 Poster: A snowHead
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I know that the skiing tends to be good in the purpose built resorts, and that some of them have great night life, but to me it's not a proper skiing holiday if you're staying in a place that looks like part of Slough.
I went for a week in Tignes last year, and the skiing was great, but there just isn't the sense of atmosphere that you get in an alpine village or town.
For me, I'll always put up with catching a bus, or walking with my skis, just to stay in a place that makes me feel like I'm in the mountains.
What do other snowHeads think?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Kramer, I'm not convinced by your argument. The villages that I have stayed in, tend to be quiet, and have good skiing. They are places that folks call home. It all depends on what you define as "sense of atmosphere". Chamonix excepted, which is lively year round.
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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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Personally I like to be able to ski from the door - and not every purpose built resort looks as bad as Tignes. The mountains rather than the village are what's important to me.
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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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Blame it on Le Corbusier (which isn't a ski resort)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Give it 10 yrs and the likes of Tignes, les Menuires, Avoriaz will all look & feel much nicer. They are from a lost architecural era.
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Philistine that I am, I'll take the brutal convenience of the ski-in/ski-out resort over the 20 minute walk to the cable car queue almost every time. After all, only one chairlift up [which, incidentally, is only 30 seconds from your bedroom door] and you can't see the resort anyway - only the beautiful mountains!
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Frosty the Snowman, 10 yrs, they've had 20-30 yrs already, the only high rise station that fits the mountains in terms of looks is Avoriaz. However the apartments are real 60s-70s throwbacks, very cramped and not what holidaymakers are looking for now.
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Kramer, I'm with you, so to speak.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I'm with Kramer on this one....I like to stay in a pretty place (that has good skiing!!)
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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I think Avoriaz looks worse than the others and the skiing there is not the best of the PDS. The mock wooden cladding, that is falling off and has been for years, is awful. I prefer Flaine or Tignes any day.
Just back from staying at Tignes for the first time and I have to say it was far better in terms of a skiing holiday over Christmas than St. Anton was a couple of years ago.
But that is my opinion and everybody is welcome to their own.
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Kramer, I prefer a village, especially an Austrian village, but beggars can't be choosers so I go where I can. 
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You know it makes sense.
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I guess the extremes I've been to in this sense are Saas Fee (a spectacular village) and Val Thorens (very definitely "purpose built"). To be honest I think I value 'ease of use' over 'authenticity'.
I like the sound of "purpose built operating theatre", sounds so much reassuring than "surgeon's converted 2nd bedroom" 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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For what it's worth my opinion is to be able to ski as much as I can which is why i went on the holiday in the first place.
I prefer ski to door facilities and although I agree particularly in France this means a purpose built resort with not much charactor. you have to offset this with say austrian resorts which tend to have ski to door facilities but not the skiable area.
Example Soll big resort, big ski area but requires ski bus to and from lifts. Valmorel ski to door, quite pretty resort but very quiet.
I would like to have an actual lived in all year round resort with varied night life and ski to door facilities but I think these are few and far between.
Most of America is good Skiing but miles away from lifts in a morning.
Then again after Skiing from sun rise to sun set every day all I want to do after my evening meal is sleep.
Oh why can't we be lucky enough to have these conditions on our doorstep and deciding not to ski on one particular day doesn't make you feel as though you have short changed your holiday. ???
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Poster: A snowHead
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Convenience every time. I cant agree with CP, I bought in Avoriaz after looking at Flaine, better skiing and completely to the doorstep. In my case 5 metres from the front door to the piste. I do agree that Avoriaz is not the most sightly in the summer but I think it blends in with the curvature of the mountain when you have snow, at least that is what the architects have tried to do. The village is not a patch on Zermatt I agree but I wasn't allowed to buy there.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Skiing is the priority for me, rather than village ambience. I'm prepared to turn a blind eye to the all but the worst excesses of 'purpose built' architecture. The traditional ski villages that offer chocolate box chalets with ski in/out access to large and varied ski domains are very nice, of course, but generally out of my price range. Whenever I'm choosing a ski resort there are always compromises to be made between the different things you look for in a ski holiday, and I'm thankful that skiers have differing priorities otherwise that one 'perfect' resort would be mighty crowded.
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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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Kramer, agree 100% - purpose built is awful - no locals - no history - no atmosphere. Of course some people say LDA is purpose built but it aint. Built up from the local villages (2) yes - and some buildings that should be blown up - certainly - but it doesn't have to be austrian pretty to have atmosphere! 
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Some purpose built villages are great... most Intrawest places for example. But Tignes, Les Menuires, La Plagne, Flaine etc etc all need flattening and starting again (ever been to these places in the summer and you'll agree). Carbunkles all of 'em. A blight on the mountain environment. I've had a quiet word with the US Airforce...
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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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These architectural abortions - the 'urbanisme des Alpes - are largely the result of the French government's megalomania in the 1960s and 1970s and a desire for over-exploitation of sensitive mountainscapes. Far too much investment was encouraged far too quickly. The hot money moved in, and any concern for conservation, ecology, forestry and land erosion went down the drain.
Maybe we'll approach things a lot more carefully in the 21st century, as the snowline rises and the speculative pressure on the high slopes and plateaux increases. It's going to need assertive international control.
