Family ski holidays are great fun but parents need to know they will have some opportunity to get out on the slopes and have some adult ski holiday time whilst knowing that their child is getting good professional childcare.

To help parents select the right ski holiday, Airport Parking and Hotels (APH) have put together a useful table comparing the various childcare age groups, staff qualifications, babysitting services, daytime activities and safety information of five of the UK’s leading tour operators.

The ski operators surveyed are Mark Warner, Thomson Ski, Club Med, Crystal Holidays and Neilson.

Austria’s pretty Wildschönau Valley is already well known for its low prices and is nearly always cheaper than the bigger areas but families have an even bigger saving to make next Easter as from March 27 to April 11 2010, kids aged from 6 to 15 ski for free.

The offer is valid with two adult passes (parents) for a minimum of five days — a six-day adult lift pass costs 156 Euros (about 20–30% cheaper than in the big resorts in the Alps).

The Wildschönau Valley has been popular with Brits for over 50 years, many of whom know the area by the names of individual villages there like Auffach, Oberau and Niederau.

Petter Northug turned on the style to secure 4x10km relay gold for world champions Norway at the World Cup in Beitostoelen.

The 23-year old took over from Ronny Hafsaas for the final leg with more than ten seconds to make up on Germany’s Tobias Angerer and Russia’s Ilia Chernousov.

But world 50km freestyle champion Northug, who finished fourth in the men’s 15km race on Saturday, made light work of the difference and outsprinted Chernousov on the final hill to claim the win in front of a delighted home crowd.

For those people lucky enough to be hitting the slopes this season, booking your ski holiday is just the start of the adventure. Before you even touch any snow there will be much agonising over what kit you should be taking.

So who better to ask than former Winter Olympian, Ski Sunday presenter and an all round British skiing legend?

In this video Graham Bell answers the familiar questions of “glasses or goggles” and “gloves or mitts” as well as talking helmets, thermals, and boots.

The province of Québec is home to one of North America’s top ski resorts — Mont Tremblant. The resort will kick off the 2009 season with early winter’s hottest event ‘The 24h of Tremblant’, which runs from December 11 to 15.

More than 1000 skiers and riders will take up the slopes during the 24 consecutive hours, attempting to repeat last year’s extraordinary feat of raising $1 million (Canadian) for sick and underprivileged children.

In order to better service the growing number of people choosing to shop online and their ever increasing customer base, some of whom are unable to reach our stores, Snow + Rock have undertaken a complete redesign of their website.

A year in the making, Snow + Rock are excited to finally unveil their new website. Everything from backroom stock control to site navigation to an improved faster interface, Snowandrock.com has undergone an extensive makeover! Every element has been carefully considered to enhance the customer’s shopping experience.