Christmas - to Esprit or not to Esprit...... Belle Plagne v overgurgl

A snowHead

Anyone have experience of Chalet Alpenblume, Obergurgl &/or
Chalet Hotel des Deux Domaines, Belle Plagne?
What about experience over Christmas? Do they feel magical?! Any problems with snow?

Planning trip away for 2 families for Christmas week.
Kids will be 3, 7, 9 & 15. One of the party is in his 70s.
So I’m looking for:
- snow sure high resort
- fun ski classes & kids club for 3yo
- ski classes and kids club for 7 & 9yo
- pool and other facilities in case not everyone can ski every day. And because it is Christmas so nice to have!
- good food n wine.
- good company for the adults and 15yo.

Will Esprit deliver in either Belle Plagne or Obergurgl?! Laughing

A snowHead

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

I have been to both ski areas but only stayed with Esprit in Belle Plagne. We haven’t been with them for Christmas.

Their place in Belle Plagne has a pool, interconnected rooms give you a nice space. Although their place is their flagship place it somehow didn’t feel as relaxed as the other places I have been with them.

I would say Orbergugl is a little more snow sure for early season (we went second week of December when we went there).

Esprit themselves are a great setup for travelling with young kids.

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

If La Plagne has issues with snow at Christmas then I suspect there won’t be many places in good nick!

Down side is how busy it can get in Bellecote. Not been for Christmas but was out there for new year last season and at times there were mad queues for virtually everything out of Bellecote. This wasn’t helped by conditions meaning lifts didn’t open until gone ten on some days, so people were skiing in from centre and hitting a dead end. Well worth it when the lifts opened though and it’s such a big resort that you only really hit the queues first thing and then can avoid the pinch points for the rest of the day.

In case you weren’t aware, I believe that Christmas Eve is more of an occasion than Christmas Day itself in France. Also it can have a tendency to just feel like any other day because all lifts and supermarkets are basically open as normal.

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Been to both ski areas. You have a tough choice, to decide between two good options with very good hotel location in both places.
Obergurgl is snow sure for December.The Hochgurgl side has nice blue pistes for the young ones, the food is good (You'll pay for the water). There is a free weekly night show of the local ski instructors,dress very warm.
It's a family ski area but it doesn't look nor feel like a proper Austrian village. Everything you'll do is basically in the hotel, the village itself looks deserted at 20. We found few places to enjoy outside (I remember a pizza and a burger joint) but we had fun skiing, snow won't be a problem. Once a week small Christmas market
It's high enough to get whiteouts every time it snows (in which case we took the free ski bus to Solden, 20 min)
You can't go wrong with Belle Plagne. The hotel has great reviews and is perfectly located. Belle Plagne is integrated in a huge network of pistes, allowing you to go up and down as wanted and needed.
You'll have one day in Les Arcs and even if skiing slowly with the little ones, you will enjoy the Vallandry area a lot.
In the other direction of La Plagne, take your kids all the way down the blue pistes to Montalbert, it's magical. My 28 years old son and myself smiled all the way into Forets des Lutins. You'll see why Razz

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

We've been two both with Esprit. We generally think they work very well with young children. The food and wine is plentiful but they are not going to win any Michelin stars....

Both of the resorts are reasonably snow sure. Personally I preferred Obergurgl as the Belle Plagne hotel felt too big and too busy and full of kids (unsurprising, as it's Esprit, but smaller properties don't feel as chaotic somehow). Some of the runs there get very busy too and snow conditions can be unpleasant as a result of overuse. However, it is a bigger resort, both in terms of skiing potential (especially if you include Les Arcs) and in terms facilities/activities.

Austrians seemed more friendly, food and drink out/on mountain was cheaper, there were a couple of fun apres bars (including one on the run down), trip to Solden was fun, lifts were more modern with covers on the chairs etc... Also in Austria the kids' lessons were both morning and afternoon (rather than morning lessons and afternoon kids club). From Obergugl you can get a free ski bus about 20mins down the mountain to an a lovely spa centre with outdoor hot tubs etc.

However, based on what you said, negatives of Obergurgl for you might be a) no pool in Esprit chalet (or in village, though you can I think pay to use other hotels' pools), b) limited night life/restaurants c) limited non-ski facilities (though there is an ice rink, where you can also do curling). As the accommodation is smaller, it is less likely that there will be people for your 15-year old to befriend, as Esprit holidays in our experience tend to be dominated by primary school kids and younger. This is something you may be able to check in advance if you ask Esprit about the ages of people already booked on.

After all it is free

We were "lucky" enough to do Deux Domaines twice. The first year was their opening. Lovely family suites and plenty of room for everyone. We couldn't wait to go back so booked again for the following Christmas. Disaster. They'd finished the extra top 3 floors. Twice as many people, crammed into the same space and two sittings for Christmas Dinner, not what we were expecting. Rooms were still great, which was just as well as the pound had collapsed against the Euro and drinks were in effect 50% more expensive. Plenty of Supermarket G&T in the rooms instead. Go to Austria instead. Esprit's place in Saas Fee was great too but they don't do Switzerland anymore and thankfully we don't do Esprit anymore. Good times on 7 out of 8 trips though.

Thanks everyone. Have any of you down Club med in Les arcs or La Plagne? Trying to compare to Esprit but online it’s quite difficult as the club med side is very glossy...... too glossy!

