ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW for recent snow updates and news click here to check out the ski area webcam at 2200 m. EXCELLENT RESTAURANTS There's no question about it La Thuile offers an excellent selection of restaurants offering quality and value that very few resorts can compete with. A half board option is available at two nearby restaurants at 140 euros for 7 nights. WI-FI INTERNET ACCESS We offer free WI-FI internet access for our guests. It's not high speed broad band but allows downloading of e mails and website browsing. It's not suitable for downloading large files off the internet. SKI INSTRUCTION GUIDING Most skiers tend to think that their holiday is to short or they are too old to improve their skiing technique. You battle on on your own during the week with the techniques you learnt on your first ski holiday and by the end of the week are just starting to pick it up again. A good ski instructor/mountain guide can make your ski holiday fantastic. Its a really important part of a ski holiday that skiers really dont take seriously. Start the week on the right track with instructors and mountain guides personally recommended by us. Book these instructors and guides when booking your accommodation as space is limited - TASTER Suitable for intermediate and good skiers. The perfect solution if you just want a few days skiing with a professional - 3 days of ski guiding with a qualified ski instructor or UGIAM mountain guide in La Thuile or other nearby ski resorts like Courmayeur and Pila in the Valle d'Aosta if your guide feels weather conditions may be better there. A small supplement will be charged for transport needed to get to these resorts. See our for costs and e mail us for bookings. Paolo Pieroni UIAGM qualified Italian mountain guide in the Valle d'Aosta. Just reading Paolo's main page about his life shows his passion for what he does. Paolo will be our main organiser and coordinator during the season for our 3 day ski cruise package. http://www.paolopieroni.it/en/. Kim George Kim George who many of you have had lessons with in alpine and telemark skiing here in La Thuile has set up a semi permanent base here in La Thuile having now gained the full Valle d'Aosta Maestri da sci accreditation. He will be working together with Paolo Pieroni in certain weeks of the season on our SKI CRUISE package and will also be offering personal tuition to individuals and small groups of skiers including video analysis when appropriate. He has a special winter back country survival course planned for bush craft enthusiasts during the season. http://www.leadingthechange.com/. Cliff Hobbs Cliff and Quee Hobbs have been bringing small groups to us for over 15 years. They have set up Swift Sail and Ski and run alpine ski courses at various times during the winter here in La Thuile. They also run sailing holidays in the summer and will soon be opening their lovely home in Greece as a summer destination spot.. website: http://www.swiftsailandski.co.uk. The Telemark Ski Company For sharpening up your skiing skills as an Alpine skier, especially those skills and adaptations needed for off-piste skiing, for discovering telemark skiing or developing your skills as an existing telemark skier in La Thuile then John Eames and Bonny Masson, B.A.S.I qualified telemark instructors and also fully accredited Valle d'Aosta Maestri da sci, will be happy to welcome you. John Bonny have been offering courses now for over 10 years in La Thuile; they will provide very personalised coaching, including video feedback, they will guarantee very positive changes in your skiing - and they are superb! website: http://www.telemarkskico.com/. Ski and boot hire : 6 days - Price approx. 100,00 Euro can be booked on line with. Discount offered to Chalet Alpina guests in certain periods. Snowboarding For expert boarders La Thuile offers unlimited off piste which is virtually untouched during weekdays. For fledgling boarders La Thuile has gentle slopes offering decent lengths of run in which to pick up a rhythm with easy to ride chairs at the end. Snowboarding lessons are offered through the local ski school and lessons are two and a half hours per day with qualified snow board instructors. For more info go to www.scuolascilathuile.it. Board and boot hire: 6 days 120,00 Euro. Cross country skiing: 35 km of track. It has now been taken over by the lift company so is excellently groomed. Skis and boots can be rented on the track. Thermal springs and health Spa: what better way to end the day soaking in a thermal spring to sooth those tired muscles. website. Sports Center: Discounted weekly pass for nearby sports centre which offers pool and gym 35,00 Euro. There is also squash, games room and bowling. 