 Poster: A snowHead
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carled, our experience was different. We stayed in Val Claret and paid sod all for a (ridiculously tiny) ski in ski out apartment. It was half term, so the place was far from empty, but we encountered significant queues and busy pistes at only a couple of places at specific times of the day. We were expecting it to be ghastly, not having skied in Europe (apart from the odd week end) for years and never in school hols, so perhaps we were setting our standards too low, but my recollection is that it was busy but OK. I thought that the the lift system was very impressive, although perhaps we had an advantage starting from Val C compared to V d'I.
As for arrogant Brits, we had nothing whatsoever to do with any Brits, arrogant or otherwise, during our stay (Why would we? I don't go on hols to meet people, especially arrogant Brits.). Impatient French? I grant you that most European languages have no word for 'queue', but we coped, although standing in a big queue and seeing 8 person chairs going up with 3 people on them was frustrating, especially after N.America where these things are ordered rather better. There was of course the odd pillock (indeterminate nationality, but definitely French) skiing too fast for the conditions, but you get them in most places.
It wasn't the most fantastic ski hol ever, but it was pretty good. I wouldn't hesitate to go back, although I don't know that I'd pay a premium to go there (is it more expensive than elsewhere?). It's a decent enough resort if you want a lot of skiing at all standards (apart maybe from 2nd/3rd weekers?). It was a good introduction to European skiing for our kids and a good reintroduction for us. It was very different from N.America, in good and bad ways, and particularly from Banff (where our kids had done effectively all their skiing).
We've been to Kitzbuhel at HT for the last couple of years. It is a much more charming resort than V d'I/Tignes, although I rather like the bleakness of the high mountains in V d'I/Tignes, and not unduly busy, but it has nothing like the amount or range of skiing.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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As PG will vouch, you don't have to go looking for arrogant Brits in resort for them to affect you if you're anywhere nearby. Unfortunately Val D seems to attract a certain (self-bestowed) "uber-class" of British people who simply have to go to Val D, dahling... The French, being an astute nation, realise that this peculiar flavour of Brits seem willing to pay things like 10 euros for a large beer (I kid you not) and set their prices accordingly. A bloke from work who fits nicely into this category goes to Val D year after year and it isn't for the skiing - his group spend most of their time sunning themselves on restaurant sundecks or quaffing large amounts of ludicrously expensive red wine in mountain restaurants then laughing about how drunk they were when skiing back to resort, before going out for another overpriced meal. They were paying, literally every night, £50 per head (admittedly including lots of wine) for what he described as an "average, not an expensive restaurant".
It's as much the name of the place as anything else and it affects Courchevel and Meribel too (and several Swiss resorts). The in-crowd simply have to go to a "named" place as they couldn't stand the shame of going somewhere no-one had heard of. An 11-year old friend of my daughters sneered, "never heard of it" down her nose at me the other day when I told her we'd been to Serre Chevalier last year. "Oh, we went to Courchevel 1850 in February and Daddy's taking us all to Vail at Easter..." I was left with the distinct impression that the "1850" bit of Courchevel had been drummed into her in case anyone asked...
I think this is turning into a class rant as much as anything else... sorry about that - I think my point is just that Val D is known for it's "premium" and for that reason alone, I'd avoid the place like the plague. Although I will admit to having had a day out at Tignes once from Les Arcs and enjoyed it thoroughly, although that was just down to good conditions and empty slopes, to be honest.
richmond, I did like your "indeterminate nationality but definitely French" line... 
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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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carled, as far as I'm concerned the hoorays and sloanes can go to Val d'Isere as much as they like, leaves some good skiing and sensibly priced resorts in the Tarentaise for the rest of us.
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carled, courchevel 1850, never heard of it!!!
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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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carled, Sensible advice, although we usually drive so flight booking not an issue. (you can book the tunnel a few hours in advance, or change bookings with no penalty).
richmond, My experience of Val D is more like yours. Mrs Ax and I had the week before Christmas there this year. we stayed in the Hotel Mercure, friendly, central, handy for the slopes and not expensive. We had apres ski booze in the Grand Marnier Bar, which served Crepes, Beer and er, Grand Marnier  at 1.70 Euros for a DOUBLE! (bliss).
We mostly skied over at Val Claret as the snow was better and I totally agree with you about the quality and range of pistes. We will defintely go back, maybe with the kids, and look for a reasonable appartment, self Catering in Val Claret. I'm sure there are plenty of expensive bars and snooty Horays out there but to be honest our paths never crossed so we didn't notice. Some of the shops looked expensive but fortunately I managed to escape with wallet intact!
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Just got back from El Tarter Andorra. Never been half term skiing before and was reasonably surprised that the queues were not as bad as expected. Getting out of Grau Roig back to Soldeu was not that good queued for 15 mins, (one 4 man chair lift, thay need another one) But that was the longest. They also have singles lines which really work. Blue pistes were very crowded and my wife saw quite a few collisions. Blacks were empty, even then i got deliberately flattened by a snowboarder........................first time thats every happened. Much busier in the afternoon than morning. Very very impressed with Panorama, was not expecting much and they have been the best tour operator we have used. Reps always where they said they would be, on time and knew their stuff.
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carled, maybe Val Claret gets a different crowd from V d'I; it didn't seem the sort of place to attract the types you're talking about. We ate out every night and didn't notice arrogant Brits; more French and other non Brits than I had expected. It's certainly not the only place I ever want to ski or anything like that, but it seemed fine for the type of resort it is, and I daresay I'll go back there sometime.
