Brides Les Bains as a holiday destination

A snowHead

Brides les Bains: Small town at the bottom of the Olympic Gondola direct into Meribel - down in the valley: I hope this might be the right place to start this post. My huge apologies if not. Basically I am thinking of investing in a small place there with a view to (a) me and my family skiing from it each year (b) letting it out as a holiday pad to others for skiing (summer also). What I am interested to know from you lovely SnowHeads is what your opinion is of Brides Les Bains from a skiing holiday point of view. I get that its not for everyone and that in an ideal world maybe we'd all base ourselves directly on the slopes.. especially those with young kids. But this is a viable alternative for those that want to ski the amazing 3 vallees but not pay or experience the craziness of Meribel or Courcheval. The gondola ride is about 20-25 mins (personally I think quite a nice chilled way to start the day...) ESF have confirmed you can reach lessons on time in Meribel. The walk to the Gondola each morning would be 12 minutes or a free shuttle bus from the end of the road. What do you think...Who thinks its a good place for a holiday and would consider it as a holiday base and who thinks its unviable, stinking idea? If I go ahead, i'm not sure how to reach my winter rental market... Thanks to anyone who bothers to read this... x

A snowHead

@JoandFamHall, lots of threads on here about buying in general. If it's purely an investment some would argue you are better of buying BTL's in the UK. You'd want to rent it out at the peak weeks anyhow which kind of kills the idea of using it yourself. But if it's more that you want a second home in the Alps that doesn't cost anything/much, that you can use for off peak weeks/weekends or forego peak rental money on then many on here say they've never regretted it.

In regard of Brides itself, I did it years ago with a mate and it was no biggy getting the cable up and down for us as a one off. Personally I've never repeated the experience but he's done it twice more in recent years. I would imagine the rental price would be a bit below market because of the inconvenience but then that would be reflected in the base cost of the property. Again, whether you are making more of a commercial decision or a personal one comes into the equation.

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One thing that caught my mate out pre-pandemic was that he rented and found out on arrival the gondola closes before the 3V ski area does. And he wasn't told. So had to drive up every day.

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Thank you Layne. Yes its much more than just an investment. We don't mind using it out of peak weeks in fact would far prefer that! I'm glad you didnt think it was too off putting. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else has an opinion and how many different opinions I might get on here. Thanks again.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

We stayed in Brides les Bains in 2013 (new year), when the kids were early /mid -teens, at (or near) the Residence Cybele. ... so notes below are from memory and nearly 10 years on may not be current.

We went for BLB rather than Meribel as the accomodation was that much cheaper for the week (we got a 3bedroom appt for half what a classic 25m2 sofa bed and bunks would have cost us in Mottaret)
Google maps tells me that is 9mins walk from the gondola station - if it is it feels alot further / longer in ski boots with skis... the shuttle bus is great - if you get it. I don't know how it is now but then it only ran very restricted hours - so when my wife and daughter cut the day short they had an unexpected and arduous walk. (that 12min walk will be a long one in ski kit - hill up to the gondaloa is steep)
They did love the gondola ride up / down though ... it starts slightly earlier than the main lifts so you can be up in good time ... but the queue was pretty big at the start of the day ... get there early to get 'first lift'. ... but does close soon after the main system so no 'last run' at the end of the day.
For the last half of the week, i took to driving the car up to Meribel (rest of the family got the gondola to avoid the bendy road) and parked in the underground at the lift station ... this meant that the family had normal shoes and no ski kit to get back to the appt. I drove up/down each day - iirc 8euro/day to park was still cheaper than meribel appt rental.
One day we got to Meribel and my son had left his gloves in the appt - so he used mine and i got new gloves (a win but 90Euros i wasn't planning to spend) - as there was no way of 'nipping' back to get them.