30,00 Euro. FLIGHTS FROM THE UK Flights are pretty easy to organize these days and there are some excellent prices to Turin as well as Geneva. If you are thinking of hiring a car try also looking at flights to Milan and Genoa on the Italian coast as they are only 2 and a half hours away by car. All airlines seem to be competing now for low prices. Try for Turin and Genova, for Geneva and Turin, for Geneva, Milan, Genova, for Milano and whatever else you can find on the search engines over the internet. AIRPORT TRANSFERS CAR HIRE Shared and private transfers are available on request from Turin and Geneva airport. Both take approx. 2 hours. The price for Turin costs approx. 35,00 to 55,00 Euro per person each way and for Geneva costs approx. 40,00 to 60,00 Euro per person each way depending on numbers in your party. Please note - a shared transfer may not be available for your flight arrival time and you may have to wait around at the airport for the nearest next transfer or leave earlier than you desire for your return journey. Shared and private transfers are also available from Milano Malpensa airport and Bergamo Airport. It takes approx 2 and a half hours and costs approx. 50,00 to 100,00 Euro per person each way depending on numbers in your party. For couples and singles we suggest you rather fly into Turin or Geneva as the transfer cost is more reasonable. Contact us to book your transfer. Car Hire: 7 days (all inclusive) Lowest category car (4 can squeeze in) All airports cost approx. 250,00 Euro Hertz, Avis, etc. on the internet. Get prices in Euro as rate seems to be better. Driving from nearby airports From Geneva airport get on the motorway that circles the city and follow direction to Chamonix. Go through the Mont Blanch Tunnell. Get a return ticket which is valid for 7 days and cists approx. 45,00 Euro return. Warning - after passing through the tunnel be careful DO NOT take the motorway to Aosta (marked with a green sign) or you will end up in Aosta town and have to drive all the way back up the valley to get to La Thuile. Stay on the normal road to Courmayeur Drive on past Courmayeur beeing carefull again not to take the motorway (marked with a green sign) to Aosta.. 5 Km after Courmayeur you get a small town called Pre St. Didier and that's where you turn up to La Thuile. From Turin airport take the motorway to Turin center and then turn off onto the Tangienziale motorway towards Milano/Aosta. Keep following signs for Aosta and then continue on the A5 motorway to Aosta. Don't turn off the motorway to Aosta when you get to the toll gates but follow signs for Mont Blanc tunnel. At Morgex turn off and take the state road to Pre. St Didier and then on up to La Thuile. From Milano airports take the A4 towards Turin and just after the Santhia exit turn on to the A4/5 towards Ivrea. Then change on to the A5 towards Aosta and follow on as from Turin. From Genoa take the A10 towards Savona. Just after Voltri take the A26 towards Alessandria and continue past Casale Monferrato. Then take the A26/A4 towards Ivrea and then on to the A5 as if coming from Turin. Parking There is free outside parking right opposite the Hotel. and underground parking nearby for 40,00 Euro per week. Under...

SNOW AND UNCROWDED PISTES. The snow is excellent. Debbie and I went for a quick ski on Sunday 2nd Dec, again on the 5th Dec and once more today and all three times we had the mountain to ourselves. It was like having your own private fly fishing river. Pure luxury. To top it all we skied fresh powder all the way down to the village through the trees near piste no 4 at the end of the day. Pictures are better than words so take a look for yourselves. Pictures taken on Sunday 2 December the 5 December 2007 and some today.. EMPTY PISTES How many resorts can offer 45,000 skiers per hour uphill capacity on their ski lifts and only have 2000 hotel beds in the resort resulting in NO LIFT LINES AND PISTES ALL TO YOURSELVES. I don't think another resort like La Thuile exists in the world. Even when we add all of the private apartments and all the beds available to rent in La Rosier we arrive at a total of 6000 beds in total. To compare : Courmayeur has 25,000 beds available but a lift capacity of only 30,000 skiers per hour. Val d'Isere and Tignes have 60,000 beds and a lift capacity of 60,000 skiers per hour. Nightmare if they all catch the same lift. How does La Thuile survive ? Many of you have written and asked why so many lifts are still closed when the resort opened on the 1st December and there is good early snow this year. It survives by getting lots of day skiers on weekends so try and avoid skiing on Sunday, even if you still won't find any queues, and by keeping some of the lifts closed in the early and late part of the season. More lifts open as each weekend passes and as more skiers come skiing. Lift prices are reduced though during these periods and there are still plenty of kilometres to ski so get out here and benefit from the discounts. If you have a look at the La Rosier web cam http://www.trinum.com/ibox/rosiere/webcam/ you will see that they have lot's of snow as well