Simon’s Season: Courchevel and the 3 Valleys

At Erna Low HQ we’ve been asking our team members to write guest blog entries on anything ski related!  Simon in the sales team was happy to oblige and here he gives us the low down on where to ski and be seen in the ever stylish Courchevel and the 3 Valleys… with insider tips like these you can’t go wrong! 

Courchevel
After working a couple of seasons in Courchevel, I cannot recommend this resort highly enough.  One of the great advantages of this little piece of heaven on Earth is not only the variety of skiing, but also that it has extensive slopes for beginners as well as intermediates and advanced skiers and boarders.

Courchevel 1850
I worked my first season in Courchevel 1850 and though it has changed significantly since then, it provides a great base with immediate access into the main skiing area and into the 3 Valleys beyond.  This is the most expensive part of the resort, as the designer shops and Porsche 4×4’s will testify to – but there are still some good value options available – for a premium residence try Les Chalets du Forum, which sell out quickly due to their excellent location or for more value Les Ecrins, which is still in the centre of the action.

There are great off slope diversions in 1850, including a bowling alley, climbing wall and amazing tobogganing course which descends to Courchevel 1550, 300 m below.  You can rent toboggans in the sports shops and do as many laps as you can handle, returning to 1850 via the Grangettes bubble lift (included in your lift pass)

There is some excellent advanced skiing to challenge you here, including the couloirs on the Saulire as well as some long black pistes down to Le Praz, which are also normally very quiet.  The pistes down to La Tania are also excellent and a good stop for a quick drink before returning to the adventures above.

Cable car to top of Saulire, Courchevel 1850

Some other favourite runs include Marmottes, an undulating and very long run all the way down to Prameruel (which is the main link to Courchevel 1650) and Suisses, a real leg burner!

Fields of powder all to ourselves – Courchevel (Loze sector)

For beginners, the excellent Jardin Alpin area allows access to a varying length of green runs which allow good progression and the chance to feel like you are really skiing the mountain.  By the end of your first week, because of the excellent linked skiing, you should be able to ski over to Courchevel 1650 for lunch and back again.

Courchevel 1650
I am a big fan of Courchevel 1650 – it offers a more relaxed and ‘village’ feel compared to 1850, as well as some great value accommodation.  If you have a large group, Les Montagnettes – Les Chalets de la Mouria are a great option.  For smaller families, couple or small groups of friends, great value can be found in the Maeva Le Moriond apartments.  For those wanting to splash out, Le Portetta Lofts offer amazing luxury (but with a price tag to match).

There is a great array of blue and red slopes here and I would always find myself skiing here more than any other part of the valley as it was always so deserted.  The Signal and Chapalets are both modern lifts and allow to you ski various runs endlessly – I never bored of this area and the views over to the Vanoise Parc National will take your breath away.  There is also an excellent restaurant at the top of the Ariondaz bubble lift called the Bel Air, by Courchevel standards it offers good value and has a much appreciated 3 tier terrace, perfect for lounging in the sun with a beer.  Another great little restaurant/bar in the centre of Courchevel 1650 is La Boulotte, which offers great fresh food and hospitality.

Empty slopes in Courchevel 1650

Courchevel 1550
The smallest of the 3 Courchevel resorts but also the best value.  It is linked straight into 1850 by the Grangettes bubble lift and has a great local bar, called The Bar, which is a very popular and entertaining place for a night or two.  We have two good value residences in 1550, Les Brigues and Les Grangettes as well as a lovely family run hotel Les Ancolies.

Further afield
From Courchevel, you have two access points into the 3 Valleys, the largest linked ski area in the World.  I generally always accessed the other parts of the 3 Valleys via the Saulire, as this gives you the option of heading into either Meribel Mottaret or Meribel Centre, which is where the main onward lifts depart from.  Also the pistes from the top of the Saulire are great fun too!

Some of my favourite areas of the 3 Valleys, outside of the Courchevel Valley are:

Meribel
Mont du Vallon – 2 mega red runs descending from the highest point in Meribel.  I always warmed up on the piste to the right of the lift as you look up, before the main event to the left.  There is also some amazing off-piste around here (always hire a guide!).

