 Poster: A snowHead
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Link to Trip Advisor Chalet Chaberton
This was our 4th trip with Neilson and 2nd ski holiday.
At first, we were slightly concerned about not being able to find any information or reviews at all about this chalet. However, we have never been disappointed on a Neilson trip so went ahead and booked a weeks stay.
We flew from Gatwick to Turin on Titan Airways. All good and on time. Beware though, the baggage reclaim at Turin is very, very slow so don't rush to it! We waited well over 20 minutes and that was after going through passport control etc.
The transfer was seamless and not much over an hour into resort. At Montgenevre, the coaches can't go off the main street through the town so you'll get dropped off at the bus stop and taken up to the chalet in a taxi.
The chalet is located up towards the back of the town, up a couple of steepish streets. This does mean the walk at the end of a hard days skiing, especially when carrying your gear can be a bit of a drag however it does mean that the chalet has some incredible views from the bedrooms and lounge.
There is also a free bus that stops literally right outside the chalet and drops off in town, so there is no need to walk at all! It takes about 20 minutes to do a loop, so is regular enough and it runs from about 830-530ish.
We usually walked down in the morning the stretch our legs and it took about 5-10 minutes, depending on the conditions.
As I mentioned, the views from the chalet are beautiful. We ended up with the double on the top floor, which has it's own balcony and shower room. It's probably the nicest of all the rooms but all of them are spacious enough, clean, well equipped and comfortable. There was plenty of hanging space in our wardrobe as well which was nice as our last chalet only had drawers. The bedrooms are split, two on the top and two on the bottom, with the living area in the middle. Both pairs of bedrooms share a toilet, but have their own wash and shower rooms.
The chalet has a garage for ski storage and an area to put your boots on a radiator to dry them out.
It also has a sauna, albeit very small. You probably couldn't fit more than 2-3 people comfortably in there. However, it was very nice at the end of the day to stretch off and relax.
The living area is small, but being a small chalet that's not a problem. I would say maybe a couple of bean bags in there as extra "soft seats" would be nice but this wasn't an issue as such.
The chalet was very warm throughout, so don't bring loads of warm indoor clothes. I spent most of my time in a t-shirt inside and at night we slept with a window open!
The chalet hosts, Ruth and Jess were great. It's a big challenge, being younger than the people you are looking after in your first ever season. They were relaxed, helpful, cheery every morning and looked after us all very well.
The food was the usual chalet catering affair. Cooked breakfast with cereal, pastries etc. A home baked cake or similar when you get in off the slopes and a 3 course meal with wine, 6 nights out of 7.
We never went hungry and the home baked stuff was a nice touch. Some nights the food was very good, some nights it wasn't as good but that's down to personal preference more than anything else. The week we were there, the girls had to adapt to make the normal meals, plus a vegetarian option and then a vegan option as well. They did this very well.
Again, a small gripe would be that the wine was the same every night, where as on previous trips we had a different selection every night. It just meant that if you didn't like what was on offer, you were a bit stuck.
We arrived on the Sunday and we had pre-booked our pass, lessons and rental. This meant, we could head straight down onto the slopes for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon which the Mont De Lune pass throws in on top of the 6 days which is a great way to get your ski legs back in. Obviously this is dependent on when your flight arrives and if there are any delays but I guess we got lucky.
Everything was smooth and ready to go on our arrival.
Our lessons were with ESF (which sometimes can be a bit hit and miss across the Alps). Our instructor was great. Spoke English very well but also French and Italian. We learnt a lot and really progressed with our skiing. We started off with 8 in our group but one Italian lady was only with us for a day and then everyone else left on Saturday meaning that we had pretty much a private lesson that day.
The town of Montgenevre itself is lovely. Very quiet and traditional. There is a small, but decent choice of places to eat but not many bars, either in the resort or on the mountains. If we did get a drink for "Apres" we headed to Le Graal. A wide choice of beer (including Stowford Press cider!) and decent bar food. They show live sport so we caught some of the 6 Nations in there and it was a good atmosphere.
The ski area is fantastic for beginners and intermediates. Plenty of cruisey blues and challenging reds. For the more experienced skier, the area is connected to the Via Lattea (Milky Way) which means you can head over to the linked Italian resorts such as Sestriere and Sauze d'Oulx. Although, leave with plenty of time as it is a bit of a trek.
We were very lucky with the conditions. Plenty of snow so the pistes were in top nick and the last two days, we had loads of fresh snow so enjoyed playing in the powder both on and off piste.
The pistes themselves where very, very quiet. No queues at all for lifts. I expect them to be busier during half term, but don't expect it to be as busy as some of the bigger resorts.
The lifts are quite slow in comparison to other resorts.
A great week skiing, in a lovely resort and well looked after.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Great review and thanks for starting a trip advisor for the chalet, I'm sure it will help others in the future.
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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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@Fridge03, that is unusual for baggage reclaim at Turin.
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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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@mcollo, Someone had to do it!
@Hells Bells, That's interesting as our reps said it had been like that since the beginning of the season?
I just want to add, we ate at Le Jamy. Here is our review from Trip Advisor
"After much walking up and down the main street (albeit, it's not very far) we decided on Le Jamy, although the name has now changed (but it still says Le Jamy on the front as well).
We didn't book ahead but a table was found for two of us without an issue. There was a good mix of nationalities in there, including some locals which I think is always a good sign.
There is a good selection on the menu and a large choice of drink.
In the end we ordered a pizza each and we agreed they were probably the best pizzas we had ever had.
For desert I'd recommend the profiteroles. They were fantastic and my partner had the creme brulee which she loved.
The price was fair, food fantastic and a very welcoming and friendly atmosphere."
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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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@Fridge03, it has always been really quick for us, usually we're in our car within 20 minutes of landing. Son came through in about 15 on Christmas eve when I was waiting to collect him. Perhaps if there are several flights landing close together it may be a problem.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@Hells Bells, Probably the case (no pun intended).
There were a lot of flights arriving. All the TOs at once. I'm sure if you book your own flights, it's much quieter.
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FAQ
