 Poster: A snowHead
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Resort: Serre Chevalier (Villeneuve)
Country: France
Domain: Serre Chevalier
Author: carettam
Date: 05 – 12 February 2011
Our holiday: Mixed group of twenty and thirty somethings, looking for varied skiing on a budget. One beginner skier, the rest are intermediate skiers/boarders.
Website : www.serre-chevalier.com
Basics : We flew to Grenoble then private transfer to Serre Che (2.5 hours). Turin airport also close. The drive over the Laurette pass was stunning but looked like it could be horrible in bad conditions!
Lift system : Very mixed. We stayed in Villeneuve village, where there is a choice of mainly small gondolas or chairs to get up the mountain. Once on the mountain there was a mix of old and new chairs, and a few too many button drags. We never experienced any queues, so it seems that the lift system copes well, despite some lifts being old. The new Vallons chair is lovely!
The terrain : Large variety of terrain, pretty glade runs, open bowls, gullies and ridges. The area suits intermediates best but has plenty for everyone.
For beginners, there are nursery areas in all four villages, plus some mid mountain slopes too. The greens above Frejus are a great place to progress to (Barres, etc), as are the easy greens and blues at the top of Chantemerle (Vallons has stunning views and is a very gentle gradient, but not for those who fear heights and ‘edges’).
For intermediates, the whole area is great. A few favourites include the Cucumelle red (long, a few steeper sections, lots of off piste to the sides), Yret red (amazing views, fun cruisy piste), Eduit /Aiguilleette reds (deserted, pretty glades, fast and fun), Casse du Boeuf black (long, fast black, good end of day run). Avoid the red Bez at the end of the day as it is packed with ski schools and chopped up/icy where as C du B is quiet and the snow holds better.
For experts there is a good amount of off piste available, many of the blacks are left ‘brute neige’ so plenty of moguls to be had.
The snow: No fresh snow for a few weeks during this French winter drought. It had been cold the previous weeks so this helped to preserve the snow although when we were there is was quite warm, freeze-thaw conditions. Most of the pistes held up well, with the help of excellent grooming and snow cannons. In fact, the hard packed pistes were great for cruising. Off piste, the snow was tracked out and crusty in places, but there was still plenty of grippy snow to be had. However, the snow on the south facing slopes above Briancon was dire. There were bare patches and closed pistes, even at the top of the mountain. A shame, as in better conditions it looked like it would have some good cruisy runs.
Off-piste : Not amazing due to the lack of fresh snow but still fun to be had. Avalanche risk was at 2. The snow was mostly grippy, although in exposed windy spots the snow had become very hard.
The resort : Villeneuve is a mix of pretty old town on one side of the river and more modern ski resort closer to the slopes. Plenty of little shops and a few bars but no manic après. We stayed in most nights and bought tasty but cheap wine from the local supermarket.
Food : We mostly ate self catering, but we did have a fondue at Le Refuge. The service was great and so was the food. They also do a ‘bell’ type cooking thing which we wish we had tried, as it looked really good. On the mountain, we found Café Soleil above Chantemerle did some great food: fresh pizza made to order, paninis, giant hotdogs, salad bar and still very good value (9€ for a large pizza). Other mountain huts were ok, mostly reasonable prices and food was always fine but not anything special.
Accommodation : We stayed in Hameau du Bez 34, booked through www.serrechevalier-locations.com This was a lovely cosy apartment which had a more alpine feel than some of the other buildings in the Pre Long area of Villeneuve. 6 of us stayed here and there was plenty of room, 8 would have been ok but 10 would have felt far too cramped. The apartment looks east and is very close to the supermarket, bakery and tourist information, and also close to the Frejus gondola. The agent was very helpful and friendly, we would highly recommend them!
Costs: Apartment cost 1150€ for the week, ski pass for 7 days was 232€, we spent less than 100€ per person on food and drink. We booked DIY so Easyjet flights were £70 each, and the transfer cost £500 return.
Ski School: Our complete beginner booked an all inclusive bundle with ski School Connections (£360 for 6 day lift pass, ski hire, helmet and 6 days of morning lessons). The ski school was good overall although our beginner was not pushed enough as there was one very timid beginner in the group holding the rest up. This meant that she spent 5 mornings on the nursery slopes and only on day 6 did they ski a full length piste. In the afternoons we took our beginner up the mountain as her technique was good. She was skiing greens and blues in plough-parallel by half way through the holiday. A few of us also booked a 4 hour (half day) private lesson with Ski Connections to get an introduction into off piste. This was excellent, great personal tuition and lots of safety information as and when needed. We all felt that we progressed a lot. However, the ESF ski school appeared to have very large groups 15 – 20 people was normal, although in some cases there were 2 instructors.
Conclusion: Great for mixed groups, families and especially intermediates. Nightlife is quiet but there are a few places to go for some drinks. The skiing being spread along a valley meant lots of opportunity for travel, and each ski area had a different feel. Monetier was more wild looking, looming cliffs and great views, Villeneuve/Chantemerle have more rounded hills, open bowls at the top and gladed lower runs. Briancon was more open, with a meadow feel (although this may be because we could actually see the meadows through the pistes!). We had a great time and would definitely recommend it as a good place to go. A ski area full of variety, challenges and good value, but it is not a slick mega ski resort, so don’t expect that! It still feels very French, which we liked.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Nice report thanks, a few photos will be welcomed to refresh my memory about the area. I learnt to board there and liked it. Although the lift system did not help novice boarder.
Nice mountains but a little outdated facilities.
I have to say that less than a 100E per person per week on self catering bases for food and drink - this is really impressive. Seems not an easy thing to do.
I sort of set up a budget of 25-30E per person / a day - on our last trip to Austria and we just, just managed.
We only had lunches in the mountain restaurants + desserts, a few drinks and a few beers + supermarket food for the evenings.
Any evening restaurant meal or night out will easily blow it.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Tue 15-02-11 12:55; edited 1 time in total
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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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I will post a few photos later.
We did manage the 100€ per person through buying lots of bread and pastries at breakfast, making picnic sandwiches at lunch most days leaving just drinks and snacks to buy in the mountain huts, and supermarket food in the evening (big pastas, chilli, casseroles). The supermarket prices were suprisingly reasonable (or maybe that's just because UK supermarket prices have gone up, so the difference was less marked) and we got lots of nice red wine for less than 3€ a bottle. Saying that, our apartment was a private let so there was actually useful bits of food left for us, such as big packs of rice, cleaning products, coffee filters, which helped save us a bit of cash.
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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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carettam, Great.
I have to say I enjoy mountain food in Austria too much to give up lunches and it is a good value too. Do not mind paying for beer. It was only around 3.80 per half liter so again good price.
What I can't get over is soft drink prices around 3 to 4E where one could easily save it by carrying them in back pack.
Shame I hate back backs  but I still managed to fit a red bull or two in my jacket pockets.
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