anyone been to MORZINE? (just booked hotel LE VIKING)

[noonar]

we have just booked a week's stay with crystal- staying at the end of dec 08. we are paying about £2000 for a family of 4, fully catered, which sounded good value for the school hols.

morzine wasnt my first choice of resort, but tbh i was surprised by the lack of availability for school hols, even at this early stage. we decided to book this, as its within our budget.

i have a few questions/ concerns about the resort, so would be v glad of any feedback.

firstly, i am interested to know if there are any other hotels/ restaurants in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. the hotel is at the top of the pleney gondola- at 1600m.( so effectively it is half way up the mountain- not in resort!)

secondly, i've realised since booking that morzine is pretty low. grr. dh not impressed by this, at all! the piste maps of the area that i have seen do not make it clear if there are any slopes directly above 1600 in morzine itself- ie higher than pleney. most of the slopes seem to be lower than our hotel, which is a bit of a worry.

also,i'd like to know how easy it is to get to the higher slopes in les gets( avoriaz looks quite a trek!)

i am aware that my hotel has mixed reviews, but thought it sounded good value, and i'm not expecting luxury. tbh, it was the whizz kids club that swung it for us, and le viking seemed to be the least awful of crystal's available club hotels.

tia for any reassurance/ info.

[noonar]

bump

[TotalChaos]

have been to morzine but as a virtual beginner. Stayed down in the resort so can't remember what would be in the vicinity of the gondola. It seemed to be pretty easy to get about to other slopes in les gets via network of pistes and lifts.

[noonar]

thanks for yur post, total. i am a intermediate... parallel turns just about ok, but prefer a gentle red to anything more challenging.

[noonar]

anyone else been?

[Janski]

Hi
Just came back from the hotel Viking last week and you have nothing to worry about.
The hotel is at the top of the first cable car. There are 2 other restaurants at this level but they are not open in the evenings.

In the evenings the cable car runs until 8pm every day. 3 nights a week it runs until 2am so you can go down to the town if you want to eat out. The hotel serves dinner 7 nights a week so you don't need to do this but it makes a change. The food at the hotel was great when we were there and good kids choices.

The slopes are excellent. Nearly all are really wide so plenty of room for error and there is a good mixture of blues and reds. The area is well bashed every night so no moguls except on the blacks.

There are slopes down from the gondola but mainly you go up. I didn't get round to trying them as there was too much above where the snow was better. There are some runs at 2000 which were lovely and we saw an enormous bird of prey circling the mountain top. There may be higher ones but we didn't make it to them. Les Gets is easy to get to and lovely skiing. Also the slopes were pretty empty and no lift queues.

The best thing about the hotel is the location. You do not need to carry your skis any where! You walk out of the boot room put your skis on and ski to the first lift. You don't need to carry your children's skis either as ski school meets at your hotel! You are also right by the nursery slopes if your children want the practise and a small toboggan run. Also once the mountain empties at 4.30 ish you can toboggan on the pistes outside the hotel before dinner which is great. If your kids are older they can toboggan and you can watch them from the bar. Now that is après ski! You can also go out in the dark which is fun.

Whizz kids was great and lovely staff although they will be different next year.

Have a great time.

[noonar]

jan, that is so reassuring, thankyou! it sounds fab.

one more question...do you think my 4 yo (absolute beginner) will go straight on to the nursery slopes for her lessons, or is there a snow garden at 1600m? i read that esf have a snow garden for LOs, but couldnt work out whether it was at resort level or not. not so worried about dd1, as she mastered the drag lifts in switzerland this year. but it would be nice to think of dd2 learning in a nice little enclosed area.

[Janski]

My son was 4 and went to ski school. He learnt on the nursery slopes near the hotel where they have a 'magic carpet' and a simple rope drag. Both of which he and the other children in his group managed fine. Also the whizz kids are on hand so if they are having a bad day they can go in to the play room.

There is a snow garden at 1400 in the town.It is run by the ESF but would e a hassle for you to get down there with your other child so I wouldn't bother. My son was fine in the classes on the nursery slopes and it is so handy. I am sure if you find she doesn't like it they would let you move down during the week.

BTW there was only one drag lift in the resort that I saw. All chair lifts.

[noonar]

ok, janski, that makes a bit more sense now. the website i looked at was obviously referring to 1400. am sure she'll be fine. now dd1- who'll be 6.75 when we go- will just have to tackle the new challenge of chairlifts! she didnt exaclty love the drag lift this year, but conquored her fear- just about. thanks again for more valuable info

[seimum]

My family have been going to Morzine for over 20 yrs now, though we have never stayed in the Viking.
You should find access to the red and blue runs on the Nyon/Chamoissiere and Les Gets hills very straightforward from the Viking.There are a lot of nice runs, especially in the Les Gets 'bowl'.
If you are going to be picking up kids from skischool on Pleney at lunchtime, I would stick to that side of the resort, rather than going to Avoriaz (it also means you can buy a cheaper ski pass).

