 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi fellow Snow Heads, first post.
After reading many posts on here about trips I’ll take the plunge and post up a bit of info on my trip last year to The 3 Valleys France. (2nd week in January 2011)
The holiday was booked in July with Ski McNeil who have recently been bought over by direct ski. My brother and I have been Ski’n in Andorra which has been brilliant for the past two years and wanted to try another country. Neither of us had ever skied in France before so were a bit unsure what the costs were like food / drink wise. We would usually go half board and again this year was no different.
We choose to go to the 3 valleys which is part of the French Alps. It is the largest linked ski area in the world apparently. The ski area is made up of 8 different resorts. When booking on the Ski MacNeil site we opted or at least we thought we did to stay in the Hotel Amelie in the Meribel resort. It transpired that the Hotel Amelie was actually in the 92 Winter Olympic resort of Brides Les Bains. So just be careful to read the small print.
After discovering this we thought about getting our hotel swapped over to somewhere in Meribel but couldn’t justify paying more money for a lesser hotel.
Brides is a 25 minute gondola ride away from Meribel which is basically the gateway or centre of the 3 valleys and is seen as a cheaper way by many of doing the 3 valleys.
The Flight was from Belfast City to Geneva. Really good departing times (11 am) and took around 2hrs 15min I think. Transfer to the resort was 2hrs 30mins so all in all not to bad.
The hotel was a 3* the breakfasts was a continental buffet which was great and dinner was a 3 coarse meal. The meals were French orientated (no snails or frogs mind you) and were pretty good, they are really into there presentation over there. Don’t be expecting burgers and chips. On Friday the main meal was a fish dish so we took ourselves up the street to a restaurant and got 2 pints, steak and chips and a dessert instead. It cost €40 and was a bit of a change of scenery. It had a nice out door bar for Après Ski / Snacks such a crepes and it has super fast WIFI so you can keep up to date with your emails etc.
The good part.
When buying a lift pass you will have the opportunity to buy a lift pass that will cover every valley or a pass that will just cover the Meribel valley. I think the difference is around £40 but going for the full pass is a must.
Temperature wise was a bit of a mix over the week. The warmest day was -3°C and the coldest was -26°C. Each day bar one was mainly sunny and cloudless but the weather in that area can change very quickly which we found out at the top of a mountains one day. A total white out with visibility of around 10-15 feet. It’s quite scary not knowing exactly where the edge of the slope is.
The majority of ski area is made up from blue/red runs. I don’t think the place is for the timid or faint hearted. Many of the red runs are pretty steep and brutal and even some of the blues seem more like reds. I even think the greens would be quite intimidating for any newbie’s to the sport.
The pistes are well groomed every night and were in great condition. We found in the afternoon that it did tend to get rather icy once the sun disappeared behind the mountain but it’s not really a problem with sharp edges. The Meribel and Courchevel valleys seemed to be the worse for this.
There is a lot of opportunity for going off piste unfortunately it was mostly tracked out the week we were there. We only had one day where it snowed and about 2 feet of fresh snow lay.
We ventured off piste one afternoon somewhere between Meribel & Courchevel down a forest trial and got lost. It took us 45mins to find a slope again and luckily enough we came out at a resort called La Tania and were able to catch the lift home just before it closed.
The lift systems are the best I’ve ever seen. They are very modern and we only had one break down all week of coarse it was the -26°C day but we were only left dangling and freezing for 10mins before it started going again.
The mountains are very high meaning its pretty snow sure through the season. Some lifts you can be on them for as long as 20-25min but it can take you up to an hour to ski to the bottom of the mountain which is fantastic.
There are plenty of freestyle parks and boarder cross areas dotted thorough out the different valleys. Close to the resorts there are massive air bags were you can try out your 360’s and back flips for 3€.
The Courchevel valley has an airport. It’s quite strange seeing private jets and helicopters landing right in the middle of the slope. I think this airport was featured in a 007 movie.
We had lunch in Courchevel on two occasion’s 1st & 2nd days. One day the bill came to €54 for chicken and chips, coke X2. The next day it was €45 for burger and chips, coke X2. We were aware that the 3 valleys could be expensive but those prices were pretty extortionate.
