Skiing single in france

Howya folks new to forum

this is my 3rd year skiing but my 1st going it alone, have been to mayrhofen and st anton in the past but this year have booked flights to france and going to stay in a hostel.

am set on either chamonix or tignes, though the hostel in tignes is in la boisse which is about 3 miles down the mountain from the main resort. Have no idea about any of the french resorts, just fancied a change from austria.

Any advice is gladly appreciated

Cheers

scratch":3haayf7k said:

am set on either chamonix or tignes, though the hostel in tignes is in la boisse which is about 3 miles down the mountain from the main resort. Have no idea about any of the french resorts, just fancied a change from austria.

Any advice is gladly appreciated

Cheers

Click to expand...

Welcome scratch,

Tignes:

I don't know la Boissé at all or where it could be. For a hostel, 3 miles down the mountain doesn't sound that bad? Especially Tignes/Val d'Isère aren't that cheap.

Chamonix:

I've stayed at Le Chamoniard Volant. It was pretty cheap and not far from the bus and a short walk in town. I enjoyed my stay and yes, I was solo also.

http://www.chamoniard.com/pages/site_anglaispag.html

I've never been to Austria, so I couldn't really say how France versus Austria. The skiing in France is great and the terrain is generally huge, especially if you go to Tignes. Chamonix is more seperate into a series of ski areas around the town of Chamonix.

Both are great, but very different from one another.

scratch":gj3vgrh2 said:

Howya folks new to forum

this is my 3rd year skiing but my 1st going it alone, have been to mayrhofen and st anton in the past but this year have booked flights to france and going to stay in a hostel.

am set on either chamonix or tignes, though the hostel in tignes is in la boisse which is about 3 miles down the mountain from the main resort. Have no idea about any of the french resorts, just fancied a change from austria.

Any advice is gladly appreciated

Cheers

Click to expand...

Les Boisses
More of a smaller outpost near Tignes. Well-connected by lifts into Tignes. I skied by it - but it did not seem very large. I'd check bus schedules into Tignes. The skiing in Val/Tignes is great!

Chamonix
Much bigger. Tons of cheap places to stay. Buses in the morning are a little chaotic, but easy enough to do.

I would have trouble chosing based on skiing. If you are an intermediate, probably Val/Tignes has more terrain. However, Boisses may be a little quitet at night.

thanks for the replies folks

have booked the hostel in tignes les boisses. its 3 miles down the mountain from the main resort and theres regular buses until 12 at night.

good value as well, 455 euros at high season for accomodation food and area ski pass for 6 days 7 nights, and discount on the ski hire.

looking forward to it

If you are traveling single, you might want to consider taking a lesson while you are there, even if you're good skier. In the higher level groups, the instructors are really happy to take you off-piste and show you parts of the mountain that you would never be able to find safely by yourself. The cost is also fairly reasonable. And it's a great way to find some skiing buddies and to spend some time with some real live Europeans - watch out for the Belgians....

I had a great week a few years ago in Tignes, with an instructor on his then brand-new Pocket Rockets, who threw front flips off the edge of the catwalk and took us to some fun (and scary) places. Oh, and I learned a lot of new techniques too, as an added bonus.

Of course, there are no guarantees. If it's peak season (French school vacations - last 3 weeks in Feb) then the group may be a bit larger - say, up to 7 or so. And there's always the possibility that you'll end up with the grumpy cigarette-smoking 50-year old (who can still ski your butt off) but in general I've had very good experiences in several different resorts during 5 years skiing in France. These have generally been with the ESF, which is much improved from a few years ago, thanks to some healthy competition. Just don't be afraid to change groups if the one you end up in is not working for you. I've also done a couple of off-piste tours with the ski-school - sort of like guiding on the cheap, if you don't want to commit to the full week.

Good luck - you'll be blown away by Tignes/Val D'Isere. Make sure to check out the apres scene in Val - much more lively than Tignes.