 Poster: A snowHead
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Sorry... won't take long for you guys to get sick of me. Good news is I will vanish in 4 months time and probibly won't appear again till next december lol!
Still trying to book my holiday, turns out I can't make decisions!
I went to Val Thorens and Morzine / Avoriaz last year and want to stick to france but try somewhere else.
It's got to be suitable for a friend who is a complete beginner and more me (I like blues and reds). I would like a fairly large ski area so I don't get bored, somewhere likely yo have ok snow at the end of jan, good night life is a must!!
Suggestions please. I don't really know much about any other resorts just that I probibly can't afford Tignes or Val'dsere or how ever you spell it 
What's Les Deux Apls like? Or La Plagne?
Thank you muchly x
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Millie10, In no way is anybody (well, speaking for myself anyway) sick of you. We love to show off our knowledge! (Speaking for myself again.)
If you liked Val Thorens and Morzine?Avoriaz then I am not surprised. They are wonderful places to ski.
If night-life is important to you, then I am not sure France is the best idea. Austria, I think, has the most going for it in that respect, but I am not a party animal, so my views are not worth much. Most places will have good snow at the end of January.
Deux Alpes might well be a good choice for you. Quite a lively town and, for France, quite cheap. It has some very black blacks and lots of cruisy trails. La Plagne is very popular too, but quite expensive and, I find, quite hard to find your way around. (Not that that means much.) Les Arcs is also very nice and linked to La Plagne. I personally prefer it to La Plagne as it has nicer settlements, but that won't matter much to you.
I know that you want to keep in touch with you learner friend, and, for me, I would say Les Arcs offers the best chance of doing that. The beginer slopes at 2000 are right in the middle of the best snow, and you could easily plan a day that allowed you to meet from time to time.
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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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Millie10, make sure you get GOOD lessons for your learner friend. If you went to LdA your friend could have lessons with Charlotte Swift (easiski.com) who is terrific.
Even if you went to a smaller ski area, you needn't get bored. Get some good lessons for yourself, too - never get bored, then.
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Thanks pam. I'm trying to go on the cheap really and not pay for lessons so I can afford another trip in March!
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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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my first trip was to les arcs, plenty of good runs for all levels
not the greatest night life at 2000, 1800 might be better for you
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Hi again Millie10, Les Arc and LP are superb resorts and have so much intermediate crusing it's unreal. They're just such huge areas in there own right but coupled together it's truly huge. Your mate may not make it over to Les Arc as for a newbie it would prove quite time consuming potentially unless you set out first thing to make any sort of dent into Les Arc. The runs down to the vanoise express are relatively low so if the snow is in poor nick as it was in Jan then it can get icy and bare in places. For an Intermediate I'd prob say LP is better IMO (I've stayed in LA once LP twice now). Night life LA has the edge (village dependant) although it's mainstream France so expensive so much so IMO that I don't bother with going out too much and tend to drink in the comfort of my chalet. LP is a little disjointed e.g. if you end up in 1800 there is sweet FA like two bars figure on 6-7euro for a beer.
Seriously though if you want nightlife and good sliding how far did you get into looking at Austria?
I'll quite happily talk about skiing all day, and there aren't many of the main resorts in France and Austria that I haven't been to and can offer advice on.
Just noticed you said L2A not Les Arc-DOH! L2A not the same extent as LP for what you want, all a bit disjointed and has a rep of getting crowdy/congested and the home runs are challeging (you can also get the gondola back down). I was there last January the nightlife wasn't what it was on a previous trip a few years previous and for France it was pretty decent that time!
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Millie10, If you are trying to save money for a second trip, and want a good time in the evenings, then Austria is much cheaper for food and entertainment. Those €7 beers soon add up - well, mine do!
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Grizwald, thanks for that.
I just don't know where to start looking for Austria! There seem to be so many resorts! I'm really not fussed where we go really as long as it meets the requirements. Trying to book a cheap-ish package deal on crystal and inghams ect and france seems cheaper!
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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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At the risk of repeating myself, I think you would love this place - and Neilsons's do three days of ski guiding.
Millie10, I suggest Chalet Julienne at Saalbach. It is ski in ski out (though you have to ski through a schirm bar to leave the piste) Right by the nursery slopes and has connections to some superb intermediate skiing. Neilsons have it at £509 for 14th Jan flying from Manchester. The place is right by some great bars. Been there twice!
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Thank you, will definatly have a look at it! Might be back on asking about different austrian resorts tomorrow lol! Lets start with Ellmau? Just found a stupidly cheap deal for here?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Millie10, I'm with Chris Bish, on this one I think Saalbach will be right up your street. Austria may be more expensive to get there in terms of accomadation and flight but once you're there eating in resort/town/mountain soon offsets this in my experience. I find you get what you pay for in France generally if you want good nightlife that won't require a second mortgage rule France out all together to save your sanity!
You're after the mythical 'Goldilocks' resort by the sounds of it, the majority of resorts will do what you want it's getting something that also has easy access to the nursery slopes, if you're mate gets to an indoor slope she could easily get to a standard to go staight on to easier blues).
A cheaper alternative to Saalbach is Soll. A great beginners' resort, Soll has an appealing priced learn to Ski lift pass, which saves you paying for lifts and pistes that your mate would be suited to, and many good UK TO's include it in their Learn to Ski tuition and equipment-hire packages. Soll is lively and good-value apres wise, has loads of non-ski things to do if you wnat an afternoon off.
Last edited by snowHeads are a friendly bunch. on Thu 8-12-11 23:34; edited 1 time in total
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| Millie10 wrote: |
| Thank you, will definatly have a look at it! Might be back on asking about different austrian resorts tomorrow lol! Lets start with Ellmau? Just found a stupidly cheap deal for here? |
You could allot worse than Ellmau it's also part of the Skiwelt (superb intermediate area IMO). Ellmau has a lot to recommend it as a SKiwelt base apart form the apres and is generally much quieter than Soll as a base, but more amenities than other neighbours such as Scheffau. I also Like Westendorf as an alternative Skiwelt base. I supprised it's cheaper than Soll as that's usually the budget option for the area.
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The way things are looking wait too last minute to book a cheap deal. If you're not going in school hols you'll get a really good deal a week or 2 before
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You know it makes sense.
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Les Arcs is definitely worth a visit and would suit your group in terms of the skiing.
However if you are on a budget the larger well known resorts such as Les Arcs are not the cheapest.
I'd also recommend La Clusaz (part of the Aravis area) - not as much skiing as Les Arcs but big enough for a week. Pretty town. Good for beginners and intermediates.
The best place I've been to for nightlife was Courmayeur (Italy). Don't think it fits your other requirements though.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Morzine / Avoriaz are just two of the resorts in Porte Du Soleil. There are quite a few other resorts in the Swiss side. PDS is just one of the many domains, like Grand Massif (next door neighbour to Morzine), Domaine Evasion, Chamonix, etc etc, in the Geneva area.
Val Throren is one valley of the 3V. 3V has a total of 600km piste but there are 1600km piste in the same Tarentaise valley. La Plagne is about 12-15 mile up the valley. It is linked with Les Arcs to form the Paradiski. Another 17 miles up the valley is the dead end where Espace Killy (Val D'Isere + Tignes) locates.
Les Deux Apls is the second resort in another valley near Grenoble. That Valley has L'Alps D'Huez, La Grave, Serre Chevalier, Put St Vincent and the Milky Way.
After the above there are another group of 100+ km piste resorts associated with South Alps. In between there are other smaller resorts, say less than 100 km piste, dotted around the French Alps.
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