|
|
|
  4 of 5, "A great resort for a holiday but I couldn't live there" 08/02/2012 @ 11:22 |
|
|
| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
|
| Booked Trip Through |
| Me |
|
| Times Visited |
| Just Once |
|
| Review Detail |
I was in PDS for 5 weeks and found it a mixed bag tbh.
There are an enormous amount of brits out there, this makes some things easy but our attitude of "don't worry, they'll be able to speak English" has had a bad effect on the French imo. I can speak French to a reasonable level so in most situations, going to a bar, restaurant, shop, everything was fine. However in the Cabinet Medical after a skier put a gash in my leg I found my French out of it's depth and the attitude of the people took a turn for the worse.
The pistes have a great level of variety to them and all levels can be well catered for. If you're a family of varying standards then you can stay within certain areas and all have a good time, altho obv better boarders will get bored with this pretty quick, more so in Morzine than anywhere else.
The parks are of varying standards, the Avoriaz park is always very busy and always well looked after, the Swiss park had big patches of dirt and grass showing when there was plenty of snow everywhere and the Mt Chery park was very badly groomed only a few days after fresh. The stash areas are all well looked after tho and offer some fantastic options.
Access to good quality powder is easy and even the seasonaires seem to stick to certain off-piste areas for some reason so untracked pow was a doddle to find, even a couple of days after fresh. Not crap little bursts off the side of the piste either, put only a little effort in and there are nice long runs.
During the holidays it is horrendously busy, busier than anywhere else I've ever been, with huge queues in Avoriaz/Morzine/Les Gets, the locals know this so go to the other less popular areas that require a bit more effort to get to so they are very busy too. Might be just me but the attitude of the tourists was a disgrace also, worst I've known.
It's the worst organised resort I've been to. If you buy your pass out there it's fine, I bought mine on the net and was sent to 3 different ticket offices to collect it and it still wasn't ready. SERMA that run the lifts won't pay the lifty's to be at work until 9 on the nail, so lifts are often 15, 30 or sometimes 60 minutes late opening, annoying if you're trying to get the first chair. Lifty's also have absolutely no idea about what's going on with the Mountain, they can't tell when or if a chair will open, even if it's next to the one they're running or if indeed they're running it!!! Also on the odd occassion that the PDS links are closed, it is impossible to find out when or if they will open. I'm still baffled that they won't use the school lines for single riders too, even when single riders are often asked to escort kids up the chairs.
The people in the resort are brilliant expecially if you can speak a bit of French, this was never better demonstrated than with the help I got from the 2 DSV shops (Twinner), one opposite the SuperMorzine bubble and the other just up from Dixie Bar & Bar Robinson on the opposite side of the street. Cedric in the former and Alain in the latter are fantastic, this is the only time in any resort that I've been given bits like new laces, replacement scews and straps. Alain repaired my Burton boots when the lace runs broke away from the boot twice and asked for nothing but a tip.
I got lucky this season and the snow was awesome, last season people weren't so lucky apparently which I guess was due to there being no peaks above 2400m, if the isotherm is high then there will be no snow. Given however that I had 3 good dumps and 2 weeks of unbroken sunshine which didn't affect the snow in my 5 weeks I was very lucky. This I suppose is why I had such a great time despite the many disasters that befell me when I was there. This is a very good resort for all abilities and pow and parks are aplenty, beware the busy periods tho and please try to learn a bit of French. |
|
| Strengths |
| Variety, Powder access, Great parks, Great motorway blues and reds, Good shops |
|
| Weaknesses |
| Badly organised, V Busy in the holidays, Grooming can be patchy |
|
| Similar Resorts Visited |
| Les Deux Alpes, Espace Killy, St Anton, Chamonix, Whistler Blackcomb |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 5 of 5, "A Well Seasoned Review" 16/04/2009 @ 13:40 |
|
|
| 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: |
|
| Price Paid |
| Lots of Work |
|
| Booked Trip Through |
| Crystal |
|
| Times Visited |
| 15 Times + |
|
| Review Detail |
After working in Avoriaz as a Crystal Rep all season and doing snow reports, I though a nice review of Avoriaz was in order, so here it is....
Transfer
Getting to Avoriaz is nice an easy with a short two hour transfer from Geneva airport, transfer companies charge around 50-70 euros for a return transfer, slightly more for a private transfer.
Accomadation
Avoriaz accomadation is pretty much all self catering apartments aprt from a single hote (Hotel Dromonts) and a couple of chalets previously run by Crystal but ahve been dropped for next season.
They are all failry small basic apartments with th exceptions of Antares, Balcon Du Soliel (still small but nicely furnished) and Sepia.
Ski Area
Well, Avoriaz is situated right in the middle od the extensive Port Du Soliel area, with over 650km of piste it is the largest linked resort ski area in europe, however its not just piste the off piste to be found here is stuff of legends, easily accessible powder tree runs in Lindarets, amazing hikes from alot of the higher chairs such as the Chaux flurie and the Cubore.
