Ski Blog | Catered Ski Holidays

Flexible Catering for your Ski Accommodation!

 This is a guest blog by Chez Toi.

So everyone who has ever skied knows about the traditional ‘Catered Chalet’ holiday which has been around for decades.  You probably also know that you can stay in self-catered accommodation, be it an apartment or chalet which is rented as a whole.  But did you know that you can have the best of both worlds?  That’s right, in a few selected ski resorts you can now have the luxury of a catered chalet, combined with the freedom and flexibility of renting your own self-catered property.  Morzine and Les Gets are two of the these ski resorts.

Why not just book a package holiday?

In recent years people have started to look at options to tailor make their own ski holidays.  Of course this has been helped along by the advent of the ‘budget airline’.  The likes of Easyjet and Ryanair now supply airports across the Alps and from many regional UK airports, making it easy and cheap to travel.  Resorts such as Morzine, Les Gets and Chamonix benefit from being situated close to Geneva airport.  This means short transfer times and plenty of well priced travel options available. 

With more and more people booking their holidays piece by piece on the internet, there are now so many different types of holiday available in these resorts.  Individuals based in these ski areas have answered the demand for more flexibility and it is now possible to book pretty much everything before you arrive in resort.  From different catering options, to skis delivered to your chalet, to private ski lessons, childcare, pre-booked lift passes and so much more.

So how does flexible catering work?

Flexible catering has come about as the result of people demanding more choice between dining options in resort.  Of course many people are happy with the six nights catering that you receive as standard during a one week chalet holiday.  And some are still happy to go to the local supermarket and cook for themselves for the week.  However a growing number of people are looking for a mixture of both.  Perhaps you would like someone to cook for you on three evenings, eat out in a local restaurant for two and buy a frozen pizza for the other two.  Well now this is not a problem. 

At Chez Toi we aim to provide the catering package to suit you, in Morzine and Les Gets.  We can provide a one off evening meal- maybe for a special occasion, or up to a full week fully catered package.  Our chefs are flexible in what they offer and we will liaise with you before arrival in resort to agree menus.  We will come to your chalet or apartment at a pre-agreed time to prepare and serve your meal.  And the best part is we will clean up the kitchen and do the dishes afterwards so you won’t need to lift a finger!

For more information about the different packages on offer please take a look at our website or contact us by email.

The Ski Season That Doesn’t Want To End!

Wow what a season that was!  Well when I say was perhaps I should be saying is, as it isn’t really over if you look at the snow that is still around!

Ok it is over in terms of the majority of the resorts now being closed but there is still a load of snow and if you are into your hiking and touring this will be a great touring season – take care of avalanches etc though as when things warm up it can be dangerous out there!

A was very luck to get a lot of skiing in this year and had trips to the Alps in December / January a couple of weeks in February and then again in March/April and each time I was there it snowed!

If you haven’t seen our YouTube channel then head over here and have a look at some of the videos that we put together. You can see snow reports and some skiing videos that we put together.

Everywhere we went there was great snow and tales of great skiing! 

We were lucky to visit Le Grand Massif (Flaine, Les Carroz, Samoens & Morillon), Avoriaz and Morzine, Verbier, Megeve, Chamonix, Courchevel and La Rosiere through the season.

The best skiing we had was probably in February – watch it here and see me nearly ski into a tree!

So now the resorts are all winding up and we have a summer to endure before the winter comes back!  Don’t worry we’ll make the most of it and enjoy the sunshine and maybe get a bit jealous of the powder days in New Zealand and other southern hemisphere resorts!

New Year’s Day Snow and Ski Report

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We hope you had a great 2012 celebrated in style last night, are not suffering too much today and have a fantastic 2013 planned!!

We have not had any snow since Santa brought us some at Christmas - we must have been good!!  Maybe!! 

However the conditions have been superb - superb snow on piste for carving it up or learning and even off piste is holding up though you do have to hunt that out to find it!

Find out more by watching our snow report - we think he may have had a late night, see how many (deliberate?!) mistakes he makes!! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR - have a great 2013 we hope you get all the snow and ski and snowboard holidays you want!!

END OF SEASON REVIEW - 30 April 2012

So most resorts are now closed for the winter and nearly all still have snow - what a season it has been!! Arguably the best in living memory!

How was this possible when the press who always love a negative story were writing doom and gloom stories about no snow at the beginning of December?

Fortunately the weather doesn’t read the press and nor do we!  We ignored them and got on with skiing and organising holidays across the Alps and were lucky enough to get in plenty of skiing ourselves.

We here at Altitude skied Courchevel, Le Grand Massif (Flaine, Les Carroz, Samoens, Morillon),  Morzine & Avoriaz in France and in Italy the Monterosa (Champuloc, Alagna & Gressoney) and all in amazing snow conditions from the powder of Courchevel at Christmas through to the spring snow in April!

