wat do you think about La rosiere with esprit

[666uk]

i am just looking to book for this winter at la rosiere with esprit. has any one been there before, or been with Esprit?

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

Never been and it was one of the few locations I said no to when looking through the Esprit brochure. Something to do with where the chalet is located in relation to runs or lifts...can't remember. Of course that was only going by their piste map and it may be different in real life - but look at the piste map carefully.

[LIZS]

It is nice to ski, quite compact, but we stayed in La Thuile and skied over the border for the day long before having kids . Thought we might return when we had them but haven't yet and suspect ds would probably get bored now . Have a look at MN Reviews , there are one or two places there on it. Also if you search back throguh the older threads others have been.

[crunchie]

been with esprit and have booked again for next year. Personally wouldn't go to Rosiere as dh and I are good skiers and we think we would be bored by the resort. Also it all seems a bit spread out. HOWEVER if you are OK skiers with young kids, then it sounds great

[crunchie]

OH I am sayiing spread out and someone else says compacty, basically I mean too small

[LIZS]

I meant the ski area was compact but agree the village looked spread out along the road

[666uk]

cheers guys i will bare all of this in mind

[skimadmum]

Just booked our 3rd holiday with Esprit, quite happy with previous holidays. If we could afford it we would rent independently, however budget restricts us until Gordon Brown gets a bit more in line with middle Britain. But!! Esprit childcare is good, food is good, wine flows. Yes the staff are young but enthusiastic and the price is great. If you can afford it then go with another company, but don't knock a family of four for a grand!! I'm not a skin flint, my hubby is a Doctor and our kids are at state schools, but we want value for money and are not prepared to pay Mark Warner prices!!

[noonar]

hi. you should CAT pollyanna. she's been there a few times with esprit and loves it. or do a search.

[noonar]

ps we went to scheffau with esprit last year. hotel alpin was great. esprit were fab. we had dds aged 2 and 4 at that time.

[noonar]

pps have just written a review for this hotel, which should appear on the reviews page soon

[possetwiper]

have done esprit and mark warner and tbh there is not much difference expect the prices and found the esprit nannies friendlier

[kookaburra]

We went to la Rosiere last Feb half- term with Esprit and had a fantastic time. My DC are past the full child-care stage, but I found the supervised lunches really good, as it allowed me enough time to use the ski-hosting/guiding option, which was good for me as DH did not come. I also liked the chalet set-up as effectively a 'single parent' for the week i could have intersting civilised diiners with other adults while the children slept in the next room. The ski school was very well run - not quite challenging enough now for DS1, (9) but perfect for DS2 (7).
We stayed in one of the chalets on the piste next to the ki school meeitng place - would check the map VERY carefully and quiz before booking, as some of the chalets require a long walk with skis - ours was ski-in, ski-out, completely hassle free.
Food was very good - would have re-booked before leaving except that DS1 is getting beyond that stage now - both boys loved it, and can definitley recoomed for smaller children.
When I have grand-children - if GW has not melted all the snow - hope to take 'em back there!!!!

[scarymamma]

Hope this isn't too late...We love it - our kids won't let us go anywhere else!!! It is small and advanced skiers may get bored, but it's really friendly. It is only 1 of France's 2 south facing resorts so is lovely and sunny. It looks out across the valley to Les Arcs. Fantastic sunsets! There are also about 6 chalets that allow you to ski in/ski out. In our first year we put the kids into ski school and then into snow club and we spent a full day skiing (you can get to Italy and back easily as the San Bernardo ski area goes across to La Thuile. Last Year the kids had ski school in the morning and then we took them up the mountain for lunch (2 fab mountain restaurants) and skied/sledged in the afternoon with them. The staff are all lovely, the catering is a bit hit & miss (one year great/one year poor), the ski instructors have always spoken good English and the childcare staff have always been great.

[666uk]

well i have got back from la rosiere and had a great time, childcare was exceptional for 1 or 2 of their staff and the resort was lovely, lots of fresh snow. my children loved it

[MrsGuyOfGisbourne]

DS2 is insisting we return to La Ros next year (went last year with Esprit, then Norway with Neilson and this year Courchevel with Crystal.) so am bookng today!

[Legacy]

If it's South facing and very sunny, does anyone know if La Ros is a bad idea for quite late in the season? (i.e. late March)??

[weblette]

Actually it's quite good later on because of the altitude - 1850. We were there first week of April and the snow was mixed, although still plenty of it. Typical Spring stuff - ok in the morning, slushy in the afternoon. The previous week had had a big dump.

We're booked for Feb half-term next year - yikes - and it'll be our fourth holiday there. We did Esprit for the first two but now stay in a private chalet run by an English couple.

[slalomsuki]

We have booked La Ros for December with 4 kids and 4 adults so am hoping its going to be good.

One problem I am having with them though is DS2 will be 6 when we are there but they will not take a booking for the evening club since he will not be 6 at the start of the holiday so that will mean he will have to be left in the room unspervised while we have dinner while the other kids go off to the cocoa club. We were told on the phone when booking it wouldn't be a problem but when the invoice came it wasn't on it and they will not put him in. Its not really what I was after now and has taken the edge off it before we go

[666uk]

you dont need to book in for the evening clubs, thayt are all alocated for children over the age of 6 for free, when you get there you will have to ask the child care manager if they can go in, they might let you they might not. dont worry about it just try and ask when you get there.

[toomanyprojects]

Esprit have changed policy for this yr looking at their brochure - they are now charging for Cocoa Club (£29) and there is an "Extra" one for the older ones with excursions. The problem is that even older ones are sometimes too tired and it might be that you pay for a place you hardly use.

[DrGeorge]

Went to La Ros this year with Esprit - good in parts - see review - but kids found the Cocoa club boring - there was one excursion but only to a pizza place across the road which they charged for and the food was very much "kids meals" despite eldest being 9. It is hard to think where they would take the older ones for an excursion - there is bowling I think at Les Eucherts and I think a cinema showing but most of the kids there were younger so don't know how popular these would be.

[toomanyprojects]

Have just checked the brochure and it says the Cocoa Club Extra is for 8-12s - basically they do the same as the 6+7s for 3 nights and have three excursions like bowling ice skating etc. It costs an extra £20 making £49. We will have a 6 and 8 yr old next season so I foresee problems...

DrGeorge, I read your review - what was wrong with Schazi? We stayed there about four years ago and I thought it was too busy and like a canteen, the following yr we stayed in Bracconnier which I preferred. I had heard that Schazi had been refurbished.

We went to Austria the following year but I was pregnant and didn't ski and last yr we didn't go so am looking forward to 2009 but not sure if it's a case of better the devil you know and sticking with La Ros or maybe doing Plan Peisey.

[DrGeorge]

Didn't stay in Schazi but those who did were complaining strongly that the place was dirty and smelly! I guess the problem with chalets is that they rely quite heavily on the team that is running them which tend to change each year so you can get quite marked variations from season to season.