Mongellaz Chalet

1 reader found this review helpful

First, The Good.
Our Chalet Host, Richard, was brilliant. From beginning to end he made our stay comfortable and easy. His cooking of a high standard, the food itself being exactly what one wants after a days skiing. From starters to pudding and cheese, all just right. The only night some flinched was Veal Milanese. Those who didn't want the veal ate the pasta. The inclusive wine was good and plentiful.
But he is more than just a chef. He also took time to take us over to Courchevel the first day and went on to arrange fearsome off-piste excursions and lugeing for the adventurous whilst he also troubled to check bus-timetables, even meeting us as we set off for La Praz on his night off. Wherever he is hosting a chalet, there we'd all like to be.
The Chalet itself is pretty good too. A functioning dining-cum-sitting-room with a lovely view down the valley. The rooms are pretty small once 2 people have unpacked but sufficient. The "baths" (there are 3 in the 5 rooms) are not really much use. Too short for an averagely tall man to warm his aching knees. The sauna works but its timer remained a mystery to us all so we never managed to exit the piste and enter the sauna directly.
The book room by the front door makes for a good start/finish to the day.
There is a DVD player (with DVD's supplied by Richard) which happily we didn't need to use until the last day because we had brilliant snow/weather. On that day a couple of whimps ducked out of skiing in the blizzard and found the TV too small and lacking the proper controls to be of any practical interest.

The Bad
The journey in and out was frankly shambollic.
An early flight gives those with their own skis/boots the prospect of a couple of hours skiing day 1. This was totally frustrated by the chaotic state of the SkiFrance reps at Grenoble. There was no direction to arriving passengers to any particular coach. Once on one, they had no idea who was meant to be on it and we sat like dummies for an hour and a half before departing with the same number who had got on in the first place. The rumour (no one told us formally) was that 10 people had switched to road travel. If right it is symptomatic of system failures in communication between booking agents and SkiFrance.
The reps were frankly totally out of their depths. When we eventually set off we were told we would be met by mini-buses. THere weren't any. Worse, we, straight of the plane and wearing unsuitable shoes, were told the only way to get to the chalet was a 20 minute walk up-hill on slippery roads. Had it been snowing I think we would have rebelled and demanded we be taken home.
Those who had pre-booked ski-hire in the UK were eager to go and pick them up before the shops shut, (it was that late). We were told we couldn't until 'Luke' had come and spoken to us. We asked "Why?". Sometime later Luke arrived to try to sell us Ski-Hire and Ski-passes all of which we had already arranged the UK. Annoyingly no one had told Luke.
These matters should have been sorted out during the 2 1/2 hour coach transfer from the airport.

The Return journey was beset by the much the same. We set off before dawn to walk the 1/4 mile down to the coach. The time meant we were at the airport 3 1/2 hours prior to take off. The reason, (denied by the rep but confirmed by other passengers) was that we were being dropped early to accommodate those booked on a flight departing in 2 hours.

The Ugly.
Dont misunderstand me, Chalet Mongellaz is pretty. It is situated in the upper left hand corner of the chalet area of La Tania and surrounded by trees. However the chalet's proximity to the piste is not as easy as it sounds. True, there is a green piste about 100 feet above it but it may only be accessed via a lung and muscle busting up-hill hike,in boots & carrying skis. Even the fittest among us found this morning excercise exhausting. The villa next door 'permits' guests to walk across their drive. The walk up uses the Poma-button-lift and this too is not strictly speaking allowed, although no one challenged us.
By Day 3 we realised there must be access to the Red Piste a couple of chalets and a building-site away on the same level and to the side of the Chalet. No doubt in accordance with SkiFrance policy we were discouraged from doing this since again it crossed private land and a building site. This did provid easy access to the piste for us, who are all experienced skiers and therefore able to negotiate a little dip over what is probably a stream in summer.
The only alternative access to the pistes is a 400 metres walk (you aren't supposed to ski) down the road to a hotel where, perhaps one can use their access onto the green-piste.
The bonus is that the return at the end of the day is easy, provided you are prepared to risk an on the spot fine for skiing down the Poma-lift. We all survived and had a great week in excellent ski conditions.

4 readers found this review helpful

I returned yesterday from La Tania having stayed at Chalet Mongellaz for one week. It's always difficult being resonsible for planning a group skiing holiday as you don't really know what you are going to walk in to, and there wasn't a great deal of information or pictures on the website. However I have to say, from start to finish it was a fantastic week with great hospitality.
Charlie our host was amazing and cooked us lovely meals every day, and beautiful home made cake for afternoon tea. The rooms were more than comfortable...not massive, but all you need with plenty of storage/hanging space. All bathrooms are en-suite, most with baths as well. The lounge area had enough space for all 10 guests to sit around and there were good views over to the mountains.
To walk down to La Tania village it takes 10 minutes max which is longer than some, but not really a problem. The Chalet is really close to the green run down into La Tania, so you can ski-out, but you need to walk up a steep, but short slope first. Skiing-in is much easier. Transfers were all arranged with no hassle and it only took about 2 1/2 hours from Grenoble airport.
This is our second holiday in La Tania and I'm sure we'll continue to go back year after year, probably returning to Chalet Mongellaz.
Night life is really good as well...the ski-lodge is always fun with brilliant live music all the time, but there is also Chrome bar and Tiger bar as well which are both good.
So I would definitely recommend it to others...we all had a wonderful time and were very well looked after.

4 readers found this review helpful

booked the chalet about a month before we left .flight times much better than normal leaving at midday instead of early hours of the morning .arrived at the chalet at 7 30 in the evening just in time for canapies and champagne followed by a 3 coursed meal which was fantastic.breakfast in the morning was small but when there is coissants , cereal, toast , yoghurts and fruit juice you don't want a massive cooked breakfast .we could not fault this chalet and the chalet host was great

1 reader found this review helpful

The room was clean however very limited storage and shelf space.
The location was reasonable, a small uphill walk in the morning in ski boots to a green run (60Mtrs). 5-10min walk downhill to the resort centre which was very nice.
The food was just about OK, very homecooked some times good sometimes bland and boring. The worst night for food was the raclet. After a hard days skiing what we did not need was cold salami and ham, a few chopped veggies and sliced cheese to COOK OURSELF!! very dissappointing. The hygene in the kitchen was lacking also. In fact two of the 8 guests did come down with stomach sickness. Whether it was to do with the hygene I don't know.
We also had to ask for everything if we run out, drink toilet rolls, milk, it was ridiculous.
A four star chalet this is not. I would not return.
On the positive the ski area and La tania is excellent, but expect to part with serious money out of La Tania for lunch. (Coffee £5, Spagbol £16) there are a few places like 1650 where it becomes a little cheaper, but the skiing does make up for it.