A year in Europe with kids... where would you go?

[bmoon]

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.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Join the army and get stationed in Garmisch and your kids are in!

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.

[AmmergauerTele]

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.

[funkendrenchman]

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 3rd

[BFD]

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

[rod9301]

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

[gaijin]

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.

[banzai]

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

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.

Maybe try to find part-time work for EU based charity?

[AmmergauerTele]

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.

[McDee]

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.

[lesssismore]

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...

[subtle plague]

Wow! Subtle suggesting verb? What did Franken do to you??.

I have seen the light and truly believe it's the best area/ mountain town in the world!

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]

[alpinevibes]

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...

Funny you should mention that: I've been given the hard sell to come work at Leysin.

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?

[grskier]

Join the army and get stationed in Garmisch and your kids are in!

I thought it was open at one point to non military brat kids, but maybe I totally missed that.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

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.

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.

[funkendrenchman]

Thanks for all the responses. Keep it coming.

I was reading some responses on another forum and Chamonix was suggested. I'm familiar with the area, but not sure how school would work.

[skaredshtles]

How are planning to manage the visa/work logistics?

[PNWbrit]

not sure how school would work.

Other pupils and teachers speak French.

Your kids don't understand anything that's being said.

[alpinevibes]

Thanks for all the responses. Keep it coming.

I was reading some responses on another forum and Chamonix was suggested. I'm familiar with the area, but not sure how school would work.

Talk to the Sister Cities people if you’re looking at Cham. Between that and the patrol exchange there’s a good back and forth between here and there

[vendul]

I don't think money is a problem, then: St.Moritz. It's the only ski resort in Europe that I know of where you have lakes, mountains, altitude, great skiing, glaciers, a town feeling with even museums, art galleries and a casino... all of this without even using a car. Most people that don't agree on this is because they can't (or don't want to) afford it.
It might not be the perfect place to have a pure skiing holiday, but it's as close as it gets to the perfect place to live in the mountains.

[Peruvian]

I think the OP has some research to do on Visa options. Schengen Zone is not an open border for US citizens (particularly for work).

[schindlerpiste]

The answer to the OP is Hindelang/Obersdorf, Germany. It hits all criteria. The Allgaü is a very special place

[ironhippy]

The employer may also be a problem. I had a buddy who spent 6 months preparing to work abroad (he was working 100% remote at the time) and his boss and their boss had it all approved and supported it.

The week before he went, he tried to update his IT stuff and that got flagged by upper management and he was denied. He thought he had approval months in advance.

[Buster Highmen]

Thanks for all the responses. Keep it coming.

I was reading some responses on another forum and Chamonix was suggested. I'm familiar with the area, but not sure how school would work.

Here's a link to the elementary schools in Briancon: https://www.ville-briancon.fr/vie-pr...enfance/ecoles where you could make enquiries.

Obviously, there's a bunch of work to do regarding visas and school for your kids. As a parent, I think it's an awesome opportunity for your kids if you can thread the diplomatic needles.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

He's doing this backwards as others have noted. First thread on TGR should have been: Anybody figured out how to work remotely in Yurp for a year?

Doing research on places you can't go seems weird to me. And speaking of weird, how come the "i" before "e" rule doesn't work with "weird"?