Olympic/Tougnette – an under visited part of the Meribel valley – quiet blue and red runs with good snow conditions.

Cote Brune – similar to the Mont Vallon area – great fast red runs and the main return route from Val Thorens – leave some energy in the tank for the return.

Venturing further afield - Top of Mont du Vallon, Meribel

Val Thorens
Pointe de Thorens – the highest point of the Val Thorens resort, offers a fantastic red and generally good snow as it is on a glacier.  Watch out for the high winds!

Cime de Caron – an amazing journey to the top by cable car and even more mind blowing descents.

Grand Fond – various fast red pistes.

La Folie Douce – the only need for ski or board boots here is for dancing on the tables.  If you have been to the Val d’Isere version – this is much more fun (remember your fancy dress).

Orelle – the magic 4^th Valley.  I always accessed via the Grand Fond lift as the pistes from here to the Plan Bouchet, where the Orelle lifts head up from will made you scream for joy.  The highest point in the 3 Valleys (or should we say 4 Valleys) is here and is a must for any strong intermediate/advanced skier.

La Folie Douce, Val Thorens – a great place for friends, music, beer and bananas!

Les Menuires / St Martin de Belleville
Jerusalem – this red run into St Martin just keeps on going and giving.

There are a lot of great cruising runs in Les Menuires that are fantastic for the afternoon sun, but the one stand out area for me is La Masse – a huge hulking piece of mountain that nobody seems to bother with (so keep it quiet).  Long red and black runs are the order of the day here and some great off piste opportunities too.  Just beware the run back towards Les Menuires gets narrow and moguled towards the bottom.

La Masse – don’t tell anyone

Some would call it converting to the dark side…

…..Victoria disagrees!

On day 6 of my trip to Val Thorens, my husband finally saw the light and switched from snowboarding to skiing!  After many an hour spent dragging him along flats and waiting for him while he did up his bindings, when I could have been half way down the mountain – he finally decided to give it a go – all by himself I might add – no persuasion from me at all!

So I gave him a quick two hour session on the nursery slopes in Val Thorens, teaching him the basics of snow plough turns and snow plough stops – going up and down the innovative magic carpets until he felt suitably exhausted and ready to invest in a private lesson.

Wayne's magic carpet experience

So we booked a two hour private lesson with an instructor at Prosneige (a ski school Erna Low work with in Val Thorens) and off he went the next day.  Two hours later he had mastered parallel skiing and turns (obviously my tutoring the day before had taught him well!) and was cruising down blues, happy to be enjoying the slopes without having to have a wet bum half the time!

Here is some footage of his first hour on the slopes – see it is as easy as this!  Even if he is leaning a bit too far back!

And here on day 3 (or about 6 hours of skiing in) is how much he had progressed since the lesson!  If he can do it – anyone can – go on, give it a go!

8 blissful days in Val Thorens…

Victoria returned brown faced and a little bruised back to the office this Monday after a week of adventure on the slopes of Val Thorens, below she recalls her trip for our Erna Low blog…

A leisurely journey…
Leaving home at 5pm Friday afternoon we caught the train to London, after arriving at St Pancras we settled into the Eurostar queue and worked our way through to the departure lounge ready for our overnight journey.  When you know you have a designated seat on the train, there is none of the hustle and bustle we had normally experienced on budget airlines which made a nice change for us!

Once boarded we settled into our Standard Premier seats which we had booked via Rail Europe (Erna Low’s rail partners) with our complimentary on board magazines and were soon enjoying a delicious meal and glass of red wine before dozing off for the night.  Waking the next morning to a tasty breakfast and cup of tea we disembarked at Moutiers and were heading up the mountain on the local bus service www.altibus.com and arrived into Val Thorens at 7:30am.  Paying that little extra for the Standard Premier seats was well worth it for a rested and relaxing journey ready for the slopes that day.