But not only that Avoriaz boasts three parks, the Chapelle which is situated by the car park has three lines of kickers and two of rails, the Arare by Haut Forts has bigger and more exciting features for more advanced riders and then there is the Stash the burton sponsored park that has everyone enjoying themselves from intermeidiate to adavnced riders it provides a more creative style of freestyle riding. Avoraz is also home to the superpipe which is massive and one smaller pip[e in the Arare park. But avoriaz isnt just for intermediate and advanced riders it is also perfect for begginers who can enjoy the long lazy blues in Lindarets, Ardent and Linga.
Avoriaz is attached to two main connections the Swiss/French side whiuch contains the resorts of Chatel,Ardent, Linga, Les Crossets, Champoussin, Morgins and Champery, this side can be mmenses with Linga and Les Crossets definitly recommended. However the areas of morgins and champoussin while having less people and good snow cover are serviced predominantly by draglifts.
The other side is Morzine and Les Gets, this is a phenominal area with places such as Nyon and Mont Chery highly recommended for there off piste and also for the Park in Mont Chery.
Overall staying in Avoriaz you are spoilt for choice regardless of your Level or Style of riding.
Nightlife
The nightlife in Avoriaz is exceptional at peak season, for live sport and banter head to Bar Tavaillion and introduce yourself to Richard the owner, For great food service and jaegarbombs head to the Wild Horse, For some good apres Ski The Place has a live band on all season from 5-6 and then from 10-12 which are always excellent, after that head down to shooters for their live djs. The average price for a beer in avoriaz is around 5 euros.
I hope this review has helped if anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.
p.s apoligies for any spelling or grammer msitakes. |
|
| Strengths |
Massive ski area
Parks (Especially the Stash)
Off Piste
Night Life
Car free resort, ski to door |
|
| Hot Spots |
Chavanette Canyon & Lindarets
The Stash
Le Tavaillion
The Place
The Wild Horse Saloon |
|
| Weaknesses |
Lack of good acommadations for £££
|
|
| Similar Resorts Visited |
Alp D'Heuz
Val Thorens |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 5 of 5, "Avoriaz has got everything" 29/03/2009 @ 14:07 |
|
|
| 1 of 7 people found the following review helpful: |
|
| Price Paid |
| ? |
|
| Booked Trip Through |
| Live here |
|
| Times Visited |
| 15 Times + |
|
| Review Detail |
| Avoriaz has got such a good pipe and two rad parks..one is a smaller park with red and blue jumps and the other is a big park with blue red and black jumps lots of rails and boxes a mini pipe and a big hip. |
|
| Strengths |
| Everything |
|
|
|
|
| Reviews: 2 |
| North Yorkshire |
|
| 5 of 5, "f*cking best resort ever" 07/11/2006 @ 20:09 |
|
|
| 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: |
|
| Price Paid |
| bowt £400-£500 |
|
| Booked Trip Through |
| Myself (flight, chalet etc) |
|
| Times Visited |
| 2-5 Times |
|
| Review Detail |
Came accross avoriaz after going on holiday to morzine after hearing some good stuff about it! While I was there I decided to check out avoriaz and was blown away by the sheer board heaveness of it! I must say iis the best resort ever in europe! The resort is packed with long, wide, technical slopes sided by forests and jumps, the runs are absolutely amazing with a massive range from long to short, from easy to hard etc it has everything! Not only that but the 2 snow parks are absolutely mint... yet again they have a massive range so that the fun never stops and so you never get bored with all the possible varieties!
Also it is situated in portes du soleil with many surrounding resorts which can be easily passed into with the extensive network of lifts, so xc is amazing!
Also situated next to morzine wherethere is a great apres ski experience with all the pubs, bars, clubs, activities, ice hockey etc!
To put it in short its just got all round excellence for boarding! |
|
|
|
|
| Reviews: 1 |
| Worcestershire |
|
| 4 of 5 05/12/2005 @ 21:46 |
|
|
| 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: |
|
| Price Paid |
| £500 |
|
| Booked Trip Through |
| Crystalski |
|
| Times Visited |
| 2-5 Times |
|
| Review Detail |
| What can I say! Massive ara for the money, You can board to your door at the end of the day, fast lifts so your not sitting around in chairs all day, the place is wikid. We went in the first week of march for two years on the trot and the last time 2004 we went at the end of Feb, conditions were great in Feb but it was very busy French school holls. We were well chuffed we had a massive dump on the first night which helped, fresh powder for three days on the trot, nice. I didnt think the area was ugly, I know some do. I went to Val last year and would definately put Avoriaz up there with it. |
|
| Strengths |
Superpipe is just awsome
Massive area
Some cool parks with big kickers
Nice long runs
The Wall is crazy
ski over the boarder and do two counntries for the price of one. |
|
| Weaknesses |
Very bussy
Be carefull some big cliffs with minimum netting!
Food was poor in resort not very diverse (to French)I'm a veg! |
|
| Similar Resorts Visited |
Morzine
Valdisere
Tignes |
|
|
|
|
| Read more reviews for resorts in FRANCE. |
|
|
|