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Kramer, for some of them looking like Slough could be considered a compliment, I agree with David Goldsmith, too many resorts were over developed but having said that, the local Govt has allowed the building of Arc1950 and hacked down 100s of ancient pines to facilitate it, that's even worse, we now have Disneyland Ski in the mountains. Vandals.
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| David Goldsmith wrote: |
| Blame it on Le Corbusier (which isn't a ski resort) |
I'm sorry, but that guy was the best in his day. If you've seen the apartments in Marseille, they are proof that when built to his plans, they don't look like concrete carbuncles. His designs would not fit in on the south bank of the Thames, because his are good, colourful, and innovative.
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Frank Lloyd Wright did some nice things with concrete as well.
Unfortunately there wasn't so much architectural elan shown with purpose built ski resorts, horrible things.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Kramer, unsurprisingly I throw in with Alastair, george owen, Dave Burt, CP, Ian Hopkinson, Super Eagle, Roy Hockley, rob@rar.org.uk. Even before I had small children to supervise over a slippery walk carrying what seems like a zillion pairs of skis for them, I wasn't there for the atmosphere. Height and ski convenience are where it's at.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Kramer, as an owner of a nice apartment close to the pistes in a really nice atmospheric village, with a restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef, I'm with you. Have done the ski convenience thing, and prefer the village life.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Kramer, he did indeed, unfortunately many of his designs including fallingwater have had to have extensive restoration often due to poorly built structures, so design great, supervision poor
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You know it makes sense.
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slikedges, an atmospheric resort and great skiing aren't mutually exclusive. 
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Kramer, not saying they are. Am saying an atmospheric resort and ski to the door convenience often are though.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| David Goldsmith wrote: |
| Blame it on Le Corbusier (which isn't a ski resort) |
He also did a great deal of work in a northern Indian city called Chandighar. Big lumps of concrete covered in a mouldy green patina from the monsoons and/or pollution don't look any better on the plains than they do in the mountains, IMO.
On topic, I quite like Belle Plagne with it's 3 or 4 storey, timber clad 'oversized-chalet' style buildings. From a distance, when the scale doesn't matter, it even looks quite tradtional. But Plagne Centre is awful. Not entirely because of design or execution but partly from lack of maintenance. Dirt and graffitti are not nice anywhere. Flaine - which comes in for some stick, I quite liked.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Add me to the 'convenience over style' group. Most places aren't too bad, if you get the right angle  I quite like the charmettoger end of les arcs and the 'middle' of VT. aj xx
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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In one word "yes"
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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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Always been convenience over traditional charm for me even more so now I have children. Purpose built also means purpose built chalets with full ensuites for every room and sufficient communal space and plenty of hot water.
I suspect once the kids are old enough and I am by definition very old the charms of a picture postcard traditional village with a very good hotel and restaurants may outweigh my need to be on the first lift and keep going until it is dark.
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slightly on this topic, I discovered last week the weirdest hotel in Belle Plagne (Les Balcons): not bad at all inside (new decorations, jacuzzi, good restaurant, etc) but the only entrance is through the garage under the building, VERY badly signposted! I couldn't stop laughing.
As for the general question, I'm in the middle - definitely don't want concrete monstrosities (didn't like the architecture in Plagne Centre, or Snowbird for that matter), prefer real villages, but I'm willing to put up and even enjoy purpose-built as long as it tries to look mountain-ish (so yes, wood cladding is fine, so are oversized chalets). Yeah, even if that's kitsch.
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I stayed in Val Claret in 2004 and thought that it was OK to look at; bleak blocks in bleak scenery. I've skied (but not stayed) in Avoriaz and Flaine, which looked OK in their setting, especially Avoriaz. I like places like Courmayeur and Kitzbuhel which are real places with some attractive old buildings and a bit of atmos. An awful lot of ski resorts are like Courchevel, though; dreary streets full of ski shops, tacky clothes shops and samey bars; give me Val Claret over those any time. And don't get me started on Meribel.
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AxsMan, great photo. brings back some good boarding memories from last april.. i stayed in the old tignes..(well whats not underwater) looking up at the dam.. thanks to last easters dump of snow i could board bk into there so had the best of both worlds..
im for ski in/out covienience, post card style villages, and austrain style boozers on the slopes.. i want it all..
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I'm definitely in the 'pretty' camp - I don't leave grimy crowded London for grimy tower blocks on holiday (skiing aside!). Personally, I do not believe that pretty and convenient are mutually exclusive. Depending on your tolerance level, I have always managed to find accommodation within a 5 minute (sometimes less) walk of the lifts in non purpose-built ski resorts. Ski-in / Ski-out they were not - but also infinitely prettier for only 5 mins of inconvenience adding to an all round better holiday IMHO.
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CANV CANVINGTON, Last time I was in Tignes you could visit the old Tignes which was the last time I have been to a purpose built resort.
I used to go to purpose built resortrs quite a bit believing the hype about better skiing at altitude. Now I prefer to stay in lower altitude more attractive places below the tree line and go by lift to the higher places. Since I have had kids I have hardly been to a purpose built resort and don't find the extra few minutes any great hassle. The extra space you get in older places is far more beneficial.
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