Les Chalets de Superdevoluy Hotel

1 reader found this review helpful

We (a family of five) have just returned from a great week at these apartments. I read the reviews from previous holidaymakers and took into account their comments.
I have skied previously (although a long time ago) but my husband and three children were all new to skiing.
The apartment was clean, well presented, they have a lockup for your storeage of skis and boots in the basement, and everything was as to be expected for the price, we had a couple on louder nights - which - when the younger crowds are due to go home, ,get a bit louder as they come home from their last night of apres ski! but Hey we were all that age at one point, and it was not over the top, just the younger generation having fun and when the staff mentioned it to us (not us to them), they could not apologise more and gave us a discount voucher until Mar 2010!
We hired our bedding which made for the light travel as we flew/drove to the resort which was easy to find, what I must mention is - if you are going to these apartments take a travel kettle - it was much needed and a couple of mugs would not go a miss (I forgot ours!)Also although storage is provided, we should have rented space in the main block 300m in the resort centre. Two people carring five sets of ski's etc, did become a bind (we walking downhill).
The ski school for the kids was great, and they spoke very good english and took their time with all the pupils at every level - I would say theis resort is good for beginners not a great deal too do in the evening a few bars and restauranta and you are limited only one supermarket on resort and the prices are not cheap so if your self catering stop prior to arriving in resort and the nearest supermarket is approx 40mins away by car - and remember the supermartkets are not open on Sundays except in resort!!!

2 readers found this review helpful

I travelled to this resort with three other people, three of whom had never been to a ski resort before (including myself). We booked via Snowtrex.co.uk as they offered a fantastic deal that included our lift pass for the week. As we flew there with Ryanair it was a bargain holiday.
We flew into Marseille and took the snow coach to the resort which was a bargain at €30 return each. The journey takes about three hours and involves a change of coach but is well worth it of you want to get the cheaper flights.
The accomodation was comfortable and clean, and very good value for money. We had a one bed apartment with a fairly small double bed and a sofa bed. We had to hire bedding as being novices we didn't realise that this wasn't provided. The aparment was fairly well equipped in the kitchen, apart from it not having a kettle or cups big enough for a decent cup of tea!!! We ate in most nights and didn't have a problem cooking at all, there are plenty of utensils and pots and pans.
We all attended Ski school (also booked through Snowtrex) which was great fun. We were in groups of about 10 people, with lessons taking place in the morning. It was a pain having to set an alarm every day but at least it was all over and done with by lunchtime. The lessons are in English or French but I did find the instructor spent far more time explaining things in French rather than English!!!
The main builidng in the resort can only be compared to an old 1950's leisure centre!!! It is fairly old fashioned and obiously is not their pride and joy. There is some graffiti on the walls, cracked windows and the odd broken door. Still, we didn't go to the resort to look at the main building, thankfully!!
It also had a certain aroma of an evening, cheese mainly. The smell would waft through the whole building and could get quite unplesant!! So, because of this we only ate out twice. We found that all the restaurants served the same food which really wasn't very interesting or tasty, as wasn't particularly cheap. We had some trouble getting served. They seemed to leave us English until last, in the restuarant and cafes. We all attempted to speak french to them but GSCE French only taught us so much, hence some waiters just chose to completely ignore us which was rather rude if you ask me. I would reccomend you go to the bar at the far end of the resort, it is elevated and is a bar/creperie/ice cream parlour. The staff here are lovely and will help you as much as you can. We found the staff at the main bar at the opposite end of the building to be rude and would often ignore us.
On our last night we went to the Pizza parlour, Pizza Pronto. This is the nicest, cleanest place in the whole resort. The woman who served us really didn't speak any English at all, but that was no problem. If only we had discovered it earlier we would have been there a couple more times!!!
Now for the worst bit. The toilets. Oh my gosh, they are disgusting. The whole week that we were there they did not get cleaned once. I know this because I tested it!! There are several dotted around the building , avoid the one by the ski school office as it is just vile, head to the other end of the building. In fact, hold it in all day if you can as it is just horrid!!
The snow, the instructors, the lifts and the runs are fantastic. Don't expect much nightlife as there really isn't any. There are a couple of bars and two nightclubs which are worth a visit, if just for a laugh. If you are a beginner or a serious skier then this is a great place to go. We had a blast and really enjoyed our holiday. If you can look past the scruffy main building you will love it here.

