ok, after I was sent to la Thuile lat year and had a cracking time, i thought i would canvass opinion again.
above is the shopping list.
wife is (less) timid intermeidiate than last year, I am advanced intermediate.
more emphasis on luxury than party.
we want to travel on 27th dec and come back 2nd Jan.

any ideas?
Stew

If you have deep pockets - Oberlech

would do, but cannot find a hotel that is not fully booked already. It looks like everyone signs up as they leave the prior year!

quite often the busy places will deal with returning guests first. You could try St Christoph and I think that some UK tour ops now go there. Stayed at the Hotel Montana twice in Oberlech (ah the good old days) and I’ve never eaten food as good in my life. Following year we went to the Hubertushof in Stuben which was almost as good. The Hubertushof has been done up since we were there and is now rather funky (although personally I thought it was very nice). A hell of a lot cheaper than the Montana

Also, some of the hotels only release their rooms around July onwards.

Tricky, in that ski out usually goes with altitude (particularly that early in the season!) which often goes with longer transfer times.

Of the big French resorts where you’ll find hotels with pools, your wife may be ready for la Plagne but that is 3 hours (plus) from Geneva. Avoriaz/Morzine/les Gets and la Clusaz might have possibilities but I’ve never been so cannot assess the skiing.

In Flaine I believe some new apartments have pools. Your wife should really enjoy some of the runs above Morillon and les Carroz but not the getting across to them.

Andorra? I know nothing. Switzerland? longer transfers to the places I can think of.

In Italy, of the places I’ve been, if you can compromise on the ski-in/out then Cervinia has the skiing. You need a good street map to make sure of being close to the snow.

In Austria I don’t know Obertauern so that leaves Obergurgl, which I enjoyed in December but the skiing might not challenge you enough. Hochgurgl hotels are ski in if you can tolerate walking up a flight of steps to the lifts for getting out. Obergurgl itself has more ski in than ski out so again study a street map very carefully. From rumour I suspect that gets booked up as quickly as Oberlech.

I dont know if youre still looking.

I can recommend the Montsoleil Apartments in Flaine (France)

They are part of the Crystal “Finest” pogramme.

I stayed there in March this year. We skiid in and out every day. It has a heated outdoor pool, and yes it was warm enough to swim when surrounded by snow. It also had jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. The apartments were very good quality with great views.

There is no bar or restaurant in the apartments, but you can walk down to everything in ten mins, or use the free shuttle. We used this several times a day. It runs on request like a taxi and will pick you up from town when you need to come back.

As for the skiing - we were timid intermediates at the start of the holiday but improved a lot by the end of the week. There is plenty of terrain - blues and reds to get stuck into. If you want to ski back to the hotel though, there is one bit that you have to go to which is heavily moghuled by the end of the day. Very difficult but not impossible. If you dont like that you can get the free ski bus back to the apartments.