Chalet vs Hotel: what's your choice?

A snowHead

For me, it's the hotel every time. I find the contrived jolity of a chalet party just too much hard work, especially over dinner which often has the taste and consistency of elephant excrement.

All that talking about mortgages, jobs, what little Johnny is doing at school and the preference for Porcini over Shitake mushrooms is enough to drive me bonkers!

Now with a hotel, you can have some privacy and, if you choose well, get far better food and wine. And if you avoid booking through a tour operator you could also go to a hotel with virtually no alcoholic English tourists in, which is another big bonus.

Despite the English invasion of Val D'Isere, I managed to find a quite splendid hotel called L'avancher last season. Delightful food, superb wine, friendly hosts and only one other English couple-amazing for Easter! Finding a spot in the 'village' (that's now a joke) not overtaken by expensively educated hooligans was a different matter, however.

So if you've booked yet another crappy £500 chalet through Crystal's or some other anonymous operator, I'd urge you to think again. After all, that 'chalet' is probably more likely to be an apartment marketed as a chalet!

What do you think? hotel or chalet?

A snowHead

Self-catering.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Chalet - I solve the smalltalk issue by booking pretty much the whole thing thus ensuring it's my mates I'm talking too Happy

I like having a place to ourselves, the more personal service and having a lounge to hang out in - but most of all we like post skiing tea and cake Happy

So far we've always had excellent chalet staff - possibly because we (well some of us) are somewhat of an age with them and were encouraging them to ignore the room cleaning/bed making/towel changing malarky and come outside and try the kicker we'd built Twisted Evil

Plus as I've always grabbed special offer deals I've paid peanuts and been pleasently suprised not to get monkeys - if I'd coughed up the full £600 or so I might not be quite so laid back about it all!

Self catering chalet is fine too - as is large apartment. I usually find hotel a bit souless, always feel like I should have my laptop with me and be preparing client presentations or something......

aj xx

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kevin mcclean, any more chalet cliches you wish to chuck in.

My family and friends have been on 6 catered chalet holidays in the past 3 years. Why not let me organise your next chalet holiday as we always have a fabulous holiday. Nice chalets, outstanding, hot, freshly cooked food. Great company, scintillating conversation, and the most outrageously funny party games. In all that time I never saw 1 drunken person, or 1 example of objectional behaviour.

Perhaps a more customer focused company than Crystal should be your next choice. As for tour operators, we used Ski Olympic and Silver Ski. I would also love to try all of the SnowHead independant chalets eg Tracks Vacations - La Rosiere, Gravite Ski - La Clusaz, Chalet Vallons - Le Seignus. You can't beat a personal recommendation.

Would you like a double or a single?

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

The chalet holiday experience is, I suppose, really rather symptomatic of the insularity of the English to spend time among their 'own kind'. No language problems, nothing adventurous and no surprises. Of course, this is perfectly acceptable but why on earth would you want to travel some distance to do this? I guess it's the inate conservatism of the average tourist coming out.

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kevin mcclean, thank you for your unlimited whine

Unusually palatable.

After all it is free

Cheers

I believe I mentioned more about finding hotels souless than about wanting to avoid any 'nasty foreign stuff'. Of course maybe I should have mentioned to you that two of my group are not english (french and romanian) - does that make my enjoyment of a holiday with them less deplorable to you? Or were you not actually referring to frosty and myself per se - just accidentally insulting us? Evil or Very Mad

aj

kevin mcclean, Disagree. When we have done hotel holidays, despitethe fact that there are more people on site we have mixed less. Chalet holidays force people to mix - The anti social need not apply. The Dutchare quite big on the chalet concept and no-one could accuse them of being "uni-lingual".

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Have nover done the Chalet bit so can't comment on them from experience. I did ask for opinions on this issue in another thread:

http://www.snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=11414&highlight=

and had an interestingly mixed set of replies.