3 readers found this review helpful

Superdevoluy is not a typical pretty French village style of resort....but we didn't go there for that. We went for the good skiing and value for money, both of which it really offers.
There are numerous runs of all levels, plenty of lifts and the queues weren't too bad. We did ski school in the mornings and were split up into groups by ability and had an instructor who spoke enough English to make her point. Our friends' children did ski school in the afternoon and had the benefit of much smaller groups and therefore more attention, so I'd recommend booking in the afternoon if you get a choice. It had snowed heavily a few days before we arrived and then the sun shone the whole week, so the skiing couldn't have been better.
We booked our accommodation direct with the company that runs the appartments, via a link on the Superdevoluy web site. We chose it as it offered very good value for money. For eight of us, we paid just over 1100 euros for a week in February half term for an apartment for 8 people. For that we got two double bedrooms, another bedroom with bunk beds and a double sofa bed in the living room. There were two bath/shower rooms and two toilets and plenty of storage space. There was a small kitchen area with dishwasher/ hob/ microwave etc but no kettle.....not the end of the world and something that I'm sure will come in time. The apartment had a lovely balcony with views out over the mountains. The apartment was reasonably clean when we arrived, and we brought our own bed linen and towels with us so didn't need to hire theirs. As with all French rental apartments at this level, we were given the choice of paying for the end of stay clean (about 45 euros) or to do it ourselves.....we did it ourselves and they provided cleaning equipment etc for that purpose. We also had a ski locker under the apartments.
The staff were very helpful and polite. There was a small pool which we didn't use but which looked very inviting.
The resort is pretty basic for other activities. No ice rink or bowling alley but there is another larger indoor pool and at least one disco. There are a few restaurants and bars but we chose to eat in most nights. On valentines night there was a huge firworks display on the snow with skiiers covered in lights and other visual delights - very good and FREE. Another evening all the small children were given lanterns and asked to ski down the mountain which again was lovely to see, and on another evening there was a ski jumping show, again all lit up with lights and music etc.
The resort had a nice family feel to it although there were a fair number of youngsters rolling home in the early hours of the morning....
As we had made our own travel plans and booked our own accommodation, we felt we got a good value week there in reasonable standard accommodation. As we had driven to the resort we were able to bring most food stuff etc with us....there is a supermarket there but it was quite expensive and didn't stock everything you might need.
My only real complaint about the resort is the lack of loos and the state of the ones that there are......plenty of room for improvement there!
Overall, if you're looking for a cheap ski holiday without compromising on the skiing and don't want to go to the very large overcrowded resorts, then Superdevoluy is well worth a look.

1 reader found this review helpful

Although the skiing was some of the best I have experienced in recent years, there were many negative factors.
After a long and traumatic transfer (3 vomiting children and a very early start), I had to queue for 30 mins to see the rep, who informed me I'd have to come back in 3 hours and queue to access reception, which was a bear gardenand had to queue again for an hour.
The apartment was adequate, but we had to make up all the beds on arrival, and with totally inadequate cleaning equipment had to leave the apartment clean - including windows!
Although there was a swimming pool on site, it was out of action all week, and the pool in the main building cost 5 euro each
There was dog excrement everywhere. The toilet facilities were atrocious and sparce. The "resort" was merely a huge building with a horrendously expensive supermarket and little else. The ski school was very english unfriendly (my children, as the only english speakers, were ignored).
Crystal marketted the resort as family friendly - there were numerous groups of young lads in the apartments coming in at 3 am, playing music and shouting.
If you are in a group of young people, don't need ski school and speak French I'm sure that you'd be okay. We, however, were not!!