Buying ski boots in Alpe d'Huez

[skeemee]

My son is off to Alpe d'Huez in January with university ski club (fingers crossed). He has asked for ski boots for Xmas, and I wondered if he should just wait til he gets over there? He is an intermediate skiier, so probably has a rough idea of what he wants. Just wondering if he would get a better fitting service in France. Plus he could go back to the shop while he's over there for any adjustments etc.

Any advice anyone? And what are the prices like obviously.... (we are paying)

This is definitely the best plan. Good idea. In terms of recommendations of an actual boot fitting service, you’re probably better off on a snow sports specific website forum than here. Price is the same as the Length of a piece of string. They will prob try to sell him custom insoles rather than just a pair straight off the shelf.

One thing he does need to be ready for - it’s quite a time consuming process. And it’s quite hard to get service on a weekend as the shops are so busy with hire. So he will prob spend most of Monday morning in the shop doing the fitting, and possibly quite a few visits back there. So a shop in a convenient location would also help as I seem to recall from my uni days that there wasn’t much spare time left after skiing and drinking!

I bought my ski boots in Vaujany last year (linked to alpe d'huez). Got a very good service, spent plenty of time measuring my feet, discussing different bootshapes, flex etc. Didn't try and sell me any extras I didn't need and were happy for me to return to the shop anytime for adjustments etc. I've bought boots a couple of times at ski resorts and tried on in several different shops. Some shops try and sell you anything - when I've said the boots don't feel right they've tried to tell me I should buy them anyway and they'll feel OK after a couple of days skiing which doesn't seem right to me. I think if you find someone with the time and knowledge to fit the boots properly then it's definitely worth buying in resort but it may mean visiting a few different shops and not letting them pressure your son in to boots that don't feel quite right. I paid about 130 euro for beginners boots in an end of season sale then about 250 euros a few years later when I needed to upgrade to boots with less flex in them now I'm a better skiier!

Thank you both for your replies. Unfortunately it’s moot now. His holiday is cancelled!

I bought mine at snow and rock... Covent Garden store, wonderful service, amazing fitting, you do need to pay for the bespoke inner liner thingy to be moulded to your feet. It's so worth it, they will happily adjust, review etc, but mine have been perfect from day 1
It took three separate visits to do it.. I'd rather not waste my ski trip time faffing about in rental shop buying boots.
Two dds also used snow and rock.. Both got perfectly fitting boots.