AP from United Kingdom writes:
Week Feb 8th 2010.
This is my second time in Alpe d'Huez and also my second in Chalet L Escapade.
Lets start with Chalet L Escapade. Now, as I said, I have been here before so knew what to expect. Small, cramped and incredibly noisy in the dining room. Ski-World has managed to shoe horn over sixty guests into this chalet hotel. They would do better to reduce this number by at least twenty.
So why did I return? I got a deal at £450 which is the maximum I would pay for this chalet. The full price of near £750 for the week is grossly overpriced and not at all value for money. I have stayed in Les Gets and Morzine for that type of money in luxury chalets far, far better than Chalet L Escapade. However, I slept very well and had nice hot showers.
The staff, however, were exceptional. Polite, helpful and a real credit to themselves. I can’t imagine this is the easiest chalet to run but they did their very, very best. Food was good and if you didn’t like what was on the menu they would do their best to provide an alternative. I was ok as I eat anything !!!!
The chalet is ski-in and ski-out. Out to either the Eclose and then Bergers or a quick trip across the bridge to Telecentre. It has a hot tub, steam room, sauna a small gym and a very reasonably priced bar.
Ski hire was from Ze Shop which is a short walk down the hill from the chalet. If you carry on a little further there is a restaurant on the left called Alaska that does very good reasonably priced food from an extensive menu. I would recommend you go there on the chalet staffs night off.
The resort of Alpe d'Huez itself is a bit disjointed and has no real dedicated centre but once you manage to find them there are plenty of shops and bars to frequent and it’s pretty cheap for France. The sports centre is excellent. Take along your lift pass for free entry and you can play table tennis for €1, swim, play tennis, squash or use the climbing wall.
The Skiing:
Plenty of snow and sunny days but very cold. I like to stretch my legs a bit in the morning so always looked for some easy blues down the bottom of the mountain before venturing further afield and Alpe (Alpe d'Huez) is perfect for this. I went with my thirteen year old son who has been skiing about four years and his preference is throwing himself off as many little jumps as he can. This is adequately catered for in the snow park area. I had fun there too!!
For progressing onto reds and blacks, although there is only one black you can't go far wrong than head over to Auris En Oisans connected by Alpes very own scare chair. The ride over from Bergers is something not to be missed. Although the runs over that side are short on some days my son and I were the only ones on them. Add to that the possibility for some easy off-piste it would be hard not to recommend Auris as a destination for a few hours.
The lifts were only busy mornings and afternoons just as ski school was starting. My biggest criticism, and for me it somewhat spoiled the skiing, was the lack of piste preparation on some runs particularly from the mid station Marmottes and Signal. You go up expecting to ski a blue or red and are faced with mogul field with bumps up to your thighs. If you are taking young kids up for a long blue run be prepared for long rests and plenty of falls. As for the famed Sarrene all I can say is expect the worse piste preparation ever and you won’t be disappointed.
Mountain restaurant prices really surprised me. In some places you could get a meal deal such as burger, chips and a coke for € 8. Not too bad in my opinion.
So would I go back to Alpe d'Huez for a third time? Difficult to say but I probably would if I had the same deal as this holiday.
2010-02-17 |
