Having read about the "hideous satellite village of La Daille" the first pleasant surprise was the location of these apartments. La Daille does have some very large modern apartment blocks but the situation with the dramatic escarpment behind and the picturesque river and famous World Cup pistes facing it is spectacular. There are a number of excellent restaurants and bars within tottering distance; a supermarket; and a ski hire shop directly below the apartment block.

It is definitely the best place to be based for access to the slopes of the Espace Killy as there is a funicular, a chairlift and a gondola all within 250m of the apartments and these take you straight to the heart of the ski area ahead of the crowds. It is great having the 4 (or more?) tree lined runs of La Daille, including the famous OK downhill, as your home runs and the famous Folie Douce, where they play live music in the afternoons at the top of the pistes down, - as your local.

The fantastic "Train Rouge" free bus service really does run every five minutes during the day and less frequently but reliably until 2.00am so there is no need to miss out on the apres ski in the centre of Val, even if you can't face the 20 min walk along a flat path. Its out of town location means that it is very peaceful at night in contrast to the centre of Val where I have read that noise until the early hours is a pain.

The apartments are newly renovated and are modern yet warm and welcoming at the same time. Our bathroom was great with a small bath and powerful shower delivering reliably piping hot water. The kitchen had a proper coffee machine, dishwasher, fridge, hob and microwave/grill. I am still recovering from the fact that the utensils included an oyster shucker!
The main living area had a flat screen TV that included 2 English language channels and you could plug a portable DVD player or Playstation in the back. It was nice to have directional wall lights rather than the traditional 700 watt single hanging light fitting. The bedroom was pretty spacious and all the beds and the sofa bed were surprisingly comfortable. The best thing was the huge south facing balcony overlooking the pistes. We enjoyed having a beer while watching people make their way down.

The reception staff were good and when we reported a dud lightbulb and wobbly tap these were repaired at the first possible opportunity.

My only criticism would be of the boot room. Each apartment has its own locakable locker which is good, but while fitting 5 sets of ski equipment in might be a breeze for a Krypton Factor finalist; we found it a challenge getting 4 sets in. The lockers have been knocked up out the cheapest ply and I really missed the heated boot racks that our last two (budget) hotels provided. There are no benches for you while you get in and out of your boots and the whole room is a bit dank and maloderous. It is a shame they didn't spend a couple of thousand more here to bring it up to the standard of the rest of the building.

However we didn't come to Val d'Isere to sit in the boot room and for everything else this apartment was superb.