Our Holiday in Val D'Isere
My husband's cousin and her husband had kindly allowed us to go and stay in their chalet in Val D'Isere.
Our youngest child had a pair of plastic skis when she was 2 years old, I towed her round the kitchen with a home made T bar with handles. When we had
enough snow outside she happily walked around on her skis as if she had always had 2 foot long feet! When she was 2 years old, I took three of my children for snow board lessons, at the Snow centre Hemel Hempstead, she was very annoyed that she could not join them! I decided to book a private half hour lesson for her, to get a rough idea of whether or not she was going to enjoy her first ski trip and to give her a head start. This was a huge success and I would strongly recommend it, the instructor was very patient, made her lesson fun and she thoroughly enjoyed herself.
Being a large family, with a budget , we were keen to keep our costs down as much as possible. With our Christmas money we decided to join
The Ski Club of Great Britain to take advantage of some of the many discounts: ski and boot hire, parking at the airport and discount on ski clothing, and ski lessons from BASS for our youngest child. Hiring a car was an option but we would have needed two cars and we were not familiar with the route. We decided to book a coach transfer to the resort with Bens Bus, our membership also entitled us to a discount, it worked extremely well. We foolishly left a boot bag at Grenoble airport, Bens bus contacted us and organised to deliver the bag the following day. What service!
Our journey began, departing from home, driving to Gatwick for our 1pm flight to Grenoble. We dropped the three older children, parked in the long stay car park and caught the shuttle bus back to the terminal. We arrived at our destination at about 8.30pm, the village was lit up with white still Christmas lights, it was beautiful. Our accommodation was self catering and fortunately a pizza takeaway was conveniently situated close by. (I think it would have been better if we had booked an earlier flight and arrived in time to organise equipment hire and ski pass collection on the same day....but that's one to learn from).
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| Return cable car |
The next morning we walked a short distance to Pierre et Vacance and the children were fitted for skis and boots by Ski Set, they proved to be very helpful and I would recommend them. We also pre-booked this through Ski Club of Great Britain and received a discount. Next we had our ski passes to collect which we had booked in advance and organised to collect from La Daille. You choose where to collect at the time of booking and we could have collected in the centre of the resort. Also very conveniently positioned, close to our chalet, was the the bus stop for the free shuttle service which ran every few minutes and was very reliable, so getting around was very easy.
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| Skipass collection point- La Daille |
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| La Daille, Le Solaise in the distance |
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The bus stop
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Once this was done the boys were free to go off exploring in perfect conditions. They skied much of the area and even attempted the snow park. Very frustrating for those of us left behind without boots! We explored the village, rode the Solaise cable car to the Tete de Solaise for refreshments and to catch some rays! We were able to buy our groceries from the Spa and Sherpa, not cheap but cheaper than eating out.
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The top of the Solaise cable car
Tete du Solaise to the right |
One of the best things I did was to pre book with the Ski Club of Great Britain to ski with a ski leader. Not being familiar with the area I thought it would be sensible to explore as much as possible and not have to worry about getting lost. After a phone call to Jim Costelo to confirm we had arrived we met in the Alexandra Bar that evening to meet him and any other fellow members.
The next morning at 9.30am, my children and I met the group near the Solaise Express chair. We split into two groups and my group was lead by Rob George. Not only did we ski much of Val D'Isere during our stay but we explored much of Tignes with a great group of people who we have been in touch with since our return. My children also thoroughly enjoyed this experience and improved as skiers and there confidence has soared. They were happy to continue skiing with the group when I broke away to return to my youngest child and my husband( non skier- at the moment!)
We booked 3x1hour private lessons for our youngest daughter with a BASS instructor. She had a great time, loved every minute of it and an hour was just enough. After her lesson we took her sledging which was great fun too! On the days she didn't have a lesson we would spend some time practising what she had been taught followed by some sledging. She quickly learnt how to snow plough stop. Both to her instructor and to our surprise, by her last lesson at the end of the week, she was skiing the nursery slope from the top and even sneaking in a couple of parallel turns! Had she had another lesson she would have been ready to progress to the next stage.... up the mountain! My eldest daughter and I enjoyed skiing with her and letting her go on the button lift independently(sandwiched between us of course!)....to the top! This is where I'm sure my home made "T" bar proved it's worth, having taught her to allow herself to be pulled and not to be tempted to sit on the button. The attendant on the button lift was a very helpful lady, observing all the children and helping them to safely make their way up the lift. She had to end her skiing experience in tears because she didn't want to stop!
Our return journey involved three stops to collect other Bens Bus passengers. It seemed like a long journey but it was worth it.
Our stay was fabulous, we feel privileged to have been fortunate to experience such a beautiful resort and fantastic skiing!
My son and I have been to Alpe d'Huez several times and returned with the rest of the family, each time we have had an extremely enjoyable holiday there and it will always be one of my favourite holiday destinations!
