im going with my daughter and others to learn snowboarding. i’m looking for a place for 6 of us and phil at mbmb is booked up.
must be in town 🙂

any recommends?

breathe bikes?

Don’t stay in Chamonix. It’s noisy, expensive and everywhere is a long walk or a bus ride.

Stay up the valley in Argentiere, cheaper, quieter, smaller, near the Grands Montets lifts and le Tour, which is a great area for beginners. Actually the village of Le Tour would be even better. If you want to be convinced you made the right decision you can get the bus down to Chamonix on an off-day.

2nd Argentiere although cheaper is a relative thing

Does Le Tour have a village?

http://www.chamchalet.co.uk/

On the Savoy piste, opposite the Brevent lift station. When you get knackered you can sit in the hot tub and watch your daughter going up and down the piste.

Does Le Tour have a village?

Er… it was there last time we went!

I’m a little confused as to how staying in Chamonix centre “everywhere is a long walk or a bus ride”. The Brevent lift goes from the centre and everything you are likely to want is to be found in the centre: shops, bars, swimming pool… .

Tempting suggestion, Shandy, but if we go to the Alps it’ll probably be Tignes again.

One of the things I really like about Chamonix is that its a proper wee town with a lot of character in the village. I think you lose a lot of that staying away from town, but you’re still travelling to ski anyway. As Edukator says all the buses run from the centre of town and Brevent is basically in town.

For doorstep skiing Tignes is very hard to beat, there is so much good skiing in Espace Killy.

Chamonix’s not the best resort to learn in, but of five regions, Le Tour is definitely the best area to start. You’ve got the bunny slopes at the bottom then a load of nice flowing, wide blues just off the second lift. Nothing too sketchy unless you go looking for it.

I never really minded the buses, but I guess they can be a drag, particularly if you’re staying in Cham and heading to Le Tour at the other end of the valley. I’d second the above and look for somewhere in Argentiere (Le Tour village is pretty small).

Le Chalet du Lac
is owned by a friend of mine. Tim Hall. Tell him Dan Heywood sent you the link. Might be a bit small for your group though.

Cheers

The places I stay in when I’m in Chamonix are in Les Bossons and Les Houches so not what you’re looking for.

These two sites, however, are worth a look:

BigFoot

Chamonix Weekends

i have ridden chamonix for 15yrs! i love the town so we want to stay there

sorted with bigfoot 🙂

im impressed it took right up to the second answer for someone to say you dont want to go where you said you want to go……

mind you this post is pretty pointless as well

Chamonix is shit! If you like overcrowded bus rides to the decent slopes up the valley then go! Went once never again. I hate wasting my ski holiday hanging around for buses! Tignes again this year, high guaranteed snow and a 2 min walk to piste!

2 nd le tour for learning but iirc about 1/2hr on the bus to get there!

Chamonix is shit!

Eh, no.

There is a reason people come to Chamonix from all over the world – it has some of the best skiing and scenery in Europe.

Fair enough, if you are after your standard ski-in-ski-out holiday with 300km of motorway pistes, Chamonix is not for you.

Funny that because for doorstep skiing tignes as you say is hard to beat!! I know its a concrete jungle but im there for hte boarding. I was wholly unimpressed by the bus issue with chamonix so wouldnt go back. Espace killy tignes and val d are pretty stunning too and mmmm aiguille percee mmmm grande motte…. Cant wait roll on jan 25.

For scenery les gets morzine is hard to beat but its a bit low and been caught out there with green pistes before!

Although I understand you reasons for wanting to go to Chamonix, I would NEVER take kids or beginners there as the buses and humphing about with skis/boots/boards are a holiday killer. I have spent a winter season in Chamonix and although it is superb for experienced off-piste skiers and boarders, it is really poor for beginners.

Tired kids don’t want to queue for 30 minutes for a 20 minute bus ride then walk 15 minutes to where they’re staying.

There are many places good to go to, but Chamonix isn’t anywhere near even being on the list. Sorry.

EDIT: Despite all my negativity above, I hope you have a good time and you daughter catches the snowsports bug. Controversially, I think it’s better than biking…

Hear hear troutwrestler!

You can ski Savoy, Planards, Brevent & Flegere within a 5 minute walk of the centre of town. If you’ve kids that are old enough to manage their own stuff its perfectly easy to have a good family holiday in Chamonix.

The biggest reason it gets a bad rep is tour ops continually mis-selling packages. So, you get a chalet on a back street halfway to Les Houches, then you have to walk into town to the bus. The kids are meant to be in lessons at Le Tour, whilst you’re meant to be in lessons at Grands Montets. If you know a bit about the place and get the right accommodation all that goes out the window.

Chamonix is shit!

I disagree.

I’ve done the Vallee Blanche 15 times now, and there is nothing else I have done in Europe that compares to it.

(any other suggestions/alternatives are welcome though !)

Missed my annual Chamonix fix this summer. Say hello for me.

/showing off/ Rode all the way there last summer !

Er… the Valleé Blanche is NOT for beginners!

Chamonix is a first-generation resort developed in the seventies when the French began to wake up to the commercial potential of L’huile Blanche, the “white oil”. Unfortunately the valley runs NE-SW so two of the ski areas (Flegere and Brevent) are south-east facing and get a lot of sun. They are also very steep; the top of the Brevent is unpleasant even for an experienced skier because it’s steep and daytime warming along with heavy traffic means it is often icy.

(The consequences of commercial greed became evident in 1999 when twelve residents of Montroc were killed in a massive avalanche: Montroc avalanche Somehow local developers ignored the warnings of a prominent local guide and local inherited knowledge was ignored and chalets were built in a danger zone.)

Chamonix really isn’t rated as a beginners’ resort, you would do better to go to one of the family-friendly resorts like Risoul or Megeve (nearer to Geneva than Chamonix) or dozens of others, which were built later on north-facing slopes with an easier gradient when the ski industry began to develop the second and third generation resorts. Le Tour does have gentler slopes and faces SW and has nice green runs but not much if you’re going for a week: http://www.chamonix.com/les-domaines-skiables,22,fr.html

On the other hand if you’re a confident skier Argentiere gives access to some of the best piste skiing in the world as well as some of the best off piste and ski tours for later in the season.

Avec toutes mes années de skieur je n’ai jamais vu de l’huile blanche sur une piste. L’or blanc se fait parfois désirer mais je ne vois pas de tout l’intérêt de d’asperger les pistes avec de l’huile blanche.

Bien que tes autres affirmations soient amusantes à lire, leur exactitude laisse à désirer.

Les Houches , Slalom Hotel. End Of.

Forget chamonix, go high , little snow so far this year anywhere so id stick to resorts aling the iseran valley!

globalti, I suggest you study a map or actually do some sking instead of cut and pasting some inaccurate infomation. Megeve is very close to chamonix maybe 30 minutes. Risoul is in the Haute alpes and perhaps 4 hours from Geneva.

Jedi, I know you love the valley. Its a great place to hang out and have a good time.For beginners Chamonix can be tricky the same as taking beginner bikers there.If your driving As you know Phil he will give you all the ski info you will need to make your week tip top. Shame he is booked up. January is quieter than February so have a great time.

There were avalanche warnings on TV as you typed and resorts closed due to avalanche risk rather than a lack of snow, DoctorNick. 8) With what’s fallen and what’s forecast Christmas will be fine.

it’s still shit though. especially for a family holiday with beginners. Im glad the alps have had a massive dump over the last few days. at the weekend all was brown and bare- even at 2000m!