It may just be me. We spent a week at Xmas in Courchevel 1550. I wandered about 1850 a bit (bought a pair of boots there, in fact) and didn't notice it as being particularly different from other resorts, when apparently it's the Bond Street of the Alps. I have a suspicion that these reputations are dreamt up by TOs and perhaps the resorts themselves to serve a particular market. Although to some extent they are self correcting (if you tell people that a certain tye of Brit goes to Val d'Isere, that type of Brit will go there and other types won't), I'm not convinced that they always have much substance.
Vd'I had a reputation as joke resort when I started skiing 25 years ago; along with Verbier, it was where all the Hugos and Caros went. Maybe it's true, but I didn't notice too many in 2005, and anyway, as long as they stay out of my face, I don't really care.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I've skiied 3Vs before (4-5 years ago) at half term. We stayed in Reberty Villlage, Les Menuires - dutch chalets (see www.holidaychalet.com ) again. Locally wasn't too bad reasonable queues and not a lot of objectionable brits. Did find some problems with queues for some of the important link lifts to get back from the other valleys, particularly near the end of the day. One time was pretty close big scrum for the lift 15+ minute wait, had to get it to get back to Reberty. Close to closing time. Lifties closed it just behind us and told evryone else to ski down (to Val despair AFAIR). Could have been a big pain. Lifties elsewhere have been much more accomodating. Eg ALpe d'Huez gondola we needed to get back to Oz closed ( due to a technical problem) alternative button lift was just closing, but liftie was letting anyone with Oz originating passes on, but turning the rest away much more sensible.
edit
Looks like I'm confusing my resorts so if it was Val despair we were staying in Tignes Le Lavachette and it was the Tommeuses lift that was causing the problem. My comments about Reberty stand - very nice place to stay and getting my memory back on track the queues were back from Meribel and they were no where near as bad as the Val d'Isere queues.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Tue 28-02-06 14:19; edited 1 time in total
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I've had three half term trips now. Sauze, Tremblant and Les Arc.
No real problems with crowds/queues/cretins so far. But the East Coast of N. America is too cold for nippers, it's also a bind being stuck in a plane with young uns for seven hours.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| marc gledhill wrote: |
| it's also a bind being stuck in a plane with young uns for seven hours. |
Not my experience. We've taken two kids to the Rockies every year since they were 4, no problems.
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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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marc gledhill, Being stuck on a 7 minute chairlift with our lot is bad enough
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You know it makes sense.
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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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richmond, there were ten kids in total, but thankfully their parents came too.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Anyone got any experience of Tigne-les-Brevieres as its been sugested as a place to go next year. skiing the black Sache back to resort twice a day could be fun, but I'm interested in how busy the lifts out of Tigne-les-Brevieres are particularly in the morning and just after lunch?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Dave Horsley, my only experience is visiting T-les-Brevieres for lunch from Val Claret. The lifts out afterwards were fine (this was in HT week). We skied to it down the blue, I think, rather than the red or the black (which was said to be very icy and a bit of a chore) as we wanted to see Tignes-les-Boisses (of which I have no recollection now). The blue is a long road and a bit boring.
It might be worse in the mornings as although T-les-Brevieres seemed pretty small, I imagine that it is a bit of an access point for day visitors.
T-les-Brevieres looked like a very pleasant, quiet spot, and lunch was excellent. There's no need to go back there twice a day; there are plenty of OK (if not wonderful) lunch places up the mountain, and you'll be unable to take advantage of the 'Espace Killy' area if you do, I'd have thought. It's a bit of a haul from T-les-Brevieres up to Le Lac, Val C, Grand Motte and over to Val d'I. Perfectly doable but I imagine that you'd be skiing quite a large number of the same runs first and last thing each day, which might be a bit tedious.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Tue 28-02-06 15:48; edited 1 time in total
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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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Dave Horsley, We skied down from Tignes Le Lac one morning over Christmas week - the queue for the telecabine was huge so we went for a hot chocolate. When we came out the queue was even bigger - 20/25 minute wait. I think some of the problem was bus loads coming in from other resorts, Le Brevieres being first access point from the valley up, as snow conditions were poor this/last year.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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richmond, I'm afraid we are boring gits - adults ski in the morning, kids in ski school, pick up kids from ski school at lunch, have lunch in chalet, go skiing with kids in afternoon. All self catered.
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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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Dave Horsley, Apart from the self catering bit that sounds just about perfect.
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Frosty the Snowman,
The self catering is not so bad. One of my friends Mum and Dad come aswell to help with the kids and they don't ski as doesn't one of my friends, so they do most of the shopping and lunch is just beer, coffee, french bread and lots of cheese, pate, saucisson etc. For evening we take it in turns to cook so it only means one evening slaving over the stove.
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Dave Horsley, Our chalet this yr had a full bifta snowboarder/chef. He produced 3 course meals finer then any of the good cooks we had in our party. We had to bathe, drink and be merry instead.
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| Dave Horsley wrote: |
| richmond, I'm afraid we are boring gits |
Harsh. I have to say that SC for me involves eating out a lot, and although we did once return to our apartment in Val Claret for lunch, I prefer to eat on the mountain. I don't think that that makes me interesting, 'though. (Had we been tied to ski school in Val C, we might have lunched in more often, and if we didn't have to shop and had a kitchen in which you could swing a gherkin, we might have dined in more).
If you're staying off the beaten track in a place like T-les-B, I think that you'd use a huge amount of each day getting to and from the main ski area. If you do it, I'd strongly suggest feeding wherever the kids have ski school (presumably les Lacs or Val C) and getting a flier for the afternoon. Otherwise, you'll miss out on a lot of what the Val dI/Tignes area offers.
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