Club Med Valmorel Chalets - French Alps — Hotel in Albertville

A lovely place to stay.

LOCATION The location couldn't be better, I was a first time skiier and it is right next to the baby slopes for scaredy cats like me. It looked like the more difficult slopes were quick and easy to get to also.

Valmorel is a beautiful place, I suspect regardless of what ski resort you stay at, but Club Med had the advantage of being the resort the highest up the mountain, and thus the furthest away from the new accommodation currently being built further downhill (downmountain?) which isn't so pretty to look at.

GETTING THERE They offered transport to and from the airport which you do pay for but is well worth it. Our driver on the way there got us to the resort in what must have been a record setting time, and it was terrifying, but also awesome 😅

And yes the driver on the way there was holding a sign with our name on it at our arrival gate when we arrived at the airport! This pleased me.

ROOMS The rooms are pretty good, I stayed in the standard type one. The bathrooms are done up in a very cute cabin style, and the beds are huge. The only thing I can think of that wasn't great was the fact the bathroom doesn't have an exhaust fan so it does steam up the place, but that's not really a big problem and there is a sliding door between the bed section and the bathroom which reduces the issue by 80%. Oh, and there are no fridges in the rooms to store snacks you ferret away from the buffet... but maybe because you're not supposed to do that...

SNOW SPORTS Arriving on a Tuesday, I couldn't sign up for the "all included" group ski lessons because they were part of a week long course and by Wednesday they would have been well ahead of me. They do not mention this at all when you book and basically said "too bad". They were able to sign me up for a private lesson that day- for 75 euros. It was more enjoyable than I think a class would have been. If you've never been skiing before, consider paying for one private lesson and then heading to the nearest baby slope and throwing yourself down it repeatedly as the best way to hone your new found skills and have fun.

It is simple to hire the needed snow gear once you get there, this is not included in the price of your reservation but they are pretty clear about that when you book. It is expensive, again, but you are paying for convenience, and convenient it is.

FOOD I quite liked the buffet. I read some reviews online about the food being cold and sub-par, but I don't agree with that at all.

The drinks included in the price of the reservation are limited in variety, but adequate. They WILL have menus on every table trying to upsell you ridiculously expensive wine, but the free beer is perfectly acceptable.

EXTRA ACTIVITIES The extras are hard to book because everyone wants to - the spa treatments, a la carte restaurant area etc. You have to do this well in advance and we didn't end up using either because of this. The restaurant for dinner was booked out 6 days in advance. The spa treatments you could book for the next day, but not the same day. I would have only had a spa treatment on a whim/if I felt too tired to ski more that day.

One disappointment happened on our last night there. They had a fireworks show scheduled which I was very keen to see, and looking at their schedule was at 10:15pm. We were ready to go! Unfortunately at 10pm, from our room, we heard the sky booms and realised it had started early and we missed it! Maybe I should have been ever more keen and wandered down early!

EXTRA SERVICES Be forewarned, if you want to wash a t-shirt, they will charge you 8 euros. Per shirt. Just for the washing. Plan accordingly.

The WiFi is free for the standard speed, with the option to upgrade. The speed of the free wifi is absolutely good enough, however, the range of the Wifi is not - it didn't work in our room.

WOULD I GO BACK? Yes, but I'd need to save for a while first. It is expensive, because you are paying for convenience. It made our holiday easy but it is not...