'supermarket' in centre of town was tiny (not really super but did basics) - there might be a bigger one somewhere. & eating out options (with the kids) seemed limited - at least in terms of what was appealing.
(at the time there were a lot of Russians there, who unfortunately had the most appalling BO - rendered the visits to the shop and Cybele pool almost unbearable...) (for balance i have met many russians since who do not exhibit this tendancy Smile

For that week, BLB was Ok and did the job for a more budget week.
Location was OK, got a decent sized appt and i didn't mind driving up and down to Meribel - but this was an unplanned necessity...tbh i found the gondaola trip a bit tedious after the first couple of days.
Worst bit was probably being below the snow line, when in the mountains on a winter trip we prefer to be 'in them'. We've back to 3Vs 3 times since (to Mottaret) where were have been fortunate to stay piste side and would consider BLB again only if looking for that budget trip...

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Thank you Jon. I can't tell you how helpful all of that is. Yes I think its definitely for those who want a budget holiday but ski a relatively expensive area... which was us this year with the late Easter.

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@JoandFamHall, have you been to Brides-les-Bains? I think it is crucial to know whether it is a place you would enjoy going back to time and time again. A summer visit would tell you.

As you will see from the location under my username, we bought an apartment in a valley town (though St Gervais can be skiied back to under favourable conditions, not sure about BLB). That was on the basis of liking the town on a summer visit, and reading up what the skiing was like - in the case of 3V not much reading is necessary but you may want to find online copies of shuttle bus timetables and lift opening times. Ours is about 10 minutes walk to the lift, perfectly doable in ski gear but hardly fun and for one recent trip we decided to rent a locker at the gondola station instead so we could walk in comfortable shoes.

As @Layne says, don't get taken in by the theoretical investment opportunity of getting a rental income. For a lot of places it renting is tricky except in the peak weeks when you want to use it yourself. If you have the money though it is great to have your own bolt-hole in the Alps, summer as well as winter.

With luck someone will be along with more specific knowledge of BLB. However if you aren't sold on the specific location, it would be well worth while investigating whether there is anywhere else which would give you the accommodation you want for a similar price, and including that in your summer visit. (We started out thinking of Morzine and buying a studio apartment there, then for similar price got a better located one-bedroom in StG). And don't assume the first place you see is the best you will find for the money, our experience was that for France you couldn't easily research everything on the market by simple internet searches, you needed knowledge of the estate agents active in the area.

And many of us here have experience we can pass on of the buying process and then the furnishing/doing up.

After all it is free

I think you would want to visit Brides Les Bains in the summer anyway to get a feel for how well a place would rent out, I got the feeling that it was more of a summer town than a winter one.

I have stayed there for odd nights several times but always drove up to ski rather than taking the gondola.

Brides is pretty busy in summer, even early and late in the season. It does have a slightly weird vibe at times though. As I'm sure you know, there is a large thermal spa complex there. Brides is (in)famously one of the spa towns to which French GPs can send patients who need to lose weight. It was even the setting for a French comedy movie on the subject ("Mince Alors!", which is a tremendous pun if you're French). This does create a slightly odd combo of super-fit mountain people and the not so fit clearly out and about on walking "homework". I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about the town I'm not a big fan of. Maybe something of the air of shabby, faded spa-town grandeur. Much prefer Bozel, just along the river.

Someone mentioned supermarkets above - the shop in town is indeed very small, but there's a big supermarket a few minutes drive away in Salins.

