Steve A
We have skied every year for the last 12 years, this was the first time over the Easter break. We have been with different companies and to various locations. I therefore feel I have sufficient experience to provide this review.||The snow- luck of the draw really, we had lots of it, but because of the temperature, it was very slushy, unless you went high, which did take some time.||The lift system- needs some investment if you compare it to other ski areas, an express lift would not go amiss. To get from town to the top takes over half an hour, if there are no queue's, it took us over an hour a few times.||The resort- two main areas, Bergers and the town centre. The centre is nondescript, with the usual array of ski shops and restaurants. Bergers is a little commercial centre of about 20 shops of the same. It is undercover and does get busy at peak times. There are a couple of restaurants and bars located here and a really good snack bar which is cheap and offers tasty local foods.|We ate in a restaurant in the centre one lunch time, it was good food and a lively atmosphere. ||The skiing- lots of green and blue runs for beginners at lower levels, some of the guys in our chalet said there was a great selection for them. Reds, there are quite a few, best done early as they did cut up quite bad. We did ski a number of the black runs. La Sarenne, the longest black in Europe, was ok, the last quarter required a great deal of pole work as it was quite flat.|The infamous Tunnel, was really good, tricky and steep at the top, but worth it. It opens up for the bottom half to enable a great fast run down to the chair which goes back up to the top of the DMC lift.|The blacks at the top are all a worthwhile visit, some are more like reds.|Note, the ski maps and piste signing are not good, they identify lifts on the main signs and the run in the bottom corner or on smaller signs underneath, which you have to get really close to in order to see. The piste map is not easy to read if you need glasses to see close up.||The Chalet- it is literally located on the slopes, I skied from the chalet garage to the L'altiporte run every day and returned off the same run to within 10m of where I started. This is on the provision that snow is on this run, it was very slushy, I doubt if it will have snow on it for the following week. Great location for access to the slopes. It is however, a good 20 mins walk from Bergers, although you can get the Citron bus back from the town which runs every 20 mins during the day.||The interior of the chalet is as the pictures lots of wood. It is a very nice chalet that would benefit from a few little improvements; more lights, every where you go it is dark, lights not working, blown or missing. A maintenance guy turned up after 5 days of us being there and replaced about 20%.|The boot room only has boot warmers for 10 people, when we stayed it was full. So if you consider that the staff take up two spaces that leaves 8. Add another rack and it would be great.|The sauna- don't bother, two hour timer, and it reached 33 degrees in that time. Just stay in the chalet because that is probably hotter. Note the chalet is very hot, even with the radiators off in our room, I slept without the duvet, which was tog 1000, I think.|The wifi in the chalet was excellent, whilst this is good, everybody disappears to their rooms to watch movies, so by 9:30 every night the chalet is empty.||The rooms were very nice, with comfy beds and pillows. The staff kept the rooms clean and we had a towel change mid week. The shower was fab with lots of hot powerful water.|The food- what you see in the brochure is nothing like reality. The food was not brilliant. We did consider eating out on the last night, but due to time constraints of packing, we decided against it. ||I also think that leaving food half cooked in covered pans throughout the day in a baking hot chalet, to save time cooking at night is a food safety issue. I know the hosts wants to go out on the slopes, but really? We went with Neilson's, I think a little more work is needed in this area, educating staff as to the potential danger. In addition further training would benefit on food hygiene and cleaning in the kitchen area.||Breakfast, everything was only just cooked, on occasions, I was not sure if it was cooked or defrosting.||Our chalet host was very nice and very helpful. The resort rep seemed to be on wind down as it was her last week. No point going into details.||A few other items;||We took advantage of the ski excellence classes that Neilson put on, this was very good and a great benefit.||You can get taxi service to Bergers, despite being told there are non. The supermarket has 5 names and numbers on the wall near the check out area.||The Altiport Restaurant located 100m from the chalet is excellent, a little pricey but a fab place. We were surprised that non of the staff recommended it.||Would we go again? Probably not:||Skiing range for us was not enough given the snow conditions and time of year.|Menu and food prep needs addressing by Neilson.|Chalet way too hot