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@SirCharles, although I haven’t stayed with club med I have looked at their offering and noticed the kids lessons on the shelf.

What I noticed was how large a group the kids lessons were.

Esprit keep the lessons sizes much smaller (from memory it is 6 max for the younger one and 8 max for the older ones.

Also on the comment about other teenagers - I agree that when we last went with Esprit there were only one or two who were older, I did notice in their latest brochure they are now offering specific teenager lesson groups in at least some resorts. This says to me they have been seeing more coming or had more demand so the demographic may be changing.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

I think you have to decide what is the priority? "Childcare" in all its guises, Cost (and believe me those two are not compatible), or a "Holiday" for the adults. If the former, then anyone of the specialists family ski companies will tick the box. If the latter, then go for anything that takes the kids away from you for as long as possible. If Cost is key then some of the best Multi-Family trips we've done have been self-catered in large apartments or chalets. You set your own agenda, plan on 3 or 4 "Two Pot" supper menus as you'll inevitably eat out on a couple of nights. Loads of Wine and Cheese for grown ups and Bob's your uncle. Had a great one in Grand Bornand one year with 3 families. Short Transfer, plenty to do for everyone on and off the slopes.

snow reports

@SirCharles, we have stayed in Clubmed Aime La Plagne last Christmas ( they have two in La Plagne and we stayed in the cheaper one). We were there as a group of families with kids aged 4-16
The kids groups are indeed quite big but overall we had a great holiday
I have listed below pros and cons, so hopefully it will help your choice:
Pros:
+ ease for everyone: everything is included in the price , flights , transfers, food, ski lessons for all - you really don’t need to worry about anything
+ great location, true ski in/ski out
+ ski lessons for everyone for kids , teens and adults. You get to ski with people at your level but still meet up as a family for lunches , dinners etc
+ good wrap around childcare- you can drop your kids at mini club at 8:45 and you don’t have to pick them until 5 pm if you wish to
+ good kids entertainment, shows etc. kids had a blast
+ food is quite good ( although not fine dining)
Cons:
- big groups for ski lessons
- loud disco in the evening ( can be heard in rooms upstairs)
- relevant to you: ski school/mini club starts from age 4...so your 3 yr old will go for free but won’t have childcare /lessons unless private. If you stay in the other La Plagne Clubmed, you can put him in an external ski school nearby. Also we stayed in CM Tignes the year before when my youngest was 3 and there an amazing ski nursery next door that he went too and loved
- expensive ski hire (but you don’t have to hire from them)
- dinner starts at 7pm so maybe a bit late for younger kids. Kids shows go on until 9/9.30 pm
- CM Aime La Plagne does not have a pool , the other La Plagne CM does have one though . Also CM Aime La Plagne hotel is clean but in need of update
Hope this helps but let me know if you want to know more. Btw for Christmas all kids got presents and they put up a nativity show with life animals including horses and goats Smile

Sorry, can I highjack to ask @Bella how did you find Club Med in terms of the other kids and childcare staff speaking English? That's one reason we haven't tried them - I worried how shy kids would get on if everything around them was in French. Happy kids = happy holiday for everyone...
Also, can you explain how the meeting up at lunchtime works? What if the parents aren't having lessons?

You know it makes sense.

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

@kitenski, thing is the OP requested something that is "snow sure" not somewhere that has heaps of snow or fresh snow - which of course no one can predict anyway. You can be "sure" there will be snow and lots of slopes open in Paradiski - certainly sufficient for a family trip with varying standards of skier.

A snowHead

@lyzhnik, all staff in MiniClub, ski instructors, hotel staff etc spoke good English. All shows and entertainment were both in English and in French. Half of kids were English during UK skill holiday- there were also many Russians and Israelies too and some staff could even speak Russian and Hebrew and all announcements were published in multiple languages. For lunch all ski groups always get back to the hotel where you can all meet. Adults Lessons for level 3 and up are more like ski guiding sessions, so recommended but not a must

A snowHead

Just back from Hotel DDD in Belle Plagne. In summary, ace holiday - amazed at how good the staff were and how easy they made it with kids. I don't know where they found so many polite, cheerful seasonaires!!! Would definitely use Esprit again.

However, as their flagship hotel, we were a little underwhelmed. Food was ok, but nothing flash (had better breakfasts in a UCPA - honestly!). Whole place is looking a bit tired (stained sheets, threadbare robes in rooms, dirty / worn carpets, handles falling off doors etc.). Also, the pool was freezing when we were there - way too cold for our 15 month old and plenty of adults saying it was cold. Hot tubs also not hot (lukewarm) and not conducive to sitting outside in.

Minor grumbles only and more about how the hotel is pitched as "flagship" when in fact it's perfectly acceptable 3* kinda place.

Suspect Belle Plagne can get very busy over xmas period - bit of a bottleneck at the bottom.

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

thanks everyone. some great insights here. it looks like we will avoid Esprit as they wont offer flights from NI nor will they give a discount for independent travel. Couple that with the lack of interest in teenagers and it doesnt sound like they want our business.....

am looking at independent options, but not taken Club Med off the list yet.

Help!!

Christmas - to Esprit or not to Esprit...... Belle Plagne v overgurgl

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