Back a week now from our first ever family ski holiday, and we were very happy with our choice of Alpe d'Huez. For myself, my husband and our daughter (19) it was a first time to ski (just lessons on dry slopes beforehand), our 17 year old son is a good intermediate.
We had morning lessons booked with ESF, son was in Class 2 with a bunch of 8 teenagers, probably could have managed Class 3 easily enough, but because the group got on so well was happy to stay with them. They carried on skiing together after lunch, went ice-skating etc and had a great time.
For our daughter we were a bit sorry we hadn't booked snowboarding lessons instead as she might have met somone nearer her age, surprisingly our beginners class of 12 was all nearer husband's and my age! We booked a private snowboarding lesson for daughter and son on the last day and they really enjoyed that.
The ESF instructor we had, a guy called Stephane C, couldn't have been nicer. On one of the days he got us to climb over to a quiet spot and pulled out 2 bottles of wine, cold meats & cheeses & bread, and we had a fantastic lunch on the snow!
Snow quality wasn't great, but we knew that we were lucky to have any at all at this time of year.
Overall, we were pretty happy with prices in Alpe d'Huez, certainly we were amazed at how cheaply (compared to Dublin) skiwear could be bought. Restaurant prices were reasonable too, although as we were on half board in the Royal Ours Blanc hotel, we didn't get to sample too many places. We did decide that next holiday won't be half board for that reason!
As it appears we've been bitten by the skiing bug, I hope to be able to pick up lots of tips on this board, and if anyone has any questions about Alpe d'Huez, I'd happily try to answer them!
Sandra
Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez
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Started by TreeTiger in France 07-Jan-2007 - 7 Replies
TreeTiger posted Jan-2007
J0E
reply to 'Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez' posted Jan-2007
Good stuff 8)
I was in Oz (satellite village near Alpe d'Huez) in Christmas '05 and it was freezing, the corners of my eyes were starting to freeze as we were in stupidly cold temperatures with the wind chill.
Got some good skiing done, and saw some ice sculptures and other sites (was pretty 'strange' going on the lift under the runway!).
Glad you had a goodun!
Joe :)
I was in Oz (satellite village near Alpe d'Huez) in Christmas '05 and it was freezing, the corners of my eyes were starting to freeze as we were in stupidly cold temperatures with the wind chill.
Got some good skiing done, and saw some ice sculptures and other sites (was pretty 'strange' going on the lift under the runway!).
Glad you had a goodun!
Joe :)
Gareth Fair
reply to 'Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez' posted Jan-2007
Hi,
Sounds like you had a really good holiday and you have been bitten by the bug!
What was the hotel like??I am going there in 3 weeks with 15 people so would love to hear what the food is like and any other info you could tell me.
Thanks,Gareth.
P.S. I'm a Dub too and everywhere is cheap compared to here!! :)
Sounds like you had a really good holiday and you have been bitten by the bug!
What was the hotel like??I am going there in 3 weeks with 15 people so would love to hear what the food is like and any other info you could tell me.
Thanks,Gareth.
P.S. I'm a Dub too and everywhere is cheap compared to here!! :)
When in doubt?....Flat out.
Gareth Fair
reply to 'Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez' posted Jan-2007
Hi,
Sounds like you had a really good holiday and you have been bitten by the bug!
What was the hotel like??I am going there in 3 weeks with 15 people so would love to hear what the food is like and any other info you could tell me.
Thanks,Gareth.
P.S. I'm a Dub too and everywhere is cheap compared to here!! :)
Sounds like you had a really good holiday and you have been bitten by the bug!
What was the hotel like??I am going there in 3 weeks with 15 people so would love to hear what the food is like and any other info you could tell me.
Thanks,Gareth.
P.S. I'm a Dub too and everywhere is cheap compared to here!! :)
When in doubt?....Flat out.
TreeTiger
reply to 'Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez' posted Jan-2007
Hi Gareth,
If all 15 of you are staying in the Royal Ours Blanc I?m sure you?ll have great fun! We found the atmosphere in the dining room a bit boring, but there were only 4 of us, and the other guests (French, British & Irish) generally kept to themselves. The five course dinners were very good, but we found that sitting there for 2 ½ hours after a long day kind of wore us out, so we went out one of the nights for a change (to Lounge 21, which had really fantastic food). There was a vegetable soup starter, then a first course followed by a second (a choice out of about 5 dishes in each case), then cheese - 2 slices of whichever you wanted out of about 8 - followed by dessert then coffee. The food was magnificently presented, everything looked beautiful. My daughter and I are vegetarian and we felt we lost out a bit because of that, but by the end of the week we were getting beautiful salads for our first course (which we asked to have served with the second course). We didn?t try the coffee in the evenings as the coffee at breakfast was nothing to write home about. Wine was dear enough, we went for a South African white at around ?20 a bottle. They charge ?6 for a large bottle of water. (Oh, and to warn you about the bar, ?6 for a 330ml bottle of beer! We either drank shop bought stuff in our room or went out, particularly liking the Hotel Les Gentianes around the corner, ?6 for beer + wine by the open fire!)