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I have spent a few holidays in BLB including one in the summer, but not recently. I also thought about buying a place there but eventually didn't, not because I didn't like the place but for changes in circumstances. Residence Cybele has a very run down feel in the summer and when I looked at an apartment there I found the look of the grounds, without snow, depressing covered in cigarette butts and beer cans. ( It may have changed now). Other smaller blocks in the town were much nicer imho.
The park is a nice place to sit and relax, even in winter, or join the locals for a game of boules.
The walk up the hill to the gondola is a challenge but I found the bus useful. There were lockers at the lift station if you didn't fancy the walk in ski boots. I didn't mind the gondola ride but tended to wait until after 9 to miss the ski school rush. It is possible to ski back to the top station at the end of the day but don't miss the last lift down. There is an off piste route down but I never found it, I did see people skiing into the village so it does exist.
In the summer it's the premier resort for le cure and rentals tend to be for 3 week periods to those needing to drop a few pounds with most eateries offering diet meals.
The supermarket is small but the boulangerie a bit out of town is fantastic. A car is useful for a run to a valley supermarket and the small carpark at the gondola was free the last time I was there.
Overall I was very happy to holiday there and would do so again for a budget trip, especially in a small group.

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FWIW, as a town at the bottom of the 3V ski area, I think Bozel is far nicer, though obviously doesn’t have a gondola up to Meribel on the doorstep (the bubbles have been upgraded for this season which is nice).

We did 2 weeks at Brides late March/early April.Someone mentioned a weird vibe, and that's right. It's a quiet spot, couple of bars and eateries but that's all. However, we really enjoyed it... but we're in our sixties, so banging apres is not on our list! If we were in the market, we'd consider it, having tried it. On the gondola, yep it's long at 25 mins, but if you drove up to Meribel I'm sure you wouldn't save much time; and there's pretty much no free parking in the town any more. Bozel was mentioned- we were there in Jan for 2 weeks too. Buses are infrequent, so you drive to Le Praz- again probably just as long.

You know it makes sense.

Some valley towns can be quite dismal in winter, with minimal sun say Nov-Feb. And there can sometimes be an issue with traffic or other fumes getting trapped. Have you checked out your intended location in the middle of winter?

The Olympe gondola perhaps isn't the best designed for linking in to the other lifts at the Chaudanne. It is a bit of a walk or pole, both morning and evening, which can be less attractive to older / less fit people, or those with children whose skis etc need to be carried.

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

We have only stayed in Brides les Bains once - camping for a few days one summer. I have to say it is not my favourite summer camping ground. It felt to be in the shade all day and compared to towns like Bourg st. Maurice, where we moved onto after only two nights, dull. TBH towns like Bozel or Pralognan la Vanoise would be much nicer in the summer. In fact Champagny is very nice and has a better telecabine connection to the ski area than Brides les Bains

However, we didn't use the main reason for Bride Les Bains existance - the bains. If you are into that sort of thing and are bored with Droitwich and Harrogate then it may be a good place to stay.

A snowHead

A snowHead

@davidof, Nice one. Spellin is massively over rated.

A friend moved to france to be with his girlfrind. We were with them when my frend anoonced he was going out to get "la pain". His girlfrend replied "but we don't have a rabbit". Old joke I know but actually true

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

Thank you everyone. All very helpful and valid opinions. Hopefully heading out for another 'reckie' mission very soon... good to see some of these places 'between' seasons - between summer and winter I mean..

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One of the good things about BLB is that whilst it might not be the most exciting of places, it is a great base to reach so many different ski areas... Champagny was mentioned and I think thats only about a 20 min drive further up the road . Doesnt that then give you access to the whole La Plagne Paradiski area?

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@j b, Christmas eve a few years ago we skied from Arc 1600 and got to Champagny for an early lunch. It was the only time I've known the pistes to Champagny to be open. It is normal to download on the telecabine. Champagny to Villaroger and back is doable in a day. It all depends on the Arpette lift in La Plagne.

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After all it is free

I agree especially with the crazy electricity prices we have here in the UK this year and worse next year. Thats kind of part of our plan... to have an opportunity to really insulate something. My other-half is the structural engineer so he'd know better but i'm guessing solar panels on roofs is not a thing in area where lots of snow falls on roofs! Shame.. can't have it both ways.

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@JoandFamHall, no idea about dirt but I believe that solar can work perfectly well in snowy areas of the alps. The snow on these panels always disappears remarkably quickly after snowfall and they are at 2300m whereas BLB is down at 600m.