I like (decent) hotels because:
- Maid service and room service are usually available and very good
- Food is cooked by a professional chef and often there is a good choice of menu
- Breakfast is pretty much when you want it
- There is normally a bar, possibly a pool, and often Sauna and Jacuzzi
- Other guests are there if you want conversation, but this is not compulsory
- Hotels are often situated near to town amenities like bars and restaurants if you like variety
- B&B basis means you can eat where and when and what you choose

I'm sure fans of chalets can list lots of benefits for them. Overall it seems to me that Chalets suits larger groups holidaying together, or people who want to make new friends, Hotels suit couples, or small groups/families who are less interested in socialising with others. It will take some doing to persuade me that a 'catered chalet' will offer the same quality and variety of meals to be found in a good hotel restaurant - but I cannot from personal experience rule it out.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

hotel for me everytime.. and ive done both

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Are you having a bad day Kevin? I reckon that if you sucked a lemon right now, the lemon would pull a face wink

Having said that a hotel is certainly my preference.

I personally don't understand the "pay someone who may be a far worse cook than me or the wife to produce substandard meals at times to suit them and not me" thing with Chalets... Also don't like the restrictions (either real or imaginary) imposed on me by hotels.

For me the ideal is a large self-catered house/chalet. Big group of friends, whoever gets in from the slope first gets the kettle on or do it on an informal rota (beer often becomes a bargaining chip in these matters...) someone else gets a cake or two from the baker with a bit of fresh bread and a bit of cheese & olives and away you go... much more sociable, no strangers to make you feel uncomfortable and no idiot chalet staff to burn the rice pudding.

You know it makes sense.

carled, exactly how I like it. Our apartment is too small for a crowd though. had 8 round for drinks etc though and it wasn't too bad.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Firstly , I can enjoy both and can see why everyone would have their own preferences but I'm afraid kevin mcclean, the responses so far would seem to indicate that everyone has rather different reasons for selecting chalet or hotel than those you've mentioned - and I bet they weren't all booking through a TO either. BTW TOs do do hotel holidays as I'm sure you have seen.

Yet to find a hotel that is more 'chummy' than a large house though and as you don't get to chose your own guests then I can't see how you 'know' you can avoid the people you obviously prefer not to mix with. At least chalet operators will tell you the kind of folks/families etc that will be staying there at the same time.

A snowHead

What an dull bunch of anti-social doormice you lot are. Glad you're all not coming to the EOSB, we wouldn't want you mixing with or talking to strangers. As for crap food and service: You are choosing the wrong companies.

Let me set a more suitable mood for you all Crying or Very sad

brian

carled, me too. I might consider an independent one if the cooking came highly recommended but food is far too important a part of my holiday to be left to chance. Also, it's nice to get a bit of variety and eat at a few different restaurants. So we've tended to do hotels on B&B or self catered apartments but this year ...

we're doing a big self catered chalet with some friends. So hopefully it'll work out like you say snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Inghams once upgraded my daughter and me from a last-minute allocate on arrival chalet in Val d'Isere to a smart hotel right next to the slopes that we could not possibly have afforded normally. We enjoyed the hotel food but we did not meet anyone there and missed the opportunity chalets give to meet people from different walks of life. And we had to buy all the wine. I now always choose a chalet. OK sometimes the other guests can be annoying but its only for a week.

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Chalets are great if:

a) you and you mates take it over completely;
b) the staff can cook (some of them can but more can't); and
c) the bedrooms have en suite bogs.

Otherwise, a hotel (B&B only preferred) or self catering (preferably in a place with room to swing a jerbil).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

coming over from the states this year, we purposely booked a catered chalet as we don't experience this in the states. that is having your meals prepared w/ all the wine you can drink...

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I've been on two catered chalet holidays and they have both been brilliant, the food has been good, one was in Verbier and run by a South African girl, her cooking was fantastic. The people we have met have all been friendly and the places very clean. Ended up skiing with them at times too which has been great. Also tried out plenty of hotels with both good and bad experiences. Spent a week in a hotel once with the misses only. She had a week of lessons and I spent a week trying to find someone to ski with, all looking at me like some kind of weirdo.........if we'd have been in a chalet it would have been a lot easier.

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After all it is free

There's no general rule, in my long experience of basing myself in both chalets and hotels. You can have a great experience in either. You can have a poor experience in either.