Breakfast was a different kettle of fish to dinner, it was pretty tiresome by the end of the week. Grapefruit or orange juice, a couple of cereals, mini croissants, scrambled eggs sometimes, cold meat & cheese, sometimes some thin slices of hot bacon, yogurt and fruit. Seems like a good choice of stuff, but you?ll know what I mean when you see it! And don?t expect much of the coffee. Also, if you?re into your tea, bring your favourite teabags, as in the hotel they give you a pot of hot water and you choose from the teabags on offer, none of which satisfied my Barrys tea drinking daughter. There is no kettle in the rooms, by the way, and the balconies will keep drinks far colder than the mini bar.
The rooms we had were ok, good size but décor a bit tired, husband and I were in 601 (a ?platinum? room) and son & daughter were in 103 (?gold? room) and to be honest there wasn?t much difference. Our bathroom had a bath with jets and a bidet (if we?d used it we?d have burnt ourselves off the heated towel rail which was hot enough to fry an egg on!). If you have one of these baths throw in a bit of bubble bath, press the button and see what happens :-o The hotel Jacuzzi seems to be permanently out of order by the way. The pool is nice, quite warm. There is a steam room and sauna, neither of which we tried. The gym didn?t appeal to my son who is a reasonably frequent gym user.
If you look at eurogroup-holidays.com and click Destinations ?Hotels ? French Alps? you can read the official blurb and look at 360° pix. The hotel staff are all very nice, mostly English. One is nice but useless. We handed our room key back to reception on the first morning and when I got back in the afternoon the key was gone and all she could do was shrug her shoulders, she hadn?t a clue what to do & told me to come back at 6pm! Luckily Celine arrived and got a housekeeper to let me in while she had new keys made up. I could tell a few more stories but will just simply suggest you go to Celine with any issues you have!
Oops, sorry I got a bit carried away here! :oops: Hope this lot helps anyhow!
Was there anything else? :wink:
Sandra
If all 15 of you are staying in the Royal Ours Blanc I?m sure you?ll have great fun! We found the atmosphere in the dining room a bit boring, but there were only 4 of us, and the other guests (French, British & Irish) generally kept to themselves. The five course dinners were very good, but we found that sitting there for 2 ½ hours after a long day kind of wore us out, so we went out one of the nights for a change (to Lounge 21, which had really fantastic food). There was a vegetable soup starter, then a first course followed by a second (a choice out of about 5 dishes in each case), then cheese - 2 slices of whichever you wanted out of about 8 - followed by dessert then coffee. The food was magnificently presented, everything looked beautiful. My daughter and I are vegetarian and we felt we lost out a bit because of that, but by the end of the week we were getting beautiful salads for our first course (which we asked to have served with the second course). We didn?t try the coffee in the evenings as the coffee at breakfast was nothing to write home about. Wine was dear enough, we went for a South African white at around ?20 a bottle. They charge ?6 for a large bottle of water. (Oh, and to warn you about the bar, ?6 for a 330ml bottle of beer! We either drank shop bought stuff in our room or went out, particularly liking the Hotel Les Gentianes around the corner, ?6 for beer + wine by the open fire!)
Breakfast was a different kettle of fish to dinner, it was pretty tiresome by the end of the week. Grapefruit or orange juice, a couple of cereals, mini croissants, scrambled eggs sometimes, cold meat & cheese, sometimes some thin slices of hot bacon, yogurt and fruit. Seems like a good choice of stuff, but you?ll know what I mean when you see it! And don?t expect much of the coffee. Also, if you?re into your tea, bring your favourite teabags, as in the hotel they give you a pot of hot water and you choose from the teabags on offer, none of which satisfied my Barrys tea drinking daughter. There is no kettle in the rooms, by the way, and the balconies will keep drinks far colder than the mini bar.
The rooms we had were ok, good size but décor a bit tired, husband and I were in 601 (a ?platinum? room) and son & daughter were in 103 (?gold? room) and to be honest there wasn?t much difference. Our bathroom had a bath with jets and a bidet (if we?d used it we?d have burnt ourselves off the heated towel rail which was hot enough to fry an egg on!). If you have one of these baths throw in a bit of bubble bath, press the button and see what happens :-o The hotel Jacuzzi seems to be permanently out of order by the way. The pool is nice, quite warm. There is a steam room and sauna, neither of which we tried. The gym didn?t appeal to my son who is a reasonably frequent gym user.
