Chamonix, France

Dan from FRANCE writes:

Just got back form a week in Chamonix – we stayed in the village of Le Houche.
I do have mixed feelings about this area. I think you must choose very carefully about coming here – you need to think about what you want from a holiday. I frequently hear that Chamonix is one of the best places in the world but it certainly wasn't for me!
However, I can see that if you are a very confident expert boarder/skier you will get the most out of this resort. As a decent intermediate boarder and average skier there are dozens of resorts I would have rather spent my money in.
Good points;
- There is a lot of challenging terrain, off piste/ski and climbing opportunities for the very extreme people!!!
- Very impressive, dramatic scenery
- A choice of resorts to explore
- The town of Chamonix itself, although not a bustling hub of excitement, was far and away the best out of the 5 in the valley.
- Regular bus system to connect you to villages.

Bad points;
- Very expensive
- If snow is not perfect – you are left with lots and lots of ice on some quite steep runs – not for beginners.
- Very few runs down to the villages were open
- Which leads to very, very long queues ….
- ….on a slow old antique, rusty, lift system.
- If you are not in Chamonix itself there is literally no nightlife in the other villages.
- Despite a decent bus service – it is still an inconvenience and means it adds more time between you and the slopes.
- Long queues up and down in Chamonix, La Praz and Argentinere owing to old slow lifts.
- The pistes are un-kept which means little opportunities to let rip with some high speed carving – a lot of time was spent navigating your way through lumps and bumps. If it wasn't for the poles you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between off and on piste.
- Poor selection of mountain restaurants – all very expensive with long queues again!
- The walk up to the gondola

Overall – if you know what you are going for (i.e some extreme off-piste skiing) and the rewards of your holiday outweigh the bad points, then I suppose it could be brilliant – it's definitely best to stay in Chamonix itself as the others offer very little to do – we stayed in a self catering chalet in Les Houches – only to find the supermarket was 2 miles away and we didn't have a car!!! It seemed like a holiday full of inconveniences – we had a mixed ability group and certainly would not recommend it for this purpose.
To get the most out of Chamonix you have to ensure you are going for the right reasons and have the ability to make the positives outweigh the negatives. I can imagine that Chamonix, in the right conditions for the right person, offers a very good holiday. But definitely not for us – we won't be heading there again soon.

2008-03-20