Lives up to the reputation! (Val D'Isère in general)

Member Name: sam_mule2k

Product:	Val D'Isère in general
Date:	18/01/06 (1093 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great skiing, scenic town, good selection of nightlife

Disadvantages: Difficult to go on a budget

I booked my stay in Val D'isere with a friend as we were both working full time on a gap year before going to University. Because of this we were on a students budget. After looking at various skiing packages during the summer months it was clear the best time we could go was in the pre Christmas months in December. This almost halved the price compared to the other packages offered in January and the following months. Booking over Xmas and New Year is a whole different story! Do not expect to pay less than £1000 for a week with expences on top.

The reason the pre christmas months are alot cheaper than those offered afterwards are due to the unreliable snow fall during the early part of the season. However the travel agent assured us that skiing would be available during the time that we wanted to book. 'Val D'isere is a snowsure resort' they say.

We eventually booked the holiday in mid october for 10-17th of December and kept our fingers crossed that enough snow fell to give us a range of pistes to ski on. You can imagen our worry when coming up to the end of November there was only a few centimetres of snow that had fallen! However our faith in the resort was renewed and the skies opened in early december giving a heavy dump of snow. Prior to arriving it snowed heavily for two days solidly so this also improved things greatly.

Whilst there we had a fantastic time. Staying in a catered chalet is great fun and we met alot of new and interesting people. We travelled with thomson ski and in the chalet you are presented with a thomson ski chalet host. They will cook breakfast, afternoon tea and a three course evening meal for 6 of the 7 days in a week. This is great as it sets you up nicely for your day and then for a night out in the town!

The town itself is very pretty and has a huge range of clothes and gift shops. These are all very expensive however. Also there is good apres ski with many of the bars offering two for one drinks at various times. This is very handy if you are on a budget as you pay around 5-7 euros for a pint of beer! The bars i would recommend are Le Petit Danois (pool tables and good music) and the Saloon bar which gets gets very lively after 10. A must have drink in the saloon is the Long Island Iced Tea. Try and stay on your feet after 3 of them!

The skiing is very good. With going in early december, in places the snow was a little on the thin side, however we couldnt really expect as huge layer of snow given the time of the year. The resort is linked with Tignes and the lift pass enables you to ski in both Val D'isere and Tignes. This gives you a huge area to ski in. There are a wide range of pistes for all abilities and the off piste skiing i am told is fantastic. I am not quite up to the standard yet! The lifts systems are also very good with little waiting time during the time perioid that i visited. However this may change in the holiday weeks.

Overall this is a great resort and i am planning to go again next year around the same time. If you are on a budget then definitely go in early december and just keep your fingers crossed that the resort has a good layer of early snow!

Summary: Great ski resort. One of the best in the Alps!