Chalet Bouton d'Or, Les Deux Alpes, France

We had sole occupancy of the chalet and we did find that it was definitely too small for our group of 10 (2 of which were young children). There was a twin downstairs and 2 rooms upstairs which were ok, but the other rooms were very tight. The communal areas were cramped as well, we felt a bit on top of each other. The sitting area only has 3 sofas which accommodate about 3 people, so for a group of people that didn’t know each other it would be quite cosy! This didn’t matter as much to us because we are a family. You can use the dining table area for seating as well, to play board games and so on, but we found this was also quite cramped when we all sat down for dinner together. I wouldn’t want to book it again for this reason, and I wouldn’t recommend the chalet to couples and people sharing it with other travellers because it would feel too intimate. The staff were excellent. They were young students that had done a culinary course or some training of some kind, but they worked very hard and produced excellent meals. They had a standard menu which they stuck to and it was fairly interesting food. The wine was also very good. The culinary manager also came round regularly to check that the cooking was up to standard. We were here over Christmas and the hosts admitted they had never made a Christmas dinner before, but they cooked us a really good meal, proper English Christmas dinner with a turkey and everything. We had a Christmas tree and decorations as well. The other thing worth noting about the chalet is that there is no boot room, so all of our boots and jackets were left by the door. The chalet is in a beautiful position, we stood on the balcony on Christmas day looking out over the mountains, which had the sun shining on them, and it was snowing, it was stunning. However you have to take the bus to get up to the chalet from the town. The chalet is built into the mountainside with some steep steps to get up to it and a steep slope outside without grit on the road. It’s definitely not suitable for elderly people/people with osteoporosis. The chalet itself was built to let and sits in the grounds of the owner’s house. This meant that it is well looked after but the general quality of the build wasn’t great, for example the staircase up to the entrance hadn’t been varnished. From this holiday we have learnt a few things to look out for next time: a central location, a large enough chalet to accommodate our group, and it would be nice to have a boot room.

Stayed in better chalets and stayed in worse! Pretty basic, cheap and cheerful, but near to the piste and convenient access to the town – hosts were fine. We got a good cancellation deal so it was good value for what we paid. The beds were ok, walls a bit thin so it could be noisy and the lounge was not that big. Food alright for what we paid for and we got stuck into the wine, not the place if you’re looking for a culinary exploit but definitely not as bad as school dinners! Wifi was a bit flakey and tended to grind to a stop if more than 3 people were using it. Although it’s quite far away from the town (a good 20 minute walk) but still easy to get there as the ski bus stops outside. There aren’t many bars round there as it’s quite a residential area which wasn’t an issue for us as we usually chill out in the chalet, but if you’re a group who want to go out a lot it’s probably not ideal. 50m down the road you can nip onto the green Demoiselles piste that goes down to the Aguille chair lift and you can get back a similar way. Just below the chalet on the same piste there’s a good bar that do a ½ price happy hour – we sent one of our party down to order 20 pints in advance!