Right then, I’m trying to organise a chalet ski holiday for 8 ish people to one of the bigger French resorts. I don’t really mind which one, but I’m looking for word of mouth recommendations of specific companies. Googling gives some shocking stories about one particular operator.

So, has anyone been on a particularly good (yet reasonably-priced) holiday that they want to share?

Ski Basics in Meribel Village.

Chalet Jaques.

Perfect for 8 people, you get the whole place to yourself and its 20m to the lift in the morning, and ski back to the same place.

Action outdoors if you don’t mind slumming it a bit.

Or Mountain Highs in Morzine.

Dean and Rachel are great.

Why do you want to go to one of the bigger French resorts? Hospitality and charm levels are a lot better in smaller places, especially Austria, IMO.

I would agree with that generally, and I lived in an Austrian Ski area for years for that exact reason.

However, for a week skiing, its hard to beat the convenience and huge linked ski areas that the big French resorts provide.

When are you thinking of going?

Not sure I’d describe Morzine as “one of the bigger French resorts”

I use ifyouski.com to search out stuff, had a great week in Val d’Isere last season with Ski Val staying in La Fornet, they also have a big place in the town centre which is more cheap and cheerful but could work for your group

Austria is great for smaller resort feel but to be honest aside from St Anton (which is outstanding) I wouldn’t pick an Austrain resort over 3 Valleys, Val/Tignes, Les Arcs/La Plagne. The OP asked for a major French resort explicitly.

yet reasonably-priced
Bon chance!

Most of the ski companies think reasonable is £700+ these days.

Purple Ski

EOT. 😀

Always found skiworld to be reasonably priced with nice Chalets

Sent my husband to this chalet for a long weekend last year, he really enjoyed it.

I found them through solutions room on chalet direct, here – you ask for what you want and chalets with availability let you know. Worked well for me!

I’d recommend Italy or Austria. Skiing is just as good, the holiday/lift pass will cost the same/similar as a week in France. But the cost of eating and drinking out is a lot lower than most French resorts.

We enjoyed Cervinia last year, especially as you can ski into Zermatt. The area isn’t too taxing, but it’s big, with really long runs and generally snow sure (Cervinia is at 2000m).

Also done Skiwelt and Kitzbuhel in Austria, all good fun.

We’ve found Inghams to be fine (if there are any kids you can get free kids places to some reports). Whenever we’ve gone with Crystal we’ve always had good service, even though they get some bad reports.

Stayed with these last year

http://www.burasnow.com/

Cheap, pick you up from the airport, let you put all you passes and hire etc on the package price then pay it monthly right up until you go, good people, amazing food, good location, cant recommend it enough

we have used Crystal Ski for the last 6 years in catered chalets and its always been first class

http://www.crystalski.co.uk

Steve – that’s excellent value.

Yeah, if it wasn’t for the imminent arrival of mini-g v2.0 we would be going back this year

Need to find somewhere child focussed next time around

That burasnow pace recommended by steve-g does indeed look like pretty good value. Might have to bookmark that one for a trip next year, methinks

Ah do they not accept kids? I’d have an 11yo in tow – but he doesn’t need somewhere specifically child focussed.

Yeah they would take kids, I meant that I would be taking my 3 year old, and with the transfer from the airport being over 2 hours it would be a bit much for her.

We’ve used SkiBeat a number of times now and we’re off to Les Arcs with them in January. Have previously done Meribel, Val D’Isere and La Plagne with them and they’ve always been brilliant.

My Mate owns SkiHigher..

Try him.

I know the OP asked specifically asked about bigger French resorts but having visited most of them and been to other countries, I’d recommend Austria instead. Reasonably priced was a request and I find Austria better value, friendlier and you just seem to get more for your money. The Apres is a blast as well.

Went to Val d’Isere last year but heading back to St Anton this winter. Val is great but too expensive. I’ve a friend who runs a restaurant in Alpe D’Huez which is reasonable value for a french resort and can be a lot of fun.

Austria is great for smaller resort feel but to be honest aside from St Anton (which is outstanding) I wouldn’t pick an Austrain resort over 3 Valleys, Val/Tignes, Les Arcs/La Plagne. The OP asked for a major French resort explicitly.

It depends on your priorities I suppose – I’ve been to most places on that list and I would prefer a holiday in Austria any day. But then these days I enjoy the all-round mountain experience just as much as the actual boarding TBH.

Reasonably priced was a request and I find Austria better value, friendlier and you just seem to get more for your money. The Apres is a blast as well.

Exactly. Where we were last year in St Johann there was boatloads of powder, everyone was mega-friendly, and you could buy a large beer or gluhwein at the top of the mountain for under £3. Compare that to 7 Euros for a tiny instant hot chocolate in a plastic cup thrown at you by a surly Frenchman. 🙂

Another vote for Austria. Apres ski is brilliant, good food, cheaper than France. Italy is good, too, and cheaper still, skiing is a bit hit and miss. That said, if you go to one of the bigger French resorts you’ll have a great time.

Caution: Burasnow is in La Rosiere,which is why it’s cheap. There isn’t enough skiing to keep you busy in La Ros unless it snows a lot and you stay indoors for four days.

Oh also, http://www.pleisure.co.uk/ – been with these guys. It was about 6 years ago now but they were really good (and pretty cheap)

@Superficial – you mike like to look at the white room – Steve is a contributor here and the feedback from the biking holidays on STW is great. I’m looking at a week with them for both skiing and biking in 2013.

globalti – combined with La Thuile there’s 150km of piste. Is it that it’s not challenging enough to keep you busy for a week? Or is that the 150km is made up of different runs effectively down the same bit of hill?

I skied Kitzbuhel with 90km piste quoted and there was enough to keep us busy.

I always use http://www.ski-direct.co.uk/ they seem to be able to crystal ski/ neals etc holidays cheaper than I can book myself off the net. I tend to talk to a woman called Claire Mundy, if you give her a call and put the enquirey to her, she’ll offer several options.

Good luck

There’s plenty of skiing available. The connection to La Thuile can be closed in bad weather, there’s a very long drag lift through the col that’s quite exposed so if the wind gets up, the lift shuts

EDIT double post

With a kid in tow I can recommend http://www.chaletmorzine.com/ – very child friendly and have a field on their property that can be used for sledging.

Tell ’em Mixd recommended them to you.

Or http://www.thetastyskicompany.co.uk/ – the owner is a Fat Duck Restaurant former chef and is a huge foodie (as the company name suggests)

A good skier could ski every run in La Rosiere in a full day ( first lift up , till end of day )
The runs are fairly close togther and covering them doesnt take very long at all.
The drag across the top is looong circa 10mins , but you access La Thuille with pretty girls , nicer food and different facing slopes .
One side always has more snow than the other.

pleisure.co.uk Based in Courchevel 3 Valleys, fantastic accom, fantastic food and fantastic skiing and real value. 🙂

@johndoh – nice recommendation for the tasty ski co – jut a pity it’s in Morzine, I used to go there quite a lot but it’s just too low for reliabale snow.

Organised one to les get/morzine over the winter period. flights worked out at £100 each, hired a gorgeous chalet for £90 each, 8 seater minivan hire for a week which was £60 each then liftpasses for the group which ranged from day pass’s at £20 each to the full 6 day port de soleil pass which was £180.. we stayed in a village called st jean d’aulps. had our pick of going to either les get, morzine or avoriaz every day, all within a 10min drive. And a great supermarket nearby for all our food & drink requirements.. 😀