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Valmorel: Club Med's Family-Friendly Haven

Club Med Valmorel, the latest ski offering from Club Med, was opened in December 2011 and has proved to be a welcome addition to the all-inclusive specialists programme. The hotel has gone down well with families, especially with beginner to intermediate skiers.

With this is mind one of Iglu's longest serving members took her family to check out the resort over Easter, coming back with a glowing report on the new resort. Here's what she had to say about Club Med Valmorel

Club Med Valmorel:

We all know that Club Med is good for families, but Valmorel is superb. As a brand new resort they have designed it with families and children of all ages in mind. Babies, toddlers, older children and teenagers have all been thoughtfully considered. There are a large number of interconnecting rooms, the location is a perfect ski in, ski out (even in mid-April), and the childcare staff were brilliant.

The snowgarden, where the younger children and beginners have their lessons is at the heart of the resort, right outside the Petit Club & Mini Club, and has two magic carpets. It can be viewed from one side of the bar terrace and is overlooked by some of the rooms making it easy for you to see what the little ones are up to, without them seeing you! Our boys really enjoyed their lessons, there was a good mix of nationalities in their groups and the ESF instructors spoke good English.  

There is the usual fantastic selection of family-friendly entertainment; parties, themed days, shows, activities, a soft-play room for toddlers and hang-out area for teenagers. The pool is a good size and is well used, late in the afternoon it fills up with families but is generally quiet during the day. The in-house entertainment system in the rooms had a great selection of recent animated films — perfect for a bit of downtime before dinner.

A nice touch was that they did some GoPro filming of the some of the children in their lessons on the mountain. The film was then played on the screens in the bar, which is great to see as you often have no idea how they are getting on or what they have been up to. Also, on request they copied it onto a memory stick (available in the shop) for you to keep.

For non-skiers there is a good gym and a fitness programme throughout the day, the fitness programme has some early and late classes if you are really keen and want to combine it with skiing as well! There were quite a few non-skiers using the gym, pool and Spa. The pool area also has a steam room and outdoor hot tub over looking the slopes.

Club Med's restaurants can really differ from resort to resort, and Club Med Valmorel certainly doesn't let itself down. There was a great selection of food throughout the week, highlights being the raclette lunches, oysters and steak tartare, there are plenty of tables of all sizes and the choice of dining areas offers a nice bit of variety.

The Valmorel Ski Area:

The ski area may not be the largest, but is more than enough for a week on the slopes. There were lots of families out skiing together, for which the slopes were ideal and there was a notable lack of people hooning down the slopes at speed. 

Valmorel offers predominantly blues and a few red runs so it is perfect for children progressing their skiing, as well as adults who enjoy intermediate skiing. A real bonus was that the slopes were virtually empty and we didn't encounter any lift queues all week - even during the school holidays!

Club Med Valmorel comes highly recommended.