We later found out that the rich and famous would frequent this area of the valleys. Apparently Eddie Jordan and Tom Cruise had been spotted there the week before we arrived.
The rest of the week we went to Val Thorens and Les Menuires for lunch. Lunch only cost around 12€ for burger chips & cokes in these areas. Alcohol is far cheaper in these resorts as well. A pint will set you back €3.30.
Val Thorens has a bar/club called the Folie Douce. It’s defiantly an experience to have a drink here. There are live DJ sets playing dance music to around 200 or so people going nuts halfway up a slope. I’m not sure how some people find there skis never mind ski down most are completely locked.
Again in Meribel there is a bar/club called Rond Point. Something similar to the Folie Douce but more of a rock / indie set up. Après ski kicks off around 4.30.
Staying in Brides means having to get a ski lift back down the mountain at 5.30. Be sure not to miss the last lift as a taxi ride costs €50 to get down.
You can arrange with your rep to get a mini bus down to Brides on a Wednesday night after the Rond Point. This costs 10€ each. It’s well worth it as a band called Mullet play on a Wednesday and they are top notch. Down side to this bar are there prices €6 a pint! and it has unbearable "hooray henrys".
Other excursions available are a bobsleigh run down the Olympic track at €60, a bar crawl around Meribel and snowmobiling.
Brides is a quiet place by night but has a casino some great pizza places and little bars with Sky Sports all for half the price of Meribel.
I would defiantly recommend it to anyone booking in January as is the whole ski area is very quite. It wasn’t uncommon to be the only ones on a slope.
I will more than likely go back again next year and possibly stay in the same hotel. The only other area that would interest me is Val Thorens. The nightlife here would probably be better than brides. Meribel is just too over priced I feel.
The total cost of hotel and lift pass was £650. I think I spent around €220 when I got there.
Hopefully this will give you a bit of an insight to the 3 Valleys and I’ve tried to attach some pics 
Lift In The Courchevel Valley
Courchevel Airport
Me At The Moon Park, Meribel Mottaret
Sparky Jumping At The Moon Park, Meribel Mottaret
High Speed Wipeout In Meribel
Sparky Getting Air On The Main Slope Into Crouchevel
Trooping The Colours On The French Alps
Folie Douce, Val Thorens
Plateau Fun Park, Val Thorens
At the Top Of Combe Saulire After Getting Lift From Meribel
Looking Up Combe Saulire, Courchevel
Me Ski'n Down A Red Run Into Les Menuires
Sparky Outside The Folie Douce, Val Thorens
A View From Les Menuires
Sparky's Jon Olsson Pro Skis
Really Cold Snow Day In Val Thorens
Blue Run In Meribel
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Mon 5-12-11 0:31; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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We only had one day where it snowed and about 2 feet of fresh snow lay.
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welcome to Snowheads, AKA STEVIE, and thanks for report. I'd say that last year (which was not a good year for snow) if you had 2 foot of fresh snow one day in your week, you did very well indeed. 
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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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nice report 
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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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AKA STEVIE, Welcome to Snowheads, glad you enjoyed the Three Valleys
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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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Cheers, yea enjoyed it that much we are going back on the 14th January but staying in Val Thorens this time.
We were lucky weather wise only one slope was closed last year when we were there and that was in the Meribel Valley. Hopefully the snow will be as good or even better this time around.
Might try and get the 3V’s diploma  by get’n on all the marked ski lifts only had a couple left to get on last time.
( Is there any way to edit the post to take the [URL’s] out of it? )
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Good report. Thanks. Thinking of going there this winter and Val Thorens seems to be the place to stay.
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Val Thorens seems to be the place to stay.
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Great choice!
I'm heading there on Thursday ('til Saturday) with 2 mates.
Waheyyyyyy!!!
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Heading to Val Thorens on Friday! Can't wait.
Could somebody recommend the best places to eat in the town? Or the best shop to get equipment/gear from? Would be much appreciated.
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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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any staying in vt with Skiworld?
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