La Bracconnier, La Rosiere, France - Esprit

This was our first time with ski esprit and we had a wonderful holiday.

Everything seemed very well organised starting with the coach from the airport to being met at the resort and having our bags taken to the chalet. Our rep was really friendly and chatty and took us back to the chalet for a cup of tea and cake! He then took us to the ski hire shop to pick up skis etc. and even helped carry them back!

Breakfast was always french bread, croissants, pain au chocolat, porridge, cereal and boiled eggs along with fruit juice and the usual hot drinks. This was enough to keep us going usually till cake time in the afternoon but we usually stopped for lunch anyway!

Tea time for the children was 5.30 and always on time. During the week they had roast chicken with veg, spaghetti bolognese, fish pie which all of the children ate and enjoyed. They would have veg crudites and ham and cheese to snack on just before the main meal came out and always a yummy pudding! There were always at least three childcare reps with the children to help them and provide more juice etc. It was a holiday from children's mealtimes for all the adults as we could just sit and chat with a beer!

Evening meal for the adults started with a different cocktail each night and two plates of canapes. Then there was a three course meal which was always well cooked and presented. There was a cook in the kitchen and two staff waiting on a table of 10 adults. There was always plenty of wine and more if we wanted it. The staff in the chalet were always very pleasant and helpful.

The chalet itself was lovely. We had the largest suite (two ajoining rooms). We did see one of the upper rooms which seemed a bit small for four but no one spent a lot of time in the bedrooms anyway. The rooms very cleaned every day and always looked spotless when we came back. The only critisism is it might have been nice to have the towels changed once rather than having them all week!

The resort itself was nice but we've been to better. The lift system seemed a bit unreliable and nearly always stopped at least once when we were on them. There are also too many drag lifts for my liking (some very long so not so good for small children). There aren't many restaurants or coffee places on the mountain(I need hot choc several times a day). The weather was very cold and very snowy for the first four days so the lifts into Italy (La Thuile) were closed so we were a bit disappointed as this cut down the variety of skiing. (Obviously, weather is out of the control of Esprit!). A lot of the blue runs in La Rosiere have long flat bits so lots of poling and walking!

The last two days were beautiful and sunny and it was like a different resort. Having said all of the above, we would go back.

Our son loved the ski school and was skiing with us by day three. He also got on well at lunch club and I think would have been happy to stay in the snow club all afternoon if he had been booked in!

All the reps seemed friendly, knowledgable and enthusiastic. There was always someone around to ask if we had any queries. Our resort rep came round every day to check we were happy (as did the childcare rep) and if we wanted to book anything he would happily phone there and then. Nothing was too much trouble. We were very impressed and would def. use ski esprit again.