Chill Chalet was set up in 2000 by Chris Cracknell and Lucy Hughes. They didn’t like the large Tour Operator format, so set out to do something different. They’ve managed to put together a service that’s both tailored to the individuals needs and affordable. The chalet is in Bourg St Maurice, only a 5 minute walk from the funicular that takes you up to La Plagne. The service they offer includes the following:

* bookings on a nightly basis
* breakfast whenever you want it (boy do we like the sound of that!)
* no fixed arrival or departure times
*walking distance from lift and all ammenities
* the ability for you to make hot drinks when you want them
* AND… unlimited biscuits and cakes available all day

Usually to get this kind of service you’d need  to break the bank but amazingly their prices start at just £50 per night. We also particularly like the fact that Teachers get a discount since they ‘don’t think it’s fair that teachers get penalised because they have to travel in the school holidays’ and that they offer a ‘Green incentive’ discount if you travel by train!

This fantastic chalet is obviously very popular and gets booked up quickly so if you fancy giving it a try this season check out the website and get in touch with Chris asap!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXO7myRl_-A

Video © Arthur Bullard

We stayed at the UCPA in La Plagne on a 4 day weekend ski trip. All UCPA skiing or snowboard holidays include lift passes for the area, ski or board hire and all meals. For all this the cost was only £250. With week long trips you can also choose to have group UCPA ski or snowboard lessons. Travel is not included but there are plenty of reasonable independent ways to travel to the Franch Alps.

When you check in at the La Plagne UCPA, manned by the extremely lovely Audrey whilst we were there, you will be handed your lift pass, and your voucher to pick up your ski’s or snowboard from the onsite hire shop. You will need to have 100 euros in cash on you as a deposit.

The La Plagne UCPA is situated right on the piste in La Plagne Centre, with several lift options. You can walk about 100metres to the Funiplagne that goes up to La Grande Rochette or ski down to Melezes chairlift or beyond that to La Plagne 1800. Either way you can get to a number of different ski areas in La Plagne very quickly.

The UCPA itself sleeps 240 people with all it’s rooms ensuite and sleeping either 2 or 4 people. Typically you will be allocated a 4 bed room with either friends or others if you’re travelling on your own or in a group less than 4. However if you’re travelling with a partner, or you’d like a 2 bed room, just ask at the point of booking and you can upgrade for 50 euros.

We stayed in one of the 4 bed rooms and it was spacious with everything you’ll need, 2 wardrobes, a large chest of drawers and each bed had a bedside table and lamp. There was also a large ensuite bathroom. We were located on the piste side of the UCPA, which offered great views up the mountain but also meant that the piste bashers could be heard at night, so we’d recommend ear plugs if you’re a light sleeper. Saying that any convenient piste side hotel / chalet is going to be the same anyway.

All holidays at the UCPA are fully inclusive and, unlike other catered ski holidays, include lunch too. The day starts off in the morning with a cold breakfast, with a range of cereals, yoghurts, fruits, bread and juices. Also an interesting one to watch is that tea and coffee is taken in a cereal bowl. Strange, but I got to love my cup of tea in a cereal bowl every morning! Lunch can either be taken as a packed lunch (requested the night before) or a hot meal back at the UCPA. Evening meals are 3 course buffet style and offer a range of food, including traditional French meals with the odd themed night thrown in (Caribbean when we were there.) All the food on our stay was plentiful and nutritional. Puddings are provided, but for a lighter option try the ice cream and sorbet available every night, which was of really great quality. After all meals you are responsible for returning your plates and cutlery and ensuring your table is clean. It takes only a couple of minutes and is no hassle at all.

After dinner you can take advantage of the large piste side bar where the drinks are very reasonable. Drinks are purchased by a token system, each token pack costs 22.50 euros and will buy you a good few beers behind the bar. We worked out that a bottle of wine cost around 9 euros, which is very good value for a ski resort. The bar is lively, but doesn’t tend to have live music. For that you can head along the fantastic underground tunnel to the Igloo Bar, which has live music every night and a great atmosphere.

