Courmayeur.....

A snowHead

Any recommendations for accommodation? We are planning a crafty 3 night boys trip early in March. I know the hotels will not be keen to let a part week at this stage but closer to the date they maybe willing. There will be four of us and would probably prefer our own bedrooms but costs may make us double up. Apartments or hotels we are not fussed just looking for something half decent really not to far from the Gondola.

Thanks in advance, Greg.

A snowHead

northantsred, there are hardly any apartments, but plenty of hotels. Close to the gondola is tricky. Many of the town centre hotels are within reasonable walking distance of the large cable car but there are only a handful of hotels in Dolonne by the gondola. There's another cable car up at Val Veny, which would be a 10 minute-ish walk from the hotels at La Palud.

Best bet is to contact the tourist office for availability.

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

Has anyone booked up for the recent Eurostar / Last Minute promotion, one day ski package?? would be interested to hear how smoothly the booking went.

I'm not getting much information, no confirmation email and payment not been taken yet. No idea if it's for real or not? Have tried speaking but no one is assuming responsibility for the bookings

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I can't rave about this hotel enough. It's 100 metres from the Dolonne Gondola - and a comfortable 10 min walk to The Piazza. It is easily the friendliest hotel I've ever stayed in - and the grub is lovely!!!

They have two-room suites, which would suit four of you.

http://www.tavernier.it/new/ita/frameset.htm

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I will give that one a try chrisdavis, nearer the time thanks. Surely other snowHead

must have some recommendations?

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northantsred, I stayed at the Hotel Astoria in La Palud. It's a lovely hotel with friendly staff, bar with roaring log fire and decent food, but it takes a good 45 mins to get to the ski area via bus, gondola or cable car and walk. The Val Veny cable car is probably walking distance but it doesn't arrive at Plan Checrouit where the ski lockers are, so I didn't use it.

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

Taqueen bodecia, we are hoping for a more central location as we are only there for 3 nights. I just thought more people would have been to Courmayeur and stayed in the town from this forum, perhaps not or perhaps they are all out there?

After all it is free

Central location will be convenient for the big cable car but the hotel in Dolonne described above would be good for the gondola. It's only a fifteen minute walk from Dolonne to the town.

queen bodecia, so if its only a 15 minute walk from Dolone to town are you suggesting it would be better to stay in Dolone than the town?

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northantsred, if I ever visited Courmayeur again I'd probably opt to stay in Dolonne. The gondola there is the best way up the mountain in the morning, and it's not far to walk to and from town to sample the delights of Courmayeur apres.

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northantsred, I've stayed at Domina Inn Les Jumeaux on a 3-night break. It's right next door, perhaps 100m, from the main cable car to Plan Checrout. I didn't eat dinner in the hotel so can't comment on the quality however there are loads of good value restaurants to eat in around the town. And the hotel is only 5-10 mins from Bar Roma etc

Looking at the piste map it appears that you are able to ski back down to the bottom of the Dolone bubble, is this the case? If it is why would you leave your ski's on the hill?

You know it makes sense.

northantsred, there is a run down to Dolonne and if you had accommodation in Dolonne itself it would only be a few minutes walk from the bottom of that run. But that only applies to a handful of hotels. Most of the others are a bus ride away and many of the hotels offer a minibus pick up and drop off at the Dolonne lift. It made far more sense for me to leave my skis up at Plan. It's a flat walk from the top of the Dolonne gondola (and Courmayeur cable car) to the centre of Plan Chécrouit also. I'm one of these that avoids walking in ski boots and carrying skis wherever possible.

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

northantsred, The run down to Dolonne isn't always open and even when it is the snow can be a bit thin.

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It's also a narrow snow road. I didn't like it at all.

A snowHead

I stayed in Hotel Mont Blanc in La Salle. Its a bit outside of Courmayeur (10-15mins) but they do have a courtesy bus to get to and from the slopes and taxis aren't too bad. Sauna, indoor/outdoor pools hot tubs etc.....

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rjs, queen bodecia, chrisdavis, halfhand, Thanks for that info. It is most useful. I think we will try for a hotel on B&B terms with a view to eating in different restauants in and around the town of an evening. I have already tried you reccommendation Chris but they are full on the friday night. Hopefully we can get fixed up somewhere in Dolone as this seems the best place to be?

Greg

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

northantsred, this is the only other one I can think of in Dolonne.

http://www.hoteldolonne.com/

There might be more if you contact the tourist office. It's almost a small village in its own right on the edge of the town of Courmayeur.