but they only open the skiing there on the 15th December. All that snow and no one to ski it. Take note as well a 3 day ski pass in La Thuile also gives you 1 day in any other resort in the Valle d'Aosta and a 6 day ski pass gives you 2 days in any other resort in the Valle d'Aosta so you won't get bored if you come skiing before the 15th December. To make sure you never get bored skiing read the article below. WHAT TO LOOK FOR WHEN CHOOSING A SKI INSTRUCTOR OR MOUNTAIN GUIDE. You've booked your holiday to come skiing in La Thuile this winter so now is the time to book yourself a Guru to take you skiing. Getting a good mountain guide or ski instructor to ski with can make the difference between a fantastic mind blowing ski holiday or just the usual once a year see how much suffering my body can take experience. Its a really important part of a ski holiday that skiers really dont take seriously. Most skiers tend to think that their holiday is to short or they are too old to improve their skiing technique. You battle on your own during the week with the techniques you learnt on your first ski holiday and by the end of the week are just starting to pick it up again. Good skiing is easy A good instructor can show you how and a good mountain guide can give you that mind blowing experience. Good mountain guides are particularly useful when snow is thin and the weather is bad. He will know where to find that ray of sunshine or the slopes that hold the best snow and save you from many otherwise boring days stuck inside your chalet. Find a professional that does both well and you have got yourself a guru. So what makes a guru ? A good ski instructor has a passion for teaching skiing. Its fairly easy to teach the basics. Any instructor can give you those and a lot do just that and not much else. You can even get the basics from books, videos and even from friends (not always advisable) Most skiers stop at this point. Getting you past those basics and off the plateau is the challenge for any passionate instructor. Not many have the patience as its incredibly difficult and frustrating for ski instructors to get their pupils to put the same passion into their learning. Pupils are on holiday anyway so why should they. A good instructor persists though until he finds that slight variation of technique that makes his pupil click. He teaches you to teach yourself. It usually only clicks long after he has finished his lessons but the satisfaction comes for a passionate instructor a few years later when he observes his ex pupil racing, teaching or just showing proof that good skiing is easy. A good mountain guide has a passion for discovering the perfect skiing conditions which will hopefully also bring out that passion in his group to want to learn more that the good ski instructor is looking for in his pupils. He does not just say follow me and take you to the bottom of the mountain. He reads the mountains he knows the slopes that face the sun and the shade. He plans his runs on how the sun moves during the day. He feels if the snow is dry, wet, icy, crusty and all the other 50 types of snow under his skis that the Eskimos have classified,. He knows what type of slope and snow you can handle and pushes you only every now and again into what you cannot handle just to bring that spirit of challenge in you. You are not just been lead down the mountain you are been immersed into it feeling every slight variation in snow texture, every change in temperature, every change in colour as you move from the open slopes into the forests and from the sun to the shade, every movement of your skis as you float in the snow and flow over every mound and dip, every change in emotion running through your body as you go from steep to gentle. Now you see why I say find someone who does both guiding and teaching well, and you have got yourself a GURU. Doing both does not necessarily mean that person has to be officially qualified to do both. At least one official qualification in guiding or ski instruction is necessary for safety, professionalism and not having your legs broken by the local lads. Obviously someone as good as this is extremely difficult to find when you are already in resort. To get yourself a GURU you need to contact him well in advance web page you can find a list of Guru we have used ourselves and can recommend highly. They are worth spending your hard earned bucks on. Book them now We are also organising a taster package this winter for those who have never experienced the benefits of skiing with a professional See our prices/availability and special offers webpage for costs and details. back to latest newsflash

 Luggage storage
 Credit cards accepted
 Dinner may be served in the room
 Heating
 Licensed bar
 Private park, garden, courtyard
 Quiet surroundings
 Private/Ensuite bathroom
 Swimming pool
 Phone at reception
 Phones in rooms
 TV sets in rooms
 Tennis court
 Common room with a TV set