An early morning start on the slopes…
We grabbed a cheeky pain au chocolat (when in France!) and headed to the nearest Skiset shop, Goitschel Sport 2, to hire our equipment.  The staff were extremely helpful and at that time in the morning we had the shop pretty much to our selves.  We then picked up our 3 Valleys lift passes and we were off…. Saturdays are changeover days for most and staff are usually busy working, so the slopes are surprisingly quiet with only a few locals and other lucky holiday makers out on the mountain.

A place for some much deserved rest…
After a day exploring Val Thorens we headed back to the residence for 5pm, grabbed our bags from the luggage room and found our small but perfectly formed studio in the Belambra Residence Les Olympiades.  Yes it is a basic apartment, but it has all you need to get by for a week and is well situated in the middle of the shops, restaurants and is pretty much ski in ski out – what more can you ask for at a bargain price!?

The v.large ski area…

Getting blinded by the white out

With our 3 Valleys ski passes we were able to visit the Meribel and Courchevel ski areas, although we found ourselves mostly sticking to the Belleville Valley, Meribel Mottaret and our home turf of Val Thorens, it was a pass worth having for that extra freedom.  There is so much on offer for everyone, from excellent beginner areas and tranquil pistes to black mogul fields.  It is just as easy to get around on just blues with a red thrown in for a quick thrill as it is if you are hardcore and just want reds and blacks in your life!

The resort…
Val Thorens is quite the party resort and the students and seasonnaires very much out did us every evening!  It is broken up into different zones and with a little exploring you can find restaurants and bars to suit all tastes, plus a club or two for those late night revellers!  The resort also has a sports centre, which was packed every evening and a bowling centre with pool/snooker tables for hire which we made the most of while waiting for our return bus on the Saturday evening.  It certainly has a lot going for it, not just a high resort in the huge 3 Valleys – there is no chance of being bored in this resort!

The après ski…

Cheers!

The après ski on offer is pretty unique too, with two rather special bars La Folie Douce and 360 degrees bar up the mountain banging out tunes with (mostly neon coloured) skiers and boarders chilling and dancing the afternoon away!

The activities…

More cheese please!

One evening we booked a meal in a mountain restaurant with Prosneige (a ski school company we work with in Val Thorens).  It included snow shoeing up to the restaurant and a sledge down afterwards with a three course meal and local Savoyard wine all for about 50€ per person.  It was such a lovely evening and after devouring a huge slab of raclette cheese I could barely move after eating so much!

We also gave the 6km long toboggan run a go on the Friday afternoon, my husband can be quoted as saying it was one of the best experiences of his life, while despite my initial enthusiasm and having begged him to do it with me, I think i’ll be giving that kind of speed a miss in the future!!  I have many a bruise to remember the experience!

Excited to hit the taboggan run - little did I know...

The journey back…
Day 8, we packed our bags and left them at reception, then hit the slopes and made the most of the sunshine and quiet runs once again.  After killing some time with a crepe and a pool game or two we were on the bus heading back to Moutiers before we knew it.  We waited until the hoards had gone though the Eurostar check in and cruised through with no queues with about 20 minutes to wait before the train arrived and took us back to Blighty.

Eurostar served up yet another lovely meal and we got our sleeping kit out (a nice blanket, eye mask and ear plugs supplied by Eurostar) and settled down for the night.  Waking up our breakfast was served and we were home by 11am on Sunday.

Travelling by train is by far the best and most leisurely way I have travelled to the Alps, it is all just so easy, no hassle – I would highly recommend it!

Erna Low Latest Ski Holiday Special Offers – December 2011

17^th December, Serre Chevalier, France: from £85

40% off accommodation price (reduced from £124) is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a 2 bedroom 4/7 persons in Chalet in Le Chalets du Jardin Alpin. Self-catering, ski-drive price includes return Eurotunnel crossing with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights.  Accommodation for 7 nights starting 17^thDecember.

