Chalet de l'Ours — Hotel in Albertville

It's a shame that Trip advisor does not have a 'good' category, as this is where Chalet Altitude falls for me. It is not very good, and it is above average.||We booked independently for two families to take a large 4 bedroom Chalet-apartment in the building. Booking was relatively straightforward as was deposit and final payment.||||On arrival in report, finding the car park was not easy (it would help as part of arrival information that they provided directions to the Car Park (particularly when you have pre-booked and pre-paid for a parking spot). ||For those who are planning on Parking, the entrance is on the righthand side after you pass Chalet d'ours Sport2000 ski shop, before you reach the front entrance to the Chalet Altitude building (see, that wasn't so difficult was it?)||||Arrival is chaos, as ever in a ski resort. If you are driving, get there early, it will make your life far easier. Reception staff were pretty stressed (but always professional, not particularly warm, but alway professional!), but we managed to get room keys, paid credit card deposit and then got the luggage from the basement level car park into the building. ||There is a lift from the Car park (one floor) to the main reception, then you have to change lifts to get to your apartment.||Each apartment has its own ski lockers located on the ground floor and there is direct access to the road from the ski locker room. The room key cards also open the ski lockers. Best to get your ski gear straight into the lockers from the car.||||Do the inventory immediately! We arrived to find a massive dent in the toaster. The reception claimed they knew nothing about it! I shall take them at their word. ||It was replaced immediately and the shower in our room that wasn't draining correctly was also fixed immediately. They are responsive!||||The apartment was large (small gripe to come). Living/cooking area was spacious, but (here comes the gripe) the bedrooms were typically small (you could walk around the bed without touching the wall, or at night, cracking your shin on the edge of the bed). Tiny wardrobe space for clothes, and no hooks in the room (although there are ample hooks in the living area). The two ensuite Bathrooms were adequate, although the extractor fans did not work.||||The balconies hadn't been cleared when we arrived and as we had no snow all week and fabulous sunshine, it would have been nice to be able to use the balconies...alas, no shovels were provided either so we simply looked out of the doors!||Towels are provided, but they are wafer thin. They do get changed on Wednesday (as long as you put the request in writing). If you like fluffy towels, take your own.||||Spa is great. Sauna, pool, jacuzzi. We used it a couple of times. It was worth having it in the building and I should probably have made better use of it.||||Cooking facilities and kitchen was well stocked. We didn't cook very much, but if you plan on cooking, it is well stocked with utensils pans etc.||There is also a mini-market in the building which is fabulous. It receives daily deliveries from the bakery, so you don't even need to leave the building for your croissants and baguettes in the morning. We popped down (in the slippers provided) and there was ample stock of everything.||||There are no pharmacies in Arc 2000 of 1950 so you won't be able to buy paracetamol, Ibruprofen or any of the basics in the shops (I know, bizarre right!!). But there is a slick system in place where you can place an order for what you need at the reception of Chalet Altitude and they fax the pharmacy in 1650 and then, you pick up and pay for your order in a small room in Place Olympique in Arc2000. My advice is to bring ample supply of pills and cold remedies if you are prone to headaches, and other aches and pains etc.||||So why would I only give Chalet Altitude an Average? Several reasons really. The walls and ceilings are paper thin for a start. We were on the seventh floor (the top floor in the lift). What we didn't realise is that the English holiday companies also use the Chalets for Catered stays for their guests. So whilst we were on the 7th floor, the chalet next door was on three floors so we had people on two floors directly above us and could here them snore, move around etc. ||The building is not ski-in ski out, which is a really pain. There is a drag lift about 50 metres from the building. You have to scale up a small bank (stated as snow at the beginning of the week, and required crampons to climb the ice wall by the end).||||Also, there are no decent restaurants or bars on that level of the resort, so you would have to get the lift up to place Olympique, then another lift to 1950. If you want to be in the thick of it, then stay in 1950. If you don't mind the schlep, then Chalet Altitude is fine.||The bar in the building shuts after 8pm and I never saw a single person use it, so it is pretty much there for show.||I previously mentioned that there were at least 4 holiday companies using the building, mostly English. Whilst I didn't have an issue with this, I did find them really unfriendly. They would pass you in the corridor or the lift and wouldn't say hello! Perhaps their customer service training didn't cover the "When you are in uniform, you are representing our company bit" - Everyone you pass is a potential customer this season or next!||Finally (and rather petty gripe) is that when you leave, you have to give back your room keys (basket on the reception desk), but no-one tells you that you will actually need one card to exit from the locked car park (we left at 05:30 to avoid traffic going down the mountain). So having packed the car, got the family in, driven to the Car park exit, I had to run back up to the reception to get a card to open the gate at the car park, then run back through the front of the building to give the card back. - There needs to be a smarter way of leaving on transfer day.||All in all, we had a good week. Would I stay there again? No I wouldn't, but not because there is anything particularly wrong, but my personal preference is to ski-in ski-out, and be in the thick of it when it comes to bars and...