All in all we loved the weekend at the UCPA, the facilities themselves were better than some hotels we’ve stayed in and the value for money is truly outstanding. It’s also a great option if you’re travelling solo and want to ski or board with others. La Plagne ski area is great for all levels of skier or boarder, more can be found about the La Plagne area here.

An all inclusive 4 day weekend at the La Plagne UCPA costs around 235 euros or a weeks holiday starts from 535 euros (490 euros without lessons). Unfortunately all 4 day weekend breaks at La Plagne UCPA are sold out for this ski season (2010), a 2 day weekend can still be booked for only 170 euros.  Alernatively 4 day weekend breaks are still available at various other UCPA’s and start from 220 euros. You can find out more and book online at the UCPA website.

UCPA centres can be found in the following ski resorts (note they are all different, and have a different standard of accommodation):

UCPA Argentière
UCPA Chamonix
UCPA Contamines
UCPA Flaine les Lindars
UCPA La Plagne – Le France  (the one we stayed in)
UCPA La Plagne 1800
UCPA Les Arcs 1600
UCPA Les 2 Alpes
UCPA Saint Sorlin
UCPA Saint Lary
UCPA Serre Chevalier
UCPA Tignes
UCPA Val Cenis
UCPA Val d’Isere
UCPA Valloire
UCPA Val Thorens
UCPA Vars

After a few (literally) warm-up runs we decided to take the Verdons Nord chair lift over to the Champagny ski area. We hadn’t realised quite how large the ski area was on this side of the mountain and took a few minutes   to take in the amazing view from the top of La Grande Rochette. The snow was fantastic and we took the Kamikaze red run down to the bottom of the Verdons Sud chairlift. From there we were going to go back up and come down a blue the other side but the queue was pretty long so we decided to keep going towards Champagny itself. At the top of the Les Bois red run leading down into Champagny was a sign saying that the run was for ‘Very good skiers only’. This put a slight element of doubt in our heads as to what we were about to experience but in actual fact the run was no harder than any other run we’d been on, just a bit narrow. Although having said that I’m sure if the snow conditions were poorer it might not have been the same story!

Champagny looked like a  lovely little village and being just a quick bubble ride up to the main ski area would be an ideal option for those looking to stay in a more traditional alpine village. From the top of the bubble we took another chairlift and spent the next hour practicing our off-piste mogul technique on a great spot of powder between the two blue runs coming down from the Borselierss chairlift. After tiring ourselves we headed to the restaurant at the bottom of the lift for a much needed lunch. Because of the glorious conditions the sun terrace was packed and we were slightly concerned that we’d be spending the rest of our final day in a queue for a horribly overpriced baguette but were pleasantly surprised at both the speed of service and the food.

After lunch we endured three very cold chair lift rides to take us back to the top of the Rocher de Mio. Our plan had been to then take the Bellecote bubble up to the glacier but with no feeling left in our fingers and toes we decided that we just needed to get moving again! We took the glorious Les Inversens red run down to the bottom of the Inversens chair lift. From there we spotted an interesting looking black run and after a trip up the chair and another run down the red to get full feeling back in our extremities we decided to try the black, Les Crozats. It wasn’t the hardest black run we’ve ever skied but it was narrow and the main mogul field was pretty carved up with powder on one side and sheet ice on the other. Needless to say it was challenging and we all felt we’d had a good work out by the end. Five minutes later we’d have given anything to be back on that black run when we were poling along the incredibly flat Route des Bauches blue run towards Montchavin. There had been a warning sign at the start of the run telling us that it was ‘flat for 1km’ but for some reason we hadn’t believed it and had carried on regardless, how sorry we were!!

We then took the long trek back across to La Plagne Centre, encountering by far the biggest queue of the day at the Colosses chair lift. From the top of there we skied our final run back down to the UCPA wishing that we didn’t have to go home…

And that’s us signing off from the #TwiSkiTrip to La Plagne. Keep an eye on our blog and twitter feed for more useful ski information.

