Le Hameau de la Sapinière — Hotel in Albertville

After being underwhlemed with the so-called 4* Residences of Montana and CGH (both at Tignes) I opted this year to go for the Montalys apartments at Les Menuires.||And let me tell you I was not disappointed. Many of the points which irked me with the other two establishments were very well addressed with this vendor:||a. Calling a Spade a Spade. An apartment for 4 is indeed an apartment which is very roomy for 4, and not falsely advertised as an apartment for 6.||b. No nitpicking - Guests are spared the ever-so-majestic kitchen utensil count ceremony upon arrival. Towels are changed once during the week, and lo-and-behold even a fresh set of toilet paper rolls is provided. On the slightly nitpicking side on my end: 2 trash bags are not enough (but you can ask for more and not get sneered at). Also getting by with only one dishwasher run perday is a bit ambitious considering the small size of the dishwasher - certainly not an option if you have both breakfast and dinner in the apartment. And finally - the absence of a bona-fide oven in the kitchen (there is a microwave oven only) induces some creativity on us aspiring-to-cook residents, but its certainly fine.||c. All around service is very good. Even though the Montalys itself does not have reception, the one of the sister Montagnettes just 25 meters away serves this purpose very well.||||The apartment itself is very very nice - a bit sporadic on the closet space, but still very cozy, warm, clean, and, as mentioned spacious - apartment. The one we were at was a duplex with Master Bedroom and kitchen on the top floor and one bedroom on the lower one. ||A real ski-in ski out experience. It is literally 5 steps away between skiroom and the slopes and I assume that if we had more snow it would have been even less.||The free local spa is small and includes a hot tub (ok... a warm tub) and a sauna. What I liked about it is that each room can reserve it for a 30 minute period, so you have great privacy.||||The slightly less-than-gerat attributes:||1. location - I guess having it all is not that easy. On one hand the ski-in ski-out is, as mentioned, super, but on the other, its a a good walk to the center of town (20-25 mins), and around 200 meters from where the shuttle drops you. No biggie if you have a car, but without a car one would be very limited - shuttle runs only until 11PM, not having a grocery store within walking distance can be unpleastant without wheels.||2. ski room is tiny. No benches, but we had great weather so we could always put our boots on outside||3. And the biggest complaint - the wifi just did not work. Usually it would not work at all, and when it did it was way too slow. So... no weather reports... no restaurant ratings... no facebook for the kids... heck... I had to shlep through all the bars in town and then some by foot to find a place that I could watch the Superbowl in its entirety (most bars close at 2AM come hell or high water). While in my arrangement the wifi was free, I still could not even pay and get a working wifi connection. But I kid you not - had I known I would not have wifi in the apartment, I would have gone someplace else. ||4. Ski equipment - there is a "deal" with the nearby (and only one in the La Sapiniere area) ski store. The equipment is the worst I ever rented, as is the service. Just take the equipment, and on your way to your first run, stop at La Croisette, where the main store is. They will change your equipment without any problems. As a matter of fact they realize the situation and almost expect this... go figure...||||Verdict - I will definitely want to return to the Montalys or another one of the Montagnette group establishments. Moreover I even understand that the Montalys is the bottom-of-the-line, so things, as good as they were, can get even better. I will make sure, though that my contract includes a...

Just returned from a week skiing here as a family of 4. I would recommend this resort.||||First of all I would say the staff are extremely helpful (more so than other CGH resorts we have stayed in), helping from the first second we arrived. Made us feel very welcome. ||||Location is very good for Les Menuires and is ski in/out. It has about 50 rooms and the furthest walk from the snow to your room will be about 100 yards (plus a few steps). ||||Accommodation a very good size. We had a 3 bed (for a family of 4) which was more than enough (72 sq m). Liked the fact that the kitchen is a separate small room and the living area was well laid out. Hot water very hot and great pressure meant that showers and baths were great. Kitchen is good and with a “proper” fan oven which is rare for France (in other resorts it has usually been a combi over that does not get sufficiently hot). Rooms all warm with lots of electric radiators.||||Sadly couldn’t find any English TV channels so if you want to watch something on tv then bring an HDMI cable and a device to plug into.||||Wifi is terrible but this is not a criticism of the residence, wifi in all alps resorts seems to be bad and a result of poor connectivity of the whole resort. Most of the time we used 4G which was ok but also a little slow sometimes. ||||We had boot warmers in the room which was great as it meant we could get ready in our room without trekking to a separate ski room. And ski’s stored in a cupboard outside the front door. That said I did see a ski storage / locker room to the right of the Sport 2000 ski shop so I think some rooms get allocated a locker here.||||The Sport 2000 ski hire shop is very convenient. Found it to be a little more expensive than the Intersport in the Reberty area but for the convenience the price is worth it as Reberty is not walking distance, you need to drive to get there. And the staff are great and the equipment seemed good (slightly better quliaty than we have had in other Intersport sites in the past, eg my son was given new skis)||||The one thing I would have liked is the option of early check-in which they don’t offer and which is a shame as is something we arrived at lunch time and would have happily paid for and could earn the resort a little extra income. Check in is 5pm and our room was ready about 4pm which was good given they were full for half term week.||||There is a large room with sofas and bean bags for you too kill some time if arriving too early or needing to kill time if leaving late. Didn’t see any formal space to leave luggage, a few people chose to leave suitcases here.||||Parking is limited and if you want one of the covered parking spots then my experience is that you need to book early, especially if visiting in peak months. All the covered parking seems to be bays that are two cars deep so unfortunately you need to pay for 2 spaces which is ok if you are 2 families but not ideal if just 1 car. They also have about 12 outdoor uncovered parking spots (also chargeable) on the right as you enter the site, although they are a little tricky to get into. There is quite a lot of free parking on the side of the road (on the hairpin of the road junction that leads down to the residence) so not far away; this is what we used and it was fine although all the cars were quite dirty after a week, I think just from passing traffic.||||Overall a great resort,...

We arrived at 15.30 and were greeted with a smile and a friendly welcome. Check in was easy and hassle free. We were given good information and advice about the local area and services within the apartments. |||| I can not commend the staff more, they were brilliant in every contact we had with them.||||We had the one bedroom alcove apartment which was spacious and comfortrable for the three of us. We loved the fact that the lounge seating was just that, not converting to beds at night but just a lounge area with four seats and a coffee table. The only down side to the apartment is the cooking facilities. You get 2 cooking rings and a standard microwave so Lasagne is out! We managed, but found it difficult. All they need to do is put in a multi-function oven, grill, oven, mircowave combination and the cooking would be far easier. You may also find that some utensils are lacking, such as a meauring jug, wooden spoon ...but it does have a tea pot , creative menus are the answer! Lovely mid week towel change. ||||There is a resataurant which offers a sit down and take away service in the appartment block. we didn''t use this. ||||We used Sport 2000 in La Sapiniere for skis and boot hire and the equipment was fine, my son said his boots were the most comfortable he had ever had. The staff were polite, friendly and knowledgeable.||||It would be nice to have a small shop in the hamelet, however we found that walking to Reberty was no problem and catching the bus up was easy. Bread could be ordered at receprion and delivered to your apartment. We also used our Sledge to go down the slope to Croisette for more substantial shopping, getting the bus back. The bus stop was at the entrance to the hamlet, 5 mins walk.||||One of the best things for us, was the location, on the piste, allowing ski in ski out. So easy just a few steps away. The Spa is private, you book a 30 mins slot, and it is just you, lovely, we didn't find we needed more than 30 mins. Parking can be paid for, but in low season there is loads of free parking on the main road.||||Overall, we will be back, but may need bring some sort of...