This was the first time I had stayed in a chalet and it was poor compared to the many ski hotels and some chalet-hotels I have stayed in. If it were not for my friends telling me this was a poor example of a chalet it would be my first and last chalet hol ! ||||The first shocker was before we arrived when we realised that the chalet staff took two consecutive days off per week. What we were to learn was that not only did this mean that we had to eat out for two nights, but breakfast was a few boxes of cereal (but I can't drink milk) and some baguettes and croissants left (not enough for one each). Breakfast in general was very basic but on these two days we were constantly looking around for things like coffee, milk. No afternoon tea. This also adds quite a lot to the price you pay for the week. Our room didn't get done in any way (not even the bins emptied) for three days. ||||We went as a group of 8. Chalet took 16 people . I was really concerned to see that NON of the bedroom doors had any form of lock on and non of the rooms had a safe. Had we been staying with people we knew that would not have been a problem, but as half the guests were strangers I thought this was appalling. Had I been a woman on my own I would have been a bit scared to not be able to lock my door. As it happened everyone was fine (which I am sure is more often than not the case), but you take your chances in this chalet... Pot luck. Don't take anything private or valuable.||||The food was ok for what it was. The cook, Oscar, did a good job especially with evening meals. However, what was apparent was that Total Ski were restricting what the staff could buy. So when I asked if there was any mushroom/tomato to go with beans and eggs at breakfast I was told that they weren't allowed to buy tomatoes. This seemed to be a theme. For example, the chalet were short of mugs for breakfast . There weren't enough for one each. Wine in the evenings was good and there was enough however! Maybe they think if people have enough wine they will get away with everything else..... ||||Breakfast was supposed to be 7.30-9 am. The kitchen was tiny, the two staff didn't turn up themselves until almost 7.30 am and then had to start clearing up from the night before. Then given the lack of space, Oscar had to cook breakfast one at a time. The whole process did take a good hour or so and the only mornings we could be out early was when there was no chalet catering...||||The chalet advertises a log fire, but there is nothing with which to light a fire. No kindling, firelighters, logs. We asked for logs and Oscar did go and get us some but we did have to ask a few times over the week. Nothing much seemed to happen without asking. We used cardboard from boxes of beer to get the fire going and it became a bit of a Bear Gryll's style challenge to get the fire going at night. Funny, but shouldn't have been the case. The heating in the chalet was broken for at least 50% of the week and lots of guests complained. Someone was actually told that it was to so with global warming! You couldn't make it up. For this reason however, we really needed to log fire at night so to have nothing to put on it was bad.||||Storage in the rooms was totally inadequate for two people. I used my bag as storage all week and didn't unpack most of my things properly.||||So it was just slack and disappointing.||||On a positive note, the chalet accommodation was basically quite pleasant and definitely well located. It Total Ski sorted out the basics like door locks, catering, heating, logs - and staff not taking two consecutive days off, this could be a good chalet. As it is , I won't use...

What a great ski holiday!! We stayed here with Ski World, booked via IglooSki, for a week in a catered chalet called Nadya, number 32., in room 1. We were so well looked after by chalet staff with beautiful breakfasts and nicely presented, delicious dinners. Every day there was cake and wine every evening. The chalet accommodated 10 in five bedrooms and had a log fire, which we lit one evening. Nothing was too much trouble for the chalet staff looking after us. They prepared all the food and kept the chalet spotlessly clean. They were just so good. We shared the chalet with like-minded people. I don’t know how they managed to find people with similar interests as well as being mad about skiing!! We had lots to talk about and the whole experience was a lot of fun. There was a swimming pool and sauna available for us to use in the next chalet which was accessible via an interesting route down two lifts and through the car park underground . We hired our boots and skis from the shop below the chalet called Sport 2000 so this couldn’t have been more convenient. They were excellent and their equipment was good and the boots comfortable. We were able to store our skis and boots in the boot room beneath the chalet and there were two Ski lockers available for chalet number 32 which were on the room card key. It was a short walk down the hill onto the slopes via a pummel lift. We took lessons from Evolution 2 Ski school in Les Arcs 1950. The office and meeting point is easy to find in the Main Street in Les Arcs 1950. We had an instructor Nico who was just amazing. He boosted our confidence and our skills. He made learning fun. On the one night when the chalet staff had their day off, we took the gondola down to 1950 for a wonderful dinner in Chez Leontine cooked at the table and then came back out the same way before 11 pm. We loved Les Arcs. We knew it from years ago and it has got even better with new investment in lifts, restaurants and a ski park. The skiing was amazing and the whole holiday a lot of fun. Most people came by plane. We drove stopping twice overnight on the way down in Châlons-en-Champagne and Lyon and on the way back at Lyon and Troyes. We parked our electric car in the garage under the chalet which was easy and convenient. We found charging points were convenient and good on the journey. We had a really great holiday and I wouldn’t hesitate to book again with Ski World. Thank you. We...