Just had a brief 3 days at Les Contamines, which I have had on my hit list for a couple of years.

Access by car from Geneva is really easy. It's literally 10 minutes up the road from St. Gervais and should be accessible even after snowfalls.

The village is nice, parking is not a problem, and there's a much friendlier atmosphere than most French sites. Seems to be only Brits and French families -- so not much in the way of international mix. We got reasonably priced accommodation in one of the Pierre Blanches apartments in Hameaux du Lay which is near the main cable car and were close to the Tetras bar which is great for watching soccer. Also a nice French bar: Saxo, round the corner.

I am used to ski in-ski out, so I was not wild about the fact that you need to get a lift up to the ski area and it's not really possible to get down to the village on a snowboard which meant you needed to end the day before the main return lift closed.

The snowboarding was generally good even though there was not that much snow. One small gripe is that there's a awkward narrow blue slope that takes you to the important Junction area that gets fairly crowded and it was not great in the hot sunny conditions we had.

The snow park is really good fun and I thought this and the main run down from the Signal area were the best sections.

My son felt he had exhausted the site after 2 days, but a group of Brits I met who come every year were of the view that the site is always full of surprises and never fails to hold their interest.

I felt there was a lack of tree-level pistes which meant a lot of the terrain felt the same but to be fair I did not get to the Hauteluce side. I suspect that a week here could be too long.

On the plus side, St. Gervais is very accessible and that has some great restaurants including the Enterele pizza which is probably the best pizza joint I have ever experienced. Really worth the trip but you may want to book to be sure.

On our last day we moved on to Chamonix - one day at the Flegere lift. The conditions were colder there, even though it is lower. Great tree level pistes mixed with wild and wonderful ski lifts and cable cars. It made a great contrast to Les Contamines and I can recommend the mix between the two. I would not like to do Flegere in bad fog though!

To sum up -- Les Contamines is a good site, with decent value for money with shops and accommodation which are reasonable. Also, in good snow conditions you have the option to explore St. Gervais, which looks interesting and is a great small town with plenty of good eateries. Plus the fact that Chamonix is not far away.

If you fancy just one resort then I would recommend nearby Flaine over Les Contamines (but the road up there is harder if the snow is falling).