If you look at eurogroup-holidays.com and click Destinations ?Hotels ? French Alps? you can read the official blurb and look at 360° pix. The hotel staff are all very nice, mostly English. One is nice but useless. We handed our room key back to reception on the first morning and when I got back in the afternoon the key was gone and all she could do was shrug her shoulders, she hadn?t a clue what to do & told me to come back at 6pm! Luckily Celine arrived and got a housekeeper to let me in while she had new keys made up. I could tell a few more stories but will just simply suggest you go to Celine with any issues you have!
Oops, sorry I got a bit carried away here! :oops: Hope this lot helps anyhow!
Was there anything else? :wink:
Sandra
Edited 1 time. Last update at 09-Jan-2007
Boyensy
reply to 'Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez' posted Jan-2007
Hi all,
We also spent xmas there this year, We stayed half board in the "Petit Prince" which is just above the GDE Sure lift to signal, The rooms were ok, very basic and in need of a lick of paint, but its just been taken over by a Dutch company, and they are working on turning it around.
The Restaurant is fantastic, the evening meals were all totally amazing. three courses, presented and cooked like something from Ramseys kitchen, Its open to non guests as well, and the prices are very resonable, although they only do one meal choice per night. Half board, we ate Duck, Salmon, Viel, Steak, Fondu and XMAS dinner of course. We never ate out once it was that good! The bar is comfy and relaxed, has a big open fire and doesnt have ear bursting music, so its good to chill,pool table and table football tucked away at the back... Oh and a Pint was 4euros, which seemed cheaper than all the other bars we went into.
Alpe d huez would of been an awsome resort if there had been snow, we are boarders and hate the groomed pistes at the best of times, let alone when its snow cannon ICE. so after trashing our boards on the rocks and stones, we decided to hike from the lifts, and pick spots that gave good pics, spending the last three days drooping of ledges and rocky faces, often not landing lol but getting some good pics mid air.
It's had some more snow last week, and some forecast for next week too, Im sure you'll have a geat time, deffo if theres 15 of ya,
Cheers, Chris
PS If there is plenty of snow, head down to Oz en Oisans, really fast tees runs, or venture over to L'alpette, its all linked by lift but its less busy and there are some brill reds and blacks.
We also spent xmas there this year, We stayed half board in the "Petit Prince" which is just above the GDE Sure lift to signal, The rooms were ok, very basic and in need of a lick of paint, but its just been taken over by a Dutch company, and they are working on turning it around.
The Restaurant is fantastic, the evening meals were all totally amazing. three courses, presented and cooked like something from Ramseys kitchen, Its open to non guests as well, and the prices are very resonable, although they only do one meal choice per night. Half board, we ate Duck, Salmon, Viel, Steak, Fondu and XMAS dinner of course. We never ate out once it was that good! The bar is comfy and relaxed, has a big open fire and doesnt have ear bursting music, so its good to chill,pool table and table football tucked away at the back... Oh and a Pint was 4euros, which seemed cheaper than all the other bars we went into.
Alpe d huez would of been an awsome resort if there had been snow, we are boarders and hate the groomed pistes at the best of times, let alone when its snow cannon ICE. so after trashing our boards on the rocks and stones, we decided to hike from the lifts, and pick spots that gave good pics, spending the last three days drooping of ledges and rocky faces, often not landing lol but getting some good pics mid air.
It's had some more snow last week, and some forecast for next week too, Im sure you'll have a geat time, deffo if theres 15 of ya,
Cheers, Chris
PS If there is plenty of snow, head down to Oz en Oisans, really fast tees runs, or venture over to L'alpette, its all linked by lift but its less busy and there are some brill reds and blacks.
www
If its windy...Surf, If it's snowing...Board and if its sunny and calm...Jetski. Life's for living
Gareth Fair
reply to 'Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez' posted Jan-2007
Hi Sandra,
thanks a mil for all your info I'm sure it will be a great help.I was in Alpe d'huez on 14th and 15th Dec this year and there was little or no snow so it should :) when we were there so its great to hear from someone who stayed there.
regards,Gareth.
thanks a mil for all your info I'm sure it will be a great help.I was in Alpe d'huez on 14th and 15th Dec this year and there was little or no snow so it should :) when we were there so its great to hear from someone who stayed there.
regards,Gareth.
When in doubt?....Flat out.
Gareth Fair
reply to 'Had a lovely Christmas in Alpe d'Huez' posted Jan-2007
Hi Sandra,
thanks a mil for all your info I'm sure it will be a great help.I was in Alpe d'huez on 14th and 15th Dec this year and there was little or no snow so it should :) when we were there so its great to hear from someone who stayed there.
regards,Gareth.
thanks a mil for all your info I'm sure it will be a great help.I was in Alpe d'huez on 14th and 15th Dec this year and there was little or no snow so it should :) when we were there so its great to hear from someone who stayed there.
regards,Gareth.
When in doubt?....Flat out.
Topic last updated on 09-January-2007 at 21:50