2 x Families of four had a week’s skiing and it was very good. Our second Club Med ski trip and whilst we probably enjoyed Cervinia more last year, this year didn’t disappoint.
The Hotel: Very nice and modern, very, very clean (with an army of people constantly sweeping, vacuuming and collecting glasses and plates, albeit very subtly) with some fantastic views of the valley. A very nice, very large open plan bar area, with plenty of places to relax in lounge style sofas, has a great fire place area and a huge very well staffed and stocked bar, we spent a huge amount of time here enjoying apres ski and a range of great snacks, this was a fantastic place to base ourselves with our group and relax and chill out throughout the week. The hotel also has a separate large theatre area for the various usual Club Med entertainment next to the bar. Our kids spent a great deal of time in here. Older kids spent a lot of time on the floor below where there were pool tables, table tennis and an older kids games room... it was very impressive.
The lower floor also had a great swimming pool and spa area down stairs. The pool is half inside and half out, and is about 30-40 meters long and about 20 meters wide. It also has a very safe small toddlers pool that is warmer. The main pool was about 30 degrees so after 10-15 mins we had enough and wanted to get out. There is a lovely male and female sauna and wet room area, it was a great place to relax and unwind.
The whole hotel is very nice clean and very well laid out with kids club and ski school on the second floor. The main restaurant on the first floor is big and offers a huge range of really delicious dishes, again food not as good as Cervinia, but still very impressive nonetheless! Staff and service was excellent.
Mini/Petit club; Our 2 x 3 year olds went in here and loved it, lots of great staff, very secure and a ton of fun, engaging activities for all the little ones... we never worried about them all week. Only downside is our 3 year old stopped sleeping during the day about 18 months ago and they do put them down for 2 hours after lunch... this did disrupt the sleep pattern, but we are relaxed about it and just had the kids up later anyway, so it wasn’t a problem. The little kids show at the end of the week is a cameras out, heart melting, tear jerker... they did a great job and as ever with CM it was awesome!
Ski School; Club Med use ESF, this was a disappointment for us. Initially there was a snobby attitude that our older daughter (6 and a half) had 2 previous years in Italian Ski School and we were told ESF has much higher standards and she would go back a group or two. We took their word for it, but were sceptical. Our daughters instructor simply should not be coaching children. She left her at the back of the group all week, failed to actually coach her or correct her technique properly, shouted at all of the group (A Lot!) and had no skill or disposition fit for coaching small children aged 5-6... she may have been technically excellent as a skier, but given ESF sell themselves as a high quality coaching and teaching organisation, we felt the ability to coach the little children was poor... we genuinely felt our daughter did not improve at all over 5 days and the coach diminished herself from any responsibility for this... It almost out our ski loving daughter off skiing it was such a poor experience... such a shame, and a blemish on the Club Meds experience, given this was a really important part of our holiday. It may have just been one coach/instructor, but it mattered a lot to us... ????????????
The resort; Les Arc is superb and despite going really late at the end of the season the snow was good, well maintained and a dream to navigate around. It’s huge, has something for everyone of all abilities and has some great scenery up top and lovely restaurants dotted around the area (very expensive slopeside as you’d expect in France, but hey ho). You can get the express straight over into Plagne from virtually right outside the CM hotel. It’s a huge resort too with plenty of skiing, but we only did it once as we didn’t like the layout in Plagne. All slopes bottle neck at the lifts and despite it being relatively quiet we found it a bit of a pain. We did venture over to the Club Med on the far side for lunch (included in all inclusive of you book the day before via your own reception at Peisey), was nowhere near as nice and not worth the trip quite frankly.
Club Med Panoramic in Les Arc is a different matter... Wow! What a place, amazing hotel, views and what a lunch... you can see why this place is about £1000pw more to stay at! However, book for lunch and the ski / board over from Peisey is a lovely jaunt and well worth doing a few times during the week!
Finally... overall, another great Club Med holiday for us as a family. Great hotel, lovely people and team, cracking food and really big, varied and nice resort... definitely good value for money! Shame about ESF... But we head back to Italy next year as we prefer it... However, if you like France then Club Med Peisey Vallandry is very much worth a visit!
