Stay in Nice and do day trips to Ski Resort

mooz

Hi.

Looking for advice from anybody that has stayed in Nice and done day trips skiing. Is it possible? Much hassle? How long would the bus take you each way? Which ski resort would you recommend? Rough guideline of day ski passes? Plan would be to stay in Nice as have accommodation. Family of 5, 3 kids 11,9,7. First timers with kids. Skiied before in Italy. Priced package for Italy for family and it's out of our budget.

Thanks

Asdfgh2020

isola 2000 would be the closest resort. Priced it up last year but didn’t go in the end. Worth looking into. But it’s around an hour’s drive from Nice, there could be busses also but car hire for week would be way to do it. A 7 seater Peugeot 5008 (I think) cost us €350 for the week last year…!

Alun

I went to Isola 2000 a couple of times ages ago when my wife was working in Nice for a while. There was a fairly good bus service to and from the resort but no idea of frequency. The road up there is fairly steep and winding so if there's any snow on the road it can be tricky. The bus drivers have it down to a fine art though.

mooz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122501893#Comment_122501893

Thanks for information Asd. How did driving go? I wouldn't mind hiring a car, my wife might think differently on the mountain roads but I would be up for it. What time of year did ye go? Thinking of Feb midterm or Easter…maybe Easter might be too late. Did you stay in Nice too and commute to Isola daily?

mooz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122501926#Comment_122501926

Thanks for information Alun. Think my wife would lean towards that. How did you find the resort? Recommend it for kids my ages? They're newbies so would need ski school for 3/4 days I'd imagine. Yes, hoping the bus would be fairly regular and get up there for classes in the morning.

Alun

It was a long time ago but it was a pretty decent resort. We stayed there for 3 or 4 days in an apartment there and had plenty of skiing available. I've no idea of suitability for kids or classes unfortuneatly.

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122502306#Comment_122502306

I don't really understand your plan: would you be staying in Nice anyway, eg for work or because you have a free place to stay there? Wouldn't it be at least an hour each way? It's nearly 100km to Isola 2000. IME you really want to be as near the slopes as possible - the only compromise on that being cost. But Nice is not cheap either.

Also, Isola2000 is great for experienced skiers, but for children some of the other stations might be better:

Here's what someone advised us some years back, for places near near Isola 2000 when we were first thinking of going skiiing:

• advanced : Isola 2000 or Auron
• intermediate : Valberg or La Colmiane
• beginner : Roubion, Gréolières les Neiges ou Valberg (avec forfait débutant)
• learners and very young children : Turini Camp d’Argent, Roubion (there's a forfait) or Auron (I think there are a couple of free ski-lifts)

In the end we didn't go there (went to la Rosière instead) But as a general rule, travelling in the mountains is SLOW in winter. The last bit of the journey, going up the mountain, takes forever. Depending on the weather, you often have to stop to put on/take off snow chains when you reach a certain altitude (snow). I don't think I'd want to go have to go back down every day! Even in summer, driving 10 or 20km to the next town that has a supermarket or whatever can take a surprisingly long time: there are lots of hairpin bends up there.

So travelling up from Nice daily sounds like something that's grand for people who live in Nice and don't want to pay for accommodation for something they can do pretty much any spare weekend in winter, but not ideal for someone living in Ireland to spend their whole skiing holiday doing, if skiing is what you actually want to do. Especially with kids.

mooz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122502973#Comment_122502973

Appreciate that feedback Volchitsa, thank you. Yes, we have the accomodation in Nice. Ideally, we would stay at a resort but with budget restraints, we're trying to establish the feasibility of doing as proposed and travel daily up the mountains. I suppose I was really looking to see has anyone done this trek and whether you would advise it?

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122503132#Comment_122503132

I haven't done it, so I can't really advise, and I do know that people living in Nice do sometimes do that, so it's not completely crazy - but also it wouldn't be considered a waste of money for someone in Nice to rent or even own somewhere in the Alps for skiiing, because of the distance.

One thing in favour of your plan is that because the days are still short in winter, the slopes are generally not open very late, so you wouldn't have to leave as everybody else was just getting started. The ski lifts are generally open 9-5. After that it gets dark. If you left Nice at 7am, and got a 6pm bus back, that would give you full days on the slopes. Obviously I'm assuming there are buses at those times - you'd need to check that, especially on weekdays, but if you went during the French school holidays I'd be pretty confident there'd be transport available. OTOH there would be also be more people on the slopes.

In terms of costs, you'd need to see how much extra it would cost to travel in and out every day. If you went by bus, it's probably not madly expensive, but I'm really only guessing. Car hire would require you to be happy driving in the mountains in winter, probably with snow chains (if you don't need them, there probably won't be much snow for skiing!) I wouldn't be keen, but I'm a bit of a nervous driver in poor weather anyway.

mooz

Fair play Volchitsa, thank you. Yes, I will need to explore more details re bus routes and journey times and see would it be suitable. We could indeed be putting 90mins at least per day travelling onto our journey and will have to decide whether it's worth the hassle

volchitsa

I don't know for sure, but depending on where you would be in Nice, I'd be afraid you could be putting 90 minutes either way onto your day.

That said, when I lived in Paris and the children were small, we used to sometimes head off REALLY early on a Saturday morning to the seaside, about 2 hours away when there's no traffic (hence the early start, about 7 am), spend all day there, and get back late at night, kids asleep in the car, feeling like we'd been away for a weekend, instead of just a day trip.

Not sure I'd do it every day for a week - but it's possible.

Otherwise, if you wanted to spend three or four days skiiing and two or three days sightseeing in Nice and maybe a day trip to Italy (along the coast, and by train if you preferred not drive), that could work too.

But do remember that even though the weather can be beautiful on the Côte d'Azur in winter, it can be bad too - they do have storms down there. It's not like going there in summer.