 Poster: A snowHead
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Having received plenty of good advice from these pages, it's now payback time, with some observations from my recent week in La Thuile:
Group: Me (42, experienced skier). My GF (35, 3 weeks skiing, but good enough to get down most pistes and surprisingly game).
TO: Did this as a DIY for the first time. I was concerned at the TO prices for this time of the year and there were no deals a month before departure so we took the plunge and booked everything ourselves. It also allowed us to go Mon-Mon, which had its benefits.
Flights: Easyjet from Bristol to Geneva. Cheap (£130 return each including 1 bag between us) and convenient.
Transfer: Aosta Express, an off shoot of Cham Express, who I have used before and find reliable and punctual. They also got me back from Chamonix one year when the dust clouds stopped flights for a week, so I feel a bond to them. The cost was about 95 Euros each return and it took 2.5 hours, including a short transfer in Les Houches, but the mini bus was comfortable, the scenery beautiful and they had to pay to take us through the Mont Blanc tunnel, which must have added to the cost.
Hotel: Hotel Du Glacier, a 3 star B&B hotel in the Golette area of the village. We found a great deal, which offered 7 nights + lift pass for 366Eur. The hotel is clean, spacious, with balconies in each room, offering splendid views of mountains, pistes and the hamlet. The breakfast was an excellent continental spread, with home made croissants. The boot room had warm racks and best of all, the owner, Susanna, was always on hand to give advice, answer questions and book dinner (which often included a 10% discount). I would thoroughly recommend this hotel. It's a little way from the village centre (pleasant 10 minute walk) and further from the gondola, but in my view this is a good thing as it keeps you away from the ugly, modern Plannibal complex. You can access the skiing via red 7 run, 6 minutes walk away or via efficiant buses which stop 20 yards away and take 2 minutes to reach the lifts.
Village: Most TOs tend to advertise the aforementioned Plannibal complex in their brochures, with the village being overlooked. This is a shame because it's a very pretty place, next to a couple of rivers, with a sedate church tower over looking it. It's not the liveliest, certainly not at this time of year but there are numerous good restaurants (Pepita Cafe, Fordze and La Tata, which used to be La Rascard and is now in fine health I'm happy to report), a few pleasant bars, which always give at least 2 bowls of nibbles with even the smallest beer and numerous shops. In peak season I would imagine the Plannibal area would cater for some livelier stuff, as there was a club and a few more British style bars but it was like a ghost town at this time of year.
Conditions: Being late season I had looked for something high or a glacier but La Thuile hardly fits either of these, however, at 1441-2641m and East facing it proved to be perfectly adequate in a week when we had rain to 2000m on the first day and hot sun for most of the rest of the time. Of course the slopes deteriorated in the afternoon, but that's what you expect in April, so we went hard in the morning, when the conditions where fantastic on some days. From what I can gather, this is the most snow sure resort in the area and had loads more snow than it's French neighbours this season.
Ski Area: With 150kms of piste, there was plenty to be getting on with, even with a number of the Western slopes closed all week. The runs down to the village, although quite worn, were real favourites, until the snow turned to slush. Blacks 2 and 3 were challenging and took us home, whilst red 6 was perhaps best of the lot until it got closed at the end of the week. These were the only areas of tree skiing in the resort, but the rest of the area was not in anyway bleak, with the sun out. There are plenty of easy blues in the middle section fo the mountain, which added to the magic carpet area at the bottom of the slopes, must make this a great area to learn. Another favourite of ours were the runs over the back of Belverdere, with great views of Mont Blanc and better snow conditions. They also benefitted from covered charlifts as it gets quite windy over that side.
Then there is the link to La Rosiere, which we used most days. Skiing across the St Bernard Pass is a great feeling. The blue (52) is so cruisey that any level of skier can do it as well. You really feel as if you are crossing a boarder. Of course you have to tackle the infamous button lift back, but it only takes 6 minutes and is not a tough drag. You also have the splendid Mont Blanc view to keep you going. Although there is another drag straight after to take you back to access to the heart of La Thuile, you are better off heading left towards Piccolo St Bernard, which is a lovely run and allows you to catch a chair back to the top.
La Rosiere itself offers a different experience. The runs seemed a bit shorter, it is south facing, so hotter and a lot more crowded, mainly with Brits. We still enjoyed it over there, especially the Snow Park, but made sure we got there early as the snow got poor by midday. The best day to ski it, if you can, is Saturday, which seemed to be chalet change over day. The slopes must have been about 50% less crowded and hence the snow stayed better for longer. There also appears to be some good opportunties for off piste skiing around the Belvedere area of LT if that's your thing.
Away Day: Your La Thuile lift pass allows you 2 days skiing in other Aosta resorts. Pila and Courmayeur are the 2 closest, but having inspected bus times and seen the state of the snow, we reluctantly gave up on visiting the former. It would have been almost 2 hours of travelling each way, as you need to change buses and we decided that this would lose us the best snow of the day. It's a shame as we'd heard great things about Pila. If you go with a TO (or at a time when TOs are there) I think it would be worth jumping on a bespoke bus which they normally organise, so I'm told.
Instead we had a day in Courmayeur, which is an ideal reasort for a day trip. The regular bus service only takes half an hour to get there and cost about 8 Eu return. The ski area is doable in one day as well. Although the snow was more patchy than we had become used to and there was a National under 12 ski championship taking place, we still had a great day, mainly skiing on the Mont Blanc side. The village is also worth a wander, although not ideal if you are carrying kit. Make sure you drop into Bar Roma on the main pedestrian street, where they have a whole table of antipasti for you to tuck into.
Evening Excusion: The same Courmayeur bus goes through a cute village called Pre St Didier about half way along its journey. This village houses a stunning spa, where you can wallow in hot baths whilst staring out at the alps and Mont Blanc as the sun sets. There are numerous different saunas, baths, relaxation rooms and our favourite, floatation tanks. They also provide a 'healthy' buffet, whith a glass of prosecco. You can access the Spa for under 30 Euros after 5pm (with your LT lift pass), which is ideal for apres ski. It closes at 9pm, but the last bus back goes 10 minutes before this anyway, but we found it such an ideal time slot that we went back there on our last night. NB this place is just as easy to visit from Courmayeur and Pila.
Conclusion: We thoroughly enjoyed our week in La Thuile. The village is charming and the ski area plentiful, especially if you add an away day or two. It is also a rare breed in that it won't break the bank and in some places prices were even cheaper than the UK. The only people I wouldn't recomend LT to are party animals, but for families, couples, beginners and experts it has something for everyone and if the TOs don't have a deal you like the look of, DIY, it's not that difficult!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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EdYarker, thanks for the report, it makes good reading. Glad you had a good trip. It makes me want to go back as it is some years since I was there
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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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Thanks for posting, this was really helpful as I'm thinking of heading here next year. Its good to know about the spa too! 
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