Looking for a ski holiday for the week of Jan 2nd and Les Menuires seems to have some good deals going.

Anyone been? Whats it like?

Lift access to the 3 valleys looks good.

Or any suggestions for other slightly budget destinations?

It is not the nicest looking of places, but we rented a cheap apartment there for two weeks. It does have good access to the other areas in the 3 valleys and a variety of slopes to choose from.

Waves at Amit (yep it's THE AdamT) Yep, I've been there. It's below VT so is really easy to get to other areas. When I boarded there it had by far the best snow (it was a bad year) and since it's in the trees a bit has some nicer looking pistes. I rode there with the chalet guy who kinda forgot to tell me about a sudden 8ft drop in the piste. He didn't slow down at all. Suddenly I was 8 ft in the air going V fast. I landed it tho and remember it to this day!

From what I recall the centre is quite small. I can't comment on bars/food etc.

How do they bash the piste if it's got 8 foot drops in it?

…badly when i raced there.
Its like Milton Keynes in the snow, ugly but functional. 😀

In all seriousness if you want to go the three valleys it's probably the cheapest place to stay/eat etc… but as nzcol says it's not pretty. I've never stayed there but used to go there for lunch as was much cheaper than the other 3v resorts.

Spent some time down in St Martin further down the Valley a few years ago. Headed up to Les Menuires quite a bit.

I never got chance to explore all the piste but there was a hell of a lot to go at. Some really fantastic runs especially back down to St Martin. Lifts are fairly speedy (I would guess the few old ones will have been replaced in the 7 years since I was there) and there is also a boardpark too if thats your thing.

Resort itself is really ugly (then again compared to Flaine and Le Corbier it looks lovely) but cant comment on nightlife or accomodation.

I loved Les Menuires. The hotel we stayed in was right at the bottom of the sloap and linked onto a reasonable sized shopping centre with bars, restraunts and a 2 night clubs. There was a small supermarket and a reasonable sized pool and sauna just across the road. Well priced accommodation v basic but good all the same.

Access to the sloap's was excellent and I skied all corners of the resort easily from there. Val T was a bit of a trek nut still had plenty of time to get the whole area in and back in a day.

I would without a doubt go back.

…like what the rest of them said….god damn ugly but very functional indeed. The resort is well spread across several satellite villages also so don't expect a buzzing centre like in Val Tho/Courchevel 1850 etc. I've done three seasons over the hill in VT and would recommend Les Men to anyone if you can cope with the down sides.

Skiing-wise it's a good area, the main side of the hill is south facing and it's only two chairs/two stages of a bubble up to the top of the Mottaret/Val Tho link and the same up to above St Martin and Meribel. The area across the road, called La Masse is also sweet with loads of quieter (though more difficult) pistes and back country areas a-plenty.

If it's cheap, then get involved

cheap, absolutely superb lift access everywhere, and most importantly of all, great off piste off the top of the top lift. It's not Biaritz in terms of class but for a strictly functional up at the crack of dawn and ride until you are dead holiday with the boys its perfect.

AKA Les Manures

Cheap, functional and the same 3 Valleys area the people in posher resorts pay 3 times the price to stay somewhere 'nicer'. I was never one for apres ski and a bunch of us got the first and last lifts every day and hammered the slopes. Lifts link the areas well and you can get right up in the 3 V area very quickly and indeed explore totally different valleys for the whole day. Ugly as sin, but do you want to spend your time admiring architecture or sliding down hills?
La Masse is a great and underused area – we found some brilliant mixed runs over there.

I've never stayed there, but always found the piste directly around it very busy so have avoided, although there is some good easy off piste available off to the right (sorry dont have a map to hand and can't remember the name of the lifts)

It's way more "French" than most of the other bases in the 3V which are full of either Brits or Russians. The night life and choice of restaurants is smaller but a bit cheaper.

Ooops, drop does sound extreme. It was a bank that had an 8ft drop. When you're going at ??mph it had the effect of the ground instantly going away from you. I think there may have been some marking on it but I was too busy trying to keep up.