Travel to ski resorts by train
snowcarbon blog
How to eat on a budget in the 3 Valleys
By Mark Hodson
The world's best skiing at budget prices - that's what many of us are looking for. And that's what I found when I took my family to Les Menuires for a week over Easter.
The reason it was such a good deal: a supermarket called Carrefour.
Les Menuires is in the 3 Valleys. It has some superb skiing of its own and quick and easy access to Val Thorens and Meribel. You can also get over to Courchevel.
But Les Menuires - a family-friendly, purpose-built resort - has some reasonably priced accommodation. We stayed in one of these self-catering apartments offered by Crystal, and found it excellent.
Self-catering is great but you often end up spending a small fortune at overpriced delis and minimarts. Not in Les Menuires, which is home to the first Carrefour in the Alps. This is one of France's biggest supermarket chains and its prices are the same wherever you shop - whether you're in a small French town or the 3 Valleys.
The shop is located in the centre of the resort close to the bus stops and it's open every day from 8am to 8pm. We bought all our food and drink there and our grocery bill for the week was no bigger than it would have been at Sainsbury at home.
Great news for skiers on a budget. Not such great news for the owners of the rival supermarket pictured below. It was empty.
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Perfect days in St Gervais
By Daniel Elkan
St Gervais is one of those resorts that sits below the radar for many skiers, yet has a loyal following that keeps returning. Having just got back from a trip there, it’s easy to see why they do.
Admittedly, sunny days and great snow conditions can cloud any skier’s judgement, but the resort does boast spectacular scenery. There are lots of rolling, twisting red and blue runs flanked by pine trees. There’s also plenty of accessible off piste, as few visitors seem too fussed about trashing every fresh bit of powder as soon as it’s fallen.
For such decent terrain, it was surprising never to hit a lift queue, nor to find a crowded piste. The slopes, linked with neighbouring Megeve to form the 450km Evasion Mont Blanc area, have a laid-back atmosphere. Everywhere it’s nods and smiles from other skiers and boarders, as if in recognition that this resort is a bit of a happy discovery.
A similar thing happens when you head for lunch. Take the inconspicuous mountain hut, La Terrasse de Freddy (pictured above, 00 33 450 21 20 56) on Mont d’Arbois. You could ski past it twenty times and not realise that the rustic timber building is actually a restaurant. Step inside and you join a contented band of ‘in-the-know’ diners enjoying a set menu of potato rosti, charcuterie meats, salad and terrine (€15) followed by a formidable cheese board.
The resort of St Gervais incorporates four villages. While there is no throbbing nightlife, there are some lovely restaurants, one of the best being Le Chalet Remy (00 33 450 93 11 85) in the village of Le Bettex, where for €25 you can carve bubbling shards of raclette cheese onto your plate, served with potatoes, meats and salad.
Le Fayet itself is a spa town, and after skiing we bundled into a taxi to the Thermes de Saint-Gervais (00 33 4 50 47 54 57). The smell of sulphur as we entered the grand old building had me hoping for a huge pool of hot, bubbling, thermal water. There wasn’t one. Instead, we tried a few treatments, such as the very enjoyable jet bath and the (disappointing) Torrent de Bionassay, where you basically stand in a room and get hosed down. There’s also the intriguing donkey milk bath (good for the skin, apparently). For me, the most enjoyable treatment of all turned out to be a relaxing massage.
The journey by train to St Gervais is simple, with a Eurostar to Paris and then either a daytime TGV or an overnight Corail Lunea sleeper. We stayed in Le Bettex – the furthest village from the railway station but closest to skiing – at the pleasant-but-functional Arbois Bettex hotel (00 33 4 50 93 12 22), The hotel’s location on the foot of the slopes means that you could ski to the door, and fall out of bed and into the gondola the next morning. Well, almost.
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Why stick with one resort? Try a ski safari
by Daniel Elkan
If you love quiet pistes, accessible powder and charming ski villages, we've a suggestion: roll several smaller resorts into one holiday, travelling between them by train.
I tried this in Switzerland with a friend of mine, visiting Meiringen, Sedrun, Disentis, Gemstock and Pontresina. We stayed in each resort for two to three days before travelling to the next by train, creating a very different kind of ski holiday.
While the usual one-week-one-resort holiday is great, ours was a real exploration of what lesser known resorts can offer. These hidden gems may have fewer slopes, but they have fewer people on them too and in terms of altitude they reach towards heavens just as much as the big resorts do. The quiet slopes meant that there was plenty of accessible powder too, left untracked days after a snowfall. It is the kind of trip that would suit intermediate or advanced skiers.
The train travel was a highlight too, with spectacular views, great on-board restaurants, and a friendly atmosphere on each. As someone who is hopeless at travelling light, my overpacked suitcase was a bit of a weight to lug off each train, but I only had myself and the kitchen sink to blame (it insisted on coming with me).
On our trip, we skied Meiringen's intermediate-friendly blues and reds, zig-zagged the runs of Sedrun, powdered our noses in Disentis and ascented Andermatt's Gemstock, ending up roaming the long slopes of Pontresina in the Engadin region. But there are many other routes that work.
We've created a section on snowcarbon, Swiss Ski Safaris, where you view suggested itineraries and what temptations await. If you have an suggestions for ski resorts that would work well as part of a ski safari, please leave a comment below.
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Overnight train to Chamonix - video report
By Mark Hodson
Here's a video of my recent overnight train journey to Chamonix. I already wrote about the journey in a previous blog post, but here I've condensed it into a short 90-second clip with a voiceover to explain how simple it is. Check out the full journey details and train fares to Chamonix.
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