I have got the worst experience with Clubmed Valmorel ever. First of all We had a trip to Clubmed Val-Thorens, but the day before journey should have started, we received information that it is closed due to COVID, in result we were redirected to Valmorel. First of all we were placed in the room nr. 2010 where we found out that: no water pressure in the shower no bath robes and slippers we requested bathrobes and slippers through the reception - never delivered no drinking water in room no fridge in room After spending an hour on the reception, where unqualified staff run in an out to a MANAGER to clarify every question (the MANAGER who did not come ot to sort out the problem), we were notified that everything is fully booked, and no options available today, but tomorrow we can be moved to DELUX room for additional cost of 800+eur. We agreed to that. In the evening we noticed that a lot of rooms are marked with special sticker, which means rooms are free. We referred to reception desk again and WHAT A SURPRISE, deluxe rooms were available. After moving to it new problems occurred: Slippers of size 36 - for a average man with size 43 it doesn’t fit. half of people in the hotel are men. For an average women aswell. mini bar that was described as one of the amenities was empty. we notified reception about this 3 days in a row, nothing happened. Neither minibar was filled, nor adequate clarification why it happens received. Reception desk Member Elias told us he is fighting with the manager for that - which is ridiculous, because in a normal way the problem should be solved immediately, or if it is not possible, alternative should be provided. 1 tea bag in double room with a teapot..should we share it or what? wifi in the room almost doesn’t work, receive a call is impossible, even open local app was a problem. Regarding the service itself - it looks like students on the vacation working - as no quality standards of service has been provided in any part of the hotel. We were informed that we may use the spa zone with sauna and indoor and outdoor pool - but in fact when we showed up, sauna was not working/closed, the outside pool was completely frozen and the regular pool was used for aqua aerobics. After the 8 hours staying in hotel, at the diner we were informed that our safety deposit was not activated even though it was, so we had to pause our diner to go to the reception again and show that the payment to guarantee the credit card was actually done. We ordered wine from a paid whine list, we were informed that sommelier is coming to serve us. After opening a bottle she never offered to taste it first how it usually happens.

Covid safety measures during the diner are dramatic, as people flows are not monitored.

Most crazy thing - the old key from the previous room which we left the day before , still opened the door of room 2010- which means I can easily access all the stuff of other guests, as well as anybody can access my room. The guests were inside the room for sure. The safety is below minimum. This is unacceptable. When I informed reception about this problem they told me some kind of a story, but it 5 minutes the key has been blocked. So for sure this is lack of security and control.

On the 3rd day I send all my complaints to an email provided - to get a refund for the left days. Reception staff member was running all around saying the problem is being reviewed, next morning he told me that somebody will call me TODAY from a general office in Paris, to sort it out, but that never happened, nobody called, nobody offered anything as a compensation, for example free parking, or massage, none of the problem mentioned above were solved either. So basically the company decided just to keep silence until my vacation is over.

I can continue the list of all the lacks in service for this trip. In general the quality of the hotel and service does not correspond to its price and 4 stars hotel that...

I have just returned with my four children, aged 9-14 and was absolutely blown away by how good it was. I was confident that it would be nice and child friendly, but it far exceeded my expectations in every way. The children all said it was their best holiday ever and it was for me too. There is a lovely atmosphere and culture among the staff, who are clearly very passionate about making their guests time unforgettable and are all very friendly, enthusiastic and professional. The food was world class and the choices were endless and able to have as much or as little as one liked and it was great to meet and chat to head chef Ayyoub who is extremely impressive and ran it brilliantly. The buffet service worked very well and it was mind blowing to see literally hundreds of people served at a time, barely having to queue, if at all for such a high standard of food, much of which is cooked in front of you. After choosing your food and entering the restaurant seating area, there were numerous superb waiting staff, ensuring you were taken straight to a beautifully laid table, offering wine, treats for the children and Walid in particular deserves a special thank you and gave us the warmest of welcomes every evening. This gave it much more of a top end silver service feel than buffet. We tended to sit in the same area so the children could always find each other after returning with second, third or fourth helpings!|Club Med Manager Jerry seemed to be everywhere all of the time and from day one knew our names and was incredibly attentive in making sure we were happy and enjoying ourselves. Helena and the other bar staff were fantastic and the choices of house (inclusive) beers and wines were excellent and cocktails looked great. The piste side barbecue starters at lunch time were a real treat, accompanied by a drink before one even got into the club and the live music was great and created an amazing atmosphere. |The resort is great for beginners and being able to ski in and out was very spoiling, even when the snow was thinnning a bit lower down. It also has endless off piste possibilities for more advanced skiers (which I think is massively understated in any marketing of the resort) and I had one of the best mornings skiing of my life guided by ESF’s Nicolas, who found untouched slopes with lovely spring snow (even without having had much fresh snow very recently). Having pre booked childrens’ ski hire, they were ready in our locker less than 20m from the piste, which made life very easy with four children and Alfonso and Luca in the ski shop were so helpful throughout. Alain and Remy were amazing instructors with the children and I had another great morning with Christian. This week was half term (Paris and UK) and notoriously busy in most resorts but it didn’t feel crowded and barely had to queue for lifts at all. We all met loads of lovely people too and children made new friends in no time. Alexis in the gym was great and encouraged my 14 year old who was keen to make use of that. I really couldn’t recommend this place more highly and will definitely return. Thank...