Claire & Tamsin's Inspection Trip

July 2025

Bardonecchia, Briançon, Serre Chevelier, Les Deux Alpes, Montgenèvre, Claviere, Cesana, Sestriere & Sauze d'Oulx 

Day One

Day one started early, a 5am meet at Manchester airport meant an even earlier departure from home. As usual check in and security was straightforward. We arrived at Milan Malpensa slightly later than planned but swiftly moved through the airport and made our way over to our little scarlet fiat. We checked the car over, packed our things in the boot and rejoiced when the aircon hit us on full blast.

Next stop Bardonecchia! Arriving in sunny Bardonecchia was a great feeling. We made our way over to our first hotel where we had a lovely warm welcome, were shown to our room and had a look around. We also met some of the other guests who were staying in the hotel that night. With time before our evening meal, we decided to pop out to the old town and explore. A short 10-minute walk to the shops of the old town, we soon found the supermarket, the pasticceria (of course we had to try a few little cakes), the pizza restaurants, ice cream parlours and crepe shops.

Bardonecchia is a beautiful little Italian village with so much charm and plenty of shops to keep anyone entertained for a few hours. We walked a different way back which offers a safe route for school groups and passes the river with some beautiful views of the mountains that surround Bardonecchia. Once back at the accommodation we made our way to one of the three restaurants where we had our evening meal amongst the groups of Italian children who are staying in Bardonecchia for summer camps. The restaurant offered a good selection of food which we tucked into.

Once we had finished, we went out again to do a bit more exploring, this time we headed 5 minutes in the other direction to Campo Smith at the bottom of the chair lifts. We sat and enjoyed a drink whilst discovering where the beginner ski area was, the crepe shop and ski hire. We also took the opportunity to visit the sports facilities to see the swimming pool and sports hall, perfect for après ski activities. We eventually crawled into our beds at 10:30pm not realising just how exhausted we were.

Day Two

We returned to the same restaurant for breakfast and again were pleased with the buffet selection on offer. After breakfast, we were offered a tour of the facilities, and we had our questions about the resort answered. It was incredibly useful to get more of a feel of how winter will work for our groups, including logistics in resort. When finished we got back on the road and headed towards France.

Shortly after crossing the border, we stopped at the beautiful medieval village of Briançon. We always recommend a stop here if groups can make it work and I can totally see why, it is stunning and full of history and charisma - we spent a wonderful hour pottering in the shops and trying the Gelato. We walked down the old village and found ourselves speechless as we walked out of the street to an open vista of waterfalls, valleys, and lush green mountains. I have skied all my life and love the mountains but seeing it in the summer is just as spectacular. Once we had walked back up the hill we got back in the car and set off for our next stop.

We arrived in Serre Chevelier where we met our guide, Lucie. Lucie was incredibly welcoming and had organised to see three new hotels. She also took it upon herself to show us some of the stunning summer sights Serre Chevelier has to offer and told us about the BBQ stations, the different après ski options and the park which could be used for Easter groups. Local knowledge is key and the contacts and little tips you can get from meeting locals are invaluable. We both loved Serre Chevelier and found some great options in the hotels we visited. I look forward to seeing this resort grow with GB Ski Tours!

Back in the car for our final journey of the day, passing the stunning Le Grave to Les Deux Alpes. Once again, we were met with stunning scenery, plenty of cyclists and gorgeous lakes. Despite the winding roads I loved driving around this area. We finally made it to Les Deux Alpes in time to meet our hosts who will be looking after our groups this season. We were shown to our lovely room and then given a tour of the rest of the hotel. It has some brilliant facilities including a great room for evening entertainment and a fireplace in the lobby. Groups are going to be so happy here and the hospitality will be outstanding. We had an evening meal with our hosts, and the food was fantastic - three fabulous courses and a cheese plate! After our meal, we had intended on walking the 10-minute walk to Crepe a Gogo to try their crepes, but we were too full to try one, so we looked at the menu and continued to explore more of the town.

Although Les2Alpes is a lot larger than some of our Italian resorts it still offers the ski resort appeal with picturesque wooden framed buildings and plenty of entertainment options easily accessible from the accommodation. We walked back gazing up at the stars that filled the sky. It was another late finish as we crawled into bed.

Day Three

We had another yummy meal at the accommodation - they set it out ‘winter style’ for us to see how it will be for the groups which even included a pancake machine. Our hosts then took us for a show around of Les 2 Alpes and then joined us on our trip up the Jandri Express gondola to see the glacier. We stopped in a cafe at the top and were introduced to the owner of another cafe that we could use for an après ski. Once we were down from the gondola, we met Katie (who organises our lift passes), who was another fountain of tips and knowledge. We said our farewells and walked back to get our car and then moved on to look at a few more accommodation options in the area, we enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch at one of the hotels before departing towards Montgenevre.

We arrived in the French resort of Montgenevre later than we had planned but still had time to check out where the ski school meeting points were and après ski options on offer before meeting with the ESF ski school - once again this was very informative and helped us to understand how the ski school will work for our groups.

Next stop was a large hotel we will be using this coming winter, it proved to be yet another great option for groups with a full programme of evening entertainment and a lovely location right on the Italian border.

Back on the road to Claviere which is a tiny little Italian village with so much character, we met with the owner of a lovely family run hotel there who wowed us again with his knowledge but also hospitality- he will be a wonderful host to our groups. The village itself is small but offers all a school group needs- pizza, ice cream, crepes and the all-important shop!

We finished the day in Cesana, staying the night with our hosts and a group of Italian children on a summer trip. It is useful getting to see these hotels full of children and to experience how the meals work with groups. We were shown around the facilities and then walked the flat 5-minute walk to the chair lift. We ate our meal in the restaurant that evening which was a good 3 course offering enjoyed by the children staying. After our meal we headed to the old village and walked up and down the pedestrianised streets to take in the scenery on our final night one last time. After that it was back to our room ready for bed, even the children had gone to bed before us!

Day Four

Up bright and early for breakfast with the Italian group, a good offering that had been set out with groups in mind- croissants on the table, juice in jugs. We said our farewells, took a quick stop to see the old village of Cesana in the day light with open shops before heading on our way.

We arrived in Sestriere and walked from one of the hotels we will be using this season to the slopes to see that it was a very easy walk, we explored the town and had an ice cream with the stunning views of the slopes in front of us, one of my favourite things is sitting in a cafe watching the skiers whizzing down the slopes and Sestriere is a great spot for this. It is quite a large town but easily walkable with plenty of shops to keep groups busy. We had just enough time for one last stop before heading for the airport so drove up the winding road to Sauze D’Oulx where we enjoyed a nice Italian pizza and explored the pretty little town before getting back on the motorway towards the airport.

We arrived at Milan Malpensa airport, dropped the car at Terminal 1 and used the shuttle bus to Terminal 2 where we checked in our bags and made our way through security. By the time we landed back in Manchester it was already 9pm- we both had safe journeys back to our homes, but we were both sad it had come to an end. We have learnt so much in this jam packed four days and know this is going to make such a difference to both of us in our jobs.

Gallery

Take a look at the rest of the gallery from Claire & Tamsin's Inspection visit.