 Poster: A snowHead
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Anyone been here?
Seems like a nice way to ski the Verbier slopes without the Verbier prices! Any recommendations for where to stay, where to eat, where to drink all gratefully received.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I agree, we're thinking of buying a place over there. Right now I don't know much about the place, expect to see reports over the season as we explore the area more  I know some people rate it though, I think Jonpim's been a few times.
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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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ise, To judge by the flood of responses it looks like this resort is a well kept secret....perhaps we should keep it that way 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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homphomp, too late the cat out the bag now
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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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Been there a couple of times. Its a good access point to the 4 Valley's. Loads of Self Catering Apartment style blocks. Couple of Bars Hotel (forgot name but near the tourist office) that does a Great Swiss Cheese Fondue.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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A friend of my girlfriend runs chalet holidays (catered and s/c) there - he's been doing it for about a decade. I went once and it was great - good access to the 4 Valleys and a lot cheaper than Verbier. There are still a couple of good bars and a nightclub so it's not dead after dark.
His website is
www.otp.co.uk
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Hi Homphomp We have been skiing Nendaz many times over the last 18 years. There was a period when a few tour operators featured but not really any more with the exception of "OTP" as mentioned in a previous post. We love the place and I will try to add some more information for you.
Accommodation - we mostly use http://www.interhome.co.uk. This is a fully bookable web site and they have a large amount of self catering apartments and chalets to rent. There are a number of good agencies listed on www.nendaz.ch the site of the local tourist office. This year we have rented a chalet owned by an English family on www.chalet-lisa.com This site is very informative and has a lot of great links.
The Ski-ing - Go to the lift company site at www.telenendaz.chand select English. On the front page there is a great new video (only done on 13/1/05) of the descent from Tracouet to the Nendaz cable car station. Have a good look round the "telenendaz" site and their new interactive plan of the pistes.
The local Printze pass is probably the best for most intermediates. This covers Nendaz, Siviez, and all ski-ing over at Veysonnaz and Les Collons. Should you wish to travel across to Verbier you can upgrade your pass daily for a supplement easily at the base of the Mont Fort cable car. If you go over to Verbier 3 of more times during the week it is probably better to buy the full 4 Valleys pass. The skiing link between Nendaz via Prarion and its 1000 year old Larch trees can be fragile in sunny weather. So I would advise that when you want to go Veysonnaz or Verbier you should take the shuttle bus included in the pass to Siviez.
Pistes not to be missed are the World Cup course at Veysonnaz, the Piste de l'Ours (Bear Run) a wide fairly steep place red run. There is a not too difficult black run from Greppon Blanc. The runs from Tracouet to Nendaz are both blue and red ( see the video on the telenendaz site ). Over at Verbier you have some great skiing. There are the formidable runs from Mont-Fort, the steep unpisted run of Tortin from Col de Chassoure, the delights of Col des Gentianes, La Chaux and Les Attelas, and many more.
Mountain Restaurants are pretty good value. The best of the bunch are the panoramic restaurants at Combatzeline and Plan du Fou. The restaurant at Tracouet is fine but does get very busy. There is a super rural cafe/restaurant on the home run to Nendaz called Les
Cleves.
How to get there - Personally I always drive as it is only 540 miles from Calais and takes 9.5 hours driving within the speed limit. Independent travel to Nendaz is very convenient.
Fly to Geneva, then take the train which is in the airport itself to Sion and pick up a connecting post bus up to Nendaz - this takes about 2 to 3 hours. If you travel this way it is a good idea to make sure that your rented accommodation is fairly convenient to the cable car bus stop as you don't want to have to hump your luggage too far. For travel to and from Geneva consult Swss Rail on http://www.sbb.ch/en/
Nendaz is great middle of the road resort with a stunning background of mountain scenery with really pleasant local people.
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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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DAVID SNELL, Wow....thanks for the great info and links...I'll have a browse around.
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Great info indeed.
Does anyone happen to know a reasonable hotel there? I want to stay over at the weekend.
Also, I'd avoid Interhome, they take 40% or so commission on rentals which apart from being daylight robbery will tend to push prices up.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Hi Ise Take your point about commission with rental companies but Interhome rates don't look too bad. If you look round the other agencies in Nendaz I would say the prices are roughly in line. as for hotels there is the Hotel Sourire, where my wife stayed one year, is fine, rooms small but clean. There is the Hotel Deserteur close by looks traditional but I have no first hand knowledge try this http://www.ledeserteur.ch/Home.html for all the info.
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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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Looks like the Hotel Sourire then, that was the one I fancied off the website, I'll give them a ring in the morning. Looks like it might be a nice weekend snow wise as well. Any restaurant in the town particularly worth going to?
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Nendaz on hold till next year....tried the hotels for the week we want and the only one with any space wants £300 per person B&B  Can't afford that....trouble is we want to go right in the middle of the French/Swiss/English school holidays - very bad timing! Will try again next year when we can plan for a cheaper week.
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You know it makes sense.
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Hi Ise again Opposite the Hotel Sourire is the Restaurant Mont-Rouge, very well recommended by my wife. Close to the cable car station there is Restaurant Le Grenier, which does a very nice line in Charbonnards (pardon the spelling) barbecue on the table where you cook your pieces of steak smothered with super fondue sauces with smashing French Fries. Enjoy!
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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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Hi homphomp Don't give up yet the town is stacked with good quality self catering, and although ise has pointed out the mark-ups on rented apartments, Interhome still have good quality accommodation to rent out. Have a look at Inter Agence, or Tour St. Martin or any of the other links in my previous post.
