Anyone been on a Club Med ski holiday?

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Which one did you go to and what did you think?

Was it really formal for eating each night? a La carte or buffet? Dc1 is a bit fussy so buffet works well for us.

did you use the lessons? Our dc are very good skiers - could they join advanced classes?

i’m thinking about it for next Christmas so we’d need to go high and I’d like a pool and a gym (dc not me!)

any feedback would be very welcome.

No but we’re going next week so can update on return! Have done sunny Club Med holidays though and it’s always buffet so plenty of choice for fussy eaters. Not formal at all.

Have a great time @pico1 and please do report back.
Which resort are you going to?

Going to Les Arcs which looks great (which is just as well as the snow conditions look dire!)

It nearly put me off skiing for life. It was Switzerland and the buffet consisted of 600 European gannets who didn’t know how to queue. Imagine the lowest class AI and add snow…

We've been to the Italian club meds. Dinner is buffet and informal and the food is great with a good range for fussy children. No fizzy drinks at dinner though.

Lessons are ESF usually and depending on how many kids there are, teen sessions may be mixed with adult groups.

We haven’t stayed there but there is a brand new club med in Tignes this year, right on the snow front. Ski every year there 1st week of December and always had decent snow so would be great at Xmas.

Tignes would be my first choice I think.

we’ve stayed in le lac before but never val claret

We stayed in La Plagne Club Med in 2019. Dinner consisted of a great choice of buffet for adults and children. We were really impressed with the food.
Our DC joined the ESF lessons, as part of the AI. It was ski in/ski out. Good Apres Ski too. Would definitely go back.,

This might be the most scathing review I've ever read. 😁

Loads of food at buffet, none of it especially high quality, especially veggie food. The lessons were ok but not great. Problem was that because lunch included you were expected to return to hotel around 11.45 and not emerge for 2 hours - eating into skiing time! And don't hire equipment from them - costs a fortune. That said, 9 year old had a great time as could order from bar without needing an adult.

I should have mentioned that there were people who turned up in a different outfit each evening, and there were quite a few non-skiers (grandparents, etc). But no-one judged us for wearing jeans.

@pico1 snowing in Les arcs right now!

Woohoo! That’s made my week!

Very little snow on the trees this morning- though it did snow overnight.
Now been snowing consistently for several hours. (V bad visibility so I've adjourned to the pub)
@pico1

Fabulous! Am excited again now!

The food is quantity over quality & it was too crowded for me. I prefer somewhere a bit calmer. I wouldn’t go with them again.

Flipping heck...if ClubMed was the lowest class AI imaginable, you must go to some incredible hotels. We went to Les Arcs Panorama (albeit in Summer not ski season) and the food was fabulous, even in the buffet. Yes you get the inevitable food gannets...but the quality of food itself was excellent.

Really! Am not a particular snob at all 😂 - but I’m British hoists bosem and I couldn’t deal with the free-for-all and lack of queuing.

Years later I did Mark Warner and preferred the atmosphere immensely. I think it was table-service although had baby-brain so can’t remember much about it.

We found the food pretty good with club med. I’d never do the lessons again though, totally useless

Mark Warner isn't in the same league as Club Med. On our last MW trip, the hotel was above a nightclub, so the booming bass made it hard for us to sleep. Also, I asked for hash browns because our family are veggies, and was told it would blow a hole in their catering budget. So I offered to buy them at the supermarket myself (about E5 for a week's supply), at which point they gave in and bought them themselves (major concession).

We have been to ClubMed Serre Chevalier twice and are going again in February. Food was excellent, only gannets were the children clustering around the ice cream station. DH especially loved the oysters, our vegan was very happy with the food. Buffet style, but as we were a party of 8 the staff reserved a table for us at every meal.
Now in my 70s I no longer ski, but loved the atmosphere, the excellent drinks and the morning canapés and afternoon crepes and cakes. The indoor pool was warm.
We had one beginner who loved her lessons, the rest went into advanced groups, and were taken everywhere by the ESF instructors/guides.
Ski hire from ClubMed looks expensive compared with local outlets. On our first trip the skiers trudged off to a shop down the hill. And back up at the end of the week. The next time they booked the club skis, the convenience was worth the extra expense.

We’ve done the Tignes/Val Claret CM several times. It’s right on the slopes and up the mountain, so good snow and ski in/out and easy to return for lunch. we thought the food was great and no real scrum. The evening entertainment is hilariously bad, but you can escape it easily.

We never used ski hire or lessons so can’t comment, but for us with teenage kids it worked out brilliantly and pretty cost-effective too. We’d previously done Ski Esprit/Total/other chalet operator when the kids were younger.

I'm fascinated by this. I'm my mind club med was the posh way of skiing and one to aspire to. Having read this I'm not so sure. There's no way of want to go back to the hotel for my lunch - but then wouldn't want to pay for food that i wasnt eating.

We're only doing it for the childcare. Seemed much easier to do club med and know that the kids would be escorted to and from ski school etc than worrying about being back on time for them myself as I'll be having lessons too.