Little Gem (La Thuile)

Member Name: travdoo

Product:	La Thuile
Date:	13/01/09 (250 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quiet, no queues, cheaper than a lot of resorts

Disadvantages: Not great if looking for hectic apres ski

I've been to La Thuile three times, and it is a lovely resort.

The skiing is mostly very gentle and wide quiet slopes, great for beginners and intermediates, advanced skiers may get a little bored. I know the advanced skiers in our party do, but you can ski over to La Rosiere for an extended ski area.

The ski over to La Rosiere is good, but not particularly great for snowboarders as a lot of flatter bits to get through. On the way back there is a very long poma, about 2km long I think. So if any of your party are not that great on pomas it is good to know beforehand. The way over to La Rosiere is ok for advanced beginners, on the way back there is one run, I think it is a red, it has a couple of steeper bits and a bend with netting which can be daunting for beginners, but it is do-able. I did it on my 2nd ski week and I'm a bit of a woose! When I was just beginning I loved the fact that I was on holiday in Italy and could ski over to France for lunch, what an adventure!

I love the bars and restaurants on the slopes, it's a great resort to ski to a couple of different places and stop for a beer or hot chocolate, and different choices for lunch. The Roxy bar is a good choice, on the way back from La Rosiere when you hit La Thuile, but you can ski down to it from La Thuile, but unsure of the run number, but you can do either a red or a black to get to it. The owners also have another place that we just found this year, so don't know if it is new or we just always missed it, it is on number 28 and is on a really nice quiet peaceful run. Would recommend this side as a lot quieter.

The first two times we stayed at the Planibel Hotel. It was really good, the restaurant had an excellent choice of food, it was buffet style, but there were various stations offering pasta, salad, meat dishes and amazing desserts.You could also have a steak cooked at your table for an extra cost. the staff were very attentive and friendly. It was a lovely hotel to stay in. The last time we were there in 2008, myself and my husband booked later than our friends and couldn't get into the hotel, so we booked one of the Planibel apartments.We were happy to do this as it meant we would have the opportunity to visit some of the restaurants in the town. One being La Bricole that I would recommend. We did eat a couple of times with our friends in the hotel restaurant and what a different experience it was to our previous visits. The choice of food was pretty bad, I really couldn't find much appetising to eat, and the staff were pretty awful. As some of our friends had booked separately, but all in the hotel, they were separated at dinners and breakfast, even when they explained that they were actually holidaying together they still wouldn't join them together at meal times! It took a couple of nights before this got sorted, but every meal time felt like the waiters just thought it was such a hassle and were very unhelpful and unfriendly. We were so happy we were in the apartments.

The apartments are very basic compared to the hotel, but if like us, most holidays it is just a place to sleep, then I would say it is fine for the purpose. Like the hotel they are at the foot of the slopes, there are about 4 buildings and it depends on which one you are in as to how far the walk is, but it is near, just want to point out that the hotel and one of the buildings are the closest.

We like La Thuile due to the fact it is a smaller resort, there are only a few bars and we tend to go to one in particular near the hotel, so easy when in a crowd to find everyone if all going out at different times.

Everytime we've been to La Thuile we've had great snow and fab sunshine so I think that has helped make it one of our favourites.

There are some lovely quiet runs throughout the resort feels like you are the only one there sometimes (like over number 28 way as previously mentioned).

We did the night trip to Courmeyour but haven't skied there, however I would recommend a trip to Pila if available, lovely little resort.

Summary: Great for families,couples and groups of friends who don't need a massive resort and nightlife