As Latchigo says, chalets can be great value on a package deal.

I agree with kevin that being cloistered with fellow nationals can be a bit too 'home from home'.

On the other hand, hotels can be quiet and dull places.

So, there's no general rule.

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kevin mcclean, would a correct summary of your first two posts be:

If you're sociable or you've got mates or want to make some new mates, you go to a chalet,

If you want to be a right misery for a week and speak to only yourself, you go to a hotel, and make sure that no-one else speaks the same language as you.

Which did you say you did again?

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Why is it only Chalet versus Hotel. I personally prefer (I have done the other two) the unadulterated bliss of an apartment, you can usually afford a bedroom each with strategic booking and eat only the finest food - either in with whomever feels the cheffing urge, or out in a restaurant if you fancy a splurge without feeling guilty about wasting a meal paid for. You live as tidily or otherwise as you like, eat and drink until you want and have more personal space than either of the other two options.

So to summarise

Cheaper
More space
Less structure

Why do anything else - the frogs all seem to do it and they must know something about their own turf/snow

Wake up lads!

snowHead

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Hostels???

Hostels schmostels. wink

You know it makes sense.

Self catering? On holiday? Are you mad!!! The last thing I want to do after a hard day on the slopes is to pepare and cook a meal, and then do the washing up.

I do both hotel and chalet holidays, depending on who I'm going with (if I'm on my own it's a chalet every time), the resort, the price, and the type of holiday I'm looking for. And in all my time in chalets I've certainly never had a conversation about mortgages, jobs or mushrooms!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

No problem with either but it helps if you there aren't big groups in a chalet. I find big groups aren't very good for a really good chalet hol' as they tend to take over and alienate people.
Of course, there are exceptions, but... these can really spoil the hol' IMV

A snowHead

Dave Burt, you don't have to wash up haven't you heard of dishwashers!! It's also a really nice experience shooping in the local shops, and most of the time you can visit one of the nice restaurants in the village. Makes you feel much more part of the local life than being shut up in a chalet in an inconvenient location. Of course, if you insist on styaing up in somehwere like VT, La Plagne or Val d'Isere, not sure what the shopping for food would be like, Expensive I should imagine, unlike where I go.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Scarpa, so he's not a fungi to be with at the moment then. wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

[quote="Dave Burt"]Self catering? On holiday? Are you mad!!! The last thing I want to do after a hard day on the slopes is to pepare and cook a meal, and then do the washing up.
quote]

Dave Burt You are quite right of course.

First time I went skiing was self catering and I had instruction to bring various foodstuffs because the women knew that buying stuff in La Plagne would be expensive.

I also have friends whose idea of a good weekend is to hire a cottage somewhere in the country. I always refuse invites to their 'washing up weekends'. They are often miles from civilisation and they do not do much apart from a bit of a ramble and cook and drink. I know the blokes hit the wine very hard and often pass out comatose in the living room. If I want to do that I can do it at home with less bother.

I suspect the women like playing at 'domestic goddesses' outdoing one another on the cooking. They usually end up with surplus stuff that gets taken to the next weekend.

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Ray Zorro, He's feeling a bit shiitake.

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carled, Perhaps I have been spoiled, but our chalet food has always been of good restaurant quality, and cooed for us.

After all it is free

[quote="Frosty the Snowman"]carled, Perhaps I have been spoiled, but our chalet food has always been of good restaurant quality, and cooed for us. [quote]

Was it pigeon pie?

You have been lucky with chalet food. Out of 6 chalet hols, the food has been very good on 1, good on 2, and poor on 3. I think chalet proprietors/TOs have a bloody cheek sticking a couple of 17 year olds (who can barely pour milk onto cornflakes unaided) in a chalet and expecting them to cook decent grub for up to 10 or 20 people.

BTW, chaps, self catering = eating in restaurants, not cooking and washing up. I did that once; the cooking's fine (I don't even mind a bit of washing up), it's the shopping which messes up your day.

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Help!!

Chalet vs Hotel: what's your choice?

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