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Poster: A snowHead
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DAVID SNELL, thanks, I called and booked into the Sourire earlier. I see the Mont Rouge offers a 10% discount for guests at the Sourire so that's worth a go. I'll probably pass on the Charbonnade though, I live here, we have it all the time at home
As for Interhome commissions, here's the thing, the company take 15-20% or so, they use a local agent who also take 15-20%, this compares with normal agency rates at 10-20%. We won't use them as we'd need to pass that cost onto the renters.
Inter Agence in Nendaz appaer not to read their email either, they may be fine on the phone or fax but I'm pretty p*ssed off with them personally given the content of the mail I sent them.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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DAVID SNELL, Will give it a go nearer the dates....see what kind of late availability we can find....still planning to go there some time, just might have to leave it til next year when we can go outside school hols.
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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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Hi Ise again Really hope that you enjoy Nendaz. Interested to read your post on your return. As I said we are out there in early March for a week staying in a chalet this year. I believe the Sourire and Mont Rouge are under the same ownership
Not far from Sourire is the Cactus which I would think is the centre for apres-ski in the village. Have a good time!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We're only going overnight I've some business over there so I'll deal with that on Sat' and ski Sun and maybe Sat' afternoon for an hour or so.
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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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HH, have you tried www.otp.co.uk ? As somebody above said - they`re a small but good firm and their prices are very reasonable. I`ve no idea how they are fixed for availability but it might be worth giving them a ring.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The site claims to have 1/2 term availability. Adult prices are quoted at £379 p.p. (less outside holiday weeks). This includes accommodation (& cleaning costs), ski pass and the cost of cross channel ferry (with car).
Incidentally, I have nothing to do with OTP but used them a couple of years ago to go to Villars. Very impressed with the accommodation and service.
Good luck.
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beetle, Cheers for th pointer....I'm off to 3V's for a week , will do lots more research when I get back...sounds like it's still a stong contender!
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Just got back, on the plus there's a incredible amount of snow just fallen, so much that's it awkward to get around.
Otherwise, I'm not really impressed at all, Nendaz has the Alpine charm of Bracknell on a wet Wednesday morning on October. More to the point, dramatically less Alpine charm then where I live which is barely in the pre-alpes. The village is spread out and most it's not even close to being ski-in ski-out.
I've never been anywhere in Switzerland (and a few places outside) that's less Swiss either. The Sourire is a disgrace for a hotel, I've been to better B&B in other stations in Switzerland and Austria.
Like I say, the snow was excellent, skiing today was in meter or so of perfect powder which was pretty excellent 
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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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DAVID SNELL, it's OK, I wasn't going to sue you for compensation for the hotel
I can understand your logic for going there though, I can certainly see some justification for all your points, maybe I'd qualify them though.
1. Yes, it is Switzerland, but not very The immobiliers I was talking to were typically Swiss apart from a chronic inability to reply to email which isn't Swiss at all. The place we had dinner at was typically Swiss and I can see the Mont Rouge you suggested was (there's loads of that sort of thing around). But compared to, say, Saas Fee it's not very Swiss at all. Mind you, I live here so I judge it differently of course.
4. Not sure about this, it cost more for dinner than I pay in our local restaurant. Lunch was cheap though but the hotel was a rip-off. I could have an apartment for a week in Leukerbad for that.
5. The standard is certainly higher, we were looking at buying some places there which is why we visited. We were shown apartments currently rented out by Interhome which were of a high standard. I've looked at French stuff over the years and seen some complete toilets, to put it mildly, that I'd want totally refurbishing before keeping animals in them. It's very clear the initial build quality was typically better and the ongoing services, cleaning, building maintenance were being done to a much higher standard.
I'll probably go for the day again and take another look, it's connected to a large ski area and the property is not badly priced at all.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Hi IseIf you do consider purchasing, I would think about the area around the cable car station, and just beyond where, depending on the location, you can just about ski back to your accommodation, which is always a good bonus if you decide to let out. Last year we rented an apartment from Interhome in Les Chouettes, a brand new block almost opposite the cable car station overlooking the ice rink, which was really spacious, and well equipped.
This year we are back in March to stay in http://www.chalet-lisa.com. This is located 400 metres above the village just below the main gondola.
Our connection with the area is that my wife's mother and father used to take her to Sion for summer holidays back in the 1950s - so happy past associations. And their connection was that before the WWII they used Sion as a base for doing the local passes across to the Bernese Oberland such as the Rawil, Sanetsch, and Pas de Cheville. Even now these passes are still walking tracks.
Agreed that Saas Fee and even Zermatt are more attractive places, and probably more expensive as is Verbier of course.
Whatever ever you do good luck with your investment. Keep us posted on what you eventually decide to do.
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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 doubt we'll rent this one out, it's just for us. It's got to be handy for skiing, any time to the slopes, or worse still using the car is a farce for me. I only live 30 mins from local ski stations so having a weekend place that takes more two mins from the door to the slopes is pointless. The place we're using currently is in Morillon where we ski to the door but it's getting "chaved"-up (see Apres Ski thread). I can sell the place for a huge profit as the chavs have driven the prices up to a ridiculous level, I may despise them but I'll happily profit from them
I've got a plan B, the Val d'Anniviers. Hardly ski-in/out but something very, very different of course.
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As I mentioned before, we had a brilliant summer holiday in Val d'Anniviers staying at Mission (in an chalet rented from Interhome!!!, the owner was fabulous and had a vineyard over at Sierre ) walking in the area. Have you got any tips on the ski-ing in and around.
Also on a totally unrelated point but as you know the area well your advice valued, we want to rent a chalet in the summer to repeat our experience last year , somewhere different but staying in Valais - Apologies it should be ski-ing we are talking about - You mentioned Leukerbad is this OK for the summer?
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