The Village Makes It All Worthwhile
Written: Mar 31 '01 (Updated Apr 08 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fantastic Base Village, Short Lines
Cons: Frequently Cold and Windy at the Peak
Closes too early in the day
The Bottom Line: The fantastic village area, makes a Tremblant vacation a different kind of skiing experience. (In North America anyway.)
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| davidoikawa's Full Review: Tremblant |
This year marked my family's second trip to Mt. Tremblant.
The high point of a ski vacation at Mt. Tremblant is the fantastic base village. It is a pedestrian-only area which makes it perfect for apres-ski strolling. It is amazing how banning cars makes for a much more pleasant atmosphere. The village area is filled with many shops and restaurants. I was pleasantly surprised to find that prices for meals and other goods were not outrageous and were similar to prices in the City. There were many choices to eat - enough variety to suit all members of the family. I vacation with my kids, so I didn't have a chance to check out the night life. (The owners of Tremblant - Intrawest have a similar village at Whistler.)
The village is built into a slope, so its best to start at the top (near the lifts) and walk down as you explore. The village has its own lift, a stand up - six passenger (the cabriolet) which will bring you back up to the base. However, it closes early, so if you wear your ski boots to dinner and expect to have an easy ride up be forewarned! - You'll have to walk uphill in your ski boots. The cabriolet is also handy if you stay in one of the slope side hotels or condos. You can strap on your skis in the morning, take an access trail down to the bottom of the cabriolet and then take it up to the base.
For the kids, there is also a large pool, hot tub facility, Aquaclub La Source in the village. Its a little pricey though.
Beware of the lift brochure which has the lift hours on it. It talks about "First Tracks" and how the express gondola opens at 7:30 a.m. It does, but only if you shell out extra $ to have breakfast at the restaurant at the summit. I thought that this was not very well explained and wasted an hour one morning waiting for the lifts to open.
Speaking of operating hours, the lifts close at 3:30 p.m. which I think is very early. Its okay in December or January, when it gets darker earlier, but seems very early in March, when I went skiing. They even start closing trails earlier than that. I wanted to take a relaxing last run off the Soleil side of the mountain down to the village. However, they closed off the trails at 3:00 and I either had to continue down the north side trails (which might have stranded me there) or hike back up the mountain (only a few hundred feet, but it still made me mad) so that I could ski the south side down to the village.
As far as the skiing experience goes, I recommend getting up early and getting your runs in early. This is even more important at March Break - when, by the end of the day, the trails start getting pretty cut up. If you are an American, phone ahead and ask when the Quebec and Ontario school break holidays are and avoid those weeks. The hills can be very busy at these times.
There are 5 detachable high speed quads at Tremblant, as well as the high speed 8 person gondola. For the most part, if you plan your day properly, you can avoid the lift lines. My recommendations are: Get up early and wait in line for the gondola. Then ski the north side or Le Soleil side in the morning. Take an early lunch at the summit or the village and then ski the south side in the afternoon. (Lunch prices are much more reasonable in the village than at "Le Grand Manitou" at the summit.) At the summit there is a large illuminated board showing the waiting times for the various chair lifts. Use it to help avoid line ups.
If you are an American, don't let the $ cost fool you. Values are excellent once you convert to Canadian $. Change your cash at a Canadian bank for the best rates. (I have changed cash at US banks and received very poor exchange rates in the past.) Also don't worry about language problems. Although my wife and children speak French fluently, I don't speak it very well, but I got by fine using English. Everyone in the shops and restaurants were very friendly - there was no anti-anglo sentiment here.
If you are staying in a slopeside condo, make sure that you do some grocery shopping on the way up from Montreal, because there is very little choice for groceries in the village.
P.S. If you don't have lift tickets as part of your package, consider doing a day at nearby (15 minutes) Mt. Blanc. It is very inexpensive and the lift lines during the week are short. I have spent a week there as well. If epinons ever opens Mt. Blanc up for a review, I will write one.
Recommended:
Yes
Level of Experience Needed: Intermediate
Best Time to Visit: March
Best Suited For: Families
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Epinions.com ID:
davidoikawa
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Location: Oakville, ON, Canada
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
I really like to get value for my money.
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