Our incredible dads and daughters Val d’Isère family ski chalet holiday

Val d’Isère is the French ski resort which has it all as Andrew Dent recently found out on a family trip with Ski France.

Dads and daughters’ ski day, Val d’Isère © Val d’Isère – Esther Vittot

There will always be a debate amongst UK ski families as to the best resort to ski in, the best time of year to go, the best accommodation type to choose and if to go with a tour operator or to self plan the trip. During this discussion all sorts of factors need to be considered:  transfer time, cost, variation of slopes, restaurants, après ski options, accommodation options and increasingly the height of the village and runs.

Well we think we might just have found the answer. The resort is Val d’Isère  and the accommodation is Chalet Arosa and the tour operator is Ski France.

Le Grand Ski, Val d’Isère © Val d’Isère Tourisme – Tristan Shu

Val d’Isère  has long been a favourite with UK ski families

Val d’Isère  has long been a favourite with UK skiers. The village is situated at 1,850m meaning it is nice and high which is important in this day and age. True, it is a long transfer time (up to three hours from Geneva Airport), so this needs to be factored in, but once you get there, everything looks after itself.

The town is very attractive and easily walkable, the slopes are magnificent and cater for all standards, and access to Tignes on the same ski pass opens up an enormous amount of terrain. The mix of accommodation is good and the après ski includes the original Folie Douce.

A typical ski day for our group started going up the fast bubble Solaise. Once up here you have access to no fewer than 15 lifts and a wide range of slopes, so it’s almost the size of some resorts alone. After a couple of hours here, we loved going down the steepish red run to Fornet. Then, around mid morning it is time to head back into Val d’Isère base station and up the other side on the Olympique cable.

This is a spectacular ride soaring above the famous black run Face de Bellevarde. According to some in our group this is by far the best way to see ‘Le Face’ rather than actually skiing on it.

Kid-friendly adventures, Val d’Isère © Val d’Isère Tourisme

Kid-friendly off piste adventures, at parental discretion

Once up this side of the mountain our favourite lift was Borsat. This is a long sunny chair where we could access some kid friendly off piste. It’s one of the real joys of skiing with kids, when you see how ‘stoked’ they get by going off piste, even if it is not too gnarly.

This being a Dad/Daughters trip they were sworn not to tell their mothers about these adventures, but I guess that is now blown due to this article. Sorry Mum.

Val d’Isère  has plenty of skiing itself. But that is just the tip of the snowy ice berg. It is very simple to ski over into Tignes. Here you can access the famous La Grande Motte glacier. The skiing goes up to 3456 metres, which is high in anyone’s book. But the great thing for a kid’s trip is that it is a relatively simply red run down from the top. All kids love saying they went to the very top after all.

After an hour or so of bombing around Tignes it was time to head towards home. By pure coincidence  that involved skiing right past La Folie Douce. Well, when in Rome. It is actually a really kid friendly vibe and our teenagers changed out the helmets and goggles for designer sunglasses and headbands that materialised from somewhere. After a few drinks it was time to ski down to La Daille to meet our pick up. La Daille is a really great slope to finish the day as it offers a challenging red or a route back through some trees.

Chalet Arosa, Val d’Isère © Ski France

We can highly recommend Chalet Arosa in Val d’Isère

We were a mixed group of two families, six people in total, and required five bedrooms. So the configuration at Chalet Arosa was spot on: spacious doubles and one twin room.

All rooms have generous ensuites, which was particularly useful for the teenage girls in the group. You enter the chalet at ground level where there is a great ski and boot room, so you can comfortably get out of your boots before adopting the luxury house slippers for the rest of the evening.

The first floor consists of the bedrooms, the second floor is the living space, and the third floor is a ‘snug’/ TV room for the kids. The living space is perfectly set up and there’s a large dining table that comfortably fits 10-12 people. We even had guests over one evening for dinner and there was plenty of space.

The piece de resistance is the hot tub on the terrace. It is huge and has great views out across the valley, and the kids spent at least an hour a day in there.

The chalet is located a little out of town and is not ski-in-ski-out. No problems, we had our very own secret weapon: Logan the Driver. You simply text him whenever you need picked up, let him know where you will be, and when, and magically the spacious black mini van is waiting for your tired souls. Logan was very charming and nothing was too much trouble. We had a couple of occasions that the kids wanted to go home early from skiing. No problem, we felt totally safe letting Logan pick them up and take them back to the chalet whilst the adults did a few more runs (or was that a bit of après ski?).

Dining room, Chalet Arosa © Ski France

Ski France offers contactless catering at Chalet Arosa

Ski France offer this new concept of contactless catering. Basically they fill the place with the essentials before you arrive: cereal, yogurts, wine, beers, soft drinks. Then on a daily basis they drop in the main evening meal whilst you are out on the slopes.

You come home to some lovely cakes for afternoon tea and then a menu with easy cook (warm up) items for dinner. It’s actually a low stress, fun way to go about it, and avoids awkward chats with chalet hosts or having to stick to a set time to eat. The portions were generous and the dishes really tasty. If you run out of anything you just send a text, and more wine (in our case), will miraculously appear the next day.

We were sceptical when we first heard of the concept. But I can assure it was the most perfect way for a three Dad/Daughters ski trip to operate. The staff, when we did see them, were most obliging and there didn’t seem to be a cap on what you could ask them to stock up on. I am sure you might be able to test that out more than we did though!

In summary, Val d’Isère  never disappoints. It is a winner for all types of skier group. The big new learning was about Chalet Arosa and its contactless catering. It is without doubt a great chalet for a large family or mixed group and a nice mix of homely and luxury. The contactless catering thing worked really well for us. Book yourself a stay now. You won’t regret it.