Madame Vacances Les Chalets Des Alpages

“Very good but keep reading so you know what to expect!”

My family and I (2 kids) just got back from a lovely stay at the Vancouver with Crystal ski. The staff were very friendly and spoke excellent English and were able to answer all our questions. We were in room 308 which had a lovely view over the resort and was south facing. It was just like the bro… more

My family and I (2 kids) just got back from a lovely stay at the Vancouver with Crystal ski. The staff were very friendly and spoke excellent English and were able to answer all our questions. We were in room 308 which had a lovely view over the resort and was south facing. It was just like the brochure photos with bunk beds down the bottom end with separate toilet and bathroom (take an air freshener as toilet opens direct into beds!). It wasn't fancy but more than functional. There was plenty of hot water. The room was warm, actually too warm. We took the kids' room thermometer with us and it was a constant 23 degrees which made sleeping uncomfortable. There was a tall radiator in the room but it was never warm so I think there must have been underfloor heating. We slept with the side window open and even then it was still over 20 degrees. But definitely better than being cold. The room had a travel kettle but take your own mugs and spoons as they only provide paper espresso cups and I don't remember seeing a spoon (I'd taken our own everything as I wasn't expecting tea making facilities). There is a hair dryer in the bathroom. We had a king size bed with a memory foam mattress and the bedding was nice. The balcony had deckchairs and a clothes airer. The light sensors outside the room didn't work so you had to walk down the corridor in the dark. We reported it and we're told they'd tell their electrician but got the impression they already knew about the issue but it wasn't a quick fix and it was still not working at the end of the holiday. Other guests have reported the pool being out of action but there were no issues with the pool being closed when we were there; it's much smarter than rest of hotel. Breakfast was good, served from 7.30. There were 3 coffee machines so no queues which makes a big difference when you have to be at ski school by 9ish. (They say 9.15 but we were there just after 10 past one day and the teacher had already gone - the office radioed him and the kids caught them up. Tip - make sure the kids know the teachers name, ours didn't so it took a while to sort!). The ski lessons weren't great and the kids didn't make much progress this year. They were the only 2 English students in the group, the other 10 were french. So the teacher would give instructions in french then just tell mine to 'copy me'. So it was more babysitting than tuition, but the kids were ok and they did a lot of skiing so they showed us new runs each day. The hotel is described as ski in/out which I suppose technically it is but not very practical. The locker room is on level -1 (next to the pool) so you put your boots on there. The lighting is poor. We were lucky that our locker was under one of the dim spotlights but some poor folks needed the torch on their phone to see theirs as several lights at the back of the room didn't work. After putting on boots you then have to carry skis about 40m by going through the underground car park (turn left, go round the corner, then it's the door on your left also labelled sun valley apartments) and through several further doors, not the easiest especially for the kids. You'll need to ask reception for the code to get back in through the car park door. This is no good though if you are booked for morning lessons. The lifts don't open until 9 and the queues were huge so you wouldn't have time to get the lift back up to get to the lesson in time. This meant no ski out for us, we had to carry all the gear up a steep snowy hill to get to level 0, go across the road and up a set of metal stairs to get to the lesson meet point. You can ski to the door though at end of day - you'll need to get the button lift to get on the right run. We were bed and breakfast, the hotel isn't serving evening meals at the moment. They do an evening take away menu which you can eat in the bar. But don't rely on it because we wanted to order but they weren't serving due to a function. So there were a few niggles but on the whole it was really good and hopefully this insight helps manage your expectations so you can also enjoy your stay.

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