Stayed here with Crystal for a week at Xmas, 24th until the 31st of December 2011, we decided to fly to Chambery instead of Geneva as the flight times suited us better and the transfers to and from the resort were a little shorter than Geneva but upon arriving we were left waiting for an hour on the coach with no communication from the reps until approached by myself, turned out one of the flights had been delayed therefore we were waiting for them, fair enough, just would have been nice to have been told!
Take something to eat on the coach, if possible, as the coach didn’t stop anywhere for lunch on the way up the mountain and the toilets were out of order, the pipes on it had froze which was apparently was an often occurrence, therefore a tip is to make good use of the ones at the airport near the luggage claim before you leave.
We arrived at the apartments in Val Thorens about 3pm in moderate to heavy snow, we were told our apartment wasn’t ready and that we would have to wait until about 5pm to get in, was a little fed up as we had been up since about 5am to catch our flight however we stored our luggage in reception and used the time to go and get something to eat next door at the bakery just up the road from the main reception, we also went and did a bit of shopping at the supermarket also up the road from the main reception by the Irish pub and then we went to get our skies/boots from the ski hire shop to put in our lockers ready for Xmas morning, its better to do it this way as it can get very busy with the fresh skiers the following morning so get them the evening before you ski if you can, the shop was open until late, 7pm I think but check with reps.
We got into our apartment about 4.45pm in the end and was nicely surprised at how homely and spacious it was, there was a separate bathroom with sink, bath, shower, separate toilet, twin bedroom, separate open plan living room/kitchen/diner with a large flat screen TV with English channels, including BBC1, great for Eastenders fans like myself!! There was also a separate cabin room with sofa bed however the sliding pine doors had heart shaped cut outs therefore not very private if someone is sat in the living space as you can see right in, I guess it is ideal for people with children though.. The kitchen was well equipped with fridge, dishwasher and Microwave Conventional Oven. Take warm pyjamas, the heating went off at night so it went a bit chilly after a while, we slept in our fleeces every night as the apartment didn’t ever seem to get warm the whole time we were there, probably due to the fact that there was only two small conventional heaters to heat the whole apartment and no central heating which in my mind I thought was wrong for a 4 star hotel at the top of the alps!!
Some people have stated in their reviews noise at night from night owls on the prowl to the bars and clubs, we didn’t have this problem as our apartment was in the main montana bit and looked out onto the nursery slope, the quiet side, however I was woken a couple of times by machines out on the pistes compacting the snow or doing whatever they do, they were quite amazing to watch from our balcony at night as they looked like stars high up in the mountains, but they were just a bit on the annoying side when they woke me up early morning after making their way down to the nursery slopes!
Lift passes were dropped off by our rep at reception Xmas morning therefore we were straight out on the slopes Xmas morning after breakfast, no problems there!
Locker room was good, a little too on the small side though, it was a bit awkward getting our boots on and off as I found there was people constantly trying to get past you even when sat on the benches.. However on a more positive note the locker room is in a good location and the door opens out practically straight onto the nursery runs, about a minutes ski downhill takes you to the ski school Prosneige, which is the school Crystal use, be careful getting out onto the slopes from the locker room though, when we were there we had to climb a steep ice slope which could be a bit tricky as well as carrying skies, sticks, etc.. Someone did carve some steps in the end but it was still very slippery and tricky to get up and down, I would defiantly recommend taking a helmet or hiring one from the ski rental shop, your head is important and my husband actually bumped his head one time climbing up, luckily his helmet was there to protect him otherwise it could have been a different story!
We attended the welcome meeting while we were there which was a bit rubbish really, the bar was too crowded and we couldn’t always hear what the reps were saying due to people talking in the background, the welcome meeting was held on Xmas day at 6pm, the day after us getting there, at the Moo Bar just down the road from the hotels main reception and let me say that’s the one time I ever went there, my husband and I ordered two diet cokes upon arriving, the bar man poured the cokes out of a 1.5lt bottle of coke he had in his fridge, at a supermarket these bottles can be bought for approx 2euros, he then asked us for 12euros for the two cokes, yes you read right, 12euros, I was shocked, I thought I misheard him at first but I had not so I asked the reps, they said this was normal, which was in fact untrue as the bars in town were much cheaper, so in the end I just paid for the one coke and we shared as I thought this was appalling! I think if your good enough to take time out of your holiday to go to their welcome meeting and book their trips then why can’t they give you one free welcome drink like they do in some of the other resorts... Its something Crystal could work on, it would certainly improve the experience in my eyes.
The centre of the resort is accessed by a lift, at first I was expecting a chair lift or a gondola when I read the other reviews before travelling but its just a normal lift slightly up the hill across the road from the hotel entrance, its about a 5 min walk to the resort centre from the lift shaft through the sports centre/indoor shopping area, we use to go for drinks at the Frog and Roast Beef right at the top end of the resort past the Fitzroy and up the stairs which is where most of the bars are located, Frog and Roast Beef did good value drinks and is apparently the highest pub in Europe but I find this hard to believe as I’ve seen loads of other pubs up the pistes while skiing Le Folio Duice for example so I dunno… I’m a bit confused on this!
Val Thorens in my opinion is great for skiing, lots of different runs, we booked last minute 2wks in advance and took advantage of the Crystal wipe out sale, it’s a great way to save the pennies if your not fussed on where to stay, would I stay in the Montana again, I would, but I think I would look at other hotels first!
Any questions, please feel free to ask me.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
