Skiing Chamonix Reviews

One morning a friend from work suggested a ski and snowboarding holiday and before you know it 14 of us are off to Chamonix! As soon as we arrived I knew this was going to be a memorable holiday. Chamonix is pretty yet lively town surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Although each area of slopes are spread out so bus journeys are a neccessity, each area is challenging and plentiful enough for you to spend the whole day there. Thew holiday was booked through UCPA, a French based company which provides active holidays on a budget. They provide basic, youth hostel style accomodation (but with a wide range of ages!) which includes all meals, lift pass, board/ski hire and excellent tuition for all abilitites for 5 days - all for a very reasonable price. At 28 years old I decided this was the perfect opportunity to swap ski's for a board and make the most of the lessons. Our instructor, Smiley Frank stayed calm, cool and generally amused even at the most testing of times and with his help my boarding went from strength to strength - although my packed lunch (also included in the price) was flat packed in my rucksack by the end of the morning! My partner is an experienced border so he went in an advanced group. They were challenged with trekking to find untouched snow off piste, always with a shovel and transmitter each as their destinations has high avalanche risk. A far cry from my targets (to stand up for more than 5 seconds, to not repeatedly fall on the same bruised buttock etc!) but I believe I was the more stiff at the end of each day! After a hard day on the slopes Chamonix has a great variety of bars to partake in Apres Ski, my favourite being Chambre Neuf which had a live band on every day and often by as early as 5pm had people (more often than not the young Swedes whose energy was tiring to watch!) dancing on the tables fuelled by tasy yet reasonable jugs of lager. Then back to the hostel for the bountiful meals provided in the canteen style dining area. Every evening meal was a great social occasion with lots of stories being exchanged and introductions between old friends and friends made through ski class bonding (barriers quickly come down when you have slid at speed into the back of your group ending in human kerplunk!). For those who have energy left in them there are a range of pubs, bars and some small clubs but again I tended to leave those to the young Swedish crowds who didn't seem to feel the effects of Apres Ski as much as us comparative old fogies! The whole experience was fantastic. I will definitely book snow bound holidays through UCPA again and would definitely consider going on a summer activity holiday through them too. The organisation is such that I would be comfortable to go alone, with friends....or even one day when I have grown up myself a little more, with children!