Report from Valmorel 6th March 2010

A snowHead

hi there
Here is my report of my trip to Valmorel. We went for 1 week on 6th March 2010.
We went with Crystal and to be honest unless they were giving a really good deal, I would be hesitant to use them again. when we got off the plane they looked like a group of "rag bags" in their uniform compared to Inghams who looked really smart. we approached the bus and the rep says oh yes Valmorel. just get on and she disappeared. However the bus driver had different ideas. He said he wasn't going to Valmorel. So hubby had to set off in search of rep who then had to speak to the driver who still refused, and eventually had to get a boss on the phone. driver agreed to take us to moutier and we would get a taxi from there. when we got on the bus there was an Irish flight who had landed at about 4.45pm. we landed at 5.40pm and thought we were about to set off. Nope, we had to wait for a Stanstead flight which didn't land until about 6.45 and it was actually well after 7 before we set off. the rep was apologetic but it was a bit of a bummer to the start of the holiday.

bus arrived at Moutier and we were swiftly put in a taxi and sent off to Valmorel which was about a half hour drive (and about 30 euros in a taxi, just in case you wanted to know, which by the way, we didn't have to pay).

We were greeted by Mike at about 10.00pm who told us that he would take us to our room to check in but he then had to go to Val Thorens for the week. this meant there was no ski guiding as we had been hoping and he gave us the quickest welcome in history and left his mobile number if we had any problems. (but what if I hadn't had my mobile, and that also leads me to who is going to reimburse me for the calls i had to make to him to ask him questions which should have been free advice had he been in the village!)
He told us he would see us in the ski set shop in the village centre the next morning to get our skis and boots. so next morning we trundled down to the town and went to the ski set shop. the people in ski set were absolutely hopeless. the boots this girl was trying to give to my son I could actually fit my whole hand down the back of the boot! they just couldn't get rid of us quick enough. they didn't have a clue who Mike from Crystal was! the boots that they gave us were absolutely disgusting! I even offered to pay to upgrade them but was told that even if i had paid for gold i would still get the same boots, I would just get better skis! which is a bit pointless when you are only a 1 week skier! hubby said the smell off his boots were so bad that he could actually smell them on his t-shirt! anyway just as we were about to leave, I thought I wonder if there is more than 1 ski set shop in the village and was told there were actually 4!!!! I was hopping mad but so worn out by the whole debarkle that I couldn't even be bothered to argue. I rang Mike later and he apologised that maybe he should have mentioned that there was more than 1 shop! ya reckon??!!

The terrain:
mainly consisted of blues and greens but there were also quite a few reds and a handful of blacks.

As we were only skiers of 1 week we found that some of the blues could actually be marked as reds and they went from various degrees of really easy blue to really hard blues but on the piste map they were all marked as just blue.

in between one of the pistes, was a sort of race track with jumps which the kids loved.

Not much tree lined skiing to be done and nearly all of the Longchamps side was above the treeline.

this was one of the lovely green runs down to coumberlouverie

I must mention the toilets at the top of the Madelaine chairlift. It wasn't until I actually had got off the toilet and turned round to look for the flusher that I realised that there was a full open window behind me which people had a birds eye view right into the toilet as they came off the chair lift!
I just wanted to add this photo to the lot too. If there was any reason to put me off putting my kids into ski school, this would be a prime example! absolutely no adult with these ski school kids aged 6-8 and there were signs all over saying kids under a certain height were not allowed on. One of the ski school kids also got on the chair with us too. If I had found out my 6 year old got on a chair lift with no adult supervision I wouldnt have been a happy bunny! I wouldnt care, but the chairs were 6 man!

The snow: the last snowfall had been a couple of centimetres on 2nd March. It never snowed at all during our stay. We had blue sky sunny days apart from one afternoon when it was really cold. For the first few days the pistes were fine, but by the end of the week they were starting to get a bit icy in places but overall they were well groomed and kept on top of.

The off piste: never went off piste but there seemed to be loads of it

Resort: we didn't really spend much time in the resort centre. We stayed in every night apart from 1 time when we went to get a takeaway. The village seemed quite pretty with a few bars and restaurants in the main strip and a free (with your lift pass) cable car from different parts of the village so even if your apartment was higher up the resort, you could get to the bottom of the resort easily. This was open until 11.30pm.

Food: food on piste was round about the same price everywhere we tried. We paid between 10-12 euros for burger and chips and about 10 euros for spaghetti Bolognese. Soft drinks (ie cans of coke, sprite etc) were 3 euros per can and a pint of beer was about 5 euros. Puddings were approx 4 euros for something like chocolate mousse or chocolate brownie. Hot chocolate was between 3-4 euros in different places.

Accommodation: we stayed in the "chalets du morel" which are actually part of the Pierre and Vacances group and you are issued your apartment on arrival. They are dotted around the village and we were lucky enough to stay in the L'ausiere Dessous apartments in the Creve Couer area which were ideally located for the lifts with either the Bois de la Croix and the Creve Couer lifts (these were either side of the apartment and you could ski to either of them (approximately 40 foot away from front door). The kitchen was a bit of a let down. In the brochure, it says fully equipped kitchenette and kettle but in reality, there was a microwave and 2 oven rings and no kettle. I did make do boiling water in a pan, but there was also no mugs, they only had these soup like bowls which I suppose is what the French use for mugs. It was very difficult to make meals with only 2 oven rings and a microwave. I wanted to get like frozen pizzas and frozen chips to do for the kids for their tea etc.

