Ski Esprit-tell me your experiences!

[twizzler]

Sorry, am being a pest with all my questions but want to gather as much info as poss before booking!

A lot of MNers seem to have used this company.

Can you tell me which resort you went to and what chalet/hotel you stayed in and what your experience was-good or bad!

Thank you.

Have changed name from twizzler (have been wanting to for a while and one came to me because of the skiing topic!).

Interesting hearing what everyone has to say on their holidays with Esprit. Seems very mixed but then I suppose there will always be inconsistency with so many different factors ivolved.

Am hoping that staff will know what they are doing when we get there at beginning of Feb and they will be running the chalet smoothly and calmly. Or then again, they might be cheesed off with it all by then....

we have been several times to La Rosiere wiht Esprit and have always had good experiences (childcare in the ski lessons was a bit off one year iirc).

We generally get last minute deals with them which saves quite alot of money (but we don't go in half term).

this year, if we aren't credit crunched out of it, we are hoping to go to Saas Fee.

Pollyanna, which chalets did you stay in?

We are going to Le Bracconnier which sounds like it is quite popular with MNers.

For Sunshine,

I have uploaded a few photos on my profile of our trip to La Ros in 2006! Will do some more later.

Saas Fee is lovely and we stayed in teh Esprit chalet hotel which was good. The resort is lovely, car free, a real Swiss choc box resort.

The skiing was OK, but to get up to the top it would take 1 hour with a button / ski / cable car / walk / funicular / walk which pissed me off no end. I am a lazy skiier and like to get my skis on and go. The other thing to really take note of is that the top is very very very high and DS was all woozy and sleepy up there and we had to get him down very quick. DH got altitude sickness too.

The little bubble from the village takes you to a good skiback to the village though.

We loved it, but the faff of getting up the mountain was a pain in the butt.

toomany, thanks very much for photos!

Great being able to see some pics of resort instead of just looking in brochure all the time!

Am getting very excited and still have a month to go. Need to stop thinking about it!

You didnt say where you went? Just returned from a week with Esprit and had a similar experience of sleeping in Kitchens in Chalet Andre, Val D'isere!!

KateyCluck, if you were asking me, it was Wiesenheim in Selva

Hi everyone,

I went to the Hotel Terril Blanc with "ski esprit" on 10th January this year with my 9 year old son. We had an absolutely brilliant time-partly contributed to by the weather which was perfect, also found the staff very helpful. We stayed in room 3 - which obviously had not been refurbished but was fine. Bedroom small but nice view out onto lake and mountains which was lovely. Bathroon a bit old fashioned but ok. Loo was seperate and off a long corridor which formed part of the room. Two huge wardrobes meant that I had to fully unpack and had loads of space.I was disturbed twice during the holiday by a little noise from the staff accommodation underneath our room but this resolved immediately after I reported it each time.

Staff in general were incredibly helpful. Food was good. My son ate early with other children and was sometimes hungry again before bedtime. Staff always gave him a plate of bread cheese and ham to munch on if required.

I could go on and on but basically flight and accomodation was £571, the chalet was basic but staff were welcoming, for the first time ever I had skiing lessons in a group with Evolution 2 arranged last minute by Tui who was our rep(Kev was an inspiration!) and what more could I wish for? I think that the key when booking with "esprit" is to go to a large chalet/hotel where there is a qualified chef overseeing the food preparation.

I would go back tomorrow if I could.

Happy skiing!

Had a pretty poor experience trying to book with Esprit today. The girl on the phone kept getting the price wrong. ( SHe caliomed not to have seen the disocunted prices as it was 'too small to see' and gqave me the full brochure prices. Then I asked about parking as we will be driving. Obviously did not expect her to know the answer without checking, but she immediately gave a very glib - 'oh its fine, no problem'. ( Which it often is) so I pressed he and she snapped back - 'you can see in the brochure - there's a courtyard!' So I said, okay - please can you email me to confirm I can park in the courtyard, and then she back tracked and said she couldn't email me that till I booked!. So I said sorry - just need the assurance there won't be an issue when I arrive, and she said she would email me. However... it was obvious from the way that she didn't question anything as I gave her my very long and complicated address that she had no intention of emailing me, and sure enough, no email arrived. So.... bugger 'em , they obviously don't need my booking (for next week!) so I booked with SkiBeat instead... much more helpful people.

We got back from La Rosiere on Sunday (stayed at Schatzi chalet). Had a fabulous time but were very lucky in a number of ways - the chalet takes 31 (sometimes as many as 35 are booked in) but there were only three families last week (16 adults and children in total) so the living and dining area was nowhere near as full as it should have been. The food was the best I have known (it was our 5th Esprit holiday) but the chef had been brought in from one of the big chalet hotels as the previous one (and the one before!) had left. He was fully trained and with only 16 of us he had an easy week too!

Childcare was great - especially the Rangers (we used Snow Club and Nursery) - the staff were all really helpful

If only the weather had been clear and sunny as well! Plenty of snow though.

I would like to add a positive experience of Esprit this year too - especially considering the prices and of course the fantastic snow! We went back to Kaprun (was there last year too) and once again were very happy with the snow rangers, reps etc.

There was a definitely an improvement in the children's food from last year(sorry I disagree with the comment about preferring junk food) and found the staff flexible when requesting simple alternatives to the menus(although I am sure this depends on specific chalets), so we were very happy with catering despite being told on the coach that the other chalet in the resort had a Gordon Ramsey trained chef!

Fab holiday, I echo Octaviasmum I would go back tomorrow too (if only....)

Chalet Chez Robert.com
A traditional alpine chalet.
Chalet Chez Robert has been in the Arpin family for over 50 years. Once a cowshed, this beautiful traditional stone built farm building has been loving restored and refurbished by Xavier into a premium eight person, four bedroom, stand-alone chalet in a perfect ski location. The main Les Eucherts Express lift is practically outside the front door of chalet (less than 100 meters) and a lovely blue run “Gèllinotes” brings you home at the end of the day.

Chalet Chez Robert is in the village of Les Eucherts which has a number of shops, bars, cafes, restaurants and stunning views across the Tarentaise valley up to the Bellvard Mountain in Val d’Isere. It takes 15 minutes to walk into La Rosière and it is truly a beautiful walk along the pretty “narnia path” which is well lit until the early hours of the morning, but if you don’t fancy the walk the ski bus runs every 30 minutes between the two villages.