 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all,
A group of us are trying to sort a 'cheap' new year ski holiday (I know, I know) with reasonable km of skiing, reliable snow, not too crowded. We are mostly aged late 20s/early 30s and range from 2 week blue runners to experienced seasonnaires. Not bothered by nightlife, there to ski.
La Thuile seems promising, flights look a good price, transfers seems straight forward and lift pass is good value.
The key sticking point appears to be accommodation.
Budget of £200-£300 pp. The few touristic hotels appear to be booked or nearly booked and the planibel apartments are ripoff prices.
Ive looked on the usual suspect websites for apartments (homelidays, homeaway, holidaylettings) and a few places have come up but I was wondering if there are any snowheads in the know, as it seems quite a 'local' area, where local italians might just advertise on smaller/lesser known websites?
What websites should I be checking?
Secondly, has anyone been there over new year? Some websites suggest there are torchlit decents, fireworks, etc, which would be nice. What was on offer and was it anygood?
Thirdly, the apres. What facilities are available at the local leisure centre? Is the ice rink any good? Can you swim in the pool at planibel if not a resident? Is a trip down the valley to Pre St Didier baths worth it?
I'm guessing that is enough questions for now!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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One half term when we went to La Thuile, with the budgeting constraint of "not particularly more expensive than going at any other week of the year" we stayed here:
http://www.appartamenti-lathuile.com
It was decent. Bit of a schlep from town, but not a bad walk in the morning to a little nearby car park at the side of the piste from where you can schuss down to the lifts. Nowadays seems to work out around EUR250 per person at peak season, which is right inside your budget.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hi I have been to la thuile and loved it, nice and quiet, not a lift queue in sight, lovely little places to eat in the town, would highly recommend, stayed at the planibel apartments which were fine nothing special but perfectly ok, warm rooms, plenty of hot water, we ate out all the time so didn't use the catering facilities, I thought they were reasonably priced, however that might not be the same over new-year.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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carettam, you could try rentalia.com for Italian owners.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Hi Carettam, we spent the New Year just gone in La Thuile and you're right for a 'cheap' New Year ski holiday La Thuile is a perfect option. There was only two of us so we stayed in a studio apartment on the piste privately booked through homelidays. The cost was 500 euros which for New Year we thought was quite reasonable.
There was a torchlit descent and also fireworks at New Year. The fireworks were actually pretty good and also everyone let off chinese lanterns which was an amazing sight. There was also a band and a great atmosphere.....
There are a variety of restaurants, some extremely cheap (La Grotta - great pizza's) where you can get a three course meal and wine for about 20-25euros each. Some more expensive (La Creche / Pepita Cafe) but I can recommend both, the food was fantastic - probably both about 50 - 60 euros each for a 3 course meal with wine. There are of course others, we couldn't try them all! BTW book New Years Eve dinner before you get to resort, if you want to eat out that night, we didn't, we had take away!
Apres Ski - there are a couple of bars, busiest one being in the Planibel resort, but there are others down into the main village also. They all serve nibbles with each round of drinks, so to be honest, if like us you like a couple of apres beers you don't really need a full 3 course meal as well, so this saves on dinner costs sometimes! Wine is about 1 - 1.5 euros a glass, beer more expensive but no where near main resort (French) prices.
All in all I'd recommend it for New Year, we had a fab time with great snow, go for it  BTW your pass also covers you for other Aosta valley resorts, we went to Courmayeur (we drove, but there is a paid for bus) and Cervinia which is a bit of a hike (would need a car) but worth the trip. It also covers Pila, but we didn't try it.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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p.s. ice rink - pretty ok, didn't try it but looked fine. Didn't try the leisure facilities or the baths a PSD.
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Thanks all for your help. The new year celebrations sound lovely! I'll take at look at the suggested apartments/websites and hopefully find something that suits us.
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