The snow was amazing we had some great adventures including a very scary 50m abseil, watching friends jump off snow covered roofs and of course skiing some great runs both on and off piste!

Whilst we should remember the good times we can’t forget the sad news through the season the coach accident carrying children back from a ski holiday, the tragic loss of life in the Belgian coach accident, Sheffield Ski village burning down, the sad loss of life in accidents through the season all reminders that we should make the most of every minute we have on the slopes!

Hope you had some magical moments on the slopes this last winter – have a great summer!

And if you have snow withdrawl symptoms you can always check out our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts!

DRIVING HOME FROM CHRISTMAS

I’m dreaming of a White Christmas someone once sang and we all do, I should be used to them, having spent ten of the last twelve in the Alps but I still get excited about the idea of a white snowy Christmas!

And this year it was time to get very very excited!  With unnecessary alarmist media reports at the beginning of December, that I wrote about in a previous blog, the snow was now falling across the Alps. Unfortunately I wasn’t out there to enjoy the opening days of the season as lifts opened but some fantastic reports of skiing and snowboarding filtered back to the UK – fantastic pictures of deep snow on Facebook, early reports of great ski holidays on Twitter – I couldn’t wait!

My parents, sisters and their families had booked their ski holiday in a hotel in Courchevel and for a variety of reasons I couldn’t commit to the same holiday at the time so when I could book something I booked my girlfriend and my ski accommodation in a catered chalet on the other side of Courchevel.  It proved an inspired choice with our own space, able to eat with the family and a shortish walk home at the end of the night with an excuse to stop for a drink on the way home but still able to ski with the family!

We drove out and broke the journey at Troyes, a comfortable 5 hour drive from Calais where we had booked into a chain hotel and grabbed something to eat and got an early night before rising early and taking a morning stroll round the beautiful medieval town centre having a coffee and a croissant before jumping back in the car and heading onwards to the Alps with my excitement about skiing that fresh deep powder snow and my girlfriend’s excitement about the snow (she doesn't ski but loves the snow as much as I do) growing!

The miles ticked by and we arrived in Les Carroz where we were to spend a couple of days, enjoy a great day of powder skiing, a few beers, an open fire and then we were on the way to Courchevel. 

The chalet was great, very comfortable with an open fire to relax in front of, the staff were great and they couldn’t do enough for us and Rich the chef provided superb food even for my special dietary requirements!

The snow just kept falling – some fabulous powder skiing and you couldn’t ask for a whiter Christmas!  Whether it was skiing the off piste around 1850 or the quieter slopes over in 1650 (a personal favourite area of mine), for some reason doesn’t get as busy and the snow is great – check it out when you next ski The Three Valleys.  We loved the snow, the roads had to be constantly cleared, our car had to be dug out and then it snowed some more! And that was all before Christmas! 

Christmas Day itself was fantastic with the weather clearing, some great skiing with the family, entertainment on the slopes in the resort centre for the children (big and small!) and a traditional Christmas meal!

It was soon time to be going home and another drive back across France.  This time we went via Dijon and a lovely stop over there.

Driving home from Christmas! Dreaming of a white Christmas.

Our First Blog….Is it Going to Snow?

What’s the seaweed you having hanging on your back gate telling you?

The berries are plentiful, the onion skins are thicker, the marmottes are doing something or other and so that means that another winter is on the way!

We were wearing shorts & t-shirts just a couple of weeks ago in record temperatures for October and now there is snow down to 1300m this weekend!

Who knows what is going to happen this coming winter – last winter started with record snow falls at the end of November.  Altitude’s first day skiing was on Saturday 4th December – it was an amazing powder day!  I was heard to shout more than once that day something on the lines of “WOOO HOOO!  If this is what Verbier has to offer bring it on!!”  It was going to be a fantastic ski season!

Hmmm.....Except it wasn’t!!

After Christmas there was a serious lack of snow across most of the Alps through the rest of the season and that powder day turned into one of only two truly great days for me – the other for the record was on March 12th.

Oh well, we had three good seasons before this one, so a ratio of one not so good season to three good isn’t so bad!

Altitude was based in Verbier last winter and was fortunate to ski the legendary resorts of St Anton, Zermatt and Chamonix as well as La Plagne, Le Grand Massif and Les Portes du Soleil.

This year we hope to ski more resorts visit more chalets, speak to more owners and holiday makers and hopefully over the next five months or so we can give you some idea of what it is like working in a ski resort, some helpful tips on how to book the best ski holidays, information about ski & snowboard equipment, updates on ski resorts, reports on great day trips, amazing powder days and more.

So with the first ski magazines arriving on my door mat, the nights drawing in and the ski show in just a couple of weeks I’m off to look at the berries, the onion skins and the Marmottes of West Sussex to see if we are going to have a great season. I can't wait!