[MrsGuyOfGisbourne]

We had a fantastic time at the Viking, my boys still reminisce aboutn the brilliant swimming pool. It is partly outdoors, so they could throw snowballs at each other and were delighted whn passing skiers threw snowballs at them while they were in the pool!
Food was FANTASTIC!
We have not been back (yet) becuase Morzine is low, so snow condtions can be patchy. When we went ( Easter 2006) there had been arecord sno season and snow was good, although patchy down to resort. i did not ogo over to other resorts as it was my dirst ski hol wit Dc so I was worried about breaking a leg and nopt geting back for pick up.
You will have a fabulous time!!!!!!!!

[noonar]

ah, more helpfulness. thanks x

[saffy1]

We went to the Viking for a long weekend earlier this month - must have been there the same time as you Janksi! We're pretty novice skiers so I can't really talk about the harder slopes but during the 'welcome eve' the couriers did say that it's possible to ski over to Avoriaz where you can then ski through to switzerland- also there's a 'train' (really a bus) that takes you from Morzine village over to Avoriaz. Agree with the Janski that the situation of the Viking is the best - you can literally ski straight from the door and for myself and my son we had a fabulous range of greens and blues - it's possible to ski down into morzine all the way on blue slopes or for more experienced skiers on some tricky reds. Food was great, the couriers couldn't put themselves out more and were really helpful with the transfer etc. The ski instructors were a different kettle of fish - really cross and moody but someone told me this is true of ski-instructors throughout the alps - particularly at the end of the season..and I was pretty slow! Have a great trip - We'd love to go back.

[chipkid]

I stayed in Morzine this year but we skied in Avoriaz due to lack of ski school anywhere else. By the end of the week the lower slopes in Morzine were suffering a little. However-if the snow is a real problem-avoriaz is there-but you are right it is a bit of a trek!

[chipkid]

Just to add-if you can get your little one into a brittish ski school I would. My 6 year old suffered with the fact that he couldn't really understand the instructors and to be honest-they were not brilliant in making the little ones feel at ease! they are very brusque-in fact I couldn't leave my three year old there in the ski playground because I watched their brusque attitude to other crying three year olds and wasn't overly impressed!

[noonar]

thanks saffy and chip kid . re ski school, we have booked ski school and whizz kids with crystal, so not sure if british ski school would work, as we have drop offs etc arranged already.

dds will be 6 and 4.5. i agrese about 3 yo struggling. i observed this in switzerland this year and was glad dd1 was too young to ski there.

[spicemonster]

I've just come back from Morzine - my 3rd time there and the snow was pretty good considering it was April. If your DH is a good skier, it may be worth him buying a complete Portes de Soleil lift pass, then if he wants to get to Avoriaz, he just has to get the egg down and get the petit train over to the super morzine egg which connects with Avoriaz. It takes about half an hour or so. Having said that, there are some great runs up the top of Les Gets and Nyon including some fairly demanding blacks. And they are extremely easy to access from the Viking - all on skis (and no pushing!)

The Viking is a bit out of the way as it's the only hotel which is at the top of the slopes rather than in the town itself but my sister and BIL stayed there last year and really enjoyed themselves.

My nephew is 7 and he really enjoyed ski school. They ferry the really little ones around in a sort of truck with the instructor driving a jetski at the front - it's really cute! It's a good place if you have small kids as the nursery slope is right outside the hotel.

Morzine is a very pretty little town and has lots of places to eat and shop.

[noonar]

spicemonster, that sounds like fun. thanks for your post x

[AnnakeyRules]

at the risk of being sent to the naughty step for posting on an old thread I wondered how you got on, noonar?

We're going to Morzine in March, and I'm trying to work out what the best ski lessons/childcare would be for dd who will be 6.3, and hasn't skied before.

[AnnakeyRules]

daytime bump to see if anyone has been to Morzine this year...

[MrsGrahamBell]

There is a British run ski school that meets at tthe top of the lift, just outside the Viking - I would definitely opt for that - sorry can't remember the name. My DC were with the ESF which meets @ the bottom and spends ages queuieng to get into the lift. I arranged with the ESF after the first day that the instrucotr met them at the top instead.
I would happily go back to the Viking, except that Crystals trnasfers are CRAP - we finally had enough ladst year, so if we ever travel with them again will travel independently.When you arrive, make sure you have good gripping boots etc to get up the hill from the lift to the hotel - a short distance, but very steep and slippery!

[doesmybumlookbiginthis]

We are going to Viking next week and would love to book nanny/babysitter for DS who is 8 and has downs syndrome. He has private lessons booked in mornings while we are in ski school but would love chance to ski couple of afternoons without one of us staying with him. can anyone help?

[AnnakeyRules]

MrsGrahamBell, is the british run ski school only for people staying at the hotel Viking, or can anyone go?

[spicemonster]

doesmybum - there are quite a few babysitting services in Morzine so I'm sure you would be able to find a nanny to spend time with your DS. I had a nanny to look after my baby last year. I think I got her from the Morzine website - google Morzine and there is an English one. Annakeyrules - I expect you would be able to find info on the ski school there too. Agree that if you're at the viking, it's a pita to go to ESF

[MrsGrahamBell]

Annakey - no not just for Viking guests- in fact they unlesss they've been before they don't know about it and get annoyed when they find out because Crystal don't get a cut in the bookings and so don't tell anyone about it, just send 'em all to the ESF...

[vixtaswims]

We stayed at ChillyPowder in Morzine which has a fantastic in house creche. It is lovely not having to trek small kids accross town. very very happy with the service