Review of Alpe d'Huez

31st January 2009 by Allan Jones 

Back from Vaujany - 1st visit and generally impressed. Good facilities in village / excellent links to main skiing areas / plenty (skating, leisure centre with pool/gym/sauna etc, toboggan area, potential for valley walks) for non-skiers. Relatively expensive as visitors have no choice to shop outside village.
Apartment(Maeve - Portes de l’Oisans)just adequate for 2 families of 4.
Skiing fantastic for us (2nd week - loads of choice of runs - all of us coped Ok with reds so puzzled about undergrading comments except for Vaujaniate which seemed challenging for a blue - Les Rousses very busy) and for beginner friends who loved the Alpette / Montfrais sector.
Enjoyed mountain food at Airelles and la Grange, Alpette - sophisticated warm chevre salad and our kids failed to finish the huge pizzas (Hooray - Dad got extra!)
We all had family-based lessons with ESF who supplied us with amusing, analytical and enthusiastic instructors, proud to show off their locale.
1 child damaged his lift pass - the bureaucracy involved in obtaining a replacement would supply endless material for a new sitcom - I suppose this is just the norm in France / Italy etc.
We skied into Oz a couple of times - our impression is that it never gets any sun in winter - is this true and does that depress its visitors. By contrast, Vaujany and Alpe d’Huez were sunny practically all the time - I know that this is not necessarily great for the snow but it works wonders for mid winter blues.
Can’t wait to go again.

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