Hôtel Carlina by les Etincelles

Hotel is fantastic and a lovely treat to complement a ski holiday. Food was great and to a very high standard with big portions, however it was difficult to get an idea on the menu before we booked. Room was lovely. Spa was a welcomed treat after a day skiing (although it wasn’t working on our last day). Although the hotel is ski in ski out, this is not suitable for beginners due to quite a steep blue slope. The hotel does run a shuttle up to the town where the ski school meet, but we didn’t know about this until into our holiday. Staff were very friendly and helpful.

Great hotel for a ski in/ski out experience.Great food (great range of options for breakfast and quality offering for dinner). Great bar setting too. Skiers well catered for with dedicated ski storage for each room and plenty of soave to get changed. Staff, without exception, were fabulous - helpful, approachable and all spoke god English. Rooms were good too, with balconies facing the slopes and well kitted out for tea and coffee. Overall, good value for money and difficult to find fault with this hotel.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Le Carlina and were blown away by the quality of the food served at dinner - probably the best we have experienced in many years of alpine skiing. Breakfasts were very good too, with a wide range of options on offer. Generally, the facilities were all of a high standard; the ski room was good with efficient heating that dried boots and skis fairly rapidly and was well positioned to be able to quickly ski in and out. The hotel is positioned about 10 minutes walk from the centre of Belle Plagne, but an on-demand shuttle service is offered, which was particularly useful for collecting and returning our rented skis. The rooms were clean and comfortable - our 'Confort Sud' room was a bit compact in our view for a 4-star hotel, but on a par with most ski hotels we have visited previously and certainly not lacking anything. Our main niggle was the room temperature was a bit cool. Although we kept turning the AC control to 22 deg. C, it kept reverting back to 18 deg! A heater panel in the room didn't help either, as it seemed impossible to turn on. We discovered there was a small vent that could not be closed built into the window, letting in a very chilly draught - eventually we covered it with a hand towel, which improved things a little. We didn't raise these problems with reception, though I feel sure they would have provided help to improve things if we had asked. Another standout feature of this hotel was the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff. Nothing was too much trouble whenever we did ask for help, especially on our last night when we had to ask for room service because of an injury preventing us from sitting down to dinner in the restaurant. All the staff we met seemed to go the extra mile in making us feel welcome. Overall, an excellent hotel which we would happily return to if we choose to ski in Belle Plagne again.