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Edit: how could I forget the hotel right by the bus stop from the gondola!

http://www.skiingitaly.net/hotel_club_de_la_telecabine.html

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

Stayed here in January 2008 11 of us on a lads trip weds to saturday night
pretty nice + good value, rooms a good size (I was in a triple with 2 of the beds on a mezzanine )
easy walk to both gondola and town

http://www.walserhotel.com/

After all it is free

northantsred,bouton d'or was good and really friendly service. Close to centre of town and they run a free taxi service to get you to and from the slopes. I know they take weekend bookings as long as it's at least 2 nights.

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Just back from two nights / three days on the slopes: Stayed at Hotel Pavillon which at €100 pppn was a little expensive but it was close walk (5 mins) to main cable car, and only ten minute walk into town.

Snow was great on piste and weather was superb Sat & today, whilst yesterday morning a hangover from a night in the American plus some not-so-nice conditions meant a day in town.

Recommend the place for a weekend if you dont mind some queues, or a couple of nights midweek for some empty slopes.

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We got back late Saturday night and had the best skiing conditions I have ever experienced. wrongsideof30, we used the Walser nice linky thank you, good value on B&B terms @ 45euro per night. Didn't go much on the evening meal menu so ate out every night in the town. The breakfast fare is pretty basic.
Arrived Wednesday PM and hit the slopes about 12.30, they were empty but the visibilty was rank and it got worse because of continual precipitation

Thursday the visibility improved somewhat but it was still thick with cloud and by mid afternoon we had pretty much covered all the pistes and a little bit of off piste too. Vision deteriorated as the afternoon wore on.
We really wanted to do the VB but only in bluebird conditions, it didn't look promising and when we visited the guide's office the prospects were reduced when he gave us the weather forecast. I woke on Friday morning and was greeted with pure blue and so rushed up town to book a guide. Only to find the office shut and would be until 8.30. Back to the hotel, breakfasted and then the kindly receptionist did the talking for us to the guides office....... Sad

all guides have been pre-booked. None available!!
Plan B, La Thuile/La Rosiere for the day. What a treat. Fantastic conditions, wall to wall sunshine, brilliant pistes and not too many other folk around either. Much more skiing here that Courmayeur but our guess was that it was least 10 degrees cooler! Fantastic 360 scenery but a very boringly long drag lift to get you back into Italy. A great day though with one exception. I experienced a very speedy faceplant in deepish snow about 50 yards from the piste, one ski came off but the other stayed booted and acted as a brake when it came into the snow behind me and yanked my left leg backward with some force and probably a loud scream as it tore my hamstring Crying or Very sad

I eventually managed to scramble up and put on my ski's with some difficulty, and skied down to mid station and there ended my skiing for this year. The lads skied down.
They skied Courmayeur again on Saturday until about 2pm and said that I didn't miss much as the onslaught of weekend skiers had made it less pleasurable that before.
All in all it is a nice place to visit but it is not a place you would be inclined to return back to unless of course you are into back country skiing which looked as if it is opportunty of endless proportions......I/we do not partake. Apart from the injury the only disappointment was not getting to do the VB, which was the only reason we chose Courmayeur as a venue, heyho.

One word of caution: - my mate had booked ski hire for us all through a company he had used before as recently as January -alpinsports- and the shop used was 4810, Dolone. The shop had never heard of this company and claimed never to have done any business with them ever!!! They let us have the ski's and thought we could sort it out with alpinsport over the phone, which proved impossible so we had to settle direct with the shop at a higher rate than alpinsport and now my mate is busy trying to reach a solution with mastercard and alpinsport. I will keep you posted of any development with this.

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can someone advise. I am going to be in La Tzoumaz (4 vallees) next week and I am planning on doing a day trip to Val D'Isere. I can either take the long route via Martigny and right round to Albertville or I could go via martigny onto the mont blanc tunnel through cormayeur and up to la thuile and down the other side towards vdi. Does anyone know if this route is the quicker option and whether or not it will definately be open?

General Lee, The road between La Thuile and Bourg Saint Maurice will not be open.

You know it makes sense.

rjs, nice work, glad I asked before attempting it. Looks as though the long way round is the only way then. thanks

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

General Lee, a day trip!?! You're nuts! VDI is 4 hours from La Tzoumaz?

Help!!

Courmayeur.....

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