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WHEN TO GO
Before Christmas,
the slopes are empty and our prices low. Not even Val d’Isère can absolutely guarantee good snow, but it was fantastic last year. The World Cup circuit is confident: there are men’s races on the Face on 13 and 14 December.
Our first charter is on 14 December, but the chalets open on 7 December, so why not get an easyJet flight and join us? The sooner you book the less that will cost.
For our pre-Christmas special, 14–21 December, there will be no-one around, it costs less than staying at home, and you’ll have time for Christmas shopping when you get home!
Christmas is great. It is a proper white Christmas, such as most British children have only dreamt of. You bring the presents and we provide the tree to lay them round, the log fire, turkey, Christmas cake and pudding, mince pies, mulled wine etc. The slopes are still surprisingly uncrowded, yet our prices are around 25% cheaper than the following week.
New Year iis a wonderful time to ski, so long as you go somewhere with enough pistes and lifts to handle being fairly busy. Val d’Isère has a vast ski area and 16 lifts from the valley floor. Travel will be ghastly on the Saturdays, but not the Sundays. Revellers love the partying on 31 December; skiers love the empty slopes a few hours later. A few very fit people enjoy both!
January is our favourite month. It can be fractionally colder than other months, but this high above the clouds cold weather tends to be sunny, and it is often the sunniest month. It can snow every day, but that’s true of any month. What is certain is that the slopes are empty, the snow is the squeaky perfect stuff everyone skis well on, and our holidays are distressingly cheap.
February 2009 is going to be a blast! For the first fortnight the village will buzz with the World Championships, but the slopes will be empty. Our prices are low, especially on 8 February, which is cheaper than last year, in spite of the exchange rate. British schools have half-term between 15 and 22 February, and the French until 8 March, but ankle-biter-haters needn’t worry: there is still half an acre of snow per skier. And the more children there are, the more space everyone else has, because ten kids in a little snake occupy less snow than a single adult male in a racing snowplough after a big lunch. Val d’Isère is the ideal resort for children, so long as you book their lessons early.
March is wonderful. Last year it was colder than December or February, with more fresh snow. But the sun is stronger than in the Med in midsummer, and Factor-60 is a must. There will be perfect winter snow on the upper runs, and the first spring snow off-piste. Towards the end of the month, the lower pistes can be soft in the afternoons, but they are groomed back to perfection every night, and very few schools are on holiday for the final week this year. Long sunny lunches on the terraces of the Fruitière, Trifollet or Edelweiss aren’t great for one’s skiing or silhouette, but excellent for the morale…
April is when Val d’Isère stands out most from other ski resorts. The sun is incredibly powerful, but in our high, narrow, north-facing valley the snow lasts exceptionally well. Indeed, April showers falling as rain lower down fall as powder here, and April sometimes brings more fresh snow than all the other months put together. Off-piste, the warmth transforms it into exhilarating spring snow in a day or two, though there’s still winter snow on the glaciers. Some people stop for long lunches in the sunshine; others ski until the last lift. The French haven’t really noticed that Val d’Isère and Tignes offer such good skiing in April, and the slopes are not busy. Our season ends on 26 April, though the last Funival of the winter, at 5pm on 3 May, will still be full of wobbly revellers mourning the end of another great season, and longing for the start of the next.
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