Wengen?

Funny - big snow fall in the Alps and tour operator prices have rocketed!

Best deals I can currently find for early March are £600 catered chalets in Les Arcs/La Plagne, £538 catered chalet hotel in Courmayeur (enough to interest me there?), £659 chalet hotel in St Anton (been twice before, gets a bit busy for my buddys liking), La Thuile £562 HB, £450 Passo Tonale (again enough to interest me?), or we are talking around £1100 club med in Les Arcs, Cervinia or Chamonix (not sure about being able to access all the areas in Cham without a car or using lots of buses?)
Or I can get a cheap chalet hotel in Le Corbier £399 but the companies food is pretty dire so probably a non starter.

Have to say I am warming to the idea of Les Arcs.

....well I was until I read the online reviews of the Club Med, which don't make good reading at all. So, thats off the list!
Cervinia is a good option and I have dismissed Courmayeur.
I reckon we are going to sit tight until prices come down again nearer our departure. I am not very good at being patient though......

Have you dismissed La Thuile from your shortlist, Tone? I liked it, a bigger ski area than it looks on the map (get a French one from La Rosiere, the Italian map is crap) and very easy away days to Courmayeur and Pila (neither of which would suit you, or me for that matter, for a week).

Les Arcs is the most expensive resort I have ever been to. I think it was €279 for the ski pass and about €8 per pint.
Mountain is ok but there is an awful lot of blue pistes that are basically just roads linking different areas of the mountain, pain in the arse polling along these.
The link to La Plagne is great though and I preferred the skiing there too.
Cervinia is great but there's not enough for a week of you ski full days.
Haven't been to La Thuile but will be there in 29 days.

Tony for skiing I would regard La Plagne as being right up there, especially for a mileage hound like yourself. I would prefer La Plagne to Les Arcs as I think it has a far better selection of runs, including some lovely tree-lined runs to neighbouring valleys. The link to Les Arcs is really impressive with the double decker cablecar but the link also involves several other chairs so quite a time commitment to get between the two :roll:

I was really disappointed with pisting last time I was there. We were there for New Year's week and on the Thursday night, there was a big dump. However, as it was the end of that week and the following week was a really quiet week, they didn't seem to be making any great effort to get the resort open again quickly, apart from a few baby runs so that the insurance wouldn't have to pay out :evil:. As a result, we had very little skiing on our last day :twisted:.

As for prices, it is France :!: I have gotten completely fed up being ripped off. There are only so many times when you can fork out €20+ for 4 hot chocolates :roll:. Now I look pretty exclusively at Austria and Italy for my ski trips - great skiing and far better value all round :wink:

Gareth Fair wrote:Les Arcs is the most expensive resort I have ever been to. I think it was €279 for the ski pass and about €8 per pint.
Mountain is ok but there is an awful lot of blue pistes that are basically just roads linking different areas of the mountain, pain in the arse polling along these.
The link to La Plagne is great though and I preferred the skiing there too.
Cervinia is great but there's not enough for a week of you ski full days.
Haven't been to La Thuile but will be there in 29 days.

Interesting Gareth, thanks. I hate those kind of runs, they basically don't count as far as I am concerned. Someone I know went to Les Arcs a few years ago. He is a really bad skier, timid is an understatement, and he said he loved the place. Thats probably enough of a warning for me, coupled with your opinion. La Plagne does sound better. Thanks for the heads up.

LOTA wrote:Have you dismissed La Thuile from your shortlist, Tone? I liked it, a bigger ski area than it looks on the map (get a French one from La Rosiere, the Italian map is crap) and very easy away days to Courmayeur and Pila (neither of which would suit you, or me for that matter, for a week).

No, I most certainly have not. In fact I have been toying with a week at the Planibel for some time now. I need it to drop in price though. Currently its around £350 self catering, or £560 half board. We haven't been self catering for years and don't really intend to, as the lower prices are based on 4 sharing an apt there, and its 2 couples going who would prefer their own space.
But the area looks interesting, its the Italian side rather than La Rosiere, and I have heard good things including your views. Plus the day trip to Courmayeur would be a definite as well.

I personally wouldn't choose the Planibel; a bit to Eastern bloc for my tastes. The Boton D'Or or the Du Glacier are much better options. I was going the first week in March to the Boton D'Or (good price on Booking.com) until I won my Swiss trip! I'd recommend B&B in La Thuile; excellent choice of quality yet very good value restuarants.