Kate McNamara was the lucky winner of the 2017 Snow Travel Expo ski trip to Val d’Isere. Here is her story in her words…
My trip to Val d’Isere in the French Alps was amazing!
When I went to the Snow Travel Expo in Sydney in May 2017 I had no idea where it would take me. I entered the lucky door prize as my mum has always taught me to do. A few weeks later I received a phone call from Phil at Snow Travel Expo and I had won a week trip to Val d’Isere including accommodation at Les Cinq Frere Hotel, a 7-day Lift pass from Val d’Isere Tourism and Ski Hire and Lessons from Oxygen Ski School.
On January 5, 2018 I flew into Lyon and seeing the French Alps from the plane window gave me butterflies, the beautiful snow delicately sprinkled over the peaks.
I caught the bus up to the mountains with some stunning views and gorgeous little towns dotted along the mountain road.
Les Cinq Frere Hotel was a gorgeous hotel and the owners and staff were so lovely and welcoming. It was a beautiful hotel, had all the amenities and was a very warm and comfortable. There was also a ski storage and drying room which came in very handy. The restaurant served beautiful meals and the dessert was fantastic! Thank you to Valérie & Audrey and all the staff and family.
I collected my ski pass from the Office de Tourisme. They also sent a personalised gift and card to my hotel with a collection of Val d’Isere merchandise including a beautiful coffee table book and snow globe. Thank you to Sylvain at the Office de Tourisme for your hospitality.
The snow had started falling and the reports were expecting a lot of snow in the coming week with up to 130cm in the next two days! By the next day we were snowed in, the road blocked in both directions in and out of the town. Tractors and dump trucks were bought into town to clear the roads of tonnes of snow. They had to close the mountain for half the day as the risk of avalanche was extreme. With that amount of snow, the town turned into a winter wonderland!
It was great to get out skiing with my ski group and have some fun in the powder! There were so many untracked on-piste areas and huge amounts of off-piste for the daring. It was peak season being the second week of January but there were no crowds and we could ski across Val d’Isere and Tignes without coming across too many groups of people. The lift lines were short and it was easy to get a hot chocolate at many places across the mountains.
I want to thank everyone in Val d’Isere who made this trip possible, the Val d’Isere Office de Tourisme, Les Cinq Frere Hotel and Oxygene Ski School.
A very special thank you to Phil and the team at the Snow Travel Expo for all they do every year to put together the exhibition. They put in a huge amount of work to bring over 50 resorts into one place as well as entertainment, presentations and stalls. I have been going for many years and I would highly recommend getting to the Snow Travel Expo, Sydney May 20, 2018 and Melbourne May 27, 2018 and who knows you could be a winner of a fantastic trip too!
To learn more about how you can win a ski trip of a lifetime, check out Kate’s video below.
To see more of Val D’Isere…check out this short clip for inspiration as well. Enjoy!