Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Skiing holiday
Options
-
09-01-2015 8:52pm#1
Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
-
-
Hi Chesty (beware very long post),
So I take from your post that you never skied before. Val Thorens may not be the best place for you. It offers great pistes, guarantees great snow thanks to the very high elevation but, outside the fantastic views you get from the top, its main interest lies in its red and black pistes (a couple of great blue ones on the Orelle side too).
If you choose France (I'll only be able to give you advice for there) I'd suggest a smaller and cheaper resort. Then it also depends on what you're really looking for. I guess with a child you don't need a particularly dynamic après-ski. You'll find good restaurants pretty much everywhere.
Coupling guaranteed snow with familly-oriented resorts and price, I'll suggest you to try the Maurienne valley (just south of Tarentaise where all the famous French ski resorts are, e.g. 3 valleys, La Plagne-les Arcs, Tigne-Val d'Isère). From bottom to top and West to East:Valmeinier-Valloire is a good value one. Been there last year and found it great. Valmeinier is the village side, Valloire is the town-side. Great scenery from the top. Possibility of good hikes too. Pistes are well distributed. You can go to each summit and find both easy and tough pistes. And as I already said it's great value: ~150 km ski area over 90 pistes for 37.5€ (full price) a day. That's one of the best value daily skipass I've come across in France.Most of these resorts are easily accessible from Grenoble airport via motorways up to Modane (you get out in St Michel de Maurienne for Valmeinier-Valloire) and then a good road even up to Bonneval/Arc (though avalanches sometimes cut the road between Bessans & Bonneval, the last 2 villages of the valley). By the way, Bessans is great for nordic skiing and biathlon.
If you have a car, you can drive a half-hour to Orelle and go skiing in Val Thorens one day using the very long Orelle gondola (but again if you're complete beginners you may not enjoy it fully).
Aussois, much smaller (21 pistes over a 55 km ski area, daily skipass: 27.5€ full price) is a traditionnal savoyard village. Ideal for a familly.
Val Cenis, is also a great familly-oriented resort. 125km (think this number is a bit exaggerated) ski area over 57 pistes for 34€ a day full price. It's a beautiful place though spread over 3 typical mountain villages.It offers the possibility to ski once in every other single Haute-Maurienne ski resorts (bus included in the skipass) with the Eski-Mo skipass. From the very end of the valley, Bonneval/Arc listed village among the most beautiful in France (the only one of the valley not destroyed during WWII) to the surroundings of Modane (Maurienne motorway end unless you take the Fréjus tunnel towards Italy - and "entrance" into Haute-Maurienne) with Valfréjus, Aussois, and higher up La Norma.
In the Southern Alps, there are also good value resorts.Les Orres, close to Gap is a good one. Not as nice a village than the ones I mentionned above (a more classical 1970 resort) but a great ski offer: about 37 pistes over a 100km skiing area with a good share of easy and tough pistes for a 34€ daily skipass full price. They also had the great idea to design their pistes such that everyone can enjoy a long scenic descent from top to bottom (over 1000m height difference) with a beginners way on one side of the resort and an advanced one on the other side. The view is fantastic over the Ecrins massif and the Serre-Ponçon lake.
Orcières-Merlette is a similar 1970 era resort (close to Gap too) about the same size. 100 km skiing area over 50 pistes for 33€ a day full price. Maybe not as well "arranged" than les Orres. But it does offer a super view from the top and also has a great piste from top to bottom that everyone can take (coloured red but mainly due to its lenght than its difficulty). Located in the Champsaur valley, it also gives you the possibility to choose a much smaller resort (15-25 pistes for ~18-20€ full price a day I'd say) in a more traditionnal moutain village: Laye, Chaillol, Ancelle & Saint-Léger les Mélèzes. They're all fairly close to each other (just don't stay in Laye since it's the most "offset" one) and change resorts each day. Just forget about Serre-Eyraud which is a tiny resort that offers steep technical and often icy pistes. You'd need a car though since I'm not sure there's a good bus service.I learned to ski in Chaillol so I know extremely well the area. The small resorts are great for a familly and for beginners, though it can be quite packed if you go there during French holidays. But it gets boring when you get more confident on your skis. A couple of years ago, we spent a week in Chaillol and changed resort everyday. Went up to Merlette one day and took a day off-ski to snowshoe in the Champoleon valley (it's a preserved resort free valley in between the small resorts & Merlette). We even saw some chamois and alpine ibex from pretty close - proximity with The Ecrins National Park -. Again, it depends what you're up to but if you fancy other things than just skiing, this may suits you just fine. It's also significantly cheaper than the bigger resorts.Finally, Vars/Risoul is a good reputation resort. Risoul the moutain village side, Vars the town resort side. It's also great value. 185km skiing area (la Forêt Blanche) over 118 pistes for 38.5€ a day full price. It may be a little big if you never skied before but if you wanna do a full week skiing it's a great place. You should have enough variety over the whole area not to always do the same pistes. I've never been there but heard positive returns from relatives and friends.I do not dare mentionning Serre Chevalier (Briançon iconic resort) since I personally find it too big (too good shall I say
Montgenèvre may also be a very nice spot (on the French/Italian border, a few kms away from Briançon). Gives you the possibility to ski in Claviere & Cesana, Italy, too. Between 95 & 110 kms over 76 & 82 pistes for 37€ & 39.5€ full price a day respectively. You do have the possibilty to link with Sestriere and many other Italian resorts via the Vialattea (400 km skiing area) skipass but probably not interesting for beginners.
) for beginners. I mean you'll pay for the amazing 250km skiing area (48.5€ full price a day) but you'd only be able to enjoy half of it. Though to be fair they offer great blue slopes from most summits but they'd be long and quite demanding for a beginner. It's also a famous resort, Luc Alphand home town, and you'll pay for it. That said, while searching for my own skiing holiday this year, I came across great accomodation deals in Chantemerle (one of "Serre Che" village).
There's certainly plenty other ones but I listed the ones I know well enough to give you a decent feedback. For example, Haute-Savoie has well-known resorts with good inter-connected skiing area but I don't know them very well and Haute-Savoie has the reputation to be a bit expensive. To use a caricature it's the Ballsbridge of French Alps (:p :pac:). Le Grand Bornand & La Clusaz are probably the best value single domains available (respectively 33.5€ & 36€ full price a day for 44 pistes over a 83 km skiing area & 84 pistes over a 125 km skiing area respectively). They're actually very good value! You have the possibility to interconnect them too (both resorts are close by) through the Aravis skiing area (210 km) skipass (72€ for 2 days). Free bus between the resorts. The main problem is these resorts are fairly low in elevation (down to 1000m only in Le Grand Bornand).
-
To summarise this endless post, I'd say pay attention to the French schools holidays and the resorts elevation (particularly if you book a long time in advance). To avoid French holidays, go in January! It'll be cheaper and much less crowded. For the elevation/location and thus the quality of the snow, favour the Maurienne resorts from my post. That said, this year was quite exceptional with so many resorts having a blank Christmas holiday (bar the big Savoie resorts from Tarentaise). Taking this year as an example, if you wanna be safe snow-wise, end of January/very beginning of February (French holidays generally start the second or third week of February) should do it for you
.
Finally, depending where you land and if you'll rent a car or use train/bus services, some resorts will suit better than others. As a quick example and I realise I did not mention it, Chamrousse is a decent mid-size resort (90 km skiing area over 40 pistes for a 33.5€ full price daily pass) right on top of Grenoble. I did not mention it since it could be quite crowded. Very quick and direct access from Grenoble, which contains a big university campus.0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement