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Val Thorens - Résidence Village Montana with Sunweb

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Looking at booking a 3 room apartment in Résidence Village Montana, Val Thorens for 4 of us in January through Sunweb so just wondered if anyone had any experience of Sunweb or this Apartment complex? We would welcome any feedback, advice or further information about the complex.

We are 4 middle aged(!!!) men who ski to a reasonable level looking for a week's skiing with the emphasis on good skiing - although somewhere for a few drinks afterwards is a bonus!! The past couple of years we stayed in La Daille, Val D'isere which suited us well but would like something different this year.

Budget, as ever, is an issue - we are looking at around £1,000 all in if half board / catered (accommodation, breakfast and dinner, flights, transfers, ski carriage, lift passes). Probably around £750 if self catered.

Looking at the above apartments through Sunweb, the cost is around £700 each for everything (excluding flights/transfers) if half board or £550 if self catered. We should be able to get flights, transfers and ski carriage easily for under £300.

Any other recommendations would be welcomed...
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Haven’t stayed there but we used Sunweb for a self drive apartment Easter just gone. No issues. Would happily book through them again.
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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?
Sunweb generally has a good rep on here.
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We were 'upsold' on arrival at the Cheval Blanc about 10 years ago into the Montana, and have now used Village Montana (mostly in Tignes) every year since. I believe they have 3 different apartment blocks in ValTh - the one we stayed in was the "Residences", which is about 25 yards up the hill from Le Cheval Blanc.

The Montana apartments are generally much bigger than your typical Pierre et Vacances or Maeva rabbit hutches. A 2/3/4 bedroom apartment really will have 2/3/4 bedrooms with a separate living room and kitchen - none of this bunk beds in an alcove and pull out beds in the living room nonsense. Separate bathroom and toilet means someone can be having a proper bath whilst someone else is - well - you know. The larger apartments usually have more than one Bathroom/toilet too.

The kitchen is compact and bijou - 4 ring hob, combined electric oven and grill, a microwave, kettle, full sized fridge and dishwasher. Easily good enough to knock up a decent full English in the morning or spag-bol in the evening, although you may struggle with masterchef style salmon en-croute with fondant potatoes in a lemon jus.

The living room areas have one or two sofas which can be used as pull out beds if required (which they shouldn't be but you never know). You get a proper TV with satellite channels including BBC1 & BBC2, plus free wifi - not good enough for films but fine for normal email/web-surfing. If you can get a south-ish facing room then you can look out over the slopes from your balcony whilst enjoying a crafty vino collapso with Rochefort & Belefort nibbles pendant/après ski.

It's technically ski-in, ski-out. The ski-out bit is down a 10 yard long fairly steep pitch onto the main piste, which IMHO is too steep for beginners. The ski in bit is more challenging since you need to find the correct route through the village to bring you out on the road, cross the road (usually covered in packed snow) and then down the steep pitch to the boot room door. Again not really very beginner friendly.

There are no doubt better places available in ValTh (and Tignes), but if you are used to P&V or Maeva, then Village Montana is a huge improvement in comfort, and if the price is right I'd say go for it.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Yup, used Sunweb last year. Very cheap for what was provided and you can tailor the booking a bit once booked. All they really provide is the hotel reservation with the lift pass left for you at reception so the tricky bit of actually getting to and from resort is left to you but their bit of the process worked smoothly.

We were the only English people in the hotel, if that might be an issue.
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Judwin wrote:
We were 'upsold' on arrival at the Cheval Blanc about 10 years ago into the Montana, and have now used Village Montana (mostly in Tignes) every year since. I believe they have 3 different apartment blocks in ValTh - the one we stayed in was the "Residences", which is about 25 yards up the hill from Le Cheval Blanc.

The Montana apartments are generally much bigger than your typical Pierre et Vacances or Maeva rabbit hutches. A 2/3/4 bedroom apartment really will have 2/3/4 bedrooms with a separate living room and kitchen - none of this bunk beds in an alcove and pull out beds in the living room nonsense. Separate bathroom and toilet means someone can be having a proper bath whilst someone else is - well - you know. The larger apartments usually have more than one Bathroom/toilet too.

The kitchen is compact and bijou - 4 ring hob, combined electric oven and grill, a microwave, kettle, full sized fridge and dishwasher. Easily good enough to knock up a decent full English in the morning or spag-bol in the evening, although you may struggle with masterchef style salmon en-croute with fondant potatoes in a lemon jus.

The living room areas have one or two sofas which can be used as pull out beds if required (which they shouldn't be but you never know). You get a proper TV with satellite channels including BBC1 & BBC2, plus free wifi - not good enough for films but fine for normal email/web-surfing. If you can get a south-ish facing room then you can look out over the slopes from your balcony whilst enjoying a crafty vino collapso with Rochefort & Belefort nibbles pendant/après ski.

It's technically ski-in, ski-out. The ski-out bit is down a 10 yard long fairly steep pitch onto the main piste, which IMHO is too steep for beginners. The ski in bit is more challenging since you need to find the correct route through the village to bring you out on the road, cross the road (usually covered in packed snow) and then down the steep pitch to the boot room door. Again not really very beginner friendly.

There are no doubt better places available in ValTh (and Tignes), but if you are used to P&V or Maeva, then Village Montana is a huge improvement in comfort, and if the price is right I'd say go for it.


If the boot room is at the bottom of the slope isn't it possible to ski back from the top of the Cascades chair, Peclet Funitel, 2 Lacs chair or beginners travellators Puzzled (ie no need to ski back from the other side of the town and cross the road). Puzzled
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Bergmeister wrote:
Judwin wrote:
It's technically ski-in, ski-out. The ski-out bit is down a 10 yard long fairly steep pitch onto the main piste, which IMHO is too steep for beginners. The ski in bit is more challenging since you need to find the correct route through the village to bring you out on the road, cross the road (usually covered in packed snow) and then down the steep pitch to the boot room door. Again not really very beginner friendly.


If the boot room is at the bottom of the slope isn't it possible to ski back from the top of the Cascades chair, Peclet Funitel, 2 Lacs chair or beginners travellators Puzzled (ie no need to ski back from the other side of the town and cross the road). Puzzled


The boot room door is about halfway down the 'track' from the Rue du Soleil to the piste. The whole track is probably 25 yards long. with buildings both sides. So you either need to ski down (15 yards) to the door from Rue du Soleil, or walk up 10 yards from the piste. We don't walk anywhere in ski-boots unless we absolutely have to. In the same vein as you don't buy a dog and then bark yourself, we won't spend £300 on a weeks lift pass and then walk up the hills.

This is the top of the track:

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.2967533,6.5789238,3a,75y,196.23h,77.88t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sqxTImJv5HZNxi1PotdH7nQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It's not *that* steep - but can get busy at the end of the day and is a bit of a choke point with the road. A competent blue run skier should be fine.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
tonyswift wrote:
Looking at booking a 3 room apartment in Résidence Village Montana, Val Thorens for 4 of us in January through Sunweb so just wondered if anyone had any experience of Sunweb or this Apartment complex? We would welcome any feedback, advice or further information about the complex..


Don't know Val Thorens so can't comment on the apartment but we have been using Sunweb for a number of years - probably on our 10th week with them at Christmas. Always found them to be very helpful, and accurate in their apartment descriptions, and they are so unbelievably reasonably priced that we always make sure everyone has a proper bedroom.

Have no hesitation in recommending them.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Stayed at Village Montana in VT at Easter. Very nice apartment, reasonable size. 2 bedroom, 1 a proper bedroom, one an alcove but quite large. Well furnished and good kitchen. Pubs and Spar up the road, easy to get to pool and main centre ville easily enough.
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Ski the Net with snowHeads
Wow! These are all really positive!!! Looks like we will have to go for that then! Thanks so much for all the help on this...

@Judwin, thanks for all the details on ski in ski out - and particularly the google maps link! That was really helpful!! We should all be fine with that pitch but I woudln't want to be doing that with my son!!! Laughing

Other thoughts - where are the main restaurants and bars in relation to this block? How long is the walk?? What is the best first lift to take in the mornings??? Any more details about the route through the village back to the boot room???? You can tell I'm starting to get excited about this now!!!!

