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  4 of 5 20/08/2005 @ 23:28:00 |
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| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
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| Review Detail |
| I visited Mottaret in 2005 in a group of 8. This was my second visit to the 3 valleys having previously been to Val Thorens. On both ocasions we have had huge dumps of snow and have had some excellent powder days, although the volume of snow made visibility poor and off piste pretty dangerous. But hey, we can't complain about the weather when we get fresh powder every morning! Mottaret itself is in the middle of the 3 valleys and is slightly higher up the valley than Meribel. It is a great location for exploring all of the 3 Valleys as we done, visiting Meribel, Val Thorens, Les Menuires and Courchevel. The resort is quite small, but that does make access to the slopes very easy, and it's not long before you are onto some really quiet open runs. There are a few runs (greens) which link one run to the next which are very boarder unfriendy (Flat!) so watch out. The resort is pretty boarder friendly in general, I have found that the third Valley (Val Thorens area) is very good for boarders but very busy, the middle valley (Meribel/ Mottaret) is good for boarders and a little less crowded, and the first valley (Courchevel) has some excellent wide open and quiet runs although lower down towards the town there are loads of learner skiers zig-zaging their way across the slopes. Mottaret is a lot quieter than Merribel and the apres ski is limited. This suited us though as it made for early nights to bed and fresh early starts in the morning. If you are after a more livelier time then Meribel or Val Thorens is better for you. There are a few nice places to eat but nothing really that would suit a tight budget, so if you plan on eating out every night, take your flexible friend. On that topic, we arived at around 10 o'clock at night absolutely starving, and after dumping the bags and settling in, went out to grab a piza or some snacks to keep us going, but nowhere was open or serving food. So we had to retreat to our beds and found ourselves queuing at the supermarket at 8am waiting for it to open. In general though the resort was good and we had an excellent time. In our group we had a mixture of abilities including one absolute beginer, but there was definetly something for everyone. |
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| Strengths |
Excellent base for exploring the 3 Valleys.
Good, quick access to the slopes.
Friendly pubs and resteraunts.
Quiet. |
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| Hot Spots |
| There aren't many venues within the resorts and I'm hopeless at remembering names of places. There was a pub near to our accomodation run by a German bloke which was pretty nice. He has 70's nights amongst other things and it was the busiest bub that we found, Right in the centre of the resort, next to the chemists, there is a good little pub, quite pricy, but it has a giant tv screen which shows live football from around Europe just about every night. Next door to that is a nice French resteraunt which we visited a couple of times (Even tried the snails). Just around the corner is another place which is open untill the early hours but is nothing great to talk about. As far as the runs go there are far too many to mention and I can never remember the names of them. Just watch out for the flat greens through the trees! |
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| Weaknesses |
Very hilly (that sounds crazy, I know) Our appartment was sat on quite a steep incline and the access was via a fanicular train. This broke down a couple of times and the walk up there was a nightmare. There were appartments further up than us too.
Quiet. |
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