Family fun and gourmet food are just two of the benefits of holidaying this season with Meriski, the luxury catered chalet operator in Méribel in the French Alps.

Family fun

Families will find there’s even more fun for kids at the child-friendly resort of Méribel this year. The Inuit Village, a new children’s ski area, has just opened on the Louveteaux piste, with Inuit-themed games and a course full of whoops, banked turns and slaloms. Meanwhile, Moon Wild!, a nature trail for little ones and their parents to follow on skis and learn about mountain animals, has been improved. The piste now has a more accessible starting point beneath the Dent de Burgin chairlift, and extra footprints and life-sized animal sculptures have been hidden among the pines, with information boards providing a guide to the plants and creatures of the surrounding woods.

Other child-friendly mountainside attractions include P’tit Moon, for seven- to 12-year-olds, a mini-boardercross with banked turns. Meanwhile, in town, there’s an Olympic-size swimming pool with waterslide, ice rink, cinema and bowling alley.

Meriski is the only chalet operator in the resort with a dedicated crèche, which is run by qualified nannies, who are also available for private bookings. The company offers a holiday club, MeriKids, for six- to 12-year-olds, in the school holidays. Plus, there’s a daily ski school collection service. In the chalets, toboggans, CD players and iPod docking stations, TVs and DVD players, books, music and DVD libraries, Nintendo Wiis, toys and game boxes are all laid on. Internet access is free, too. A supervised high tea is served for children at 6pm each day, allowing adults some grown-up time.

Gourmet dining

Meriski has also been building on its formidable reputation for gourmet dining on the slopes this season by appointing a team of rising stars to the kitchens of its luxury chalets in Méribel. The young chefs will serve food to a minimum 2 AA Rosette standard – Meriski’s quality benchmark – and offer the rare flexibility of no set menus.

The chefs are all aged under 23 yet have already gained excellent experience in some of Britain’s top kitchens.

They include Alastair Thornton, previously of Michelin-starred Simpsons in Birmingham, and Laurence Henry, who has worked for Gordon Ramsay’s Maze. Victoria Onions trained at Le Cordon Bleu cookery school in Paris and has worked as a private chef as well as a home economist on TV shows including Masterchef and The Great British Bake Off.

At the start of the season, Meriski invited Ben Hoggett, formerly a chef at Bibendum in London, who now runs the New Wave Fish Shop in Cirencester, to visit the team in the French Alps and advise on sourcing and cooking fish, which is not widely available in the mountains.

Meriski manages eight chalets, including Mont Tremblant (dining room pictured above), a new lodge for 2014 offering superb accommodation for 12 guests, with one of the very few private outdoor heated swimming pools available in Méribel in winter. All chalets come with a dedicated host and chef. Breakfast, afternoon tea, a four-course dinner with canapés and a glass of fizz on six nights, as well as complimentary wine, beer and soft drinks, are all included, while bathrooms feature L’Occitane toiletries. Guests also have access to a luxury chauffeur service in the resort, which runs from 8am to 10pm daily.

Chalets are available from £4,950 in total for exclusive use and £499 per person for split bookings per week. Whole-chalet bookings are being offered at a 15 per cent discount for the week beginning 30 March for all properties with availability. There is also still availability for the Easter school holidays, with split bookings in Impala Lodge from £995 per adult and £895 per child, per week. Prices exclude travel to and from the resort, for ultimate flexibility. Guests can purchase lift passes in the comfort of their chalet through the Meriski rep.

To book, call 01285 648518 or visit www.meriski.co.uk

Follow Meriski on Twitter @meriskimole and at Facebook.com/meriski

To view a short video of the Meriski offering, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw78N488TOo

For further information, to request images, or to enquire about press visits, please contact Little Black Book Creative: Simone Kane on 07811 161839 and simone@lbbcreative.co.uk, or Kate Simon on 07939 526109 and kate@lbbcreative.co.uk.

Notes to editors: Meriski has been providing accommodation in Méribel for more than 25 years. Since a management takeover in 2008 by Ruth Gallop, former marketing director for Luxury Family Hotels and a current director of Congham Hall Hotel in Norfolk, and Huw Davies, former operations manager for Abercrombie & Kent, the company has built a reputation for fine service and excellent food. Chalets are chosen for their superb aspect and luxurious interiors and staffed by friendly and efficient hosts. Chefs are handpicked for their flair and passion for food, and all have worked in establishments producing dishes to a minimum 2 AA Rosette standard.