The Ski-C girls

Photo’s © Arthur Bullard

Once we had finally managed to get out of the UCPA we discovered fantastic conditions on and off piste. Due to the amount of snow overnight many runs were left unpisted so great for enjoying the powder. We started off heading down to the 1800 lift on our way towards La Roche. From the top of 1800 we took the Corne Gidoulle blue which swept through the forest down to La Roche, from there we took the La Roche chairlift up and then the Emille Ailais red run back down to La Roche again. This run was unpisted and was an absolutely fantastic run down, so much so we got back on the La Roche chairlift and did it again!! This red is fantastic for improvers as some parts were steep and challenging, excellent progression onto blacks.

We then decided (probably due to our hangovers) that we should head down towards Plagne Montalbert to have an earliesh lunch. After our third trip up La Roche chairlift (which by the way is a 6 seater speedy lift), we headed down the Corne Guidoulle blue and onto the Adrets chairlifts, from there we skied down the Fornelet red into Plagne Montalbert.

The runs into Plagne Montalbert were really lovely, and empty too. A great spot for getting away from the crowds it seems. It’s a lovely little resort at 1250 with good connections up to La Plagne. It’s very traditional and has several restaurants and bars, ski school and a good nursery ski area. We had a fantastic pizza a piste side restaurant, it was very reasonable at 9-12euros each. After lunch we went up the Montalbert then Fornelet chairs and then needing some warming up we skied down the Pralloud long unpisted winding blue through the woods with some great powder.

Later in the afternoon, with the skies clearing to leave a lovely clear sky, we headed up the Becoin chairlift to do the unpisted Sardane red run, having had a great time skiing down the powdery moguls, we did it once more for good measure and then headed up the Z button and then the Verdons Nord, which was quite a slow, though sheltered chairlift. From here we went down the Les Verdons blue run which again was unpisted and absolutely fantastic powder all the way down. It being pretty chilly and 4.30 we decided to call it quits and head in for a hot chocolate in La Maison bar, and what fantastic hot chocolates they do, I’d definitely recommend a visit.

Photo’s © Arthur Bullard

The snow was good with only a few icy patches in places and the long Mont Blanc run took us all the way down into the pretty village of Montchavin (1250m). En route we’d spotted lots of nice looking red runs so took the Montchavin and Pierres Blanches chair lifts back up for another run down again. This time we took the Pierre Blanches blue run from the top which led to the l’esselet red run, a real horror of a red with large patches of grass and rocks that threatened to tear our skis to shreds. Luckily the run wasn’t a long one and before long we joined the Montchavin red run, a fantastic sweeping red and easily everyone’s favourite run of the day. In fact we enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again before skiing back down to Montchavin itself for a spot of lunch.

We ate lunch at the Creperie Les Cavagnes, situated 50m from the bottom of the Montchavin chair lift. Being typical Brits we sat at a table outside and were impressed to get table service from the very friendly staff. The food was great and very reasonable with a croques monsieur and a diet coke setting us back 9 euros each.

After lunch the weather got worse with heavier snow and windier conditions. After suffering on a particularly cold chairlift up to the Dos Rond (2340m) we decided to head back to Plagne Centre and the shelter of the trees via Plagne Bellecote. On the shushing run down to Bellecote the piste was clear and we managed to clock a speed of 40mph.

We spent the rest of the afternoon going up the Colarado lift and down the numerous blues and red that run down to La Plagne Centre. We hooked up with some friends of different ski levels and spent a very valuable couple of hours filming our skiing and offering critiques, with the blue Capella run being a particularly good run for practicing our techniques.

At the end of the day we headed to Dark Dog bar for some well deserved apres ski.

Photo’s © Arthur Bullard

Flyng is often thought of as being the only option for a ski weekend, but in reality most cheap airlines fly to the airports that are a longer transfer time to many French Alpine resorts (i.e. Lyon or Geneva), the transfer time can often be as much as 5 hours. So this time we decided to give the train a go for our ski weekend.

We arrived at St Pancras on Wednesday night and caught the 17:55 Eurostar to Paris. With the usual Eurostar efficiency we arrived in Paris at 21:20 local time. Originally we had planned to then catch the overnight train to Bourg St Maurice which would be a really good option as all you would need to do is get the Metro or taxi to Gare d’Austerlitz and then get the overnighter at around 11pm. This would get you into resort around 8am in the morning in time for your day’s skiing.