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[quote="davidof"]

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Thanks for that. It sounds like a great plan.

You know it makes sense.

20 odd years since I went but we were not flush and got a week for two in an apartment for £198 (for 2, not each!), including Chunnel tickets! Pretty good value for 3V skiing, even then!
We only took the gondola once and after that drove to La Tania each morning. It seemed to take ages and then at the top you have to schlep across to another lift before any skiing occurs.
The town will doubtless have changed a lot but it was nice enough if very quiet and didn't really feel like a skiing destination apart from a few restaurants serving a lot of melted cheese!
It did have a casino with a weird local version of roulette as I remember!
Fond memories of our first trip to 3V - and at the time the only way we could afford it - but I wouldn't rush back if I'm being honest.
Each to their own though and maybe if the time on lifts and lack of "ski feel" are less of a concern then it could be an option.
Good luck in whatever you decide!

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

@johnE, I've stayed at Champagny a couple of times and the red back (Les Bois) has always been open, but not in very good condition. Downloading on the gondola is fine and if you're lucky Mont de la Guerre will be open (rarely in my experience).

A snowHead

@JoandFamHall, …there’s one thing which people haven’t mentioned (I think) so far but it’s an important one, and that’s air quality. Our family-shack-on-a-hill in the Valais is at 1100 metres. The air monitoring service says that we are at the optimum level in the Valais to avoid high level ozone - which kicks in above 1800 here - and to avoid the horrible level of pollution which can occur when there’s a temp inversion in the valley of the Valais. We have very clean air. In the Summer it can be really oppressive in the valley floor - we had 40c a few years’ ago - and to be at 1100m is a real asset - cooler, with cleaner air.

I like Brides Les Bains very much, and have stayed at hotel AltiVert - 2mins from the gondola - and really enjoyed it. But I far prefer being in a small village and at altitude.

A snowHead

Are we saying that because BlB is at about 600m , thats a good thing? or that its still too low and so air will be oppressive? I would have thought 600m is a good compromise, high enough to have that feeling of fresher mountain air.

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@valais2, see my post at 08:37. But your explanation is more detailed Smile

@JoandFamHall, It won't be as bad as it can get at Moutiers, or Bourg St Maurice, which have more industry and traffic. I think it is more whether you are at the valley floor (whatever altitude that happen to be), or on the side of a hill a bit higher up

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@ecureuil, …indeed that’s right…sierre is the town on the valley floor beneath us, and that’s at 533m - and stuck in temperature inversions and their related high pollution levels very frequently, whilst we have clear and clean air at 1100 up on the side of the valley.

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

After all it is free

I suppose it depends if the OP wants to use the place in the summer. Rental possibilities in Brides are very good because of the slimming trade. People go there for three weeks at a time and so lots of potential guests for more than a week at a time. Peak time seems to be June/July/August.
Personally, if not wanting a lot of apres, then it's not a bad place for a budget ski holiday.

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Pam.. I'm with you. I agree.. I love a good pros and cons list and a priority list. The Other Half is a bit obsessed about future proofing this plan and is wont consider any of the lower down areas like Les Houches, Les Contamines, Morzine etc.
For me its got to have appeal both winter and summer. Feel like a home and so not an annoymous box 5th floor apartment, have some outside space for eating, appeal to cyclists as well. I am keen on the northern parts (not so fussed about 3V) but Other Half wants Moutiers access because he says "the train is the future"... he would say that.. he currently building HS2!! My kids dont care so long as they can ski and mountain bike. I like the idea of catching the 'weekenders' market. But this isnt about making money. Happy to cover the interest on the mortgage so we are not hell bent on renting it out all the time.
I love this forum and forums in general... I love hearing everyones point of view... everyone is entitled to their own.
Thanks all!
x

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Brides Les Bains as a holiday destination

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