 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi all. Looking to stay in a cheap s/c house for group of 12-14, don't mind if it's away from slopes, will use homelidays to look, probably.
We'll fly to Grenoble or Geneva, hire a couple of 7-seaters for the week and roam, basically. I am intrigued by the Maurienne Valley pass - this 5 days for €85 seems a peach of a price, with an upgrade for a day in the 3 valleys or something, could be a winner. We're going in mid March (13th-20th) so it should still be decent snow around then I'd have thought. (cue snow drought and warm temps...)
Is this Maurienne pass usable in one week - with an upgrade cost for the 6th day? If so that looks amazingly cheap for a week's skiing? Where's a good place to base ourselves to make maximum use of this pass, I don't know the area at all and just looking at a map doesn't always give the whole story...
What about any other similar places like this... Les Sybelles springs to mind?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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carled, Link to a couple of trip reports 2006/7 I did for Les Sybelles here . That pass is remarkably cheap if it is as good as it sounds.
Only valley town I've stayed in was St Jean de Maurienne, nice enough town, easy access to Les Sybelles, the motorway and hence I guess other resorts.
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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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carled,
I did precisely that last Easter and had a great time. We actually had 9 days skiing.
Few points
The pass is useable for any five days in the season including five days in one week.
You must have a photo for the pass and most of the resorts do not have photo booths as they don't need photos for individual resort passes, take them with you.
Your passes have to be used in different resorts, if you particularly like a resort and want to keep skiing it you need to buy a day pass second time around though there is a small reduction with the valley pass.
If you want to ski Orelle (access ValThorens) there is a supplement for that day, there is a larger supplement for the full 3v. There are family reductions and group reductions, it may be cheaper to use that as your sixth day rather than a day off the maurienne pass and then an extra day elsewhere.
Distances are not small and some of the roads are windy, if you have folk who hate a drive it may not be the right thing to do.
Les Sybelles is part of the Maurienne pass though to ski the whole area as opposed to bits of it in a day there is a supplement.
No one place is particulary ideal for everywhere and where to stay is a good question.
Modane is probably the most central spot, dividing the Haute Maurienne from the rest but is not an attractive town and personally I would not stay there for a holiday.
Late season I would reckon that the Haute Maurienne is likely to have better snow and somewhere in the upper valley would be my choice.
Termignon or close by would allow you to ski Termignon/ Val Cenis, Bonneval, La Norma, Valfrejus, Aussois and Orelle without too long drives.
Bessans is higher up the valley and has masses of decent priced accommodation it is a ski de fond area and convenient for Val Cenis and Bonneval but a bit further from the rest.
The maurienne tourist web site has a very good accommodation search engine which I have used to find what is available though have booked direct. http://www.maurienne-tourisme.com/contact_uk.asp
If the flights are cheap it is also easily accessible from Turin and Chambery and slightly less so but still not bad from Milan.
Any quuestions drop me a PM.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Cheers for the replies. We've got a choice of Geneva or Grenoble from where we are. Grenoble to Val Cenis area appears to be 1hr 40 on roads or thereabouts, so not bad. Then from there it'll be 10-20 minute drive out to other areas. We did this in Serre Che last year - stayed out of town and then drove in every day - had a day in Montgenevre too.
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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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carled, it's not a bad drive from Grenoble or Turin, and the road is usually quiet. We use the Tunnel de Frejus occasionally, and went to the EOSB from Serre Chevalier that way.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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carled,
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Then from there it'll be 10-20 minute drive out to other areas.
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The roads are slower than around Serre Che 20-30minutes from Val C are I would guess more realistic, significantly more for Les Sybelles, Valloire end of the valley. Very scenic drives above Modane though.
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ah... "those" sorts of roads, eh...? Hmm. Presumably very few (except possibly Valloire/Valmeiner) are large enough to base ourselves and get the local ski pass all week. The Valloire/Valmeiner one appears to be 150km and €150-ish. Just seems limiting to get that when a bit of driving every day potentially opens up new areas... quandary!
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carled,
Not trying to put you off, inspite of having been before to the area and regularly holidaying out of resort we were slightly suprised by the amount of driving you have to do, I suspect it feels a bit longer when it is a different journey each day.
The upside was we had a really good time and would definately repeat, the holiday was a great success. Termignon is around 7-10 minutes from Val C so you can knock that time off all the drives other than Bonneval. You can ski the Val C area directly from Termignon.
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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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carled, Les Sybelles is 300Km+ accessed from St Sorlin, Le Corbier, La Toussuire and a couple of smaller places too. Road up isn't great though, especially when weather is bad. I took 7 hours to get down to the valley in 2006 
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The Valloire/Valmeiner one appears to be 150km and €150-ish.
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According to the season pass threads, the Valloire season pass is €199 at the moment
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Colin B, It took me about 30 min to drive up from St Jean de M to Le Corbier when I was there last season.
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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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rjs, It only took me that to drive up! Down was a different matter, changeover day, heavy, deep, uncleared snow, stuck coaches, me in RWD car with crap chains = chaos.
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