Where to go fom Geneva, Jan 14th

A snowHead

Hi, four of us have booked flights to geneva on jan 14th for a week, we are all pretty much happy skiing most things but do prefer longer runs, we would like to be able to ski in / out as one of our party is not a great fan of walking in ski boots !!, have a hire car booked and would like to be no more than 3 hrs from geneva.
Any advice on resorts and accommodation will be gratefully recieved.
Somewhere with good apres ski would be a bonus
Thanks, Jase snowHead

A snowHead

jase380,
You are in a great position to wait and see where the best snow is, sometimes the lowere resorts have much better conditions and you are better off in the Haute Savoie,sometimes the High Tarentaise resorts are better , sometimes Switzerland or Italy etc. I would wait and see, there will be no problem getting accommodation late on.

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

I'd agree with T Bar. Wait and see. It's low season.

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Les Saisies, about two hours drive from Geneva, small French village with great snow. Very French, some great restaurants. Part of the Espace D'aimant, 185kms of pistes, worth looking at. La Cluza ( apologies for spelling ), especially if you have a car, better for getting to adjoining La Grand Bornand, some great runs, reds much steeper than Les Saisies. Personally I prefer Les Saisies, easy to navigate and some great runs.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I have an apartment in Les Saisies and we love the place, but I wouldn't describe it as having "good apres" by which most people seem to mean lots of people bent on becoming drunk and noisy in the least space of time. It's less than a two hour drive in good conditions though the website claim of 1.5 hours is a bit fanciful. And most of the runs aren't very long (though there are longer ones and more challenging skiing in Notre Dame de Bellecombe and other parts of the Espace Diamant).

There's certainly no shortage of ski in/out accommodation and a day trip (or two day trips) to Les Contamines would be easily done. I've driven through La Clusaz lots of times but never skied there - I suspect ski in/out is harder to find there.

I'd still wait, though. There's a big surplus of accommodation in all those places in mid January. Flaine would also be a possibility - but again, "good apres"? Depends what you're after. Personally, my idea of "good apres" is putting my feet up with a book after a good meal with (often one I've cooked myself) and then going to bed relatively early to get out on the slopes early. A hot and smoky crowded bar with noisy and cheesy music and people leaping about in their ski boots is my idea of absolute hell, but clearly some people love it! It's not just that I'm getting old - that sort of thing has never been my cup of tea. Crowded beaches, crowded bars, people throwing up at 3 am and showing their bums? My holidays are fine without all that.

~Are you looking for self-catering? Les Saisies is almost entirely self-catering. There's a lovely hotel but it's expensive. Not that self catering means you have to cook for yourselves, of course, there are plenty of restaurants though too many "Savoyarde specialties" for my liking. wink

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pam w, we have flightds booked for a smoochy weekend 8-11 December and we are aware that there is a chance that the snow gods may not have started smiling by then but if they have and there is decent cover would the lift company be operating over the weekend? More importantly will the hotels in La Clusaz be up and running too?

Thanks in advance, Greg.

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

Have stayed in Le Chalet d'Eleanor a few times in Les Saisies, highly recommended, right beside the slopes and above the excellent ski shop, run by the Picard's, Frank Picard won gold in Calgary,you will go a long way to find a better location.

After all it is free

Thanks for all your replies, Laurance , Pam w , Les saises sounds good.. can you recommend any apartments worth a look ?, have stayed in flaine a couple of times so not bothered about going there again, will have a look tonight and see what info i can find on Les saises.
Thanks again, Jase

northantsred, if there's snow, then the ski lifts in La Clusaz will run on the weekends before the main opening. I assume the hotels will be up and running by then too - we have two bookings from that weekend and we're not a big hotel in the middle of a resort.

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northantsred, I don't know about La Clusaz. Les Saisies will be partially open that weekend if there's enough snow - it'll be very quiet! The Calgary Hotel is very nice, but not cheap.

jase380, the location suggestion by Laurance is ideal but it's quite expensive. There are loads of apartments available - see links from the lessaisies.com website, but beware sizes - some of the apartments which notionally sleep 6 are very small! The Village des Lapons" has nice accommodation, easy links to the slopes and a small swimming pool/gym but is more expensive than the more traditional, older, apartments in the village centre.

The "Grand Mont" buildings are just opposite the lifts, and not expensive.

Have a look at the Espace Diamant website. Les Saisies is a good place for various kinds of skiers but not for those looking for challenging skiing or a vibrant nightlife. But the snow cover is certainly very good and in mid January you'd spend little or no time in lift queues. In some parts of the domain you would have entire slopes to yourself. When there's fresh snow you'll find untracked powder for some days after, and private lessons are cheap.

LS is easier if you speak a little French - there are more English visitors every year, but the overwhelming majority are either Francophone (French or Belgian) or Italians who speak decent French.

Some of the best apartments are out of the main centre - but I guess you'll want to be in the village, within easy walking distance of a range of restaurants and bars. There is even a nightclub, so I believe, which may sometimes have as many as 9 14 year olds in it. probably not in mid January, though. wink

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

3 hours from Geneva covers pretty much everywhere in France and most of Switzerland doesn't it? If the snow is good I recommend the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil, Champery, Les Crosets, Champoussin (but then i would) .... if you can stand the exchange rate, which has recovered a little bit due to intervention by the Swiss.

