Hotel Le Hameau Des Eaux D'orelle — Hotel in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne

Just a huge mistake. I googled "cheap apartments in the Trois Vallees" and lived to regret it. True, it was cheap, approximately 1/3rd of the price of similar in Courchevel or VT at New Year but firstly Austria is a better ski experience than France and if you can't afford to stay in a proper resort then go less often.||||In it's defence, it does what it says on the tin. There is a regular shuttle from the Residence to/ from the ski lift. There is a well stocked, reasonably priced ski hire shop there. There is a 15 minute gondola from Orelle into the 3V, but it takes you to the Eastern edge so if you want to get to Courchevel you really need to go some... and you are skiing similar pistes every day... And there is a cafe that serves beer and wine 20 metres from the gondola when you come down which closes at 7pm.||||But that is it. ||||Ticket office, lift, ski shop and cafe. Absolutely nothing else. ||||Talking about the Hameau des Eaux d'Orelle, the other descriptions are fairly accurate. The apartments are a good enough size, warm and plenty of hot water. They all have balconies but the 'resort' itself is pretty much a ghost town. Christine and Renee in the restaurant do a great job and provide reasonably priced food and a good take away service. The supermarket in the Hameau is a joke, Foie Gras and 4 sausages was the meat offering. You need a car to go to Carrefour in the next town - I rented a 9 seater VW Caravelle from RentaCar Chambery for €500 which was incredible value. But there is absolutely nothing else there. No table tennis table, babyfoot, pool table, live music dart board. This place could be an absolute gem.... Make a bar, put some live gigs on, run the courtesy bus until later in the evening... But it's not. Looking around, I get the impression people have tried to give it a go and failed... but with the infrastructure of that lift into the 3V and these apartments, this could be something special. But as it stands it is not and I recommend to avoid...

For us the Hameaux des Eaux d'Orelle offered the ideal accommodation for a family holiday - excellent value, nice swimming pool area (quiet over Easter as we were out of French school holidays), a basic restaurant on-site and a basic convenience shop without the extortionate prices of some other alpine resorts (nearest Carrefour supermarket is a 5-10 minute drive). Staff at the accommodation were friendly and helpful. We drove easily to the ski lift and parked for free, although a regular bus is also available. Convenient drive from UK as close to the motorway and no hazardous mountain driving to reach the village itself. ||Orelle is a quiet, small and friendly village that was perfect for our family (2 children aged 7 and 10 who have both skied before). The ski school was brilliant and friendly, Orelle has several runs to cater for most abilities and Val Thorens is easily accessed and was skiable for our whole family. Orelle may be less ideal for complete beginners due to limited short "fun" runs to practice on compared to other resorts - the blue runs are easy enough but can be quite long for little legs at the early snowplough stage. Yes, it takes time to access the ski area but this is a minor inconvenience since we paid so much less e.g. compared to the price of ski-in/ski-out in Val Thorens, for the same ski area. There was only a queue for the lift on one day that we were there (a public holiday).||A small and friendly village feel with access to amazing ski-ing in the 3 valleys. If you don't need luxury frills and are looking for a great value, basic self-catering family ski holiday with a genuine French feel, I would...

We stayed as a group here at Easter 2016. The accommodation is based of a group of 6 or so small blocks of apartments of varying size. We booked a one bedroom apartment which claimed to sleep four - it would have been suitable for a family with young children, but not necessarily a group of 4 adults as there is one double bedroom, then a living room/kitchen area with a sofa bed in it. This area was of a decent size, but there was no storage space for clothes or belongings. Living space would have been limited with four adults for this reason.||The apartment was nicely decorated, good bath and shower, and was clean and warm, with beautiful views from the balcony. There is a small shop and a bar on site. The swimming pool area is fantastic, you book an hour slot the day before so you are guaranteed a space and it doesn't get too busy. ||The apartments are about 800m from the telecabin, and there is a free ski bus. We had a car with us, and it was a godsend, we drove 2 minutes to the bottom of the lift, parked for free for the day, then hopped straight on the lift and we were away. The slopes were amazing, it took around an hour for us to ski over to the main resorts, then we had lunch over there, then skiied back at around 4:30pm for the lift back down. ||Having a car was a great asset in Orelle, as it allowed us to get to a couple of local villages at night, which were relatively cheap to eat at. Without a car you may feel quite isolated, as the only place to eat is in your apartment or the restaurant on site. ||Don't be put off going to Orelle - we loved the place, loved the apartments, and the ski area was...