I'm not sure that's my number one job desire for a year abroad. But beggars can't be choosers when the choosing's good, right?
I thought it was open at one point to non military brat kids, but maybe I totally missed that.Quote:
Originally Posted by beer30
Spent a Christmas week in Lermoos. It was great. Skied with my 2.5 year old daughter in a pack on my back. We had a blast.Quote:
Originally Posted by AmmergauerTele