Very high end and quite scenic, Courmayeur is the opposite of Chamonix (in experiential terms, and in literal terms – on the other side of the Mt. Blanc tunnel). It’s a lovely year-round destination. The center of town has a long, elegant, and well-populated stretch of very high end boutiques.

In town:

• **Hotel QC Terme Monte Bianco is a carefully tended, aging property. It’s associated with the big Terme and has its own large pool/spa complex that’s quite good. We’d happily stay here again except for the restaurant, which is quite surprisingly bad.
• We had a wonderful lunch at ***Chalet Plan Gorret – good enough to go quite out of your way to visit. Beautiful outdoor setting, excellent food (mostly Sardinian dishes).
• Just south of town, **Gelateria Pilier Central does have far better than average ice cream. Made using milk from the sheep grazing on their winter pastures across the road.

Ski report: Medium steep, much of it below tree line. Smaller than expected but very interesting terrain. Medium steep groomers, and with snow on the back side it looks like it would be good tree skiing. Notably pretty and not a lot of “the bad type” of tourists – generally speaking people from Milan/Turin who could ski. Major après scene that starts around noon. The lift lines were longer than we are used to.

On the piste, we had a tasty, if slow, meal at **Le Vieux Grenier. Traditional dishes – polenta, pasta, meat.

La Thuile

La Thuile is the family-friendly alternative to Courmayeur; much quieter, inexpensive, very little in terms of shopping and glitz. The skiing is excellent, we have had a wonderful time on three visits (and counting), and would definitely recommend a trip here. It’s a twenty minute drive from Courmayeur and is an affordable base to explore both areas.

Lodging

• Our first hotel was a winner. **Hôtel Château Blanc is actually rather Chateau-ish, with friendly staff, Alp-style furnishings, and very good space-to-cost ratios. We had a family room (“Prince”), with a kid loft area, huge main room, a rather stiff bed, and two (!) bathrooms. There’s parking, and you can walk to the lifts. The (too) small sauna/steam room is available on request for a fee – more than 2 people at a time doesn’t work well. No restaurant, but there’s a good bar with snacks, and an acceptable breakfast spread.
• *Re delle Alpi was a disaster of fairly epic proportions, including an angry exit and really bad treatment by the staff. On paper, it’s a charming option, ski-in, on an isolated part of the hill. In reality, there’s no safe parking, the food is poor, the rooms are tired, and the spa was only partially working. We called to confirm the parking and spa in particular before arrival (“no problem!”) and when we brought it up the owner accused us of being liars and said these were not his problems. 
• ***Chalet Eden is our current favorite – on the higher end side, and can be hard to book due to minimum stay requirements (call anyway). The restaurant is excellent, worth trying even if not at the hotel. Rooms are cozy, staff very accommodating, good breakfast. Big, calm spa with a pool, sauna (soon to be two), and outdoor hot tub.
• *The Alpine Bistro, at the Montana Lodge & Spa, was a downright poor experience. This is the most expensive hotel in town, and it’s “fancy-neutral,” lacking much personality in modern hotel style. The dining room had no sound dampening, and was packed with families. The food was trying hard without succeeding. Our meal topped 200 Euros – in a town where every other meal ran around 60 Euros. All in all, this is a strong skip for me.

Other Dining Options

• **La Grotta Ristorante Pizzeria is great – a family owned place where everyone seems to know each other. Friendly service, wide menu, everything was tasty. Very affordably priced.
• **La Maison Blanche was my favorite meal of the trip. It’s on the slope, in a charming chalet overlooking town, with excellent Savoyard classics. Our servers were adorable (and I mean that, so cute, so friendly). On our second visit, we did the “dinner by snowcat,” where they transport you up the hill to a festive evening with excellent food. Fun!
• **La Maison de Laurent is a very local place, not fancy at all, but the food was pretty good! For a low key experience, recommend.
• *Le Petit Skieur is right on the edge of the slope, but within the easy restaurant range for town. We had a decent cocktail and sub-par food. It’s not bad, but there are many better places.
• **Lo Tatà was perfectly fine (if not the best meal we had), a family-run place with an extensive menu of local dishes. Popular, lots of families.
• *Taverna Coppapan & Pizzeria Le Dahu was cute, with great service, and had fairly disappointing food. Maybe try the pizza?
• Restaurants to try next time: La Lisse, Locanda Collomb (which has a hotel as well), Lo Riondet.

Ski notes: The ski area is huge, including a link “over the hill” to the La Rosiere area in France. In the La Thuile area, very mellow groomers, all blue and red in the upper area. On the right hand side, towards Col Du Petit St Bernard, are the steeper blacks, with more off the front side down to La Thuile. Upper mountain is wide open, no trees, and the lower mountain has great tree skiing, which is uncommon in the Alps. 

At times of fog in La Thuile, head over to La Rosiere, which is usually clearer due to its windy conditions. There are steeper blacks skier’s right, but if you go down the left hand side past the pomo lift down the beautiful long groomer, you get to the high speed 6, which takes you over the ridge line to La Rosiere. Both times we’ve visited it was very windy, but impressive! Skiers left, there’s a long steep black, and elsewhere lots of reds and blacks, wide open, very French feel. There’s a very entertaining skier cross track. Cute village at the end we’d like to return to. Slope side dining options:

• **L’Antigel Restaurant has all the trappings of the local party bar, including a major deck and sound system. It’s cute, higher end, wasn’t particularly packed when we stopped in for a drink.
• **Tout Poudre Cantine Locale is rather adorable and very popular. The menu is fairly large; we enjoyed the burgers. Friendly staff.

At the base of the hill to La Thuile, there’s a historic spa complex, **QC Terme Pré Saint Didier. It’s well maintained, quite large, and in a beautiful spot. It’s basically the community swimming pool (with a hefty day rate), so expect a rather crowded experience. We wouldn’t make a point of going back, but it was a nice few hours.