 Poster: A snowHead
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Wishful thinking I know.......but last year some friends of ours let us use their apartment in St Jean d'Aulps at half term and we were pleasantly surprised to find that Avoriaz or Morzine were not too crowded - similar to other main resorts we usually visit at Easter. But.... I have a feeling we got lucky. Last year we did not coincide with the Paris zone holiday week and because Easter was early last year many English school holidays were different as well - I think we avoided London and the south-east. We are using the apartment again in Feb 09 but I am sure we coincide with Paris this time. We will have the car with us and I was wondering whether anybody knows if the smaller resorts in the PDS (other than St Jean d'Aulps itself) are likely to be less busy than the bigger centres? I am thinking Abondance, Bellevaux, Bernex etc?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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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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Hawkeye, Easiski is right the French half term which lasts for two weeks starts on Feb 14th next year and coincides with the UK half term so there will be very few resorts that aren't going to be busy. The bigger resorts will probably be heaving  Good luck finding a smaller resort.
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Pra Loup generally not too busy in half term, although its comparative i suppose.
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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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The French half terms are staggered over four weeks, Paris being the worst, unfortunately. Our place is in a small French resort and we don't bother with it at half term. It's not as bad as, say, Flaine which was hideous last half term, according to my daughter and BF who are both experienced skiers and found themselves really quite scared on the pistes, especially as the snow was thin and hard. We found, when at our apartment at half term for the first and last term with family visitors who couldn't do any other time, that the best thing was to get started really early, then have a fairly long drink/snack break around 11, then ski all through lunch, when the French are crowding out the restaurants. As soon as the after lunch ski school queues hit the place, we gave up for the day as the queues got silly.
If you are just having one ski holiday, Easter is normally a better bet than half term.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Hawkeye, AFAIK Abondance doesn't offer much in the way of alpine skiing anymore, there is a shuttle link to one of the other resorts I believe.
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Based on previous years I would think Les Contamines will be relatively quiet!!
On its busiest days last year it probably got upto about as busy as a quiet day in other resorts.
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steph, Not just the brits and the french but also Germany, holland, ireland, finland, denmark, poland chech republic, slovenia & switzerland. As pam w, says, the french hols are for 4 weeks, roughly mid feb to mid march most years.
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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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Have you looked at Champoluc in the Monte Rosa area of Italy. Its busy a the weekends with locals from Milan and Torino but during the week we found it pretty quiet the two Feb half terms we have been there. 180cm in the village at present!
Its almost exclusively hotel based accommodation though  EDIt - just re-read the title of the thread - it isn't far beyond Courmayeur and still in the old Dukedom of Savoie!
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Isn't 'quiet French resorts' and ' February half term' an oxymoron?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Hawkeye,
Abondance closed down its ski lift last year as it was too expensive. I havent skied Bellevaux but it will be a bit of a drive from St Jean. Bernex is a great place to ski but it will get crowded during the half term. Chapelle D'abondance is worth a punt using the Gondola that goes over the road, but the slopes are south facing so check the snow condtions. You can get to Torgon (Swiss) and the back of Chatel from here but there are a lot of drags on these sectors. Best bet is the enter the PDS from Ardent as the lifts on this sector are modern and cope better with the crowds. But get there early for the car parking and empty slopes, then plan your day around everyone else's eating habits.
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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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I found La Rosiere at half term to be much quieter and safer on the hill than Tignes in mid January.
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Thanks for the replies everyone. Unfortunately Easter is not an option for us this year due to other commitments. I thought I had read that one of the 'Abondances' had closed but could not remember which one. Looks like we shall have to rise early, skip lunch and finish early!
dz4d1v,
Do they charge you to park at Ardent? Last year we drove up to the Prodains cable car and accessed Avoriaz from there.
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You know it makes sense.
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easiski, ouch all those other countries on half term too, quiet resorts will be hard to find! The Paris half term is obviously the one to avoid in France if you can because of the mass exodus, the traffic jams on the A6 start at about 3a.m. on the first Saturday of the hols. It's not so bad on the other staggered weeks as the other regions simply don't have the volume of people heading for the mountains. We used to take our kids out of school to avoid those weeks and go during the Dijon hols as it was much quieter.
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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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the English half term is very congested on the roads going south, too. I never do the A6, but the road down from Calais gets pretty horrendous too, and if you hit bad weather the combination can mean hours of delays. If I had to drive down at half term I would try to do it overnight Friday, aiming to get into resort before 8 am on Saturday. Even if you can't get into your accommodation till much later you can get a few hours on the slopes on Saturday, before the masses hit the lifts on Sunday morning.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Hawkeye,
I access the PDS from Pre la Joux. They dont charge for parking there and I dont think they do at Ardent, I have only seen parking charges in Village centre such as Chatel or Les Gets. The other option you could consider is driving to Morillon to access the GM which should be fairly quick from St Jean.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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The skiset website has a handy calender of school holidays for the european countries.
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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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If a small resort is fine for you, than Bonneval sur arcs would be a nice, calm choice
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