Pam, you amuse me with your take on "good apres". Time and again I have taken a group of "lads" (read... forty-somethings) who are keen to do what they think of as the whole traditional apres thing, but then fall asleep on their beds before dinner. IMO all that is needed is one good bar and the company of your own party. You can only drink in one place at a time after all!

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jase380

We stayed in the Hameau de Beaufortain apartments in Les Saisies this year. We booked through Peak Retreats who also offer the Village de Lapons mentioned by Pam above. The best thing about le Hameau de Beaufortain apartments is that they are right next to the piste so ideal for ski to and from the door. You can ski to the centre of Les Saisies in 10 mins on an easy blue run. If you want to go to Les Saisies in the evening it is a 5 min drive and plenty of parking.

The Hameau de Beaufortain has a good swimming pool spa area and if you need equipment hire the hire shop next door was very good. The apartments are good but not as spacious and luxurious as some of the more recent MGM developments in other resorts. If you are a group of four adults I'd go for a gold apartment at the very least.

We enjoyed the skiing in Les Saisies. Some of the runs are not very long but you can cover a good distance by skiing off round the rest of L'Espace Diamant. I enjoyed skiing down a long wooded run to Crest Voland and doing a few runs there and my husband attempted to do the circuit to Notre Dame De Bellecombe one way and back the other. The only problem was that there is a short link by bus and he happened to arrive at the bus stop during the two hour lunch break with no bus. rolling eyes

If you are skiing without children you would not have to get back to ski school at lunch time and would probably make it to some of the furthest areas of L'Espace Diamant. All in all there seemed plenty of skiing for a week.

We have also been to La Clusaz. It is a pleasant resort with slightly more apres ski than Les Saisies. However La Clusaz is not very snow sure on the lower runs and not that good for ski to and from the door.

You know it makes sense.

Thanks for the info, the four of us fall into the category mentioned by sanman, all in our early forties apart from the youngster of the group who will be 21 this year( we generally have to get him off his bed to come out... no stamina the youth of today !!), have just had a look on the peak retreats website snowymum, both hameau and village de lampons apts look good, im a bit put off the hameau ones by the drive to the village though as its my name on the hire car insurance which would make me taxi driver for the week. Is it possible to ski back to the village de lapons ?. Looking at the piste map it seems as though there would be more than enough to keep us going for a week, it also looks a lot nicer place than Val Thorens which was our first thought.

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

A snowHead

A snowHead

The Val D'Arly is not very snowsure on the lower runs either - nowhere at 1100/1200m is going to be snowsure round here. But LS is about as snowsure as you get - the year we decided to buy an apartment here it was because the snow in Les Saisies was better than anywhere in the 3 Valleys, where we'd just spent a week dodging stones. and the beers and coffees were half the price!

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

Jase380 - Both village des lapons and le hameau are ski to and from the door. However Village des Lapons is in the centre of the resort so if you want to avoid driving in the evenings that would be a better base.

Miranda - I have only been to La Clusaz once. It was the first week of March 2001 and it was raining at resort level with quite a lot of exposed grass on the lowest runs. Maybe we were really unlucky that week. I haven't meant to go on about the snow cover so will try not to mention it again!! We liked the village and the variety of skiing. However it is not really a ski to and from the door resort which seems to be what Jase is looking for.

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Jase - Pam knows les saisies much better than me so her description of skiing to and from village des lapons is more accurate than mine.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

snowymum, La Clusaz isn't really our ski area and I don't ski the bottom runs there very often, so not leaping to its defence (and actually we are equidistant from the nearest lifts in the Espace Diamant and La Clusaz so its no more convenient but I personally like the Espace Diamant more) - it's just that I noticed you mention it a few times and was a bit surprised because I haven't really heard others - including friends who go there on a yearly basis and guests who choose to go there for a day or two - complain (though last year was obviously pretty rotten for the lowest slopes in many places in the northern French Alps). Don't blame you though - that sort of luck on a week's peak season ski holiday would probably stick in my mind too!

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No one has mentioned Morzine! Or Les Gets or Avoriaz! All three are just a short 1 hour a 15 mins drive from Geneva airport, so you can maximise your holiday time. All three give excellent access to the enormous Portes du Soleil which has one of the best value holiday lift passes in the French Alps. They also have a really nice range of runs, from beginner to advanced and there is a selection of ski-in ski-out options available - especially in Avoriaz where everything is literally on the piste!

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

Yes, I don't know Morzine well - just been through a few times, when staying in Les Gets - but it does seem to meet the description - certainly a far livelier scene than Les Saisies! And a bit quicker to drive to. Bigger, busier, probably more expensive but seems to tick the boxes for the OP. I only chipped in about Les Saisies because it was suggested by Laurence and I wanted to make sure the OP had the most accurate information. I love Les Saisies, but I do realise it doesn't suit everybody.

After all it is free

jase380, If you fancy Morzine, we currently have our S/c appt available or B&B (two rooms left). Think the PDS would suit you fine. Large area, ski buses very close if you want a day or two off driving. Good apres. Have a look at the website below for all the info you need. Contact Nina if interested and mention snowHead

's.

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Is Les Saisies the new La Rosière? wink

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Where to go fom Geneva, Jan 14th

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