Resort Description
Ski Range 1,400 – 3,230m
A delightful Chalet Hotel with sensational Three Valleys skiing virtually from your doorstep.
Lying at the heart of the world’s biggest inter-linked ski area with its endless variety of terrain, Méribel has plenty to offer skiers and boarders of all ages and abilities.
The Méribel valley offers a combination of cruisy glades and open boulevards, which enjoy both morning and afternoon sun, and the huge state-of-the-art lift system allows guests to access the full 600kms of slopes with ease.
Méribel’s location in the middle valley is a major benefit, putting Courchevel on the one side and the guaranteed snow of Val Thorens on the other within easy reach.
Child Care
NURSERY, SNOW CLUB, COCOA CLUB - All Esprit child care is based
in the Chalet Hotel Alba and we also run a free Baby-listening/Child-patrol Service
in the evenings from 7.30-11pm.
Five mornings a week, children in Esprit Sprite classes and Spritelet Snow Clubbers
are collected from the hotel’s meeting point by our staff (and/or the ski school
instructors) and taken to the appropriate slopes for their lessons or to the Snow
Club for morning fun.
At the end of the morning lesson or Snow Club, children joining Supervised Lunch,
afternoon Snow Club or with afternoon Sprite sessions will be collected and returned
to the Alba for lunch.
The Snow Club is based in the Alba with outings for their specific snow fun activities.
All children in afternoon Sprites or Spritelets will be taken to and collected from
their session by our staff and will join the Snow Club children for the remainder
of the afternoon, before high tea.
We ask that Nursery children are delivered to the Nursery by their parents. Nursery
lunches are held in the Alba. Nursery children must be collected by their parents
at 5pm and accompanied at high tea, whilst all other children will be supervised
by our staff through high tea until 6pm.
Cocoa Club runs in the Nursery from 7.30pm until 10pm on six nights a week and is
available to all children aged 6-12 years. Parents are asked to deliver and collect
their children. Parents can put their children to bed and enjoy a further hour of
relaxation, making the most of our baby-listening/child-patrol service, which runs
till 11pm.
The Skiing
FAMILIES *****
Families who want to ski together are spoilt for choice in the Méribel area, with a good choice of blues and reds. These same slopes make ideal terrain for Sprite Beginners and Improvers, whilst the Intermediates may well head further afield with their instructors, and the Spritelets area is just above the Alba. For all families however, of whatever standard, the slopeside location of our Chalet Hotel is a major benefit.
BEGINNERS ****
Whether you are skiing or snowboarding, Méribel is considered one of the best places in the Alps to learn, with excellent English-speaking instructors and plentiful easier runs to move onto once you have mastered the basics on the nursery slopes.
INTERMEDIATES *****
With a Three Valleys lift-pass, intermediates can explore 600kms of pisted snow, all fully interconnected, and in a full week in the Three Valleys you may rarely ski the same run twice. The runs on the Saulire side are all excellent and there are convenient patches of off-piste that run alongside the reds, so you can practice your fresh snow techniques without going too far afield.
ADVANCED *****
Advanced skiers can attack giant bumps and steep couloirs or simply notch up the mileage, cruising the whole magnificent system. High up on Mont Vallon the going gets tough, with excellent off-piste and some testing long runs, or you can try out the famous couloirs of the Saulire and the tricky bumps of the Chanrossa.
POWDER POTENTIAL ****
Either side of the Bartevelle mogul fields there are great powder possibilities after a fresh fall, as there are on the high altitude, open snowbowls of Val Thorens. With so much space to choose from across this huge area, you have a great chance of finding un-tracked powder for some time after each fresh snowfall.
SNOWBOARDING ****
Méribel is a great resort for boarders, and the whole Three Valleys has many snow-parks for boarders to practice their tricks and jumps. The Mottaret snow-park is the most popular, and is served by its own chairlift. It has a vertical drop of more than 300m, with two half-pipes, two quarter-pipes, three tables, one spine, and a 700m long four-man boarder-cross course!
Our Esprit Ski Escort will be available for 3 days of the week to ski with you and introduce you to the area.
Extra Information
APRÈS SKI
Méribel is one of the liveliest resorts in the Alps, so there is always plenty going on. There is ample choice of family-friendly restaurants to choose from on your Chalet Hotel staff’s one night off, as well as fine-dining restaurants like the Grand Coeur and La Chaudanne.
ACTIVITIES
* Sports centre with heated pool * Olympic ice-skating and hockey * Bowling * Paragliding * Husky Sledding * Snowmobiling in Mottaret * Sightseeing flights * Weekly ice-karting
OTHER AMENITIES
* 95 shops * Banks * Health club with squash court and gym
Snow Report
Snow reports will be available from mid-November 2010