Alternative accomodation - French Youth Hostels

An alternative option, especially if travelling in a single sex group are the excellent French Youth Hostels.
Several hostels are located in or close to many French Resorts adn we sepak from experince that the Hosetl in Les Deux Alpes is one of the best.  Excellent Accomodation, Food and it's ski in/out in the heart of Deux Alpe.


The Hostel has been recently refurbished and prices have not been releaased yet for 2011/2012 but certainly worth a look.

Les Deux Alpes - Youth Hostel

Accomodation Review - Hotel Gran Trun - Sauze D'Oulx

Sauze D'Oulx – Hotel Gran Trun



Double Room



Hotel Gran Trun is situated in the picturesque old town of Sauze D'oulx.  Tucked away, it provides clean and basic accomodation which is ideal for a short break.



The Hotel provides Bed and Breakfast accomodation, based on 2 people sharing.  SkiWeekenders has not stayed at this venue but has frequented the bar under the hotel - which is excellent!!!





Hotel Gran Trun

 

The resort itself is great, providing an excellent selection of restaurants, bars and most importantly skiing.  Sauze is part of the Milky Way linked area, which crosses from Italy into France.  Sauze, Sestriere and San Sicarrio were all used as major resorts for the Turin winter olympics and as such have recieved significant investment.  It also means there is skiing for all levels.  It is superb.

Access to resort is very straight forward, and is an easy hours drive or so from Turin.  You can also get a train from Turin to Oulx at the base of the mountain and a short taxi ride to resort. 

In summary a great option for a short ski break, although not as high as other resorts, if the snow is good there is nowhere better.

Key facts:

Accommodation Website:- www.sauzeonline.com/accommodation/gran-trun/

Approx Prices:- Bed and Breakfast €40- €80 per night, based on 2 sharing (prices correct at time of publishing)

Ski Pass:- €92 (ViaLattea pass for 3 days)

Ski Area:- MilkyWay (ViaLattea – 400km of pistes) Milky Way Piste Map

 

How to get there:- Fly into Turin then short 60min transfer to resort.

Should you have any comments or would like to add your own review, then please comment below or send your review to skiweekenders@live.co.uk

New Short Break Provider - Take Me to Ski

SkiWeekenders has stumbled across a new Short break provider - Take Me To Ski - http://www.takemetoski.co.uk/



They appear to offer short break option to Alpe D'Huez and Tignes, two of Europe's best resorts, and provide a range of B&B options in rooms of varying sizes.  Accomodation options look great and they offer a variety of travel and transfer options and advice. 

Overall first impressions are very good - please let us know your thoughts via the comments section.

Chalets Direct - Solutions Room

One of the greatest sources of deals and excellent offers we have found in the last few years is the Chalets Direct Solutions room.

Chalets Direct



The site alloows you to post your specifc needs on a forum, dates, number of people, which resorts and the listed members fo the chaltes direct community come back to you directly with availablity adn offers for their indeopendant accomodation.

It works brillinatly, and provides you access to some of the best accomodation around.  Also works for the summer should any of you fancy a mountain bike trip to the alps.....

Further excellent advice and guides

Ski Club of Great Britain website has been heavily re-vamped.  Looks great and provides rafts of useful information on resorts, travel guides, ski reviews, snow reports etc.

Check out the link below for their specific guide to short skiing breaks

Ski Club of Great Britain

Accomodation Review - Alpe D'Huez - Hotel Le Chamois

Alpe D'Huez – Hotel Le Chamois - HolidayAlps

Hotel Le Chamois is situated in the Centre of Alpe D'Huez, and provides genuine doorstep skiing and access to the superb resort.  Alpe D'huez is made for a long weekend, around an hour away from Grenoble airport by car, all bar the last famous hairpins pretty much on Autoroute.



Hotel Le Chamois

Hotel Le Chamois is a relatively small hotel situated above the famous Underground Bar (also run by the hotel and definately worth a visit)  It provides clean and basic flexible accomodation in a variety of formats, Bed only, B&B or half Board.  Rooms vary in size, and when we stayed we had a very adequate 4 bed room, with balcony.  Food in the hotel is great, buffet breakfast and a 3 course meal every evening.




Hotel Le Chamois - typical room

 

Staff in the hotel are friendly and in most cases are returning seasonnaires, who will be happy to give you advice on the best on and off piste skiing.

The resort itself is superb, offering the longest Black RUn in Europe - La Sarenne at around 17km, and the option to complete 4 different top to bottom of the mountain runs of over 2000m without touching a lift.  Our personal favourite is "The Tunnel" which was knee deep in Powder in the last week in March....fantastic.

In summary a great option for a short ski break due to high snowsure resort and easy transfer from Grenoble airport.

Key facts:

Accommodation Website:-  Hotel Le Chamois Website

Approx Prices:- Room only €38 - €60 per night, Half Board €50 - €75 per night (prices correct at time of publishing)

Ski Pass:- €117 (VISALP pass for 3 days)

Ski Area:- Visalp – 235km of pistes including a 3330m Glacier
Alpe D'Huez Piste Map

 

How to get there:- Fly into Grenoble then short 60min transfer to resort.

Should you have any comments or would like to add your own review, then please comment below or send your review to skiweekenders@live.co.uk