Messages posted by : JennyR
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We too first skied when our children were around the age of yours. We stayed self-catering at Val Cenis and Chamrousse. Both are lesser-known, not trendy resorts but as a result they are cheaper and most importantly quieter,low-key family resorts. They lack night-life (a plus for our family!) and do not have the range of runs to keep an experienced skier busy for a week, but they have plenty for first-timers. Val Cenis has an enormously long green run. Both have a decent range of restaurants. Smaller children find carrying skis and walking in ski boots difficult, so walking to a bus stop is an added nuisance you do not need. I would not hesitate to recommend either resort.
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Four and a half!! :D(Can't count Friday night as a whole one, got to be up at 2.30). Hope all the snow doesn't melt by then.
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We are going on a Crystal+ package which includes ski hire but not boots. I have been looking online to hire boots, but it costs nearly as much as boots and skis.
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We went in April the last week of their season. After a warm winter there was only snow left up high, but we still had a fantastic time and swore we would go back to Domaine de l'Arselle when the snow was better. Even with only a few pistes open it was not crowded.The apartments were convenient to everything, the ski bus service was good, and unbeatable value. No catches!
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We are just back from our first week skiing, having had two lessons on a dry slope before we went. Whilst I agree that skiing on snow is very different, the dry-slope lessons were fun :D as well as giving us the confidence to put our boots on correctly and shuffle to the ski school meeting place without falling over :oops:. It was also boosting to start group lessons as one of the more capable members (even if I didn't finish the week that way!)
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Thanks for that suggestion, Snowb4ndit. Soldeu was somewhere we considered for this time. Our eldest will be at senior school next year so we won't feel able to take him out of school like we did this time, so 'good value' will be necessary if we have to go in school hols! The ski bug has bitten for all of us - is there a cure? |
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So glad you enjoyed Val Cenis. I fell in love with it the week before, when the pistes were very quiet - great for us first timers.
We felt we should try all of l'escargot, so got on the chairlift in the drizzle - it didn't occur to us naive beginners that it would be snowing further up! It was a total whiteout at the top, couldn't even find the piste through a foot of fresh snow, so we went to see the huskies, had a snowball fight, then got the lift back down. We then got another lift to halfway up l'escargot, but the kids declared it to be too boring! Les Balcons Village was great accomodation, had its own supermarket (cheaper for some things than Spar), ski shop and bar (you could virtually ski straight in through the door) and was very close to the gondola, so very convenient. L'etoile de neige in the village was a good restaurant for proper french food. A small quiet place suited us as a family really well, but we wouldn't want to go to Val Cenis again (well, I wouldn't, but my nine year old is nagging 'when can we go back mummy?') as we have now done most of the greens - has anyone got any good ideas where we should go next? |
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Could it be because Crystal have been bought by Thomson? Perhaps they are consolidating.
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