Turquoise

Stayed at the Crystal Club Hotel Turquoise at the beginning of March 2009. The journey there was pretty good with flights from our local airport and a shortish transfer from Chambery. The rooms there are fairly basic but comfortable and clean - could maybe do with a fresh coat of paint before next season. Most of the rooms have twin beds and bunk beds with a sliding wall between.

The in the evenings was very good, we enjoyed every meal. There were choices given at breakfast of two starters and puddings and three main courses. The children's tea at 5pm was quite good with two choices given. They did sit all the children on a long table which made for quite a stressful experience but it was quite possible to take your child's meal to another table or even to have it served with yours in the evening. I did comment on this on my feed back card and on the last evening they spread the children out a bit which was nice. We had lunch in the hotel once and we didn't think that much of it but it was much cheaper than eating in the village and was ok. Breakfast was a continental buffet and a changing hot option and sometimes porrage. This was pretty good on the whole. There was a nice atmosphere to the restaurant but there was not enough room between the tables which was a shame. The bar area was comfortable and relaxed and there was some good evening entertainment - especially quiz night which was good fun.

The ski and boot room was down the stairs, very hot and very small but it did have good boot warmers. The location of the hotel was fantastic just beside the ski school meeting point across the pieste from the main village. This is purpose built but quite pretty and with lots of nice restaurants and some shops and I think as swimming pool. The Hotel was easy to ski back to from lots of different directions. We didn't have very good weather so I can't really give a proper review of the skiing area but it seemed to be pretty good on the whole. Some of it quite crowded and narrow but also lots of long wide runs. We rented a sledge for the week and used it every evening just outside the hotel.

The childcare was good. We used the creche which had 6 children between 1 and 4 years. It is underground which is unfortunate but they did get the children out during the day. They gave them healthy lunches and also did a snuggle club in the evenings which we used on the chef's night off. Wizz Kids was next door and I think they had 12 to get to ski school each morning which they seemed to be under control with as far as I could tell.

The staff were the usual young chalet hotel crowd and on the whole were efficient, friendly and helpful. With the free kid's places it was very good value for money - I do think the prices are creeping up for next year though.