After last year’s trip to The Three Valleys we decided on trying somewhere new again, and Espace Killy (the area that encompasses Val d’Isere and Tignes) came out of the sorting hat.

Inghams again

Having had a good experience with Inghams last year they were the first place I looked, and whilst I checked out the competition Inghams seemed to have the edge on customer feedback and price.

Hotel & Spa Le Savoie was a little pricier than some other options, but had consistently better feedback. I paid a little extra to upgrade to a suite, which turned out nicely as it gave my daughter and I our own private space for the week. My one concern was a message on the booking site that stated there might be a charge for under-occupancy (as the suite could accommodate four people), but that turned out not to be an issue (perhaps as we were visiting on a less busy week).

Food

The food at Le Savoie was exceptionally good. Each evening (apart from staff break day on Wednesday) offered a six course menu of amuse bouche, starter, main, dessert, cheese and petit fours. We very rarely had space for everything.

The dinners were comparable to some of my favourite restaurants at home, and they managed to come up with an interesting new menu every night that always had appealing choices.

Afternoon tea at 1600 each day combined with ample breakfasts meant there was no need to stop for lunch. Complimentary wine with dinner also meant we weren’t spending at local bars.

The Inghams team at the hotel were brilliant, delivering friendly service throughout our stay. Kudos to the Inghams managers on hiring, retaining and creating such a positive culture.

& no spa

Whilst waiting for the outbound flight I got an email from Holly at Inghams to say that the hotel spa facilities would be out of action for the week. This was disappointing but not devastating – I’d picked the hotel for the food, and thought that maybe the spa would be a nice way to relax after skiing.

We were given free access to the local Aquasports Centre, which was pleasant enough for the one afternoon that we visited.

Chambery – still awful, but not so bad this time

Last year I described Chambery airport as ‘best avoided’ and I’ll stand by that. Sadly there wasn’t an option to fly elsewhere, so we ended up on pretty much the same flights as last time.

This time was better, with the inbound flight on time, and no particular delays getting out of the airport. Sadly the bus to Val took about 2h longer than planned due to horrendous traffic delays. At least the hotel was still serving dinner when we arrived.

Location

Le Savoie is a 5m walk from the piste. There’s a bus option, but we never bothered. Walking up the hill in our Xnowmate boots wasn’t much trouble (and got us warmed up ahead of the first lift).

Everything else was super convenient, with a supermarket next door, and ski hire next to that.

Equipment

Once again we went for ski hire and lift passes together with Inghams as there was a discount, and once again we went with the Black package.

The pickup experience was a bit slow, and they weren’t interested in which skis I’d liked before. I never heard ‘come back if there’s anything you don’t like’. I was given Salomon boots, which were comfortable, and a pair of Völkl Deacon 80s which were OK but don’t make it to my good skis list.

Ski Tracks

I’d noticed a discrepancy between the speed shown on my Apple Watch and the app on my phone. After putting in a 71.4mph run I tried to screenshot the watch display. This turned out to be a mistake. Several attempts failed to get me a screenshot, but eventually I reset the watch, which meant I lost that morning’s data :(

Next time around I took the more analogue approach of just taking a picture of the watch (above) with my phone. That track gets reported as 69.1mph in the phone app:

I suspect this is because the apps average speed over different time sample sizes, but it’s a disappointing lack of consistency.

The skiing

At 300km the area is about half the size of The Three Valleys, and it certainly felt easier to get around the whole place.

After a too long wait first time on the Olympique we took to using the Bellevarde Express and Loyes chairs to get up and over. It was then a quick run down to Tommeuses to get over to Tignes.

On the Val d’Isere side it felt like there was a fair bit of under-grading with blues that might be reds elsewhere, and some reds that might be blacks. Though I did notice that some older maps showed some runs as reds where they’re now marked as black.

It was the opposite story on the Tignes side, with a lot of Blacks that weren’t particularly steep or technical. This was a good thing, as the ‘Piste Très Difficile’ signs kept the traffic away.

Best of the Blacks

The various runs feeding into Johan Clarey provided reliable smiles, and we’d frequently run Crocus and Cretes on repeat, alternating between the Toviere bubble lift and Paquis chair.

Sache provided a worthy target for one morning, and was really fun on sections, but a little slow and busy in places.

Descente from the top of La Grande Motte was a run that I’d liked to have repeated a few times, but the wait at the telecabin to get up there was too much – the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze :(

Pick of the Reds

On our way up to Sache the lift ran alongside a completely empty Cyclamen making us wonder if it was closed. It wasn’t, it was just nice and quiet, perfect for a high speed run :)

Ok from the top of the Marmottes lift also deserved a few repeats, and we were lucky to catch a quiet moment on our final run.

L became a favourite, and our pick for final run of the trip. Though possibly our first run was the best.

Beautiful Blues

On the way down from Grande Motte we ran Rabotch and enjoyed the solitude and views.

After an awful attempt at 3000 in poor light Leissieres provided some blessed relief. It’s a run that needs speed to be carried, and thankfully that was possible as all the traffic was on the adjacent Plan Millet.

Getting Home

The trip home felt much like a repeat of last year. A few hours of reasonably comfortable hanging around in the hotel lounge (mostly writing this post). An uneventful bus trip to the airport. Not much of a queue to check in, and then Chambery being the overcrowded zoo that it is when trying to handle all those extra charter flights.

Security was even worse than last year. My carry on ended up spread across 6 different trays, as they insisted on anything electrical/electronic being out on its own; and all shoes off, and my hoodie. It boggles my mind what sort of X-rays don’t go through a neoprene laptop sleeve? But that’s just one example of the overzealous silliness on display.

It’s not entirely clear if the problem is bad equipment, bad training, or some sort of sport winding up tourists; but Chambery’s security theatre is now 2 for 2 on the worst I’ve ever seen. The pilot even threw them under the bus (quite rightly) blaming our delayed departure on slow security.

Once we got going, the flight back to Gatwick was quick and uneventful, getting us in 45m late.

Conclusion

Val d’Isere deserves its reputation as a great place for advanced skiers, though most of the better slopes are on the Tignes side. I’d choose it again though just to stay at Le Savoie.