Flaine - any hints?

Hiya Justacey,
In my opinion the P an V were the best located of anything in Flaine - seriously. They are at the end of the Foret next to a bar called the Dutchman from memory. If snow is good you literally can walk out of the door - skis on and scoot down to the Grand Vans Chair about 500yards away to your left - if the snow is a bit patchy you may have to walk the first 300yards or so until you cross the road but trust me it's neither here or there - they are practically ski in ski out. However, if you want to take the main Cable to the grand platiers there is a better way of accessing it than taking the funiculars down to the forum. Simply scoot down to the Grand Vans Chair and on the right hand side is a very small rope tow (very short) on the right hand side. At the top of the rope tow, there are three drags. The middle one accesses the Faust red run (If I remember this right) The right hand run accesses a lovely little green run great for a quick warm up and the left hand takes you half way up crystal. From this half way point you can ski straight across to a 4 seater chair which takes you to the top of Serpentine at the top of the Grand Platiers. However, from the top of this little rope tow you can also take a short but easy red run on your right hand side down and around to the bottom of the cable. Trust me this is far easier than getting in the funiculars and walking down to the cable from the forum. So basically from P and V you can access everything once you get your bearings. Also the Grand Vans is recently refurbished to a high speed 8 and is by far the most pleasant chair I have ever taken. My little girl enjoyed the way up as much as the way down.
I know people knock the Ugly French purpose built tower blocks but for me you just can't beat them for easy access to ski areas. Flaine is a classic example of this. I can bearly remember ever walking with my ski boots on (Unless it was to the bar lol ) We skied in Obergurgl about three years ago which whilst lovely was a nightmare with my little one. We had a good 10 minute walk with all gear to the bottome of the lifts. There were lots of tears unfortuntately and coupled with a dodgy kids class, my little girl didn't enjoy. One of the reasons I kept her out of ski school in Flaine was to let her see a ski holiday can be very relaxed, spontaneous and fun. Thankfully, Flaine restored her confidence and it seems she can't wait for La Plagne.
Dare I ask how did you find La Plagne - do you think it will suit us bearing in mind I we just go for skiing, snow and convenience - not bothered in the slightest about nightlife or beautiful surroundings etc

La Plagne was alright, not my favourite place, but that's not to say we didn't enjoy ourselves. We stayed at Aime La Plagne and chose that because it was the highest, staying at the MGM Les Hauts Bois. With hindsight, highest was not the best option, we should have gone for more central, as highest also meant furthest away from everything. But that hotel was the most ski-in / ski-out hotel I've been in.
That holiday was a bit of a lazy one for us, we weren'?t quite up to red standard and it would be 11 o'clock before we ventured out. But we would ski right through and you really noticed the difference between 1 o'clock and 2 o'clock when ski school started back up.
It's a long way to the Vanois Express so we only got a La Plagne ski pass.
We enjoyed the slopes above Plagne Centre and on the one day we went as far as Belle Plagne (on a lesson) we planned to go back there but didn't because it snowed too much.
We went looking for nightlife twice and didn't really find any. It's all too spread out.
Even though I wouldn't choose to go back there, there is certainly plenty of pistes and lots of skiing to be done and I may think of Les Arcs next year with a plan to pop over to do the bits we missed

We went to flaine for my first snow skiing experience last January and I loved it!! Absolutely great fun with lots of different and testing pistes. I was in ski school but my hubby is a more experienced skier and went off to the grand massif area, he said it was the best skiing he had ever done! Weather was fantastic, sunny everyday with lots of snow down. Can't wait for the 6th Jan as we are going again.
Hope this helps
Pics :D

Hey Gareth, are you back yet? Did you have a good time?

We too head for Flaine on 10th Feb. We're a largish group of very mixed ability teenagers & parents - both boarders & skiers. Some of us have been there several times before so if anyone wants advice or maybe meet up feel free to contact/post.

gvj, You're obviously going at half term (welsh half term is the following week). Is Flaine likely to have big queues these 2 weeks - providing it's fully operational by then :roll:

We are staying at Foret. What's the best bar up there?

Hi,
I was in Flaine for 3 days but we only got to ski 10 or 12 runs because there was so little snow,so I really cant tell you what its like!the mountain looks good though and once you are up there it has a great view and there is a couple of choices of piste.The resort itself is pretty awfull to look at but we stayed in Les Carroz (10 mins down the mountain) which has a lot more charm and seems to hace a bit more to do too.

Sorry i dont have any better info for you but when you are in a resort with no snow its hard to come back with a good impression of it.

Regards and enjoy your skiing.

gareth. :-)

Thank you anyway Gareth. :D

I seem to have made a habit of choosing the ugliest resorts to go to (Les Menuires, La Plagne, Tignes), but when you are up in the mountain, you can't see them anyway. It's the skiing that interests me.