24^th December, Tignes Val Claret, France: from £202

25% off accommodation price (reduced from £257) is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a Studio 5 persons apartment in Residence Le Borsat IV. Self-catering, ski-drive price includes return Eurotunnel crossing with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights.  Accommodation for 7 nights starting

24^th December, Val Thorens, France: from £210

40% off accommodation price (reduced from £321) is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a Studio 4 persons Comfort apartment in Residence Les Olympiades. Self-catering, ski-drive price includes return Eurotunnel crossing with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights.  Accommodation for 7 nights starting 24^th December.

24^th December, Termingnon Le Vanoise, France: from £110

45% off accommodation price (reduced from £176) is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a 1 bedroom + cabin 6 persons apartment in Residence Les Terrasses de Termignon. Self-catering, ski-drive price includes return Eurotunnel crossing with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights. Accommodation for 7 nights starting 24^th December.

Latest Ski Holiday Special Offers – from Erna Low

17^th December, Belle Plagne (40% off accommodation price)

£129 (reduced from £186) is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a Studio 4 persons apartment in Residence Cassiopee.
Self-catering accommodation for 7 nights, ski-drive price includes return Eurotunnel crossing with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights.

24^th December, Vars (40% off accommodation price)

£99 (reduced from £145) is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a one bedroom + cabin 6 persons (30m2) apartment in Les Balcons de la Vanoise. Self-catering accommodation for 7 nights starting 24^th December, ski-drive price includes return Eurotunnel crossing with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights.

30^th or 31^st December, Val Thorens (8 nights for the price of 7)

The last remaining 10 person apartment in Val Thorens for Erna Low.

£413 is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a five bedroom 10 persons apartment in Soleil Residence at Les Montagnettes. Self-catering Accommodation for 7 nights starting 31^st December or 8 nights with Friday 30^th December free of charge, ski-drive price includes two return Eurotunnel crossings with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights.

Les Montagnettes in Val Thorens

28^th January, La Tania (35% off accommodation price)

£172 (reduced from £250) is the total price per person based on maximum occupancy in a 13 person Chalet in Chalets de La Tania.  Self-cateringaccommodation for 7 nights starting 28^th January., ski-drive price includes two return Eurotunnel crossings with Free FlexiPlus upgrade, not flights.

Call Erna Low on 0845 863 0525 for more information or to book.

Great family New Year ski holiday last minute deal for Val Thorens

Book now or you will miss the last remaining five bedroom 10 person apartment in Val Thorens for New Year.

Great for a family or group of friends, the apartment is in the Soleil building of Les Montagnettes in Val Thorens, for arrival on the 31st December for 7 nights with the possibility of arrival on the 30th December at no extra cost!

Les Montagnettes in Val Thorens

These chalet style apartments are located in three buildings around the resort (named Soleil, Valbel and Lombarde) and are decorated and furnished in a traditional, rustic style. Due to their large sizes and the popularity of the resort these apartments are highly sought after.

Enjoy some awesome spring skiing in Val Thorens

Ex Erna Low rep, Simon Clarke gives us the lowdown on the latest conditions in Val Thorens…

Web cam image from 6th April

“We are approaching the Easter holidays and even though we’ve been seeing some really hot Spring days, the skiing here in Val Thorens is still awesome!

Whilst other lower resorts might be seeing the ‘brown’ patches of the cow fields below, we still have a complete snow cover and the conditions are quite simply fantastic!
The compact Spring snow is a delight to slide across, allowing you amazing amounts of grip under foot. There’s nothing quite like the effortless riding on a sugary snowy white surface that is Spring skiing!
You have to make sure you catch it during the best few hours of the day though – generally over an extended lunch time period, but it’s well worth one final mountain adventure and you’ll be glad you fitted in that last winter holiday before the snow goes into hibernation until next season!
By afternoon the snow has softened nicely and we are seeing some of the best mogul skiing I’ve experienced in ages. Well formed, soft bumps, with good lines are there to be smashed and it’s a pure joy!
Stay off the steep black runs, and you can enjoy groomed pistes for a good proportion of the day.

Whatever level of skier you may be, there is something here for everyone and an end of season trip to Val Thorens would be highly recommended.

Come and join us for huge amounts of fun on this snowy mountain before it’s too late!”

View Val Thorens snow report»