Alpe d’Huez: a bit chichi, a bit ski-ski

Swimsuit issues aside, Alpe d’Huez is possibly the most liveable French ski resort I’ve ever visited. It has a reputation for not being terribly pretty – and it’s certainly not as smart as, say, Val d’Isère. But where Val and Courchevel are super chichi, and Tignes or Les Arcs are super ski-ski, Alpe d’Huez charts the middle road: friendly, unpretentious and a decent size, with some smart shopping on Avenue des Jeux and a higgledypiggledy mix of architectural styles throughout, ranging from utilitarian blocks to those wood-lined chalets that so define Alpine ski resorts.

There’s a dazzle of spiritual uplift, too, in the form of Notre-Dame des Neiges, built to coincide with the 1968 Winter Olympics, an event still heavily commemorated here. It’s a wondrous bit of modernist building, a church that’s part concrete tent, part cave, with a colourful stripe of stained glass surrounding the oval nave and an elegant pipe organ in the shape of a hand reaching up to the heavens. Religious or not, you will be moved.

Meanwhile, back on earth, we were staying at Neilson’s 28-room Hotel Escapade, which offers a brand of no-frills hospitality that sits easily with the Alpe d’Huez vibe. The company motto is “relax as hard as you like”, which is fitting because while there’s a let’s-justget-up-the-mountain atmosphere here, there’s none of the grating one-upmanship that the smug end of the skiing fraternity often supplies. Neilson’s staff – all young, all British, all appropriately relaxed themselves – deliver a sense that they are as excited to be in Alpe d’Huez as you are. And they’re just super-keen that you get the most out of your week.

Families in particular will do well here, thanks to the casual convenience of the all-inclusive meals (raclette, boeuf bourguignon, chicken stir-fry), the inclusivity of the weekly quiz night (€3 per person) and an always-available staffing structure (WhatsApp is used to great effect by the team to garner advice and assistance).

The rooms themselves are low on space and fripperies, but high on robust cleanliness, while the interior decoration plays it safe with a few sproutings of vintage ski paraphernalia in the corners and some chunky XFly, top, is part zip-wire, part climbing frame; a room at the Escapade, below wood cladding on show. There’s a slightly scruffy “wellness area” (a Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room in the basement next to the boot room) and an outdoor hot tub, largely colonised by the teenage contingent during our stay. Meanwhile, the charming bar makes up for what it lacks in space by opening on to a sun terrace that overlooks the bottom of the Eclose chair, for swift access to the slopes via the Bergers meeting point. For most of the season, Escapade is ski-in, ski-out (although by the time of our arrival in early April, the sun was scorching and the going distinctly soggy).

Within view of the terrace, on the other side of the lift, is XFly, a peculiar combination of zip-wire, climbing frame and bouncy castle (€12 per hour), which certainly mopped up some après-ski time for my two boys, aged 12 and 14. And, of course, if all else fails there’s, you know, some skiing to be done.

Neilson can help here as well. The Mountain Experts programme, included with its accommodation, is the ideal solution for families with a few seasons under their belt who want to explore the resort and don’t want – or don’t need – daily lessons. Davide from the ESF was enlisted to take an assortment of Escapade residents on various set trips during the week, which gave us an overview of the resort, helped brush up on technique, or saw us sashaying through the more frivolous delights offered by Alpe d’Huez’s terrain parks. It’s a fantastic way to find your ski legs before setting out on adventures of your own, particularly when it encourages you to try out rails and jumps in front of your

Better than the bus: the Ross boys travel by helicopter