On the local train from Chambery to Aime

However we decided to stay in Paris for the evening and catch the morning fast train. We stayed at Hotel de France in Paris which was about 5 minutes walk to Gare du Lyon. This was a basic hotel, but clean and good value. We got the train from Gare du Lyon at 6.5oam, this took us to Chambery in about 3 hours. We then took a local train to Aime La Plagne. With a pre-arranged taxi to take us up the mountain we were in La Plagne centre by 12.30.

The total cost of the train journey was less than £150 return. We stayed in the UCPA in La Plagne centre and before we knew it we’d checked in, picked up our skis and were on the piste. This was helped by the fact that the UCPA is literally on the piste in La Plagne centre. The UCPA deal is all inclusive so you don’t have to run around when you get into resort picking up lift passes and skis. The lift pass is given to you when you check in and the skis can be picked up downstairs. The total cost for 3 nights stay, 4 days skiing was £250, including all meals, lift pass and ski / snowboard hire, you really couldn’t find cheaper than that! More about the UCPA in later posts.

Photo’s © Arthur Bullard

The weather was varied with snow flurries one minute and brief spells of sunshine the next. It’s the first time we’ve all visited La Plagne so we spent the afternoon familiarising ourselves with the area.

We headed up the Verdons Nord chairlift and took the long blue down into Aime La Plagne where the slopes were busier with more ski schools snaking down the pistes. We then went up the Brolley chair lift a couple of times and tried out the red runs coming down from either side. The snow conditions were really good, with a fresh layer of powder covering the slopes.

We finished our first afternoon’s skiing with another couple of trips up the Colarado chair lift, first coming back down the red run which was probably the worst run of the day snow wise, with large patches of ice, and then finished with another trip down the Milka blue run to end our day nicely.

Tomorrow we’ll head over to the Glacier de Bellecote, and then we may well try out the intrigueing looking free ride park we spotted under the Colarado chair lift. Fingers crossed for lots more snow overnight and blue skies in the morning!

Photo’s © Arthur Bullard

So what is a TwiSkiTtrip?

A Twitrip is a trip that is driven by twitter followers suggestions and recommendations. We’ve just put our own ski slant on the concept. Our TwiSkiTrip will be asking our readers and followers for recommendations such as the best ski runs, the best mountain restaurants, other things to do in resort etc. We’ll be taking up some of these recommendations and tweeting our thoughts. In addition we will be doing some general blogging and tweeting whilst in the area. We went on the first ever TwiSkiTrip to the Three Valleys in December 2009 which proved popular with our followers.

How can you get involved?

Please please please help us out by sending us information on the best ski runs, lifts, mountain restaurants and other things to do in the La Plagne area. We’ll be sending out requests on a regular basis so just follow us on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/skiconcierge) and help us out.

Some Tweet Tips for the #TwiSkiTrip:

• Please start any tweets directed to me @skiconcierge. I’ll retweet as many as I can.
• Don’t forget we’ll be in La Plagne, so tips only for that area please.
• Please tag your tips with #TwiSkiTrip.
• Lastly, thanks to everyone that helps us out on our TwiSkiTrip!

1. Of all the visitors to La Plagne 76% are French. Of the foreigners British come highest with nearly 13% of visitors coming from Britain, closely followed by the Belgians and Dutch.

2. 50% of holidayers to La Plagne come with their families.

3. 15% of all visitors to La Plagne are snowboarders.

4.  Only 5% of visitors to La Plagne are beginners.

5. 36% of all visitors are returning to La Plagne.

6. 13% of all visitors regularly ski in La Plagne.

7. Men make up the vast proportion of La Plagne visitors with 65% (get on over single gals!)

8.  33% of all visitors to La Plagne are aged between 35 and 44 years old. A quarter older than in other surrounding resorts.

9. 436,517 holidays were taken in La Plagne in total in the 2008 / 2009 ski season.

10. La Plagne has the only official bobsleigh run in the whole of France 

The last interesting fact is that no doubt you’ll have a great holiday in La Plagne should you win our great competition at http://www.ski-concierge.com/competitions.