Never really had much to do with Mike (except a few phone calls asking him if there were any excursions or things to do and other things). He called me the day before we were about to come home and said that a taxi would meet us at 1.00pm to take us to moutier to meet the bus. when the day arrived, he told us the bus was already waiting for us in moutier and so off we went in the taxi. we arrived at the waiting bus (which had already been there for an hour waiting) and were told that there was no room on the bus for our luggage! people looking at us, looking at the luggage, shrugging of shoulders, I just wanted the ground to swallow us up. eventually a few people gathered and it was suggested that they put our luggage in .........go on, have a guess????.................nope you probably wont guess, but they put all our 4 cases in the toilet on the bus! my husband was absolutely furious and later on when we were talking to the rep, she said she couldn't believe her eyes!! there was not a lot we could do about it at this point and we had to get on the bus.

in the aisles right beside us there were 2 large holdalls blocking the
aisles so god knows what would have happened if there had of been an accident.

after about an hour of travel, this guy climbed over the holdalls in the aisles and was about to make his way to the on board toilet, when I told him that the toilet was blocked with luggage. I think he had held it in for as long as he possibly could so by this point was desperate. we then had to detour to some village with a big lake to find a public toilet. we did eventually get to the airport and our flight was on time but the transfers were such a huge letdown and it sort of spoilt the start of the holiday and the end of the holiday.

Costs: booking with Crystal for 2 adults and 2 children cost £1940. This included lift pass, ski and boot hire, flights from Newcastle and transfers.
The off piste: never went off piste but there seemed to be loads of it
hire, flights from Newcastle and transfers.

Here is a link to some photos we took (I took about 200 in all but have only uploaded a dozen or so and have also included a photo of the luggage in the loos as I will be writing to Crystal to complain, but dont know what good it will do me, any advice on what else to add would be great)

The rest of the photos can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28344965@N07/

I know a couple of people have expressed an interest in going to Valmorel so if you need to know any further information, please just ask.

Karen

A snowHead

Thanks polo (karen) for writing such a great and detailed report. Have had to read it quickly as my husband is waiting to use the PC!

Its lovely to see the photos of valmorel and the luggage in the loo ones are very funny but I would have not been happy in your position at the time. Well done for getting lots of photographic evidence!

The crystal transfer experience you had sounds awful. Can't believe you were left to get a taxi to resort. You have paid for a package and it doesn't sound as though they provided one. If I paid Crystal to take me to the alps I would expect to be met at the airport by a crystal rep leading me to the appropriate coach or minibus and them to take me straight to my accommodation. Surely they should have had a rep in resort all week too? The ski hire shop sounds very bad and I would complain about that too. Really for the service or lack of crystal provided it sounds as though you would have done as well going DIY and it would have been cheaper.

We went to valmorel some time ago so my memories are distant but am wondering if we had bad ski shop boots there too as by the end of the trip we ended up buying our own ski boots in Valmorel and they are still going strong 10 yrs later. I would really recommend buying your own boots for future trips as they are so much comfier and it takes a lot of stress out of sorting the equipment at the start of the holiday.

I agree with your point about some of the blues being hard blues. This was my recollection of valmorel - we chose it for cruisy blues but they were not that cruisy.

I think you are right about Inghams being a cut above the rest. I had a very good experience with them in courmayeur and the rep worked really hard all week and arranged trips to other resorts and the vallee blanche.

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

Nice report Karen - thanks. We used to go to Valmorel when our children were small. I must say it was the only French resort that I really liked. Sounds like your holiday was ok despite Crystal's attempts to ruin it! Disappointed to see drag llifts in your photos - I remember there were lots of these - I thought they would all have gone by now!

You need to Login to know who's really who.

polo99,

Hi Karen

Sorry you had a bad experience with the tour op. however as you remember I did say some of the blues are a little dificult but these are only short sections. I do hope you actually enjoyed valmorel and it does look as though you did get to ski to the other two villages. I love Valmorel and would always recomment it to anyone especially if you have a party of mixed abilities.

Unfortunately the tour ops are neglecting the area as years ago it was certainly more popular within brochures and many brits went there. When I was there in January and talking to the head of Ski School they were saying that the british tour operators were not happy that they were not being given big discounts on lift passes and that there were not enough hotels or large chalet options. however Club Med were supposed to be building a large hotel but this hasn't started yet.

The Ski School were saying that they had asked the Tourist Office to spend money publicising the resort in Britain again but with many visitors now comming from the Scandinavian countries, Poland and Holland they were not sure whether they will do this.

However I will still love the resort and I think it's perfect for 1 week and above skiers. tell me where else you could have got around so easily and covered vast distances.

snowymum,

Yes there are still a few drag lifts but there are also chair lifts to the same areas as alternatives.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I skied a couple of times at Valmorel years ago when my kids were young and found it a great family resort. I'm sorry to hear your experiences. Potentially it is a great small ski-in, ski-out resort for families.

You'll need to Register first of course.

I haven't used TO's for a number of years now, and your excellent report reminds me why. What an arrogant bunch of tossers Crystal are.

Have you thought about doing DIY ski trip's? It's so easy to book flights, transfers and accommodation these days.

The apartment sounds par for the course, especially for the mainstream agencies. I have found independently owned one's to be better equipped.

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

Layne, I did DIY last year and we actually drove to Austria after getting the ferry and it took about a day and a half to get there! I just wanted an easy time and it made it a bit cheaper with lift passes and ski hire thrown in.

I am going to write a letter of complaint to Crystal but not sure what they will do about it and how far I should push it!

Next year I think we are going to go back to Austria. This time I fancy either Saalbach or Ellmau.

Help!!

Report from Valmorel 6th March 2010

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