Also, would love to hear opinions on whether people think it is worth paying the extra 24 Euros for breakfast and dinner each night at Le Grange Restaurant?? Apparently about 100 metres away. My thoughts are that, for around the same money we could probably sort our own breakfasts - croissants etc, get stuff for a packed lunch, eat out 3 or 4 nights and cook in the apartment for the remaining evenings...
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Access to the boot room is above the Restaurant Jasper so you can ski down to it from anywhere really as it all funnels down into that area. Just stay skiiers right above that area and you will cruise down the nursery slopes to it. Genuinely the easiest access I have ever had to and from a building !
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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.
Residence Village Montana has a few different buildings. Some are more ski-in than others. If you stay in the Soleil building you have to ski down that track to get to the nursey slope.

We always stay in the main building though (possibly a little pricier) so ski in and out from the nursery slope (better for young children but not an issue for you I guess!)

Their 4 buildings all come under the Residence Village Montana header.

Check out the list of apartments here https://www.village-montana.com/en/hebergement-val-thorens/residences-village-montana-val-thorens.html

There is the soleil building, premier building, valbel building, and Caron building all in "Residence Village Montana"
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
tonyswift,

Best lift? You can ski from your door to about a dozen lifts! (including 3 in Les Menuires). Take your pick! Very Happy

The furthest part of the town is only about a 10 or 12 minute walk from your door, with lots of places to eat and drink on your doorstep - and lots in between. There's a good Irish Bar (with happy hour) 2 minutes away from the Montana. The apartment is in a great location.

The Grange restaurant is (in our opinion) excellent. They do vouchers for 3 course meals, available (I think) in 3's or 6's (with a good selection of food). Inside is lovely - very traditional and rustic. Likewise, they do vouchers separately for breakfast - though I'd be inclined to buy a box of cereal, bread for toast and/or croissants (at the bakers next door) and a jar of coffee wink

Then again, if they are offering B & D for €24 that represents great value... Very Happy
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
p.s. For transfers from Geneva to Val Thorens we use Alpybus. There's currently 15% off their transfers with the following discount code (which is valid for a limited time, though I'm not sure how long):-

SAVEME15

We've got no connection with Alpybus, by the way - other than as regular, satisfied customers Very Happy .
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@orange, That sounds like we will manage that if we are roughly aware of where we are going - even with my dodgy sense of direction!!

@Stinkpickle, that's really useful. Seems like we are looking at the Soleil Building but should be no problem with the steeper track down to the pistes.

@Bergmeister, Thanks for that - it definitely feels like the right place for both skiing and a bit of apres!! i think you are right about the Half Board offer - it seems mad to pass it up even if we don't use it for a couple of night!! I have checked the transfer costs and their prices seem good with that discount code - beating Ben's Bus so will probably book that as you are recommending.

Anywhere decent round there for live music and suitable, reasonably(!!) late-night revelry, given that we are all in our 40's now!!! i don't think we will fit in at the Folie any more!!! Cool
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
One more thing - any specific room requests we should make?

@Judwin, mentioned South / Slope Facing Apartments so I will make that request but anything else bearing in mind we are in the Soleil building?
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Based on some of the information above I can see that what we were looking at was in the older Soleil Building across the road from where I thought it was referring to!

However for only around £90 extra each, we can get a similar apartment in the Residence Montana Plein Sud which appears to be right on the piste, newer and a much higher spec with pool and spa!!

Does anyone have experience of this?
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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?
@tonyswift, setting aside all the detail about accommodation, restaurants, bars, etc.

In January, I think a base at a lower altitude and more central to the whole 3V area has benefits over Val T.

Meribel Valley the obvious contender. Les Menuires and especially St Martin de Belleville gods bases too in my opinion. I also like La Tania as a base, though it’s not so central.

Val T comes into its own late season I think but can be a touch bleak for me in Dec and Jan.
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If you are happy with the £90 fee then upgrading to Plein sud is a no brainer. Ski in/out is on a blue run. It maybe 200m further from the town centre than soleil which is nothing - 2 mins extra walking in normal boots

I’d pay that upgrade in a shot! The standard of accommodation is much better than the soleil building
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